One of the components that is least often looked at when buying a PC is the network adapter integrated. This usually comes standard on every computer since today it is mandatory for all of them to have internet connectivity. The problem? Like everything there are qualities and unfortunately, being a component that is given little importance, it ends up going unnoticed. That is why it becomes undervalued in the face of online gaming.
When we play an online game we have to assume that there are two ways to carry out the coordination of what happens on stage by all the players. The simplest is that everyone fully coordinates the position of all the players and state of play, so everyone has to communicate with each other. That is, via P2P. This requires a much more powerful network card as there is no server in between. The second option is to place a server, but this is only done in games with many iterations on the screen such as an MMO, the problem is that everything indicates that in time we will be the users who will end up loading something that was previously a thing of the developers.
Why will the network adapter become very important in games?
The worlds in the games are increasingly complex and not only in the interaction of dozens of NPCs on huge maps, but we also have a huge number of elements on the screen. This in turn is a huge load for the processor, now, imagine the same situation, but with a persistent online game, where although you have a solo campaign, it is designed so that you can share the world with other players.
At heart, one of the most popular genres is the Sandbox, and what are they really? Well, an MMO designed to be played offline, however, with the emergence of game as a service as one of the emerging business forms in the world of video games, your gaming PC will have the same network workload as an MMO server. from a few years ago. The difference? The creator of the game will save on maintaining the server, your PC and that of your friends will act as a server or host at all times, as it happens with online games, it is easier.
Getting to handle such a number of processes can drown the central processor, which is why network adapters will have to make a qualitative leap and not only on the PC, but also on consoles. Suddenly you will not know if your system will be in charge of carrying the weight of hundreds of people on the server. At the same time it will be the way to exploit the connections of several Gbps that are coming. Of course, this is still a trend and the game publishers are not going to give up their slice of the pie with the profits.
It will not be an “additional cost” for the user
Now, if you are worried about having to pay for an extra device in the future to have an advantage in online games or that the PC does not become saturated, let us tell you that you should not worry, since said evolution will be supplied by network adapters integrated, but as with functions such as overclocking, manufacturers will reserve it for high-end motherboards in order to justify the price.
In the rest of the computers, the CPU will be in charge of having to process all those network packets, making it unable to dedicate more time to the game logic and preparing the screen list. In other words, it will be something that will affect the performance of the games in the event that we have a computer with a rather modest motherboard. That is, the choice of the network adapter will be what will make you win or lose games. Of course, you can always connect one in the form of a card to expand the capabilities of your computer in that regard.
