How fast should my broadband be?

When it comes to finding an internet package to see you through those marathon multiplayer sessions, it's not just a case of choosing the fastest connection available. Although speed is important, it isn't the be all and end all.

The most important factor to a smooth online gaming experience is consistency. A reliable connection that's not super-fast is better than a speedy connection that drops out right in the middle of a mission.

Keep an eye out for providers with a low number of daily disturbances, Ofcom's independent research found that Plusnet and BT were among the suppliers with the least disruptions. Make use of our handy broadband comparison tool to take a closer look at what's on offer in your area.

Is a wired connection better?

All sorts of things can affect your WiFi's performance – microwaves for instance have been known to interfere with wireless signals. Although these interruptions are usually minor, if you're pernickety about a seamless gaming experience you might want to consider trying a wired connection to guarantee less interference.

It may sound old-fashioned, but most broadband providers give you the capability of a wired connection using an Ethernet cable. Wireless has long been the preferred choice as it's more convenient for general internet use. However, an avid gamer like yourself could benefit from going static instead.

If your Ethernet cable isn't long enough to reach your console, you could try buying a wireless extender to give your signal an extra boost. These handy devices plug into your power socket and work by rebroadcasting the pre-existing signals to improve their reach.

What could affect my performance?

Just reading about these irksome issues will probably annoy you. If you want that smooth, faultless gameplay you see in game trailers, you need to look at choosing a broadband package which reduces these four key disruptors:

Latency

This is a techy term for lag – also known as the bane of our lives. You know, when your ferocious button pressing takes a few seconds to actually do anything? A few seconds isn’t a big deal to your average internet user, but any gamer will tell you, it’s the difference between life or death on the virtual battlefield.

Measured in milliseconds, latency is the amount of time it takes for the data you’re inputting to reach the screen. This is largely down to broadband speed, luckily you can find out the latency on most broadband packages. You ideally want anything under 50milliseconds, but something between 100-50 milliseconds shouldn’t be too noticeable.

Jitter

Also known as stutter, jitter is the rate at which latency corrects itself. A high jitter rate would mean that your latency varies quite a bit, this is obviously not ideal for gamers.

Essentially it’s an indicator of how stable your connection is, for a consistent experience you’ll want a low jitter rate of 20 milliseconds or less.

Traffic management

During busy periods, broadband providers chop and change which applications are allowed to use up the most of their data. This ensures that everyone gets a similar level of service even during peak times.

Packet loss

Possibly the most infuriating of them all, packet loss is exactly what it sounds like. During peak times, your gaming data can get lost on its way to or from servers. Yes, your hard-earned killstreak can get lost in the ether if your packet loss percentage is even 0.6%.

Packet loss often comes as a threesome with jitter and latency. If you’ve got a lot of jitter and lagging, chances are that your packet loss rate won’t be great either. Keep all your precious scores by choosing a package with 0.20% or less.

Broadband for Consoles gamers

Staying connected with your console will take a high broadband speed for multiplayer and video streaming quality. ADSL will likely cause struggles in game, opting for a basic fibre package will solve this, if multiple consoles are in the household being used at the same time it is recommended to go for an Ultrafast Fibre Optic connection. A wired connection will ensure you get the best possible experience, but moving your console closer to your router should do the trick if this isn't an option.

Broadband for PC or Mac gamers

Computer gamers are somewhat of a dying breed these days. Luckily for you, if you're a PC or Mac gamer you can look forward to having the most stable connection of all. Since you can reap the benefits of a wired connection, you haven't got to worry about WiFi interference.

It's important to take note of your upload and download speeds since these form the basis of how well you're able to give and receive gaming data. For the best results you may be better off investing in a fibre-optic broadband deal which will make quick work of all those Steam downloads.

Many PC and Mac gamers use broadcasting services like Twitch and Steam to share their gaming experience with others, if this sounds like something you'd be interested in you'll need an upload speed of around 3-4Mbps for high definition.