Why is Steam capping my download to 11 MB/s?

[ScottyDa_Raccoon]

Usually, my download speed on steam averaged around 105-110 MB/s. But now, no matter what I do, nothing will get it above 11.8 MB/s. I've tried to change server regions, and to see if there was a download cap in my settings (There wasn't)

[Komarimaru]

Sounds like an ISP limit to me or node issue between you and download servers. Steam I don't think has limited anything since Covid.

[Jerimis]

if its a recent released game, it can happen that download speeds get super slow. same with weekends, vacation days, and so on.

go on a speedtest website and test how fast your download connection is.

be sure that the website and steam are on the same settings regarding megabit and megabyte.

My Current connection is 470Mbps, or ~59MB/s

some games download only little chunks before installing or your harddrive needs to work.

besides of that you can manually, set in the settings, a download speed limit. other than that, someone might cap you at your router? :D

[Lithurge]

The short answer is that Steam isn't. It always maxes out my connection at 40MB/s and there are people regularly maxing out far faster connections than that.

Check the Steam stats for your country to see the average speed per ISP over the last 7 days.

https://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/

[NakiBest]

Yes, per above comments this is not Steam's fault here. ISP issue most likely!

Do other clients/Stores download fast, or also slow?
Such as -- Epic Games, Microsoft Store, EA new desktop app, Battle.net, GOG, Ubisoft's one/etc?

If they are fast, then ISP issue most likely. (small possibility of something else)
If they are all slow, again ISP issue. :)

Where are you located, please - USA, Europe or somewhere else?

[Pepe]

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/4845400125743471885/

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/4691154661545103226/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/4691153988127564254/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/4691153988127012325/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/4691153988126944305/

[crunchyfrog]

Could be your ISP, but have you done anything to your setup at all?

Many people seem to not realise that Steam works diffierentlty. It isn't just dependent on your net connection as downloads are compressed and encrypted. This means your RAM, CPU, hard drive, I/O and more are ALL applicable.

What you should do in addition to checking things your ISPs end, is to monitor what happens on your PC. Open the Steam Downloads page and check the graph to see how the disk drive and downlads are going. Also open Task Manager and monitor your system resources like your Ram, CPU et al and see if anything's being hit hard. If it is, that's your problem.

Lastly, one thing that tanks your performance is space.

Valve recommend you don't go over about 90% of your hard drive's space and allow up to THREE times the total file size for download. So if you go over this you will see it tank speed as it's trying desperately to eke space out for your data.

[isomorphic_projection]

I spend almost 24 hours downloading red dead redemption 2.