Download speeds slower than my internet

[Gambit74]

So I just upgraded my internet plan to a gigabit speed and am using a Netgear C7800 modem/router combo. Xfinity's speed test shows I'm getting about 900mbps, but when I try to download a Steam game I'm getting roughly 30 MBs a second when it should technically be closer to 100 MBs (games are downloaded onto an SSD so I don't think drive device is an issue). The server is set to Sacramento which is the one closest to me. I also tried setting it to San Jose, but it isn't any better.

[Cheezus Crisp]

CPU specs are also a determining factor of how fast you can download on Steam since downloads are compressed and your CPU needs to be capable of decompressing the files.

[Gambit74]

I don't think my specs are an issue either considering how powerful it is.

i9 9900K | 16GB Ram | EVGA RTX 2080 ti

[Cheezus Crisp]

Originally posted by Gambit74:

I don't think my specs are an issue either considering how powerful it is.

i9 9900K | 16GB Ram | EVGA RTX 2080 ti

What's the size of the game you're trying to download. With my own personal experience I've maxed out at 800mbps only for games around 50GB+. Tried downloading a beta update of around 8GB and it never went past 350

[Supafly]

Open task manager and check Drive usage. Steam downloads compressed chunks and start unpacking and installing as it downloads. If your drive is reaching 100% usage while Steam downloads, unpacks and installs parts of your game you network speed is being throttle due to the drive. if that's the case a faster drive, SS or Nvme, would improve things.

[Cheezus Crisp]

Originally posted by Suicidal Monkey:

Open task manager and check Drive usage. Steam downloads compressed chunks and start unpacking and installing as it downloads. If your drive is reaching 100% usage while Steam downloads, unpacks and installs parts of your game you network speed is being throttle due to the drive. if that's the case a faster drive, SS or Nvme, would improve things.

OP literally wrote that he's downloading to an SSD

[Gambit74]

Originally posted by Cheezus Crisp:

Originally posted by Gambit74:

I don't think my specs are an issue either considering how powerful it is.

i9 9900K | 16GB Ram | EVGA RTX 2080 ti

What's the size of the game you're trying to download. With my own personal experience I've maxed out at 800mbps only for games around 50GB+. Tried downloading a beta update of around 8GB and it never went past 350

I was downloading ARK to try and measure my ETA speed since it's one of the larger games I own.

@Suicidal Monkey

I will give that a try later when I return.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by Gambit74:

So I just upgraded my internet plan to a gigabit speed and am using a Netgear C7800 modem/router combo. Xfinity's speed test shows I'm getting about 900mbps, but when I try to download a Steam game I'm getting roughly 30 MBs a second when it should technically be closer to 100 MBs (games are downloaded onto an SSD so I don't think drive device is an issue). The server is set to Sacramento which is the one closest to me. I also tried setting it to San Jose, but it isn't any better.

contact steam support, im not sure what this is about, they are saying on some post on wrong server ( again not a choise you did i think), maybe this is same or with your ISP or steams isp or steam ( rerouting ) because as you point out work with other clients ( but not with steam )

and as long you test this and for bad packets, the problem is out of your reach. ( if im right, still best gussing. )

ps.
maybe even get own isp help also, because sit and wait for steam and if they say work as intended then only the ISP you have can take debat up with steam/ help you in what happend here. ( do tell this to the isp you have, this haapend to few and i dont know why, its very hard to ID and help other with so many possibilities, ( network trouble shooting actual require a working pc and layer 1-7) it can be complicated as hell. gl with it.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by Cheezus Crisp:

OP literally wrote that he's downloading to an SSD

Opps./ My bad. Missed that when I skimmed the last part of OT

[Supafly]

Originally posted by Gambit74:

@Suicidal Monkey

I will give that a try later when I return.

I did miss the part in OT where you mention you use an SSD. Still could be an issue if the SSD is failing but I'd suspect you'd would have noticed other issues by now.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Gambit74:

So I just upgraded my internet plan to a gigabit speed and am using a Netgear C7800 modem/router combo. Xfinity's speed test shows I'm getting about 900mbps, but when I try to download a Steam game I'm getting roughly 30 MBs a second when it should technically be closer to 100 MBs (games are downloaded onto an SSD so I don't think drive device is an issue). The server is set to Sacramento which is the one closest to me. I also tried setting it to San Jose, but it isn't any better.

I'd start by using www.speedtest.net, not your ISP's own speed test as those are often not accurate and skewed to give higher results.

Secondly downloading speed isn't the same as bandwidth. It's like water flowing thru a 1 inch pipe and a 1 foot pipe. The water might flow at the same speed but one carries far more water (data) then the other.

[Gambit74]

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by Gambit74:

So I just upgraded my internet plan to a gigabit speed and am using a Netgear C7800 modem/router combo. Xfinity's speed test shows I'm getting about 900mbps, but when I try to download a Steam game I'm getting roughly 30 MBs a second when it should technically be closer to 100 MBs (games are downloaded onto an SSD so I don't think drive device is an issue). The server is set to Sacramento which is the one closest to me. I also tried setting it to San Jose, but it isn't any better.

I'd start by using www.speedtest.net, not your ISP's own speed test as those are often not accurate and skewed to give higher results.

Secondly downloading speed isn't the same as bandwidth. It's like water flowing thru a 1 inch pipe and a 1 foot pipe. The water might flow at the same speed but one carries far more water (data) then the other.

Speedtest also reports a little over 900mbps.

@Suicidal Monkey

My SSD is about a year old and so far hasn't had any problems I'm aware of. But yeah, task manager didn't show anything outside the usual numbers.

[Gambit74]

So I spoke with two different reps from my ISP and they aren't seeing anything wrong on their end, supposedly. This is nuts because I've tried several different download servers at different times of the day now (I even stayed up till 4am yesterday just to test) and they're all still magically peaking at 250-260 Mbps. :(

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Gambit74:

I was downloading ARK to try and measure my ETA speed since it's one of the larger games I own.

ARK is one of those games we see this posted about here very often, and you can see this by using the forum search.

It's just one of those games that installs slowly, apparently due to file structure and how it unpacks and installs, especially due to its large size as a game.

Payday 2 is another one people often post about slow downloads here. You can try changing to many different regions, and some very far away, but it might not help.

[Gambit74]

The thing is, it isn't just ARK. I've tried a few other games and they're also downloading at roughly the same pace, and even preloading DBZ Kakarot is at the 266 Mbps mark. I did try downloading stuff from other sources like Google Drive just in case, and it shows I'm downloading at 80 MBs per sec through Firefox.

[The Giving One]

Have you tried some regions very, very far away ? Like as far away as possible ?

Boot the PC into safe mode with networking. Run Steam and try to download something. Don't do anything else but run Steam in safe mode with networking.

Set your region back to the one you normally use and start changing them again, while still in safe mode with networking.

If you see better results, this it's probably a software conflict in a normal boot :

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

EDIT...

Don't use a wireless connection or hardware. Use ethernet directly to the PC from the modem.