So how can a speed test pull the most amount of data from the provider but my games can not?
In: Technology
Speedtest test the best optimal condition. But unfortunately reality is messier. There are too many users in servers, there are other traffic or even your own pc might limit speed for certain applications. This is why you never reach the optimal max speed in real usage.
But going from 35 mbps to 30 kbps sounds fishy. Nothing is that slow in reality these days.
When you say you games only pull 30/40 Kbps – what do you mean? Is that when you’re playing an online game, or when you’re downloading the game? If that’s when you’re playing an online game – it’s because online games use very little data. All they need to do is report a small amount of information about your position and the position of everyone else a few dozen times a second. Reporting a player’s location and rotation 30 times a second I’d estimate needs about 5Kbps.
There’s the lag to consider as well. Your game might be having to make dozens of separate requests for data each second, and due to the ping time to the server, each request will take far longer than just the bandwidth requirement would suggest, and the overall speed will be considerably lower because of that.
1. Either your ISP is an a-hole who restricts bandwidth on non-speedtest sites.
2. Something’s wrong on the server side
At 35 Mbps, you should be able to run 1080p vids on youtube without buffering. Can you?
It’s the weakest link principle. Your speed depends on all the pieces that are part of the delivery chain.
That includes the internet connection between your computer, your router, your provider, their provider, their routers for different countries, the cables between countries, then all the providers backwards to the company that serves the content and finally their server(s).
The speed test is designed to only measure your line and is usually done to the most local server that does nothing than to send dummy data. Therefore there can be a huge amount of extra factors that come into play when you do a “real” test and it will differ from your “pure” result.
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