Steam and inconsistent download speeds

[numlockQ]

Steam is the only platform that has inconsistent download speeds I can use Epic, window store, Ubisoft Etc without any download speed fluctuations.

[Mad Scientist]

Those other sites don't use encryption/compression to make the download smaller, which means more CPU and disk I/O is required to perform the task.

Any inconsistency is likely a part unable to keep up, or you're hitting a portion where when it's downloading it's also trying to unpack a chunk. Lacking details makes it harder to see what's really happening, especially what CPU, storage device, and a screenshot of the download as example to show us what it looks like to you.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

does the fluctuation mean you get to play
the game slower or faster than other places...

what is the real difference...

[Supafly]

Steam downloads compressed chunks. Once a chunk is down it gets decompressed and installed. If your Disk and CPU can't handle the decompressing and installation whilst DL'ing the DL will slow and even stop whilst that gets done.

When it slows open task manager and look at the usage % of the drive and CPU. If near 100% that'll be the issue.

[brukaviador]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Steam downloads compressed chunks. Once a chunk is down it gets decompressed and installed. If your Disk and CPU can't handle the decompressing and installation whilst DL'ing the DL will slow and even stop whilst that gets done.

When it slows open task manager and look at the usage % of the drive and CPU. If near 100% that'll be the issue.

I had a similar question, so I took a look at my task manager as you suggested.

--I'm currently downloading Cyberpunk 2077 at between 5-8 Mbps.
--I'm on a 80 Mbps internet connection.
--My task manager is showing between 70 and 90 Mbps of Ethernet usage, so it's maxed right out.

What it sounds like is something else on my system is using all my bandwidth so that Steam can only access a few Mb, but no... When I pause the cyberpunk download, my network traffic drops to 0.

So I'm not sure how is it I'm using 80+ Mbps downloading a game that stores less than 10% of that data on my hard drive. If I was getting all that in game data, it would have been done an hour ago.

[my new friend]

Originally posted by brukaviador:

--I'm currently downloading Cyberpunk 2077 at between 5-8 Mbps.
--I'm on a 80 Mbps internet connection.
--My task manager is showing between 70 and 90 Mbps of Ethernet usage, so it's maxed right out.

Steam defaults to MB/s. 8 bits is 1 Byte
Sounds about right going by what your Task Manager states (in mb/s).
Steam, Settings, Downloads, check the box, Display download rates in bits per second

[brukaviador]

Originally posted by my new friend:

Originally posted by brukaviador:

--I'm currently downloading Cyberpunk 2077 at between 5-8 Mbps.
--I'm on a 80 Mbps internet connection.
--My task manager is showing between 70 and 90 Mbps of Ethernet usage, so it's maxed right out.

Steam defaults to MB/s. 8 bits is 1 Byte
Sounds about right going by what your Task Manager states (in mb/s).
Steam, Settings, Downloads, check the box, Display download rates in bits per second

Well, now I just feel stupid.
That was a rookie mistake.
Thank you.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by numlockQ:

Steam is the only platform that has inconsistent download speeds I can use Epic, window store, Ubisoft Etc without any download speed fluctuations.

I have the same download speed on ALL PC clients.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by brukaviador:

Originally posted by my new friend:

Steam defaults to MB/s. 8 bits is 1 Byte
Sounds about right going by what your Task Manager states (in mb/s).
Steam, Settings, Downloads, check the box, Display download rates in bits per second

Well, now I just feel stupid.
That was a rookie mistake.
Thank you.

Users not knowing or just mixing bits and bytes up is fairly common. Nice to be a simple way to identify the concern :)

[rubydragon20]

As I write this, I am downloading BattleTech. Here is my issue with it I have Elden Ring on steam, and I downloaded it in less than 15 minutes ok. I am nearly 30 minutes into downloading and am not done. My internet is through google fiber. I have a gig up and down. My pc tops 70% CPU when downloading anything. Steam's network is the issue.

[phosTR]

I'm downloading now and it's terrible. It's all over the place and it goes to zero all the time. What kind of trash hardware are you using Valve? You earn billions and can't make this ♥♥♥♥ work? Pathetic.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by phosTR:

I'm downloading now and it's terrible. It's all over the place and it goes to zero all the time. What kind of trash hardware are you using Valve? You earn billions and can't make this ♥♥♥♥ work? Pathetic.

Explained here

Originally posted by Supafly:

Steam downloads compressed chunks. Once a chunk is down it gets decompressed and installed. If your Disk and CPU can't handle the decompressing and installation whilst DL'ing the DL will slow and even stop whilst that gets done.

When it slows open task manager and look at the usage % of the drive and CPU. If near 100% that'll be the issue.

[Clu]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Steam downloads compressed chunks. Once a chunk is down it gets decompressed and installed. If your Disk and CPU can't handle the decompressing and installation whilst DL'ing the DL will slow and even stop whilst that gets done.

When it slows open task manager and look at the usage % of the drive and CPU. If near 100% that'll be the issue.

This, its not Steam.
It's the same with pre-loading, if one person preloads a game - depending on your hard drive speed it could actually be quicker to wait and download instead of waiting for your pc to unpack the files.

[my new friend]

Originally posted by Clu:

It's the same with pre-loading, if one person preloads a game - depending on your hard drive speed it could actually be quicker to wait and download instead of waiting for your pc to unpack the files.

Pre-loads ad a decryption layer on top of everything else. They are in a whole other class of things I don't do or use because it will always be slower than just waiting for release.

[juraganBakwan]

AFAIK, Steam uses LZMA compression algorithm and encrypted with an AES 256-bit key for each split files (roughly 1 megabyte per chunks). On decompression time & speed, LZMA is slowest algorithm against other (gzip,lz4,etc).
But inconsistent download speed also depends on many factor, eg: using external HD/SSD (through cheap USB external) vs Internal SATA / NVME.

[Katie]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.