I recently bought a 4g data plan from T-mobile. Unfortunately, I can only afford 2 gigs of high speed data a month with the plan. Is this enough bandwidth to play starcraft 2?
I searched other threads for the amount of bandwidth on it, but I'm getting mixed answers. I'd like to know how much bandwidth it actually takes to play it, if I only play about 10 games a week.

Anyone have any idea?

Ldawg

United States328 Posts

January 28 2012 21:45 GMT

What I would recommend is installing a data monitoring software. There are a few available online (just google search for them). I did a trial run on this a while ago. I simply turned the software on, and had nothing else using bandwidth except for sc2. Unfortunately, I can't remember how much usage it was. Another issue is latency (ping) with 4g service. The ping in my area was so bad at times that I could not play online. Are you in a good coverage area and have you tested your ping? Optimally speaking, I believe you want your ping under the 50-60 range.

rea1ity

United Kingdom385 Posts

January 28 2012 21:45 GMT

Use DU meter maybe?

jWavA

United States73 Posts

January 28 2012 21:55 GMT

I just did a DU meter test, and apparently sc2 takes almost no bandwidth at all.

around 7 kbps down * 3600 seconds in an hour of play * 5 horus = 12600 kb per day if I play sc2 for 5 horus straight.
For 2000 mb(2 gigs of data), lets say I use 1 gig for sc2, thats still

1000/12.6 mb = 79 five hour sessions = almost 400 hours of sc2 off of 1 gigabyte of data. Not bad.

Can anyone else back up these results? If not, I think I'm already convinced I can do this iwhtout going over the limit.

Ldawg

United States328 Posts

January 28 2012 22:01 GMT

These numbers seem familiar, although I am not certain of my actual results. I do remember sc2 was very light on bandwidth. Did you just sign the contract? Usually they have a grace period where you can return the product (and perhaps have to pay for whatever bandwidth you used), but not get locked into the full length. This should be in your paperwork if you need to reference.

Jibba

United States22883 Posts

January 28 2012 22:24 GMT

Gaming usually doesn't require much bandwidth, so that seems normal. Just don't watch any streams/porn. o.o

iTzSnypah

United States1738 Posts

January 28 2012 22:36 GMT

These numbers are correct, I mean, I play SC2 on 28k dial-up with no problems..Albeit my ping is through the roof (~220).

SoulWager

United States464 Posts

January 28 2012 23:13 GMT

SC2 requires very little throughput, but you probably will have bad latency.

Rannasha

Netherlands2398 Posts

January 28 2012 23:24 GMT

Pretty much all the data-transfer that SC2 does is what ends up in the replay file after the game ends. And those things are small (100 kB or somewhere around that value, depending on game length / APM). The actual bandwidth will be a bit higher since the transfer is probably not compressed as efficiently as the final replay-file is and there will be some overhead, but it's a good indication of how little bandwidth SC2 needs.

Warillions

United States215 Posts

January 28 2012 23:39 GMT

#10

i have a 4g phone (droid charge)rooted and gaming on 3g right now with wireless tether. i average about 20 gigs a month (unlimited plan) and i usually check my data usage daily. i barely burn data gaming. but what eats up my data though is watching videos. also game updates. dont install LoL. it will have you patching weekly lol. as for browsing TL. it doesnt rly burn data unless ur loading pics nonstop. i could manage with 2gig but any big updates would need to be done on a diff connection if possible. as for quality of the games, 1v1 works great and 2v2 is fine as well. i usually get a lot of random d/c from battle.net but hardly ever drop a game, unless my phone battery dies mid match

or i drop 3g connection which happens...
if ur fine with the 135 ms ping, not sure what ur gettin on 4g prolly 80ish at best? oh im verizon btw

MetallicFire

United States5 Posts

January 29 2012 03:02 GMT

#11

My friends and I have played 8-player games all through a single 3g tablet functioning as a hotspot with only slight lag and very little data usage. You should be fine.

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

January 29 2012 03:04 GMT

#12

Solely gaming is probably fine, but like already said, streams/porn/youtube will eat up your bandwidth as well as any games that patch.

Naicella

United States64 Posts

January 29 2012 03:47 GMT

#13

I just started doing this as well. Luckly im on a grandfathered plan for unlimited data @ 30 bucks a month. I ditched my comcast all together and im using PDAnet's pay for app (they have a free version however you cannot view secure pages ie:bank websites and stuff.). at 15 dollars one time for the program.

As another way to view usage. Your phone should have a data usage spot in settings. i average 5mbit down / 5mbit up. with a 45ms ping.

I dont know though i get some pretty bad spikes on twitch viewing 720 or 1080. MMO's and SC2 are decent while playing but BF3 i seem to lag pretty bad.

My usage from jan 9th to jan 28th is 83GB.

staples2

United States216 Posts

January 29 2012 03:58 GMT

#14

I used to be on the road a bunch for work and played SC2 through a tether on my 3G droid, when hotel internet was crappy. The data needed is almost nothing. Voice chat an the like were much higher. The latency on my 3G was in the 100-180 range normally, the speed was fine too.

ticklishmusic

United States15977 Posts

January 29 2012 04:24 GMT

#15

I think SC2 sends data as just actions (all the graphics, etc. are built in) so replay files and actual playing is pretty slim. Maps aren't that big either-- each one is probably equivalent to googling about a dozen things.

On a random note, the way replay files are coded makes for some hilariously messed up replays when one unit which should have died just runs around causing chaos in the replay. Happened a lot in UMS games for BW, not so much in SC2 though.

koonst

United States215 Posts

January 29 2012 04:30 GMT

#16

i play on a 3 g residential router ( playing from the countery) i average 135 ping.. the beauty of this set up is.. if you get a korean account or euro.. theres almost no change in ping. as far as i can tell!

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