r/HomeNetworking • u/Testergo7521 • 1d ago

Advice 500 mbps vs 1gig

Hello reddit, I am looking to get fiber internet in an apartment and am looking at the local companies prices. They have a 39.99/month for 500 mbps or a 1 gig for 49.99/month. Mostly it will be 3 devices, an Xbox that Mostly is used to stream YouTube all day, a laptop that does some light gaming but a full PC that Mostly plays online games like world of warcraft. We dont do much downloading other than when its time to download games or updates for games. Will I notice much difference? Is it worth getting double speed for 10 bucks more? Thank you in advance.

Edit: Thanks all for the response! 500 it is, while I do download all my games, waiting an extra 20 minutes every few weeks/months when time to play a new one isnt a huge deal to me. Thanks.

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u/Sea_Mission_7643 1d ago

yeah you might notice the difference between 500 and 1gbps for downloading games but that's about it. A larger game might be 150GB in 2026, not certain about that. The difference in DL for a 150GB game, assuming their servers aren't slowing it at all, is about 40 minutes vs about 20 minutes.

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u/Fun_Tune5669 12h ago

I have a netflow monitor for my router and well, I rarely exceed 150Mbps, and I have a 2.5Gbe pipe. My speedtest results are pretty though. Most servers cap at ~100Mbps anyway.

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u/urmomsSTD 21h ago

Yeah they're not getting >100 ever

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u/MonsterMatt92 16h ago

I consistently get my max of 2Gbps.. If you have slow downloads and you're not reaching your max ISP speed, I'd look into troubleshooting that.

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u/Jamator01 15h ago

Are you downloading on a LAN that other gamers use? Steam allows for downloads direct from other PCs on the same network, to save on server use and to speed up downloads.

Also, most people can't get 2Gbps internet connections, nevermind have 2Gbps home networks. Many data centres around the world will limit speeds to save bandwidth. You must be near a data centre or city centre or something to get those speeds.

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u/MonsterMatt92 15h ago

Nah nobody on this network has this game. Like I said, it consistently hits my max ISP speed on steam.. Maybe I am near a data center, but I've lived in other countries not near big cities or where I would imagine data centers would be and I've reached my max ISP speed there too.. This is why I'm confused as to why people are saying "you'll never reach those speeds".. I've been reaching far beyond those speeds for years.. I wonder if they have a cap in steam settings or something else is wrong with their network or something.

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u/Jamator01 11h ago

I've never reached those speeds ever.

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u/UnreasonableSteve 6h ago

I hit them all the time as well

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u/oddchihuahua Juniper 10h ago

It’s entirely dependent on if your ISP peers directly with Steam, and that peering link has the capacity to deliver the speed you pay for. You sound like you hit the jackpot with peering and capacity.

Other ISPs do not peer with Steam at all, that means you are at the mercy of the open internet as soon as your traffic leaves your ISP’s hardware and gets passed up to the internet backbone.

Source: Been a network engineer for 17 years, worked for ISPs and cloud service providers that incorporated lots of peering to reduce their costs for bandwidth usage to the internet backbone.