PS4 download speeds vs. PS3

[NARMAK]

Now, I don't know how many people know this but apparently the PS3 downloads from the PlayStation store are (or were when I checked last) capped at a speed of 12mb/s. Now with people having connections soon in the UK to be over 100mb/s and as high as 150mb/s with Virgin Media fibre optic and apparently in South Korea able to get a 1GB net speed almost!!

Is Sony going to uncap the download speed for PS4 and just let it be limited to the internet speeds the individual posses or just increase it a little?

[camper]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Now, I don't know how many people know this but apparently the PS3 downloads from the PlayStation store are (or were when I checked last) capped at a speed of 12mb/s. Now with people having connections soon in the UK to be over 100mb/s and as high as 150mb/s with Virgin Media fibre optic and apparently in South Korea able to get a 1GB net speed almost!!

Is Sony going to uncap the download speed for PS4 and just let it be limited to the internet speeds the individual posses or just increase it a little?

It depends on where the bottleneck truly is. Sony may only have it set to devote that much speed so as not to overload their servers, whoever is providing the backbone might limit it, or who knows what.

Likely they are setting the threshold limit at 12mbps because bandwidth isn't infinite, and BECAUSE some people have 150mbps connections they can monopolize it.

But if the Sony store has a 12mbps cap, it will be for the PS3 and PS4.

[Havok83]

Originally Posted by camper

It depends on where the bottleneck truly is. Sony may only have it set to devote that much speed so as not to overload their servers, whoever is providing the backbone might limit it, or who knows what.

Likely they are setting the threshold limit at 12mbps because bandwidth isn't infinite, and BECAUSE some people have 150mbps connections they can monopolize it.

But if the Sony store has a 12mbps cap, it will be for the PS3 and PS4.

Sony also wasn't charging consumers for online functionality last gen. I think this could very well factor into how they handle the PS4, especially with downloads looking to be up to 5-10 times larger than we were used to with the PS3. I think the profit they will be making off the surge in Plus subscriptions will act as a buffer to help offset the costs in increasing the bandwidth limit.

[NARMAK]

See, the way I see it is that the HDD space coupled with the cost of the actual items doesn't really present a chance for any one party to monopolise the PSN downloads.

If you wanted to download free demos all day long, you're eventually gonna hit a wall with no space left and look like an idiot when you want to play an actual game

So all that allowing truly uncapped download speeds does is make sure that those with the fastest connection are done ASAP, whilst those with slower connections still can go as fast as they want.

If you logically look at it. Having people held up in a line doesn't make sense if you can process them super fast but I obviously get the bandwith argument that you have X space and Y people trying to get through and if more people than space is available they'll eventually end up in a funnelling motion.

Kinda like people going through an underground tunnel 10 feet wide but the people lined up 20 feet wide.

[camper]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Kinda like people going through an underground tunnel 10 feet wide but the people lined up 20 feet wide.

You're rightly comparing it to the width of tunnel, but you're not taking one thing into consideration: 50 people on scooters might not go through it as fast as a freight train, but that freight train fills the tunnel and nobody else can get through. And when you have multiple trains in line, they'll keep pushing the scooters out of the way and they'll never make it to Beaumont-sur-Mer.

Besides, 12mbps is still very fast--the problem isn't the speed so much as the content they want to push. A 40gig file is massive.

But to be successful, they will have to push up the speed a bit in order to compensate. I suppose they could have a different server farms for PS4 data, but they'll still have to throttle the bandwidth somewhere.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by camper

You're rightly comparing it to the width of tunnel, but you're not taking one thing into consideration: 50 people on scooters might not go through it as fast as a freight train, but that freight train fills the tunnel and nobody else can get through. And when you have multiple trains in line, they'll keep pushing the scooters out of the way and they'll never make it to Beaumont-sur-Mer.

Besides, 12mbps is still very fast--the problem isn't the speed so much as the content they want to push. A 40gig file is massive.

But to be successful, they will have to push up the speed a bit in order to compensate. I suppose they could have a different server farms for PS4 data, but they'll still have to throttle the bandwidth somewhere.

Lol, these analogies are funny

Still, I think they should definitely try and overhaul their infrastructure now their getting people to pay for the service AND the ridiculous file sizes we have to download.

Truth is, this is one big clusterFluck for gaming and getting more ridiculous. I just wish another optical media was on the horizon that gave instantaneous read speeds like I read about on HVDs (Holographic Video Disks).

They also said that storage was gonna be able to touch TBs on that format.

[Mavrick]

Technically speedsshould be faster since Sony should have beefed up their server farms, what with the onset of Gaikai as well as the increased file sizes for the games on the store.

[camper]

Originally Posted by Mavrick

Technically speedsshould be faster since Sony should have beefed up their server farms, what with the onset of Gaikai as well as the increased file sizes for the games on the store.

I would certainly hope so. But it all comes down to where they're limiting the max download speed. I would imagine that even if they separated the PS3 & PS4 content into different farms it will be hard to see an improvement even if there was one for the first few weeks of the launch, as there will no doubt be a LOT of people connecting their PS4's to download patches & software and hitting PSN a lot more than they would normally as they load up their shiny new consoles with swag.

[NARMAK]

Realistically, they should be able to double the speed at least imo. That would certainly be a start but ideally only triple or quadruple the speed is actually going to make a tangible difference considering the size of the bloody downloads.

Most games now are circa 10gb or so? Next gen for the most part is 30gb+ easily and it'll probably get even worse as the games get bigger and better looking.

[Havok83]

well this should answer the question

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Havok83

well this should answer the question

Vague much?

For wireless users the built-in N should really help speed things up. Think x3

For wired users, your all good to go & I'm jealous.

[PrestigeWorldwide]

Originally Posted by Derb

For wired users, your all good to go & I'm jealous.

Just made sure that I had an extra ethernet cable for launch. I'm good to go!

[Havok83]

LOL...you know Shuhei is a man of few words

[camper]

I'd like to hear what the speed will be.

1-2mbps on a 50mbps connection is not good at all, and doubling it wouldn't even be close to the 12mbps the OP said he got.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by camper

I'd like to hear what the speed will be.

1-2mbps on a 50mbps connection is not good at all, and doubling it wouldn't even be close to the 12mbps the OP said he got.

I'm curious as well.

The 12mb/s cap is interesting but for my wireless 20 I read the PSN counter at 2mb/s using a very good router bgnac Netgear. I can test my iPad which runs WiFi N & it gets 19/20 mb/s. If the PS4 gives me that, I'll be happy.

Net speed ain't cheap where I am. I just got the Internet bill. $67 after tax for 20mb per month!
I could get 50mb for $75/month + tax
I could get 100mb for $100/month + tax

[X400]

i think they would have to increase speeds drastically if we're going to be able to play while we download or the buffer will be something crazy like xbox's (what is it 50%?)

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by camper

I'd like to hear what the speed will be.

1-2mbps on a 50mbps connection is not good at all, and doubling it wouldn't even be close to the 12mbps the OP said he got.

I didn't claim I had that speed so apologies for any confusion but I had read around that this was the case. That downloads were capped at a max speed of 12mb/s which even on PS3 was possibly a pain but not as much as it will be for the collosal downloads PS4 games will need.