Images loading speed dependent on server?

Question

Let's say I'm loading several large images(>500kb) into my elements using php and js, i found that my loading speed takes quite awhile(ard 5 secs).

Last night i was browsing http://ringvemedia.com/beijing-photos

and the loading speed for the full background images is lightning fast. I check out the natural width for the background image is 1024px and the quality is pretty decent, so i think the image's size shouldn't be too small.

So how do i achieve similiar image-loading speed? I'm using a hostgator server btw.

Answer 1

Your image load speed is based on bandwdith, assuming the machine isn't terribly overloaded, which is a possibility in a shared environment (but this should be spotty, sometimes fast, sometimes slow).

If you have say a 2mb pipe upload from your server as part of your hosting plan, well 500kb * 8 bits per byte = 4mb, which means each image takes 2 seconds to transfer. With large images...transfer can take quite a while, and that's if only one user is getting files at a time. Do you know what your bandwidth is, and where your server's located?

Based on your description, I would bet your outgoing bandwidth isn't that high, and that's why transferring any decent amount of data will be slower than you'd like.

As a side note: For reference: that site's images are 100-240kb, most on the lower end of that.