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.

[DJCaseyD]

tramper eredeti hozzászólása:

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.

No joke. Or be thankful you live in an area where you can get those kinds of speeds. The highest I can get with my satellite provider out where I live is only 25mb, and I'm lucky if I get that.

[crunchyfrog]

obi.wan.can.blow.me eredeti hozzászólása:

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.

It's not throttling, because if it were ALL OF US would be getting it and we aren't.

Are you sure you understand how downloads work here as games like Ark and PAyday 2 are notorious for their slow downloads, as they donwload in chunks - which need uncompressing and decrypting before proplery writing. Then they load the next chunk.

So in those cases, it's often your hard drive speed that limits it.

[Doubting Thomas]

So i download every game under 1 mb and need to wait days for big downloads WHILE i download on ubisoft and epicstore with 120 mb per SECOND! steam is a joke ngl, i try buying every game on other platforms but steam has sadly the most games

[Crashed]

If you are downloading to a HDD, make sure it isn't the unpacking process bottlenecking your downloads. Yesterday my Steam downloads completely hammered my Internet connection.

[Crashed]

obi.wan.can.blow.me eredeti hozzászólása:

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.

I have Spectrum, northeast USA, and when Steam starts downloading, it takes up every last bit of bandwidth making normal web browsing slow and unresponsive.

[crunchyfrog]

Setter Tobio Kageyama eredeti hozzászólása:

So i download every game under 1 mb and need to wait days for big downloads WHILE i download on ubisoft and epicstore with 120 mb per SECOND! steam is a joke ngl, i try buying every game on other platforms but steam has sadly the most games

Well, it shouldn't be, so there's too many variables that you can dimiss and then blame it on Valve. It doesn't work like that.

For a start understand how Steam downloads work. Unlike other places, the games are encrypted AND compressed. So this can really slow things down if your hard drive isn't up to speed. You THINK it's your download speed but it isn't. You can get a good indication of this by looking at task manager while this is going on. If your disk is maximing out, there's your issue.

Furthermore, Steam is IMMENSELY popular. Far more than any other service, so at peak periods (and during coronavirus especially in major metropolitan areas) things get REALLY congested.

Many people make the silly mistake of changing download regions, and thinking it's like online gaming, where you have to choose the CLOSEST to you. This is incorrect and quite the wrong thing to do.

For online gaming, you need quick ping. This is not relevant on downloads. So if your region is suffering congestion and your speeds are low, you will wrongly pick a neighbouring one and see the same. Of course your neighbours are going to be similar congested.

The trick is to go to Google and look up timezones. Pick ANY region in the world where it's around 2 am to 4 am and go with that.

I've even used the antarctica one in the past.

[ProtShaker]

tramper eredeti hozzászólása:

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.

You poor thing, but don't worry there are such things as an education and then even jobs that'll alow you to afford INTERWEB. Future is bright my dipwit friend

[[N]ebsun]

Damien1this eredeti hozzászólása:

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....

First thing I would look at is other things that may change when using a VPN:

DNS - different caching may be used

ROUTE - The full route being used - vpn may provide a better route that has higher speed (not all routes are equal, and when crossing networks there is usually some quota involved) do a trace.

QoS - the vpn might be masking otherwise low-priority traffic (all ISPs use some form of QoS)

[[N]ebsun]

crunchyfrog eredeti hozzászólása:

Many people make the silly mistake of changing download regions, and thinking it's like online gaming, where you have to choose the CLOSEST to you. This is incorrect and quite the wrong thing to do.

You don't have to pick the one closest, but it certainly isn't the wrong thing to do..
I have 1 gigabit on fibre to the entire country i'm in - leaving the country/region:
the fastest connection out the country has 1/2 speed, and the 2nd drops to 1/10 speed (100mbps).

The Steam download server I use inside my region always goes faster than any other - usually close to 1gpbs even during peak times.

[crunchyfrog]

Nebsun eredeti hozzászólása:

crunchyfrog eredeti hozzászólása:

Many people make the silly mistake of changing download regions, and thinking it's like online gaming, where you have to choose the CLOSEST to you. This is incorrect and quite the wrong thing to do.

You don't have to pick the one closest, but it certainly isn't the wrong thing to do..
I have 1 gigabit on fibre to the entire country i'm in - leaving the country/region:
the fastest connection out the country has 1/2 speed, and the 2nd drops to 1/10 speed (100mbps).

The Steam download server I use inside my region always goes faster than any other - usually close to 1gpbs even during peak times.

I never said it was.

What I said was that IF your normal local one was congested, it is highly likely your neighbours are to so in THAT case, it can be the worst thing to do.

[Mickey_trifecta]

ITS HORRIBLE!! ill get 800 mbps then back to zero then literally 15mbps until i pause and resume it over and over...

[GraveNoX]

Try to download to a SSD and stop installing games on shingled magnetic recording hard drives and then tell us you still get average 3 mb/s.

[Haruspex]

Sure you're not misreading? There's a difference between Mbps (Mega BITS per second) and MBps (Mega BYTES per second). Steam, by default, displays downloads in the latter.

If you're getting 370 Mbps, that's equivalent to 46 MBps, which sounds awfully close to the number you provided.

If you want, you can go into the settings and change the default speed to read as Mbps instead, if the bigger number makes you feel better.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

GraveNoX eredeti hozzászólása:

Try to download to a SSD and stop installing games on shingled magnetic recording hard drives and then tell us you still get average 3 mb/s.

Are you sure?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2928334056

[Elucidator]

Mickey_trifecta eredeti hozzászólása:

ITS HORRIBLE!! ill get 800 mbps then back to zero then literally 15mbps until i pause and resume it over and over...

This thread is very old. I am not sure why you necroposted when there are other more recent threads discussing the same issue and also since you could open up your own thread.
I don't think the conditions are the same.
Also why the speed is horrible in your case isn't explained in your post + could have many different reasons.