Why does PC/Steam download games slower than console?

[itzDerrio]

from my experience with my ps5 vs PC , downloading the same game(s); my console is always faster. I use a wired connection for both, and whichever one is downloading, the other is off, so neither are both on & downloading at the same time. Why is Steam and/or PC downloads so damn slow compared to console? My rig is modern, nothing outdated & my modem isnt either.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

引用自 itzDerrio：

Why does PC/Steam download games slower than console?

from my experience with my ps5 vs PC , downloading the same game(s); my console is always faster. I use a wired connection for both, and whichever one is downloading, the other is off, so neither are both on & downloading at the same time. Why is Steam and/or PC downloads so damn slow compared to console? My rig is modern, nothing outdated & my modem isnt either.

Since when?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3320179351

[Elucidator]

引用自 itzDerrio：

Why is Steam and/or PC downloads so damn slow compared to console? My rig is modern, nothing outdated & my modem isnt either.

To put it bluntly: your rig sucks with downloading on Steam till you configured your rig and take care of it and what is connected to it all properly.

At the very least use TCP optimizer, disable NetworkThrottlingIndex, update the NIC driver, change some settings, disable power saving settings that you can find (there are a bunch of sneaky ones), and make sure the nic remains powered.

[Satoru]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1082209554

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections
Steam can push 500mbps over trans atlantic lines
Steam can push 150Tbps such as when BG3 launched

Your steam downloads are limited by

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

Pick one

[Lithurge]

One easy thing you can test, if downloading to a SSD, is to disable write cache for that drive when downloading on Steam. Some have found this allows it to download at full speed when it normally won't.

[itzDerrio]

引用自 Lithurge：

One easy thing you can test, if downloading to a SSD, is to disable write cache for that drive when downloading on Steam. Some have found this allows it to download at full speed when it normally won't.

im downloading to an external harddrive

[Ettanin]

引用自 itzDerrio：

引用自 Lithurge：

One easy thing you can test, if downloading to a SSD, is to disable write cache for that drive when downloading on Steam. Some have found this allows it to download at full speed when it normally won't.

im downloading to an external harddrive

Therein lies your issue. Try an internal drive instead.

[Elucidator]

引用自 itzDerrio：

im downloading to an external harddrive

Look in Hardware Monitor
Right click on external harddrive's associated driver. Go to the power management tab and uncheck "Windows is allowed to power down this device to save energy"

You may want to do the same for the USB controller and hub associated with the port it is connected to.

While at it, also check the Network Controller's power tab and prevent windows from messing with it.
Next check the "advanced" tab in the same window, and look for Energy Efficiency and Moderation and settings like that (green power / energy saving stuff) disable that nonsense.

Regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
Change NetworkThrottlingIndex to ffffffff if it isn't yet (TCP Optimizer should have done this)

Disable Sysmain (a service in windows)
Disable Bitlocker (especially on your external harddrive), unless you need it encrypted. ... encryption slows it down.

Check the speed of the device with CrystalDiskMark; you should be hitting its max now.


Edit: Oh right, set your Power Management plan to Performance (instead of balanced)

Also if you have an Intel processor, go to hardware monitor and either configure the CPU in the advanced tab to prevent it from running slow (on low power) or disable all the offload settings + Large packet nonsense in the Network Controller's advanced tab.

[crunchyfrog]

引用自 itzDerrio：

引用自 Lithurge：

One easy thing you can test, if downloading to a SSD, is to disable write cache for that drive when downloading on Steam. Some have found this allows it to download at full speed when it normally won't.

im downloading to an external harddrive

That's likely your major issue.

As Satoru rightly points out here, downloads on Steam work different. Consoles are pretty bespoke and as such have only ONE way of doing things which is strictly defined by the platform owner.

Steam works differently and it downloads compressed and encrypted files, which must first be unpacked and sorted before writing to the final destination.

Because of this more things on your PC are responsible for your speed than just your net connection - your I/O, hard drives, CPU, RAM, etc.

Any of those being a weak point will throttle your speed.

For example, I've always gamed on laptops for ease, and I run external drives too. But I also have an SSD and internal drives. So depending where I download too affects how long the download takes.

You can easily check if you do have bottlenecks in your system though.

Check you downloads page on Steam and watch the graph as you download - you'll see how the download will periodically stop as it sorts the data (which you'll see via the graph).

Also while doing this, bring up your Task Manager in Windows and see if your CPU, RAM et al are being hit hard. If one or more are, that's your bottleneck.