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by Nullabillity 2553 days ago
> 100Mbps down is fast for most people. What do you think the average user is doing that needs more than 100Mbps down?

For streaming? Sure, you'll be fine as long as you're faster than the content. For downloads (Steam, etc) the difference between 100Mbps and 1Gbps is literally a 10x speedup. If you're waiting for a multi-GB game patch to download then there is a huge mental shift between waiting 20 seconds and 4 minutes.

That said, I mainly interpreted the GP as talking about expectations. You could argue that driving at 30km/h is blazing fast compared to walking, but it's still the slowest car speed that we usually consider worth thinking about.

1 comments

> "If you're waiting for a multi-GB game patch to download then there is a huge mental shift between waiting 20 seconds and 4 minutes."

It's not exactly a life altering shift though, is it? Four fewer minutes of gameplay time is not, for most people, the 'bare minimum.'

A car that only does 30km/h would be a huge downgrade for any car owner, who would no longer be able to safely drive on any highway. That's a ridiculous comparison. Most users would only perceive any difference between 100Mbps and 1Gbps in uncommon circumstances and the severity of those circumstances would almost always be minimal.

If I'm backing up multiple terabytes to rsync.net, am I going to notice the difference? Oh hell yeah. And ditto if I'm pirating HBO's entire back catalogue. But if I'm bopping around on facebook and youtube? Not a chance. Maybe a few times a month I get a big video game update and have enough time to bake some chicken tendies before it finishes downloading, but a gamer's got to eat anyway doesn't he?

> It's not exactly a life altering shift though, is it? Four fewer minutes of gameplay time is not, for most people, the 'bare minimum.'

It doesn't matter that much in absolute terms, but psychologically it can be the difference between the download finishing while you're complaining about it, or saying "meh, let's do something else instead".