Looking For VPS Host, More Important RAM or BW?

[MikeD]

Been looking around for a VPS to host my game. I don't know what's more important though the RAM or Bandwidth. My game is just a PHP game, all of my queries are pretty efficient.

The only thing I think that could possibly be a bandwidth killer is the Arena attack scripts. But even then, I don't think they are that bad.

I don't think there would ever be too much traffic at once, since it's not a grind to win type game, it's more of a sign in, do your dungeons/battles, set your Arena strategies and check back later.

So what do you think is more important on the server, the ram or bandwidth? (Bandwidth for the plans i've been looking at in my price range (about $30-40 Per month to start) is about 1TB per month)

[Chris]

My advice would be to start small and upgrade as you need too. I use http://fanaticalvps.com and can vouch for them.

[SpiritWebb]

I wonder what it would take to move my current domain to use Fanatical instead of my current VPS host...I use Datarealm.com and have the $19/month plan...

[PKDemon]

I wonder what it would take to move my current domain to use Fanatical instead of my current VPS host...I use Datarealm.com and have the $19/month plan...

your best bet would to be talk to your hose you have now and the new host b/c some times they can run a transfur from your old server to a new one and all you would have to do is change DNS

[Jackolantern]

Short answer: RAM.

Long answer: Bandwidth is so cheap these days that most hosting companies bury you in it with huge-bandwidth offers. Unless you have a large community and are using something that drains bandwidth like client-side, real-time AJAX polling, probably some of the lowest numbers of bandwidth they offer will be more than enough unless they are extremely stingy. Plus, you can always upgrade bandwidth easily later as your game grows in popularity and community.

However, being a PBBG, RAM is a big concern. I am glad you are looking first at a VPS, because shared-hosting just doesn't work for PBBGs. Shared hosts want you to simply be serving static web pages with at most a tiny 10-line PHP script on the page. This way they can cram as many hosting accounts as possibly on every server and maximize their money. An account using RAM and CPU cycles is a waste of their resources in their eyes, and they will kick you off.

PBBGs will always be resource hogs because players rapidly move from page load to page load, and each page is usually a 100+ line script with iterations, several DB queries, etc. All of this takes RAM and CPU usage. There is also the issue that RAM and other server-related resources cannot always be scaled-up and upgraded quickly with hosts. Sometimes it is not a push-button fix for the hosts because they may not have the extra resources to spare on your server, meaning they will have to transfer your account to a different server, which many hosts may have to do manually. On the other hand, bandwidth usually is just a push-button upgrade for most hosts. Many hosts even have automatic overflow systems that will upgrade you instantly if you start going over.

[MikeD]

Thanks for the input, I figured RAM was more important, just needed to make sure. I'll be picking up the $30 package on fanaticalvps.com in the next week or so. I'll probably put in for a 1MB ram upgrade as well. Thanks for that Chris, I was reluctantly going to use godaddy for a similar priced package, until you showed me fanatical

[Jackolantern]

I hope you meant 1 gb

[MikeD]

I hope you meant 1 gb

LOL Yes, my bad

[hallsofvallhalla]

why do you need a vps? If it is just a php game then a standard web host will suffice.

[MikeD]

why do you need a vps? If it is just a php game then a standard web host will suffice.

Because I will be hosting a 2D HTML5 sports game as well in the near future. Also the shared hosting was very slow when a few players were on.