I just hit my data cap again and I realized that a good portion of data goes to game updates, games like street fighter, rocket league and pubg are constantly downloading updates ranging from 300mb to 10gb, I was out of state a few months ago and there was no data cap so I bought some external drives and downloaded all my games on my ps4, xb1 and my pc because I didn't want to keep deleting and downloading every time I wanted to play a different game but now this thing is out of control updating numerous games nightly. how do you guys deal with this?
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
how do you deal with gaming and data caps?
- Thread starter TheKid
- Start date
I seriously think if data caps become a real thing nationwide (if say, Charter does it)- the gaming industry, especially on the PC side , will be under major threat. I'm surprised they haven't been more involved in that fight.
One thing I do is keep my Windows network set to metered connection, so it doesn't auto-download stuff I don't know. For Steam, I set the update time to like 3-4 am, so that it doesn't start updating stuff I don't care about (is there a way to turn off auto updates on all games on Steam?). On GoG you can just turn off auto-updates from settings menu.
I guess the biggest thing for me is I don't play multiplayer games, so data doesn't get used as much. Downloading one big game a month isn't too bad.
I guess the biggest thing for me is I don't play multiplayer games, so data doesn't get used as much. Downloading one big game a month isn't too bad.
I don't have a data cap, so I couldn't really say. That is countered by the fact the fastest connection I can buy is 10mbs however.
When I had a 150GB data cap I dealt with it by skipping out on large games, games that looked mildly interesting, almost all streaming, and turning off all auto updates on steam/consoles. Around the end of the month i'd ask myself if a game I was thinking of buying was worth the asking price and the extra bandwidth charge. The answer was usually no so i've passed on quite a few games.
Since then i've told AT&T to fuck off so all that's behind me
But it's still annoying to see people respond to concerns about always online and large day one patches with hurr aren't you always online anyway
Since then i've told AT&T to fuck off so all that's behind me
But it's still annoying to see people respond to concerns about always online and large day one patches with hurr aren't you always online anyway
I'm at 1tb as well and just noticed this month because I got a warning that I hit 90%. I'll still get by but I had no idea they implemented that policy. When I checked my data over the past 6 months it was hovering around 350-600 so I should be alright and I'm hoping they constantly increase it as downloads and files get bigger.
I have unlimited, but pay extra for it. This isn't me posting to gloat, though, because my Internet is really slow and it takes forever to download things, even basic patches.
I feel your pain.
I feel your pain.
Thankfully I dont. While I live in an underdeveloped country with shitty connections at least we dont have datacap thank god.
I am horrified to learn that people in this country (US) are dealing with data caps on their home internet, which is already horrendously overpriced and lags far behind the speeds enjoyed by the rest of the world. Congress really needs to draw the line and clean up this shit. And they would have already, if they weren't in the pockets of Comcast and Verizon.
Coming from Australia it is weird to hear Americans talk about data caps because we have actually gone the other way and only started offering uncapped internet relatively recently. Back when I was capped I chose a service provider that didn't meter content downloaded from Steam, so gaming was never an issue.
this is actually a worrying topic, games are becoming bigger size wise. so its a trend that will crash or be bottle necked cause ISP. althought this might be for the good on the long run and force devs to go back for Optimization and compression.
On my case I just avoid updates as much as possible unless essentials
On my case I just avoid updates as much as possible unless essentials
I was stuck with a 300gb cap for about a year and it was completely miserable. To answer your question, I basically didn't. The only thing I played was Wow and League and nothing else. 300 cap basically means you can use 10gb a day and barely watching twitch / youtube would hit that each day. Now I have a 1tb cap and I end up close to that each month but most of that data usage comes from having twitch up on my other monitor all the time. I don't really expect to go over it seeing as I'm not downloading a 100gb game every day but there's no excuse for data caps in the first place.
I'm looking to move mainly because of the lack of good internet providers here, which makes me pine for the old days when shit like this didn't matter.
I don't. I also resent paying $10 a month to purchase unlimited data. With my kids watching stuff and me downloading games like a motherfucker, the previous 1TB cap was not enough and anything over is $10 minimum.
It's worth the peace of mind, I guess, though I wish I didn't have to pay it.
It's worth the peace of mind, I guess, though I wish I didn't have to pay it.
I went over my 1tb by quite a bit this month, so that's 1 out of 2 free months gone.
The worst part is I'm paying $30 a month for 200 down and 10 up, but removing the data limit costs an additional $50 a month. How in the fuck are they gonna charge me more for the unlimited data than the 1tb I already get. That doesn't make any sense.
On top of that, I'm pretty sure Xfinity's gigabit plan doesn't have a data limit, and would cost only slightly more than the combined cost of my current plan and unlimited.
The worst part is I'm paying $30 a month for 200 down and 10 up, but removing the data limit costs an additional $50 a month. How in the fuck are they gonna charge me more for the unlimited data than the 1tb I already get. That doesn't make any sense.
On top of that, I'm pretty sure Xfinity's gigabit plan doesn't have a data limit, and would cost only slightly more than the combined cost of my current plan and unlimited.
My Internet costs about that, the unlimited part. Same speeds too. No idea how much data I use though. I've lived with unbelievably bad Internet before though so I think it's worth it(like 2meg a few years ago).
In the Netherlands ISPs don't have data caps, and I think it's illegal to do so.
Only mobile Internet has a data cap due to the strain it puts on the severely antiquated network. Never understood why there is not just WiFi everywhere if the mobile Internet is such an issue.
Only mobile Internet has a data cap due to the strain it puts on the severely antiquated network. Never understood why there is not just WiFi everywhere if the mobile Internet is such an issue.
Thought data caps were a thing of the past.
Seeing as I go down the didigtal route mostly if I still had a cap , doubt Id go digital at all if I had to, guess the annoying thing is day one patches which are often in the gig size , can see how people would get annoyed if they had a cap but I guess in today's age it kind of unavoidable
Seeing as I go down the didigtal route mostly if I still had a cap , doubt Id go digital at all if I had to, guess the annoying thing is day one patches which are often in the gig size , can see how people would get annoyed if they had a cap but I guess in today's age it kind of unavoidable
My old place I had to download during 2am to 6am. New place I have unlimited power! I feel for you
Comcast just imposed Data caps for my area (they are testing it to see if they can get away with it) . My household hasn't hit it because no one uses the internet as heavy as I do.
The sad thing is my service actually decreased in quality since it was imposed with frequent drops in connectivity, internet down all together, or service slowing down during periods of the day. And we have the best packaged available.
It sucks, I can never say I've ever been satisfied with my service. However I'm stuck with them and paying out a pretty penny because no one else around me is any better. I only SOMETIMES get good speeds, and that's just about as much I can hope for.
(Google Fiber please be nationwide already..)
The sad thing is my service actually decreased in quality since it was imposed with frequent drops in connectivity, internet down all together, or service slowing down during periods of the day. And we have the best packaged available.
It sucks, I can never say I've ever been satisfied with my service. However I'm stuck with them and paying out a pretty penny because no one else around me is any better. I only SOMETIMES get good speeds, and that's just about as much I can hope for.
(Google Fiber please be nationwide already..)
Telus. Shaw is also here but I have not had particularly great experiences with their customer service in the past.
Geez.. With my ISP $30 a month gets me 4 down 1 up 200gb data cap.
Gotta love having only a single ISP to choose from and the only other option is satellite. I'm currently paying $73 a month for basically the same as you're getting. I'd love to have that price.
Last edited:
Hopefully it'll get developers to compress their damn games instead of giving us FLAC audio files and 50GB of pre-rendered video in an otherwise 20GB game.
The big issue is Trump, he appointed Ajit Pai to head the FCC- and Ajit Pai is on the take of the big ISPs.
The Koch Bros also are a big proponent of reducing competition- they sponsor laws that take away the right of cities to do municipal networks.
Some of these issues go back to how things developed in the US under Reagan and Clinton.
The Koch Bros also are a big proponent of reducing competition- they sponsor laws that take away the right of cities to do municipal networks.
Some of these issues go back to how things developed in the US under Reagan and Clinton.
I have a 400Gb daytime cap and a 1Tb (midnight to 6am) allowance. I have a 100Mbit Fibre line so I generally tend to schedule my downloads of new games that tend to be 50Gb+ to run during this time. I don't bother keeping backups of older games and I tend to delete games immediately after I've completed them or if I've lost interest in them.
I can go with a different provider with uncapped data, but the latency on their network isn't that great.
I can go with a different provider with uncapped data, but the latency on their network isn't that great.
No such things to deal with here in Finland. Unlimited 4G mobile network on my phone and a 100Mbit home broadband.
All for a total of about 25€ per month.
I hope things get better in US regarding these things.
All for a total of about 25€ per month.
I hope things get better in US regarding these things.
Happy that people in my country fought against this bullshit. Insane that the US has a problem with data caps.
I don't have caps but the dl speed is slow af. Downloading one of bigger games would take days.
Brings back memories of Platinum - 2-3 gb of content, 20-30 gb fmvs.
Same here. I'm fortunate enough to not have data caps (yet) and I honestly can't believe this even exists.
They used to not be a thing. If they existed at all it was an unenforced legalese blurb in the TOS to use against people trying to run businesses on 10's or 100's of TB scale from their home connections. It has very much become a thing in the US the past several years, now covering the entirety of Comcast and ATT's markets, as well as many smaller regionals. Cox has also started to implement it in test markets, which means it will roll out nationwide shortly. The only people safe are those serviced by the merged companies the FCC barred from implementing caps for X-years. Once that expires, you can bet your ass they're chomping at the bit to implement them.
Yeah, I have Frontier and while I do have issues with them sometimes their policy on data caps makes me a customer for life.
