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Comcast Modem and Gaming

818 views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Zer0CoolX 
#1 ·
I play most FPS games. playing mostly bf1 and overwatch atm

I think I now have an end of life SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 I believe and read that upspeeds are slower b/c its eol now... and no firmware upgrades

I see about 150-80 d and 10-12u felt like my old place had 20+up.. and feel like I am getting owned more than I should be. beyond my current somewhat dated hardware... my cpu getting 70%-90% throttled on a few thread of my 3930k HT in bf1 ...

I am wondering if it's my connection speeds?

pretty sure up speeds matter in FPS
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..

Should I get a new modem and if so what do you guys recommend?
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#2 ·
Here where I currently live Comcast was giving some crap modem/router out too... speed tests did give me the right speed but upon further inspection I did find that the amount of bonded lanes available for down and upload were limited to a much smaller number than the actually available amount of 20 download lanes. So I did what many should do because in the end it will pay for it self a few times over if you plan on sticking around with Comcast, I bought my own modem. An Arris 6190. Now instead of the 150 I pay for I get 175 down and I got access to all 20 bonded download lanes that are available at my location.

The cons of going with your own modem is that they will not allow you to have their voice or their high end tv set X1. So if those are not important for you then I highly recommend getting your own modem. At 10 bucks a month rental it will take less than a year to pay for itself.

If that will help you in your games I am nto sure... but here I rarely get d/c from wow and any other game. While the week I used their modem I was having all kinds of connection issues even with the speeds reading correctly.
 
#3 ·
My modem is a bit older (it's still a Motorola and not an Arris) than yours and my upload speeds are steady at 20mbps, so honestly I don't believe this to be your problem. My plan is the Comcast 75down/20up.

I would look into what else is connected to your network. Do
Not sure what it could be, but unless your modem is defective I think it would be something else. Could be that your router (assuming you have one connected) is acting up or something connected too it is eating your upload speed. Though, to be honest 8+ Mbps up should be plenty for gaming (I know because I can upload 10+ Mbps and game on it no problem).

Also not sure if the guy above is saying. One: you already have your own modem; and two: you can definitely get the X1 tv set if you own your own modem.
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jedi Mind Trick View Post

My modem is a bit older (it's still a Motorola and not an Arris) than yours and my upload speeds are steady at 20mbps, so honestly I don't believe this to be your problem. My plan is the Comcast 75down/20up.

I would look into what else is connected to your network. Do
Not sure what it could be, but unless your modem is defective I think it would be something else. Could be that your router (assuming you have one connected) is acting up or something connected too it is eating your upload speed. Though, to be honest 8+ Mbps up should be plenty for gaming (I know because I can upload 10+ Mbps and game on it no problem).

Also not sure if the guy above is saying. One: you already have your own modem; and two: you can definitely get the X1 tv set if you own your own modem.
Hmm I was told multiple times by both the local store and customer service that if you have your own modem they do not allow voice and the X1 system. Maybe is a location thing... Believe me I tried to upgrade to the X1 several time until I just gave up.
 
#5 ·
I can't speak about Comcast's current equipment or service. I was overjoyed to switch to Verizon FiOS when that came to my area and I've never looked back.

Back when I did have Comcast though, I literally use it just for overnight downloads while I did all my gaming via a dial up modem - it was more stable and had lower latency than the cable service, and during peak hours it even had more bandwidth!

That bit about latency and consistency however brings me back on topic. Your bandwidth isn't terribly important for gaming. A properly set up 768kbps DSL connection is more than enough for a "perfect" connection as far as games are concerned, so long as it isn't also being shared with something like netflix or youtube.

What will however impact your gaming experience is literally everything other than bandwidth. Latency, jitter, packet loss, bloat, too many simultaneous connections for your router to handle, etc. You could in theory have 1000/1000 fiber optic and still have a terrible connection for gaming due to one of those factors.

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest is a good place to start. It offers a more detailed diagnostic than most online speedtests. I'd check that, and report back. Also think hard about exactly how many devices are connected to your network, and what kind of usage they see.
 
#6 ·
Agree 100% with what Zero said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brazilianloser View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jedi Mind Trick View Post

My modem is a bit older (it's still a Motorola and not an Arris) than yours and my upload speeds are steady at 20mbps, so honestly I don't believe this to be your problem. My plan is the Comcast 75down/20up.

I would look into what else is connected to your network. Do
Not sure what it could be, but unless your modem is defective I think it would be something else. Could be that your router (assuming you have one connected) is acting up or something connected too it is eating your upload speed. Though, to be honest 8+ Mbps up should be plenty for gaming (I know because I can upload 10+ Mbps and game on it no problem).

Also not sure if the guy above is saying. One: you already have your own modem; and two: you can definitely get the X1 tv set if you own your own modem.
Hmm I was told multiple times by both the local store and customer service that if you have your own modem they do not allow voice and the X1 system. Maybe is a location thing... Believe me I tried to upgrade to the X1 several time until I just gave up.
Man, that sucks. I would never want to go back to the standard box, but I definitely don't want to give Comcast more money to rent a modem. I also wish their CS was useful. I know it is a huge commitment, but have you tried going to a physical location and talking with them there? They are usually more helpful/willing to do things that were "impossible" (or at least the phone people said were impossible).
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the reply's

turns out I only have a 10 up plan
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#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zero4549 View Post

That bit about latency and consistency however brings me back on topic. Your bandwidth isn't terribly important for gaming. A properly set up 768kbps DSL connection is more than enough for a "perfect" connection as far as games are concerned, so long as it isn't also being shared with something like netflix or youtube.

What will however impact your gaming experience is literally everything other than bandwidth. Latency, jitter, packet loss, bloat, too many simultaneous connections for your router to handle, etc. You could in theory have 1000/1000 fiber optic and still have a terrible connection for gaming due to one of those factors.

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest is a good place to start. It offers a more detailed diagnostic than most online speedtests. I'd check that, and report back. Also think hard about exactly how many devices are connected to your network, and what kind of usage they see.
Basically this. Bandwidth is potential download and upload speed, but it doesn't determine quality. Most gaming transfers relatively small amounts of data but do so frequently. Ping, jitter and packet loss are more important for gaming alone. Ping is usually the round trip time for your computer to send a signal (packet) out and get a response back in milliseconds (shorter is better). Packet loss is what happens when that information gets lost/ignored when sent to or from you, which means the data never comes/goes which is obviously bad. To be honest not 100% sure how to explain jitter.

With the above assume you are playing an FPS and your bandwidth is fast, lets say 100Mbps/100Mbps (up/down). Both far surpass how much data is being transferred by the game. Lets hypothetically assume the game steadily needs 1Mbps/1Mbps. So your good right? Not so quick. Lets say that you have 300ms ping (considered fairly bad, especially in FPS). If you are playing against someone with 20Mbps/20Mbps internet and their ping is 20ms...they are far better off than you. "Lag" is usually meant to refer to a delay caused by high ping and/or lost packets. When everyone is moving, then things stop for a second or 2 and suddenly your dead...thats usually a spike in ping and/or a lost packet.

So I am not sure what speeds you pay for, but that modem isnt that dated, its capable of over 300Mbps download and a bit over 100Mbps upload. If you pay for more than this upgrade, otherwise you are fine.

The quality of your connection however can be affected by many factors. It could be faulty hardware outside your building, your router settings, if you are on Wifi it could be interference, etc. There is also not a 1 to 1 relationship between physical location and the quality. This may be why you perceive a difference between your old place and current. All things equal, it could just be that service at that location was better for what you do (closer to the game services, better quality cabling/splitter, etc). Some of this you have no control over, some of it may require troubleshooting.

Lastly, many people confuse low frame rates (fps/frames per second) or dropped frames for "lag". If your ping is low, everything outside the game loads fast (internet related), and only the game shows issues, ensure its not a frame rate issue. Double check settings, try changing stuff, etc. Hope this helps
 
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