Gaming and streaming each have different requirements. Gaming needs low latency, but doesn’t require a lot of bandwidth. Streaming requires high bandwidth, but is okay with a decent amount of latency.
Bandwidth is the amount of traffic you’re sending through your pipe. It’s a lot easier for your provider to keep this steady and they can guarantee a certain level of service here. Make sure you look into how much bandwidth you’ll be getting and how much bandwidth your streaming setup requires, then give yourself at least a 25% headroom.
Latency is how quickly that traffic makes it from your computer to the internet. This will have a far bigger impact on your actual performance in-game. If you’re in the competitive scene, the other players will likely all have cable/fiber connections and they will have a real advantage on you as they can see you faster and react more quickly. This isn’t as much of a problem if you’re a casual player online or with friends.
Your quality of cell service will have a major impact on latency and it will also probably be inconsistent throughout the day as there’s more and less cell network load. This means that you could find yourself where certain games only run well during certain parts of the day.
All this to say, usually cell providers have a return policy before you’re locked into the plan. Try it out with some stress tests and see how it plays out. Keep in mind you’ll likely need enough bandwidth to both stream out of the network and enough to watch the stream to monitor it as well.
Gaming and streaming each have different requirements. Gaming needs low latency, but doesn’t require a lot of bandwidth. Streaming requires high bandwidth, but is okay with a decent amount of latency.
Bandwidth is the amount of traffic you’re sending through your pipe. It’s a lot easier for your provider to keep this steady and they can guarantee a certain level of service here. Make sure you look into how much bandwidth you’ll be getting and how much bandwidth your streaming setup requires, then give yourself at least a 25% headroom.
Latency is how quickly that traffic makes it from your computer to the internet. This will have a far bigger impact on your actual performance in-game. If you’re in the competitive scene, the other players will likely all have cable/fiber connections and they will have a real advantage on you as they can see you faster and react more quickly. This isn’t as much of a problem if you’re a casual player online or with friends.
Your quality of cell service will have a major impact on latency and it will also probably be inconsistent throughout the day as there’s more and less cell network load. This means that you could find yourself where certain games only run well during certain parts of the day.
All this to say, usually cell providers have a return policy before you’re locked into the plan. Try it out with some stress tests and see how it plays out. Keep in mind you’ll likely need enough bandwidth to both stream out of the network and enough to watch the stream to monitor it as well.