graphics n data usage

[Sunnydee]

So i recently moved, only to find out that the net provider gives us a limit of 500gb a month per household...

so im curious if i play games for example wow as its my "main" game, will i use more data on the game if i have higher graphic settings? thinking in terms that there is more detailed stuff to go between the server and me.

or am i just thinking completly stupid :P?

[Spiralphoenix]

No, all that stuff is handled on your client, there's no communication or data transfer involved there.

[Vermicious]

All the graphic details in WoW are handled on your local computer, and are not a burden on your data limit. WoW actually has a very minimal data stream needed, it's the ping time (latency) that matters, not the bandwidth. I played for a time on a 1mbps line (that had good latency) and never had issues. The only time WoW may impact your download is when new patch/updates are being downloaded... and that's only a few gigabytes at most, even for major patches.

Unless you are torrenting huge files or downloading a lot of other stuff, you'll never come near your data download limitations. I watch a lot of streaming video (netflix,etc) and never come near my limit (250gb). Max in a month that I've done is maybe 50-75gb. Make sure the others using this connection know the limits, and not to abuse them

[Sunnydee]

Ok cool. so basically it wont matter for 5 cents if i have lowest on everything or ultra if i understood correct

[Perryn]

Data traffic shouldn't be an issue as far as wow goes (and no graphic quality setting won't affect it at all). I've played wow reasonably smooth over a 3G connection (sharing my phone's 3G connection while on the road or when my regular internet went down once).

[Deleted]

You don't have to worry about that 500 GB download limit. Back when I had a 100 GB limit, the only times I actually crossed that was when Steam did an unannounced update of The Witcher 2 on 2 computers in the house, downloading 40 GB in a single day.

to put your 500 GB in perspective: 720p youtube videos is is about 1 GB per hour. that's 500 hours, or 21 days in a row. if you spend 14 hours per day watching youtube, and the remaining you don't use internet at all, you will spend 434 GB in a 31 day month.

I believe downloading an MMO from scratch is on average 20 GB. so you can download 25 complete MMOs in one month. that's almost 1 per day.

Don't worry about a 500 GB download limit. unless you want to download your entire steam library in 1 month, it's no issue.