I have been offered an internet speed upgrade from its current 100 Mbs at 100 AUD per month to 220 Mbs for an additional 30 AUD per month or to 450 Mbs for a further 50 AUD per month - all with unlimited bandwidth.  Would any of this be worthwhile for MSFS2020?  I have banged on about PG in another thread but my understanding is that faster internet speed may not help with poor PG.  Now these speed don't seem that fast based on comments I have seen in this forum but are the best you can get in Australia for now. Any observations appreciated.

Bruce

 

1 minute ago, brucewtb said:

I have been offered an internet speed upgrade from its current 100 Mbs at 100 AUD per month to 220 Mbs for an additional 30 AUD per month or to 450 Mbs for a further 50 AUD per month - all with unlimited bandwidth.  Would any of this be worthwhile for MSFS2020?  I have banged on about PG in another thread but my understanding is that faster internet speed may not help with poor PG.  Now these speed don't seem that fast based on comments I have seen in this forum but are the best you can get in Australia for now. Any observations appreciated.

Bruce

 

Bruce, I have a connection that gets a consistent 130 Mbs, and I've never had any problem at all with PG. Remember, it's not only the peak speed that counts, but the average speed. If you can buy a dependable and steady 100 Mbs connection, that should be perfectly fine. 

I have a 1000Mbs (1GB) fiber connection (Canada) and PG still does look bad in most cases. I think PG might be more dependent on your CPU, at least that what I gleaned from reading different posts.

Monitor what bandwidth MSFS actually uses when you fly, then you can make a more informed decision.

 

It's enough if the servers from Microsoft are doing there job.
Bandwidth error started a week ago.
I am not the only one seeing this topic is used again:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/low-bandwidth-message-connection-lost-switched-offline/464121/1032

Edited March 2, 20233 yr by altenae

I just had a free upgrade from 50 mbs to 150 mbs, though I'm currently getting 450 mbs with a ping of 9 (not sure why I'm getting that much.

I've really noticed little or any difference with msfs, though it fels a bit smoother (but that may just be my perception or snake oil).

I'm sure that 100 mbs is more than enough and wouldn't have paid any more to upgrade from 50 mbs (other than the fact that is was done at no extra cost).

I'm not saying but fast internet is not nice especially for downloads, but 50-100 is probably way more than most people use.

5 minutes ago, altenae said:

It's enough if the servers from Microsoft are doing there job.
Bandwidth error started a week ago.
I am nog the only one seeing this topic is used again:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/low-bandwidth-message-connection-lost-switched-offline/464121/1032

No, you are not the only one. I'm getting them too.

5 hours ago, brucewtb said:

I have been offered an internet speed upgrade from its current 100 Mbs at 100 AUD per month to 220 Mbs for an additional 30 AUD per month or to 450 Mbs for a further 50 AUD per month - all with unlimited bandwidth.  Would any of this be worthwhile for MSFS2020?  I have banged on about PG in another thread but my understanding is that faster internet speed may not help with poor PG.  Now these speed don't seem that fast based on comments I have seen in this forum but are the best you can get in Australia for now. Any observations appreciated.

Bruce

 

I wouldn't go lower than 100 Mbps of internet speed using MSFS, with an stable connection (fiber). The sim will be a lot more stable and the PG rendition will look better as it'll be loaded up faster during the streaming as you fly over the areas (although the quality of the PG is not very good in some regions). It's also important to have a good internet speed when it comes to the updates of the sim, to allow for faster downloads.

It's easy to check how much FS2020 uses by bringing up the task manager with CTRL-SHIFT-ESC. Click the performance tab and select your network connection. It probably says Ethernet or similar.

I have a 50 Mbit/s connection and the sim is currently downloading the latest update at full blast because I'm late to the party. On patch update days I'm lucky to get 10 Mbit/s though.

Terrain streaming seems to be at under 10 Mbit/s for me usually and everything looks fine. I'd say a higher connection speed might only benefit you when updates come out. Terrain streaming doesn't seem to be very bandwidth intensive.

Hi Bruce,

I'm on NBN HFC (Hybrid Fibre Copper - the old payTv/Foxtel cable network) and I upgraded from 100 down to 1000(or whatever HFC can provide depending on area network load).

Ive managed to get a max of 150 Mb download speed when installing MSFS (Ive had to do that far too many times 😞 ) but apart from faster install times, I havent really noticed any improvements with PG over 100.

 

Lorby Si has created an exerimental utility that monitors MSFS network speed and usage
lorbymsfsnetworkmonitor.zip

 

You could download and run that whilst you are on your current plan to see if and how often MSFS comes close to your existing max speed.

Regards

David

OK, let's shift up a bit: are you talking about Megabytes per second (MB/s) or megabits per second (Mbps)!?!?

The difference is twelvefold! You shouldn't mix the units. Choose one and stick to it.

Edited March 2, 20233 yr by Bartul

It's worthwhile if you re-install MSFS every week 😉

Other than that, as others said, 100Mbps is enough in terms of photogrammetry. If you have issues, they're likely due to something else, like MS servers...

At the beginning of the year I upgraded to a full fibre optic internet service which is 1.5Gbps Down & 940 Mbps Up. My flight sim PC is on a dedicated 1GB Switch and I am getting the full download speeds given the hardware I currently have. My PC is no slouch and PG is still absolutely rubbish. I can't say I have noticed any significant difference in visual quality with my new internet service as it was great before (apart from PG which I just turn off)

I am happy that I have a much more reliable internet service but for MSFS it didn't really do anything.  

Bandwidth from your ISP unless you are really low on a DSL line, makes zero difference in MSFS. 

Man you folks down under are getting robbed.

17 hours ago, pstrub said:

It's worthwhile if you re-install MSFS every week 😉

Other than that, as others said, 100Mbps is enough in terms of photogrammetry. If you have issues, they're likely due to something else, like MS servers...

Unless he has other devices using the same connection.