Forum Discussion

tequekama's avatar
tequekama
Joining in
2 years ago

1gb vs 500mb

Do I need one 1gb (£36pm) or 500mb (22) 3 people about 20 devices connected sometimes all three of us work from home, we stream and one of us games.

Live in a 3 bed semi, currently on 350mb is actually decent don’t really feel any black spots or slow wifi, currently have the router in modem mode connected to my google mesh system that’s prob why lol.

But overall my question is shall I upgrade to 1gb or shall I upgrade to 500mb. I’m thinking the 1GB is overkill ?

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    Do you ever find there is any problem with your present speeds?. Very few 1Gbps subscribers actually use that speed, often because the servers they are connected to cannot provide data that fast.

    I am on 350 Mbps too, and with similar uses. I'm not going to waste money on faster speeds that I will never use.  Instead, I use the extra money to pay for a standby 4G data service to maintain a connection for important video calls when the VM service goes down.

    But if a faster connection will make you feel more comfortable, go for it. 

  • jbrennand's avatar
    jbrennand
    Very Insightful Person

    Its more about bandwidth than speed.

    4K Netflix/Apple streams are usually most "hungry" - needing 15-40 Mbps/stream - everything else needs less - so just add up the maximum you will need when fully loaded - I think 500 will still be be far more than you actually need and 350 should be fine as is.

    So for.... STREAMING BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS - see Andrew's message 2 in here

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Speed/What-bb-speed-to-simply-stream-4k-movies/td-p/4863993

  • legacy1's avatar
    legacy1
    Alessandro Volta

    QoS/BWM by you if the bandwidth is available will help better then a faster package like 350M is lots you all would have to be watching YouTube at 4K by wire to cause buffering     

  • I myself game, and if its that one time in a blue moon mates are on and we try game and there's an update, I want that update quicker than slower, its all down to price, if its a few quid dif, take the higher IMO. I'd rather have it not need it, than need it not have it ( at a good cost )

  • I was on M350 Volt but downgraded 2 months ago to M125.. testing if manages OK if not will upgrade. There are 4 adults in the house with 2 boys playing online games, myself working from home and wife does usual browsing. No one has noticed the downgrade so far 😀 

    We get reliable 135/20 most part of the 3 bed mid terrace house.

    You will unlikely see more than 500Mbs on those mesh nodes. Your games console will need to be wired to  primary router to get full speed.

    BTW that £36 will add around £7 in April.