CDE Lightband - Clarksville Department of Electricity – Clarksville, TN

If Santa brought you a new PS5 or Xbox Series X, then you’re probably wondering if you need more bandwidth. CDE Lightband provides all the information you need to know to make sure you’re covered.

What is Bandwidth?

• Bandwidth is the amount of data allowed to go from point A to point B. 
• Bandwidth is like a highway. 
  • One car traveling down a single lane = 1 Mbps connection
  • 10 cars traveling down the same road would have to wait for the first car to reach its destination.
  • If you increase the lanes to 10 lanes = 10 Mbps connection, then all 10 cars could reach their destination at the same time.
• A typical text-based email is usually under 1Mb, so there would be no need to upgrade from 10Mbps to  100 Mbps.
• However, if you start watching Youtube, the 10 Mbps connection starts to slow down. 
• You’d need to widen the “highway” and get rid of congestion created by the other users on the network.

Gaming

• Each gaming platform and type of game is a little different but you’ll generally meet the minimum requirements for online gaming with these internet speeds:
  • Download speed – 3 Mbps
  • Upload speed – 1 Mbps
  • Ping rate – less than 150 ms

Xbox:

• Required minimum download speed – 3 Mbps
• Required minimum upload speed – 0.5 Mbps
• Maximum allowable ping rate – 150 ms

Playstation:

• Required minimum download speed – 3 Mbps
• Required minimum upload speed – 1 Mbps
• Maximum allowable ping rate – 150 ms

Nintendo

• Required minimum download speed – 3 Mbps
• Required minimum upload speed – 1 Mbps
• Maximum allowable ping rate – 150 ms

Gaming online – PC/Mac

• Required minimum download speed – 3 – 6 Mbps
• Required minimum upload speed – 0.75 – 1 Mbps
• Maximum allowable ping rate – 100 – 150 ms