Why Steam uses up to 100% of CPU when downloading games?

[I Am Groot]

My CPU fan spins up as if it never rotates before in its life.

[76561199250522892]

Steam uses heavy compression, so your CPU is decompressing the game files as it's downloading and installing them.Also, The files are encrypted, so Steam has to decrypt and verify them on-the-fly as they're being downloaded.

[I Am Groot]

Originally posted by saketsingh:

Steam uses heavy compression, so your CPU is decompressing the game files as it's downloading and installing them.Also, The files are encrypted, so Steam has to decrypt and verify them on-the-fly as they're being downloaded.

nah, it didnt happen until a few day back. Just only notice today when I download other game, my mouse cursor lags and Steam is the culprit. Tried with other games and it is the same

[SqueakyTweaky]

Been happening since like forever

[Tharon]

Usually Steam uses CPU to decompress the downloaded data, and the amount of CPU used largely depends on the speed of the disk. A faster SSD unit can store data faster, so more data need to be decompressed and more CPU is used.

But 100% CPU is really a lot, are you in the beta or in the stable version of Steam ?

[Supafly]

Originally posted by Cross Scanty:

Originally posted by saketsingh:

Steam uses heavy compression, so your CPU is decompressing the game files as it's downloading and installing them.Also, The files are encrypted, so Steam has to decrypt and verify them on-the-fly as they're being downloaded.

nah, it didnt happen until a few day back. Just only notice today when I download other game, my mouse cursor lags and Steam is the culprit. Tried with other games and it is the same

When did you last clean you system?
Anything new and CPU intense running in the background?
Using a faster drive now? Faster drive means Steam can decompress faster and also be downloading more at the same time. If you had a slow drive previously the drive could have been hitting 100% and that would mean the CPU couldn't do any more because the drive was preventing it

[I Am Groot]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Originally posted by Cross Scanty:

nah, it didnt happen until a few day back. Just only notice today when I download other game, my mouse cursor lags and Steam is the culprit. Tried with other games and it is the same

When did you last clean you system?
Anything new and CPU intense running in the background?
Using a faster drive now? Faster drive means Steam can decompress faster and also be downloading more at the same time. If you had a slow drive previously the drive could have been hitting 100% and that would mean the CPU couldn't do any more because the drive was preventing it

Using gen 4 x 4 gaming drive, benchmark gives 7GB/s for both read/write operations, system drive and game drive are two separated drives of gen 4 x 4 for gaming.
It's strange that this didnt happen just until a few day ago when I decided to install SMT3 and Subnautica. Today, I decided to resume Dying Light 2 and this happens. Previously Steam used up to 30% during installation. Through resource monitor, only Steam is the CPU heavy program. I guess I shouldnt play while downloading for a while
As IT tech and software developer, I always keep cleaning and keep system up to date, including trimming SSD space.

[I Am Groot]

Updated: after running Steam repair command, it comes back to normal.