Steam downloads slower compared to other platforms?

[retro]

Steam itself for me has shown to be slower than other platforms such as Epic Games, Origin, Battle.net, etc. Why is this? I get around 60Mb/s on those platforms but on Steam i get low to no download speeds. It will stutter and go from at the most 30mb/s to 0 in an instant making it take way more time to download games than it should. I know that for me this is a "problem" but I have looked at many tutorials to fix this, researched the problem itself, even looked at the guide on this forum that shows many fixes to my issue. Nothing has worked. I have done everything from reinstalling Steam to booting my pc in safe mode with only steam running and it still does the same. I have tested my hard drive and it is completely fine and working normally. I have an ethernet connection. Nothing seems to be slowing the download down besides Steam itself. Is this just something wrong with Steam? Is there something I missed while looking for a fix? Its been a few weeks now trying to figure out the problem. Please help.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/750503807900713053/763814026601562192/59aa80d9d99a79a004790ae4183e1725.png?width=1442&height=188

[Taemon]

Same here, and it's only recently for me. Plus now, when downloading it increases the load on my PC by ALOT.

[retro]

Originally posted by Taemon:

Same here, and it's only recently for me. Plus now, when downloading it increases the load on my PC by ALOT.

Yea my disk usage is always at 100% when downloading. Its come down to the problem is either just Steam itself or an SSD. I ordered one and an SSD comes tomorrow.

[Deathman1331]

I've had a similar issue for years and have over the course if that time replaced every piece of hardware and reinstalled every piece of software for assorted reasons. I honestly don't know how to fix it, but if someone finds out I'd love to know. At this point I'd assume there is an issue with my account because I can't figure out why every solution has failed to make a noticeable impact or why its persisted across entirely different internet connections and computers.

[retro]

Originally posted by Deathman1331:

I've had a similar issue for years and have over the course if that time replaced every piece of hardware and reinstalled every piece of software for assorted reasons. I honestly don't know how to fix it, but if someone finds out I'd love to know. At this point I'd assume there is an issue with my account because I can't figure out why every solution has failed to make a noticeable impact or why its persisted across entirely different internet connections and computers.

Right? I have done the same, and still this persists. It seems that for some people its an easy fix and for others it seems almost permanent.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by fally:

Is there something I missed while looking for a fix?

Different download server?

Originally posted by fally:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/750503807900713053/763814026601562192/59aa80d9d99a79a004790ae4183e1725.png?width=1442&height=188

See the disk activity rising and lowering? That means the update is being applied. Ark is notorious about it's update deployments arriving in small chunks. Not every update is a direct download of files. Some are tiny chunks that have to be applied one at a time, some are encrypted, some are patches, etc.

Also... Steam is servicing a much larger user base than any of the other platforms. Speeds aren't always going to max out. Some download servers will be more tasked on certain days or certain times.

There's a lot that goes into determining your download speed than "I have a fast connection".

Here's what I'm pulling down for a PUBG update right now:
https://i.imgur.com/fIDEblo.png

Obviously it's not "steam issue". Start with setting your download server to something different. Closest isn't always fastest.

[retro]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by fally:

Is there something I missed while looking for a fix?

Different download server?

Originally posted by fally:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/750503807900713053/763814026601562192/59aa80d9d99a79a004790ae4183e1725.png?width=1442&height=188

See the disk activity rising and lowering? That means the update is being applied. Ark is notorious about it's update deployments arriving in small chunks. Not every update is a direct download of files. Some are tiny chunks that have to be applied one at a time, some are encrypted, some are patches, etc.

Also... Steam is servicing a much larger user base than any of the other platforms. Speeds aren't always going to max out. Some download servers will be more tasked on certain days or certain times.

There's a lot that goes into determining your download speed than "I have a fast connection".

Here's what I'm pulling down for a PUBG update right now:
https://i.imgur.com/fIDEblo.png

Obviously it's not "steam issue". Start with setting your download server to something different. Closest isn't always fastest.

Yes, I've tried this and in multiple areas. I was also downloading a different game earlier and it had the same results. What your saying is that in games such as Ark this is normal? Also would you say that an SSD would fix this problem or atleast make it faster? (this is more open ended to anyone that knows.)

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by fally:

Originally posted by Deathman1331:

I've had a similar issue for years and have over the course if that time replaced every piece of hardware and reinstalled every piece of software for assorted reasons. I honestly don't know how to fix it, but if someone finds out I'd love to know. At this point I'd assume there is an issue with my account because I can't figure out why every solution has failed to make a noticeable impact or why its persisted across entirely different internet connections and computers.

Right? I have done the same, and still this persists. It seems that for some people its an easy fix and for others it seems almost permanent.

There is actually a fix, assuming it's the issue you're talking about.

I mean the issue where Windows disk usage can max out at 100%, slowing everything down to the point of unusability. Steam can trigger it, or it can also happen on it's own or through other services depending. It seems to affect a lot of people, and I'm not sure why it is.

If we are indeed talking about the same thing, it's something I experienced as soon as I bought my laptop back in February. It just wouldn't work but crawl along at a snail's pace and no matter what I did, that disk usage stayed at 100%.

Googling wasn't a great deal of help as many of the fixes simply didn't do anything.

Until I found this (Fix #1 in this list).
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/100-disk-usage-windows-10.html

After two reboots, it cleared up completely, and has never returned, which I call a big success.

So if this is the case for others, have at it. If it's not then apologies.

[retro]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by fally:

Right? I have done the same, and still this persists. It seems that for some people its an easy fix and for others it seems almost permanent.

There is actually a fix, assuming it's the issue you're talking about.

I mean the issue where Windows disk usage can max out at 100%, slowing everything down to the point of unusability. Steam can trigger it, or it can also happen on it's own or through other services depending. It seems to affect a lot of people, and I'm not sure why it is.

If we are indeed talking about the same thing, it's something I experienced as soon as I bought my laptop back in February. It just wouldn't work but crawl along at a snail's pace and no matter what I did, that disk usage stayed at 100%.

Googling wasn't a great deal of help as many of the fixes simply didn't do anything.

Until I found this (Fix #1 in this list).
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/100-disk-usage-windows-10.html

After two reboots, it cleared up completely, and has never returned, which I call a big success.

So if this is the case for others, have at it. If it's not then apologies.

I just tried this, did not work. You said you rebooted your PC twice? Ill restart again and update ya.

my update: nope, not fixed.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by fally:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

There is actually a fix, assuming it's the issue you're talking about.

I mean the issue where Windows disk usage can max out at 100%, slowing everything down to the point of unusability. Steam can trigger it, or it can also happen on it's own or through other services depending. It seems to affect a lot of people, and I'm not sure why it is.

If we are indeed talking about the same thing, it's something I experienced as soon as I bought my laptop back in February. It just wouldn't work but crawl along at a snail's pace and no matter what I did, that disk usage stayed at 100%.

Googling wasn't a great deal of help as many of the fixes simply didn't do anything.

Until I found this (Fix #1 in this list).
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/100-disk-usage-windows-10.html

After two reboots, it cleared up completely, and has never returned, which I call a big success.

So if this is the case for others, have at it. If it's not then apologies.

I just tried this, did not work. You said you rebooted your PC twice? Ill restart again and update ya.

my update: nope, not fixed.

Bugger. Might not be quite the same issue then.

I recommend you try looking through the rest of the options on that article though. chances are one of the others might help.

[Taemon]

Adding to what I agreed with earlier... I've noticed EVERYTHING in Steam now loads slower. Library pages, Store pages, etc. This didn't happen until the late Aug or early Oct patch for me.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Taemon:

Adding to what I agreed with earlier... I've noticed EVERYTHING in Steam now loads slower. Library pages, Store pages, etc. This didn't happen until the late Aug or early Oct patch for me.

Quicjk question - can you monitor your task manager while you're doing stuff like this, to see if there's any likely bottleneck somewhere (like your drive usage capping at 100% at certain times). The more we can nail it down, the likelier we are to go forward.

[Taemon]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Originally posted by Taemon:

Adding to what I agreed with earlier... I've noticed EVERYTHING in Steam now loads slower. Library pages, Store pages, etc. This didn't happen until the late Aug or early Oct patch for me.

Quicjk question - can you monitor your task manager while you're doing stuff like this, to see if there's any likely bottleneck somewhere (like your drive usage capping at 100% at certain times). The more we can nail it down, the likelier we are to go forward.

Anytime I do anything in Steam itself. Just scrolling down the main page and the CPU jumps 40-50%. I was resizing the window and CPU usage jumped from aroung 5-6% to over 75%, soon as I let go. Drops back down. Even in offline mode. For lack of a better term, it's almost like when a browser has too many tabs open

[Nite69]

It depends on the game you download, I was downloading a bunch yesterday and some I was getting up to 25MB/s (which is my max speed on 200mbit internet) where as others are down to 5 - 8MB/s

so the speed you get seems to be game dependant

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Nite69:

It depends on the game you download, I was downloading a bunch yesterday and some I was getting up to 25MB/s (which is my max speed on 200mbit internet) where as others are down to 5 - 8MB/s

so the speed you get seems to be game dependant

Not relevant to the subject at hand.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Taemon:

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Quicjk question - can you monitor your task manager while you're doing stuff like this, to see if there's any likely bottleneck somewhere (like your drive usage capping at 100% at certain times). The more we can nail it down, the likelier we are to go forward.

Anytime I do anything in Steam itself. Just scrolling down the main page and the CPU jumps 40-50%. I was resizing the window and CPU usage jumped from aroung 5-6% to over 75%, soon as I let go. Drops back down. Even in offline mode. For lack of a better term, it's almost like when a browser has too many tabs open

That's pretty much the behaviour I was expecting.

Although 40-50 percent is nothing to worry about particularly, the fact that you're getting that slowdown could be indicative of a problem some have been having recently that involves Steam using a lot of memory. Can you check to see under TaskManager how much Steam is taking up?

It does dpeend on what Steam processes you have open too - if you have friends list open, and are communicating it pushes it up too.