Minecraft Bandwidth Usage - What and Why

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This isnt the typical Minecraft bandwidth question. Im more wanting to know WHY the usage is so high, even on vanilla.

By default just starting out, MC stabilizes to around 3-6KBps transfer rates. Thats fine. I so much as cut down a tree and build a 10x10 house out of the wood planks, this shoots up to and stabilizes around 32-42KBps.

Id like to know WHY this is happening. What on earth is needing updates so constantly that it cant send a "do you still exist?" "yes I do" exchange a few times a second for 1000x coords and what ID it contains, compress that and send it in a less than 5KB exchange? Why the constant 40KB exchanges? Im really curious because Im on a metered connection and this is killing my agility to play much with my friends. Also, when I leave these areas far enough the usage goes back down to 3-5. There are no machines. Just planks.



Best Answer

Minecraft's networking is not the most effective and as soon as you edit a chunk it sends all of the data of that chunk back and forth from there on out.

That is basically it... chunks are not small data and when it can no longer do that 'this chunk is clean nothing to see here' check, well then it just sends it all.




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Why does Minecraft take so much bandwidth?

Updates - If something happens, the server needs to tell the client something has happened. If a million things has happened, then it sends all of that million things to the client, which requires lots of bandwidth (download speed) to process and recieve, which is the case for Mineplex.

What is bandwidth for Minecraft?

Bandwidth: Typical usage (using the default view distance) is usually around 100Mb per hour per connected client.

Why is my latency so high on Minecraft?

As mentioned above, a common reason for high latency is the lack of resources. If you have other programs running, it will drain your bandwidth and make your game slower. The most common programs that can make your Minecraft lag are VoIP and video streaming apps.

How much GB does Minecraft use on PC?

Minecraft is a small game, and it can take up less than 1 GB on all devices and operating systems, including Windows, iOS, Android, etc. However, it can grow to more than 30 GB after exploring and adding new worlds, mods, plugins, and skins.



Speed vs Bandwidth Explained - Arvig




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