Is USB 3.0 needed if you are using an ethernet adapter or is the ethernet cable gonna be the bottleneck?

[ThatAngryGnome]

I'm shopping for a USB to ethernet adapter, and a USB 2.0 costs 10 bucks while 3.0 costs 20 bucks. Is the performance benefit worth it, or is it already bottlenecked?

[d3sl91]

unless you are doing major file transfers, the USB 2.0 will be fine. 

[ShadowCaptain]

I'm shopping for a USB to ethernet adapter, and a USB 2.0 costs 10 bucks while 3.0 costs 20 bucks. Is the performance benefit worth it, or is it already bottlenecked?

 

USB 3 will give you full gigabit, usb 2 tops out at 480mbps

 

THAT SAID, for internet use, there is no way you will need more than 480mbps as far as internet purposes go... but it might be useful for accessing things on the network

[gilm0re3]

If you have internet faster than 12 Mbps, yes, 3.0 will make a difference. If you're getting less than 12 Mbps, 2.0 should be just fine. I would personally go with 3.0 either way.

 

-Edit: Can someone check this for me? There seems to be some conflicting information on the actual throughput of 2.0 and 3.0.

[Theo]

If you have internet faster than 12 Mbps, yes, 3.0 will make a difference. If you're getting less than 12 Mbps, 2.0 should be just fine. I would personally go with 3.0 either way.

what are you even talking about?

[gilm0re3]

what are you even talking about?

Sorry. I did a very quick search and seemed to have come up with misleading information. My apologies.

[ygohome]

no worry, it is common to get the standards mixed up.  USB 1 is 12Mbit per second (1.5MByte per sec)

 

USB 2 is 450Mbits per second (60MBytes per sec)

 

so, if you require faster than a 450Mbits per second ethernet network connection for any reason then use USB 3 adapter.   For example, if you wanted to frequently transmit or receive files to/from a local NAS  on your network and if you want to take advantage of your gigabit router/switch then you might want to invest in USB 3 adapter.

[skywake]

USB 3 is also full duplex. So USB 2 you have, for arguments sake, 500Mbps total which is shared for both UL and DL. With USB 3 you not only have 5Gbps but it's 5Gbps DL and UL at the same time. So theoretically USB 2 limits Gigabit Ethernet to perform at about 1/4 of its potential. But given most of the time traffic is one way and given that even on a LAN you're usually limited by single mechanical HDD read/write speeds when doing big transfers? You'll probably never notice.

 

But yes, Gigabit is faster than USB 2.0, just not by that much. Basically USB 2.0 is closer to Gigabit than it is Fast Ethernet.