Why are downloads on Steam so terrible.

[Yessirski]

I just did the Ookla speedtest and I have 370 mbps downlaod and 255 upload. Why then, do I barely peak at 42 Mb/s download and on average like 3Mb/s with lots of interruptions and random gaps in downloading. I've used other services to download games like Origin and on there I can download a 100 gb game in like 30 minutes, but on Steam recently it takes hours to download anything larger than 50. I feel like it used to be much faster but recently it's been awful.

[Harmonain]

Downloads through their platform have always been slow and throttled in comparison to others for as long as I can remember. Probably a mix of inadequate network infrastructure, excessive users, clunky platform, etc.

[saba1517]

Yeah, i have to wait like 5-6 hours to just download a 8 gb game, no joke. it is terrible indeed.

[DocShady]

Do you guys live in Siberia? I've always found steam to use the full potential of my bandwidth. There has been the rare occasion where there was a connection issue and I had to switch download servers. But yeah, steams rarely been slow for me

[Yessirski]

Nah I live in Southern US

[tramper]

You poor thing, i'm trying to download a game now at 1.4 mbps, be thankful mate you can afford a plan with those speeds.

[crunchyfrog]

Ah, I hate to point this out to you but if you're getting 42Mbps that means your speed is FINE.

What you're making the mistake with is that the reported speed of download on Steam is in MEGABYTES per second, not megabits that most people normally use. So you have to take the steam reported number and multiply it by 8 to get the conversion.

And 42*8 comes out at 336 which is pretty damned close to your reported speed.

Do also note that if it appears to take time to install games, you're barking up the wrong tree.

The biggest bottleneck isn't usually internet but your disk drive. Couple with this the fact that all games download differently. Some will appear to just stream constantly at one speed. Others, like Ark SE, will download a chunk, stop, decompress files and then write them, then download another chunk, and so on.

Lastly, if speeds are slow generally, then change your download region. Don't make the rookie mistake of thinking it's like online gaming where you choose another one near you. Do the OPPOSITE of that. Ping ain't relevant. So if your region is congested, chances are your neighbours are too. So think or Google what countries are currently fast asleep, and go for them. Also think about which countries are less populated or spread out too. I've had success with the Antarctic Station before years ago, but I don't know if that one's still available. I mention it to show you how far you can go.

So, your speed is fine, and it does depend on the game in question. If you're getting abonrmally slow across the board, then you might want to monitor your system usage under Task manager while downloading, it could be your hard drive can't keep up.

[Crimtide]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your download rates.. You do realize that MB/s (megaBYTE) and your connection speed Mbps (megaBIT), are two different rates? one is megaBYTE, the other is megaBIT.. 1 BYTE = 8 BITS.. so 42 megaBYTEs = 336 megaBITs, so you ARE getting your max theoretical download speed..

[Damien1this]

I change download servers and still runs slow 2MB/S. but then I switch on my vpn and speed jumps 30MB/S

SO WHO IS THROTTLING THE SPEEDS??

I have spectrum and they say dont throttle, but somebody is throttling....

[Cave Yeti Supreme]

I regularly pull over 100Mbps soooo...

[Mandellorianer]

Have a similar problem. The download on Steam is just bad. Clear cache brings nothing .... come from germany and now download over belgium because I have at least 7mb / s. When I download to Epic Store I go with my usual 15mb / s. On Steam I run at 150kb / s to 250kb / s. This has been going on for weeks now. And no I have no problems anywhere only when I download at the steam platform. Excess points:Germany / hamburg or germany / munich. Example: Ark Update on Steam takes 2 hours on Epic 15 minutes ....

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Damien1this:

I change download servers and still runs slow 2MB/S. but then I switch on my vpn and speed jumps 30MB/S

SO WHO IS THROTTLING THE SPEEDS??

I have spectrum and they say dont throttle, but somebody is throttling....

You could try to work it out through usinga simple IP route trace. But from what you've said, I'd immediately suspect your ISP.

Thankfully, I'm not American so I can't tell you one way or the other. But from what I've understood over the years, America's ISPs are complete crap.

[KalGimpa]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Damien1this:

I change download servers and still runs slow 2MB/S. but then I switch on my vpn and speed jumps 30MB/S

SO WHO IS THROTTLING THE SPEEDS??

I have spectrum and they say dont throttle, but somebody is throttling....

You could try to work it out through usinga simple IP route trace. But from what you've said, I'd immediately suspect your ISP.

Thankfully, I'm not American so I can't tell you one way or the other. But from what I've understood over the years, America's ISPs are complete crap.

shady af, but not complete crap :) for the most part, they work and you get decent speed. it is the fact that they have so much control that sucks. even in cali, they lobbied to make it illegal to create local intenet services like some cities have done. some of the most anti competetive moves i have seen

[Snapjak]

Spectrum really is one of the worst ISPs here in the US.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by kalcuey-freehk:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

You could try to work it out through usinga simple IP route trace. But from what you've said, I'd immediately suspect your ISP.

Thankfully, I'm not American so I can't tell you one way or the other. But from what I've understood over the years, America's ISPs are complete crap.

shady af, but not complete crap :) for the most part, they work and you get decent speed. it is the fact that they have so much control that sucks. even in cali, they lobbied to make it illegal to create local intenet services like some cities have done. some of the most anti competetive moves i have seen

That's precisely what I mean by complete crap. I mean, relatively from your end, it may well seem fair. But compared to here in Britain (where it is FAR from perfect), we have the luxury of over 250 or more ISPs to choose from. There's only one weird city in the UK that has an exception to this (Hull).

My ISP, for example, I pay a little bit more for because I HAVE to rely on it, as I'm disabled and housebound. If it goes down, I can't shop for food.

But even then, I get infinite download limit, no throttling at all, a customer service that not only answers within 3 rings of the phone (and no long queuing), but they will kick BTs arse to get an engineer out if one is needed. BT own the infrastructure for most people, so they're the ones to fix it and they can be dishonest arseholes because they are truly crap. That's the only real sticking point. Although, again, I can mitigate this as I'm disabled I get priority service on repairs and faults by law.

And considering I'm stuck in bed most of the time, and my sleep is minimal I'm hitting the net all the time essentially. And in 7 years I've had two short outages of less than an hour each.

So, try and compare that to yours. As I said, this is fair to middling and not stellar.

Anyway, I digress. I'm aware that Comcast do that dirty trick of throttling and when challenged will say they do no such thing .... until you try to cancel then they will admit it. I've seen a number of people experience that on these very forums. So bear that approach in mind, it MIGHT be relevant here.

[obi.wan.can.blow.me]

I have spectrum as well i am from Nothern us and i consistently have high speeds with virtually everything i use wifi on....... except steam. steam has to be throttling the bandwith. It is complete garbage. Honestly it is getting really frustrating. Im waiting on Ark to update 6gb's and it has been stuck at 1.2gb for an hour now. Hasn't downloading crap since. i am beginning to get annoyed. They really need to fix this crap in us.