network hardware for Dota2 latency

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edc

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#231985 23-Mar-2018 22:02

I think I know the answer to the this question, but out of interest...

Do the fibre ONT boxes handle 10Gbit? I assume they don't?

I currently have a pfsense box with this card, "Intel® 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller," and I'm wondering if a better card would reduce latency to the Australian Dota2 server in Sydney?

I'm in Wellington, on Fibre, MyRepublic, Gaming, the 950/450 Mbps plan. My current ping is 33ms and with speedtest the Sydney Internode provides a similar result.

Card details: https://ark.intel.com/products/20720/Intel-82571EB-Gigabit-Ethernet-Controller

I considered getting this card 2nd hand for ~$100 recently. It does a few more things on chip.

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETITX540T1/Intel-X540-T1-Ethernet-Converged-Network-Adapter-1

If I get a single port card though it might not make a difference if it has to be passed to the quad port card anyway?

The desktop that is dedicated to pfsense is complete overkill, it is unlikely to cause any slowdown.

AMD A6-6400K APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics
Current: 1800 MHz, Max: 3900 MHz
2 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) (1 to 10% utilisation)
AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (inactive)

State table size: 0% (269/3190000) Show states
MBUF Usage: 0% (5570/1987926)
Load average: 0.31, 0.26, 0.25
CPU usage: 8%
Memory usage: 1% of 31901 MiB

I have enabled net.inet.ip.fastforwarding=1, but it didn't make any difference. All my cables are Cat 6a.

Linux

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#1982386 23-Mar-2018 22:07

No way new card will reduce latency to Australia the only way to reduce it would be by moving to Australia

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edc

31 posts

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#1982388 23-Mar-2018 22:21

Linux: No way new card will reduce latency to Australia the only way to reduce it would be by moving to Australia

Linux

haha OK. I was dreaming then.

Thank you for the quick reply.

hio77

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#1982389 23-Mar-2018 22:28

What you really need, is to buy the Red cat 6a cables, they contain a higher EMF containment value, and thus the bits can move slightly faster.

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Hammerer

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#1982391 23-Mar-2018 22:41

hio77:

What you really need, is to buy the Red cat 6a cables, they contain a higher EMF containment value, and thus the bits can move slightly faster.

Thanks for that advice. It is just what I needed to read on a Friday night.

Stuff like this has been discussed before, e.g. https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=110899

It is a distance of about 2,160km from, say, Auckland to Sydney.

The speed of light is about 300,000km per second so the fastest possible transmission time will be about 7ms. In practice, the speed of signals in copper or fibre optic will be between 40% and 90% of that speed, or a range of 8-18ms.

It might seem like the remaining latency of 15-25ms is an opportunity for us. The problem is that most of that latency is outside our control. There is additional cable length because it isn't a straight line from our homes to the server. Plus we have no control over the relays and switches in the networks.

michaelmurfy

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#1982392 23-Mar-2018 22:48

@edc That ping is the best you're going to get. There is also no point reducing it, you'll not notice it.

I can honestly say if you didn't know the actual ping you wouldn't notice any difference at all if your ping even increased to 100ms if you had a stable connection. The average reaction time is 250ms. I score 210ms, test yours here: https://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/

HowickDota

410 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1982401 24-Mar-2018 00:31

Hammerer:

hio77:

What you really need, is to buy the Red cat 6a cables, they contain a higher EMF containment value, and thus the bits can move slightly faster.

Thanks for that advice. It is just what I needed to read on a Friday night.

Stuff like this has been discussed before, e.g. https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=49&topicid=110899

It is a distance of about 2,160km from, say, Auckland to Sydney.

The speed of light is about 300,000km per second so the fastest possible transmission time will be about 7ms. In practice, the speed of signals in copper or fibre optic will be between 40% and 90% of that speed, or a range of 8-18ms.

It might seem like the remaining latency of 15-25ms is an opportunity for us. The problem is that most of that latency is outside our control. There is additional cable length because it isn't a straight line from our homes to the server. Plus we have no control over the relays and switches in the networks.

Ping is a measure of the round trip time as well so 8-18ms * 2 is 16-36ms which is in-line with the 27-30ms pings I'm getting to sydney servers. As far as OP is concerned changing your own network equipment is likely to make less than a millisecond of difference - my ping to the default gateway is ~0.2ms. What's important is a stable connection IMO.

edc

31 posts

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#1982458 24-Mar-2018 10:06

michaelmurfy:

@edc That ping is the best you're going to get. There is also no point reducing it, you'll not notice it.

I can honestly say if you didn't know the actual ping you wouldn't notice any difference at all if your ping even increased to 100ms if you had a stable connection. The average reaction time is 250ms. I score 210ms, test yours here: https://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/

My actions per minute in games is about 150 and I only get around 300ms on that website.

I have a 42" plasma TV as my screen, which could be why I'm so slow.

You make a good point, I would probably be better off getting a smaller better screen suitable for gaming.

Hammerer

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#1982468 24-Mar-2018 10:57

HowickDota:

Ping is a measure of the round trip time as well so 8-18ms * 2 is 16-36ms which is in-line with the 27-30ms pings I'm getting to sydney servers. As far as OP is concerned changing your own network equipment is likely to make less than a millisecond of difference - my ping to the default gateway is ~0.2ms. What's important is a stable connection IMO.

HowickDota, thanks for pointing that out. I forgot to double the distance and Friday night is not an excuse.

The corrected text follows.

It is a distance of about 2,160km from, say, Auckland to Sydney. So a 4,320km round trip.

The speed of light is about 300,000km per second so the fastest possible transmission time will be about 14ms. In practice, the speed of signals in copper or fibre optic will be between 40% and 90% of that speed, or a range of 16-36ms.

It might seem like the remaining latency of up to 17ms is an opportunity for us. The problem is that most of that latency is outside our control. There is additional cable length because it isn't a straight line from our homes to the server. Plus we have no control over the relays and switches in the networks.

vulcannz

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#1982481 24-Mar-2018 11:15

hio77:

What you really need, is to buy the Red cat 6a cables, they contain a higher EMF containment value, and thus the bits can move slightly faster.

Also make sure your PC is higher than your router, that way your packets are travelling downhill and there is less gravitational resistance.

hio77

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#1982485 24-Mar-2018 11:22

edc:

michaelmurfy:

@edc That ping is the best you're going to get. There is also no point reducing it, you'll not notice it.

I can honestly say if you didn't know the actual ping you wouldn't notice any difference at all if your ping even increased to 100ms if you had a stable connection. The average reaction time is 250ms. I score 210ms, test yours here: https://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/

My actions per minute in games is about 150 and I only get around 300ms on that website.

I have a 42" plasma TV as my screen, which could be why I'm so slow.

You make a good point, I would probably be better off getting a smaller better screen suitable for gaming.

Testing equipment makes a massive distance.

going from my 144hz screen to 60hz, i see a 50-80ms increase. going to mobile i see that again.

Response time between IE and Chrome also differs.

Can't really be bothered switching to ULMB from gsync, although that would likely drop response time by another 50ms?

Out of interest though, first run after waking up...

@michaelmurfy how about a test that doesn't have so many variables ;)

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michaelmurfy

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#1982497 24-Mar-2018 11:54

@edc Something else to consider especially if you play with friends on NZ servers is your ISP.

MyRepublic trunk all their data via Auckland for everything causing high latency to the rest of NZ (do a Speedtest to Dunedin as an example):

My connection speed isn't too high as my server is currently downloading but the average latency for me on 2degrees is 12ms. I'm based in Wellington and have an average latency of 35ms to Sydney. The beauty with the bigger players (2degrees, Spark, Orcon) is they trunk their data to a local point of presence. If you're based in Auckland you may not notice it however MyRepublic, despite their "gamer" jargon is actually not the best ISP for gaming. Not all ISP's are created equal. If you want the absolute lowest latency then going with 2degrees or Orcon is a very good choice as they've invested heavily in their network and most of their paths are very low latency.

hio77

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#1982499 24-Mar-2018 11:59

michaelmurfy:

Not all ISP's are created equal. If you want the absolute lowest latency then going with 2degrees or Orcon is a very good choice as they've invested heavily in their network and most of their paths are very low latency.

now if only their network was multipathed along scx ;)

@sounddude It's ok, I'm in the hard to throw stones at part ;)

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