Smaller files download slower than large ones

[gnonme]

I just upgraded my internet to 750Mbps up and down and it's mostly awesome, with one big issue. When I'm downloading from steam, large files will download at full speed (~95MB/s) but smaller files (under ~50MB) will download at about 100 to 300 KB/s. This is only on steam and it's weirding me out. I'm out of town rn so I can't do any tests but if you have any ideas I'd be happy to hear them.

[Snow]

That's perfectly normal. Writing a file is not a simple single process - PC has to allocate space for the file, write the info on the file to the file table etc. It gets even more complicated with Steam, as it also takes some time for Steam to make sure file's there and it's fine, not to mention a lot of Steam games come in archives your PC has to extract once download is completed.

[Supafly]

Perfectly normal. File size affects speeds in other aspects to. You can see this yourself if you have a second hard drive or large USB drive.

Copy a single large 1+GB file between locations then transfer 100-1,000+ small files that equal the same size as the large file. You'll see the single file transfers faster.

[_I_]

steam downloads/installs steps
1. allocate space on the drive in steamapps\downloading\gameid
2. populate files (download)
3. unpack files
4. move files from steamapps\downloading\gameid to steamapps\common\gamename

if its a larger game or has compressed files it will take longer on a spinning hdd or external storage

[gnonme]

I've read all three responses and I still don't understand why that would make my download speeds slower. It seems like the everything other than the download portion of the steps you listed will be a lot faster with a small file (I'm using an SSD btw) and I don't see how a small file would limit my internet speed.

[_I_]

downloading many small files is slower
it needs to send a request for the next file after each is complete
adds lag between files

small spikes average lower than larger waves

https://speedof.me/

[gnonme]

Originally posted by _I_:

downloading many small files is slower
it needs to send a request for the next file after each is complete
adds lag between files

small spikes average lower than larger waves

https://speedof.me/

But before I upgrade my internet I had 75Mbps and could download the same games at almost 10Mb/s when now with faster internet it's only about 100 to 300KB/s.

[_I_]

try a closer steam server
steam -> settings -> downlaods -> region

[gnonme]

Originally posted by _I_:

try a closer steam server
steam -> settings -> downlaods -> region

When I get home I'll try a different one but right now it's the same server as I had before, and either way I can still get fast speeds on steam (averaged 95MB/s downloading gtav) just not with small games.

[Clancy]

Steam server speeds have nothing to do with file size, and everything to do with network throttling on Steams part, and I've tested and verified this over several downloads with different sized games and at different times.

I'm not sure if this is the same issue you're having, but for me, I can have Steam server download speeds that peak out around 60-70 MB's, then drop to 4-5 MB's or less (even in the kb range!) during the same download, but there's no disk or ram load at that time, so it's not unpacking or installing files at that time, or even reading them from memory, it's simply a data-stream slowdown on Steam's part. I've confirmed this by doing download speed/load tests at the same time as the Steam downloads, and can still hit 700-800 MB's a second download speeds WHILE the Steam download is still lagging at sub 10 MB's a second.

The only reason for that is either deliberate throttling of speeds by Steam in order to control server loads, or they are having intermittent server problems in their network. Not to mention the "preallocating" crap, a few times it literally takes an hour or more before it finally stops that and begins the actual download, at other times it takes seconds, even though the game is much larger than the ones that took far longer; they were installed on the same SSD, which has TB's of free space.

As for transfer speed of multiple smaller files vs large files, on modern networks the overhead of the additional packet headers is virtually insignificant, especially files that small, so that would be highly unlikely to have an impact, especially on gigabit-level networks, besides, as I read it your having the issue with individual small files, not many at once, so the network overhead wouldn't be the issue in any event . . .

[gnonme]

Alrighty then

[GayLord69]

Has anyone fixed this.. i also download Witcher 3 at 10Mb/sec and Smite at the same but games like Terraria with 200Mb is downloaded at 200kb/sec

[Aiden]

Originally posted by Ryan Znt:

Has anyone fixed this.. i also download Witcher 3 at 10Mb/sec and Smite at the same but games like Terraria with 200Mb is downloaded at 200kb/sec

You can't "fix" this. The game may be small but it has many files, not whole files. This means it has to send a request everytime to download 1 file. This can make it take a while.