Why a CDN is Critical for High-Population Servers
As your FiveM server grows, you might start noticing complaints about slow download speeds, "curl error" messages, or players getting timed out while joining. These aren't just minor annoyances—they are signs that your server's direct file serving capabilities are reaching their limit.
For high-population servers, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) isn't just a luxury; it's a necessity. Here's why moving your assets to a global CDN like FiveCache can transform your player experience.
The Bandwidth Bottleneck
When you host assets directly on your game server (VPS or Dedicated), every player downloading cars, maps, and clothes is eating into the same bandwidth that the server uses to sync player positions and game state.
The result? High ping, lag spikes for existing players, and slow downloads for joining players. A CDN offloads 100% of this traffic, leaving your server's bandwidth free for what matters: the gameplay.
Geographic Latency
If your server is hosted in Germany, a player joining from the US or Asia will experience slow download speeds due to distance. A CDN stores copies of your files in data centers all around the world.
With FiveCache, a player in New York downloads files from a New York server, while a player in London downloads from London. This can reduce download times by up to 80%.
Without CDN
- Server bandwidth saturated
- High ping during mass joins
- Single point of failure
- Slow global speeds
With FiveCache CDN
- Zero load on game server
- Consistent low ping
- Global redundancy
- Maximum download speeds
Reliability and DDoS Protection
Serving files exposes your server IP to potential attacks. By using a CDN, the file requests are handled by our protected infrastructure. Even if your game server is under attack, players can still download the cache, and once the attack is mitigated, they are ready to join immediately.