Downloading slower than the MBit/s show

[DeathFromAbove]

So the number shown of the already downloaded data changes much slower than my actual download speed. Its about 10-20 MBit/s.. the number, of the already downloaded data, is displayed in this format: (X,XX GB) so the last digit in this format is 10 MB, so it should change like every second, because my download speed is 10-20 MBit/s, but it changes like every 20 seconds or so.
Whats going on here?

[nullable]

So your expectation is that with a 10-20MBit connection that your speed must change every second. And the Steam UI should update that change in real time every second?

I mean maybe I'm not understanding or you omitted some details, but it seems like you've made some assumptions about how much variability there is from moment to moment in your connection speed. How did you arrive at those assumptions?

I'm not sure how often the Steam UI updated the speed displayed. And there's no way for me to know how often your speed actually shifts, maybe it's more stable/constant than you think, maybe it doesn't change much over 20 seconds and you're seeing the actual performance and your expectations are wrong.

[DeathFromAbove]

Its hard to get? 10 Mbit/s = 0.01 GB/s... does this help you understand this massive thinking-quest?

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by Prophunt:

Its hard to get? 10 Mbit/s = 0.01 GB/s... does this help you understand this massive thinking-quest?

OK, first things first.

1. You're wrong, 10Mbps = 0.00125 GB/s because, units. Go look them up.
2. The Steam client defaults to quoting the amount of downloaded data to one decimal place, not the two that you're seeing. I don't know why yours would be different but it makes me wonder if the figures you're seeing are even correct.
3. Units. You DID look them up, right?

So you can understand why what you're saying isn't really making sense to people so far, right?

[N3tRunn3r]

you divide mbit by 8 to receive a MB value . . .

250 mbit/s (mbps) = 31.25 MB/s

[DeathFromAbove]

now ive looked them up. im not so much into that stuff so i automatically thought 1mbit is just mb. well my bad. but still dont see how people are totally confused by that statement, as its super easy to guess what i mean, especially when i state that it should move up 1 mb per second by 1mbit/s. pretty obvious..

[nullable]

Originally posted by Prophunt:

now ive looked them up. im not so much into that stuff so i automatically thought 1mbit is just mb. well my bad.

Well your confusion is understandable, but it leads you to make some guesses and assumptions that don't necessarily make sense to those who are well acquainted with the concepts, which leads to more confusion and a need for clarification. It's not being done to hassle you. It's ultimately to get you an accurate answer, which presumably you'd prefer to an incorrect guess, given a choice between the two.

Sometimes people get bent out of shape when you guess wrong. Guessing that you know less than you actually do pisses people off. Guessing and giving out bad info pisses people off. Guesses have a decent chance of being wrong. Enter GIGO, garbage in, garage out. Any nerd worth their salt is going to try and fix the garbage in so they don't provide garbage out. It's just good practice, good IT, and good troubleshooting. And it's one of the reasons why IT professionals make decent money knowing things and doing things that make other people's brains hurt.

Originally posted by Prophunt:

but still dont see how people are totally confused by that statement, as its super easy to guess what i mean, especially when i state that it should move up 1 mb per second by 1mbit/s. pretty obvious..

Your issue seems to be with how Valve has decided to display data and how often it updates the numbers in the UI. There's nothing significant about a second, or nothing that requires information to be updated every second because your connection speed is measured in Mbps*, they're not actually strongly related. It's just an implementation choice, it doesn't actually affect the outcome. If downloading 1GB takes you an hour, it still takes you an hour if there's 3600 UI updates, or 180 UI updates.

*(Mbps. megabits per second, not to be confused with MBps, megabytes per second, to drop in a well established naming convention. In the strictest terms B and b are load bearing and have different values when used with precision.)