Steam downloading at not even half of what it should be able to

[guiltyspark357]

I did a speed test with around 100Mbps download and about 30mbps upload, but for some reason steam is only downloading at a rate of 3mbps and I don't know why

I've tried restarting steam

restarting my pc

clearing download cache

making sure I don't have the throttle setting on somehow

i have no idea why its doing this any help is appreciated

[fluxtorrent]

there are a few reasons it might, try switching download regions, could also be your isp throttling the ports steam uses, its not uncommon.

Keep in mind by default steam is showing you MB/s not mbps so you are getting about 1/4 of your "up to" speed, so it could also be time of day or service degradation.

[McMonogamija]

I have the same problem ,my internet connection is 60+ Mbps but steam is downloading at around 1-2 mb/s.It used to download at around 8-9 Mb/s.
I tried a lot of things but none of those helped.

[Satoru]

Steam can push 20Tbps on a normal day with ease

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

During the Baldur's Gate 3 launch steam was pushing 150Tbps globally. They were pushing more data in Europe than they do on a normal day

Steam Can Destroy Your Internet 

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: Satoru

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections

97MB/sec 1:27pm 12/18/2023 

Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork

By: Satoru

Your steam downloads are limited by

1) your CPU
2) your disk IO
3) your anti-virus
4) your ISP

Choose one

Steam Download Issues and How To Fix Them 

A Guide for Steam

By: Bodomi

This unofficial guide will go over different troubleshooting steps to fix download and connection issues with Steam. 简体中文 (translated by Vixinity) | 日本語 (translated by maruhoi1) You can also view this guide via Google...

[no154370]

1 megabit per sec (mbps) = 0.125 megabytes per sec (MB/s)

from here

https://www.gbmb.org/mbps-to-mbs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Steam defaults to Megabytes/s and internet plans are sold as megabits/s, that is likely where you issue is. 50 MB/s is roughly 420mb/s.

from here

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1529391-steam-download-speeds-dont-match-internet-speeds/

[no154370]

if you using wifi, then the internet speed for download is not fully maximized at all.

switch to ethernet cable and see whether the download speed is higher.

p.s if after switching to ethernet cable and the download speed is the same, then it is due to your ISP using Bandwidth Throttle.

[Hardsongoku]

The problem is on steam's side. With other launchers i download with normal speed, only steam's download is slow. I hope they are aware of the problem.

[no154370]

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

The problem is on steam's side. With other launchers i download with normal speed, only steam's download is slow. I hope they are aware of the problem.

how do you know your ISP don't use "Bandwidth Throttle"??????

the other launchers their download speed uses the same format as your internet connection speed format.

-------------------------------------------------------

and you ignore what i wrote

1) Steam defaults to Megabytes/s and internet plans are sold as megabits/s, that is likely where you issue is

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1529391-steam-download-speeds-dont-match-internet-speeds/

[Hardsongoku]

Originally posted by no154370:

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

The problem is on steam's side. With other launchers i download with normal speed, only steam's download is slow. I hope they are aware of the problem.

how do you know your ISP don't use "Bandwidth Throttle"??????

the other launchers their download speed uses the same format as your internet connection speed format.

-------------------------------------------------------

and you ignore what i wrote

1) Steam defaults to Megabytes/s and internet plans are sold as megabits/s, that is likely where you issue is

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1529391-steam-download-speeds-dont-match-internet-speeds/

There is no correlation between the download format and the download speed.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

The problem is on steam's side. With other launchers i download with normal speed, only steam's download is slow. I hope they are aware of the problem.

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections easily

Steam downloads are almost always limited by your client. Not because of steam's servers. Steam's servers have enough capacity to destroy you connection.

Steam downloads are highly compressed and are cpu and disk IO intensive. This is especially true if you're patching an existing game. Steam can't push a patch faster if your disk or CPU can't keep up with teh patching process

[Hardsongoku]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

The problem is on steam's side. With other launchers i download with normal speed, only steam's download is slow. I hope they are aware of the problem.

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections easily

Steam downloads are almost always limited by your client. Not because of steam's servers. Steam's servers have enough capacity to destroy you connection.

I understand that, but everything with my connection works fine. On ubisoft connect i download with 80-90 MB/s. websites load with normal speed. Torrent works fine. I eptied the cache, restarted the computer, i don't see why i should restart the ISP's modem cause everything works as usual except steam download. Plus, steam's other fuctions load fast.

[Hardsongoku]

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

Originally posted by Satoru:

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections easily

Steam downloads are almost always limited by your client. Not because of steam's servers. Steam's servers have enough capacity to destroy you connection.

I understand that, but everything with my connection works fine. On ubisoft connect i download with 80-90 MB/s. websites load with normal speed. Torrent works fine. I eptied the cache, restarted the computer, i don't see why i should restart the ISP's modem cause everything works as usual except steam download. Plus, steam's other fuctions load fast.

My bad. Modem's restart solved the problem

[Pierce Dalton]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

The problem is on steam's side. With other launchers i download with normal speed, only steam's download is slow. I hope they are aware of the problem.

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections easily

Steam downloads are almost always limited by your client. Not because of steam's servers. Steam's servers have enough capacity to destroy you connection.

Steam downloads are highly compressed and are cpu and disk IO intensive. This is especially true if you're patching an existing game. Steam can't push a patch faster if your disk or CPU can't keep up with teh patching process

Hey Satoru, good to see you. I suggest you try this experiment:

Buy the same game on Steam and another launcher, then compare the duration of the install process.

[PhoenixAscended]

I Found that if I go to task manager and completely close all my programs like google discord ubisoft razer etc I get up to 300 mb

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

Originally posted by Hardsongoku:

I understand that, but everything with my connection works fine. On ubisoft connect i download with 80-90 MB/s. websites load with normal speed. Torrent works fine. I eptied the cache, restarted the computer, i don't see why i should restart the ISP's modem cause everything works as usual except steam download. Plus, steam's other fuctions load fast.

My bad. Modem's restart solved the problem

Glad that fixed your issue.

[McMonogamija]

It also worked for me when i restarted my modem.