Slow download speed

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I'm currently installing Baldurs Gate 3 and the download speed is way below 100 Mb/s (bits, not bytes). On average, I'd say it's close to 10 Mb/s. My connection is 10000 Mb/s, with internal throttling to 1000 Mb/s. If I measure the actual rate, I get ~916 Mb/s - while downloading Baldurs Gate 3! Downloading BG3 merely makes a dent in the performance. I have no download speed limiting in Steam and it shows a peak at 622.5 Mb/s. That was a very very short period just at the start, but it shows that it's certainly possible to serve the content at a higher speed. I've tried different download servers (both Sweden - Stockholm and Sweden - Gothenburg) and it doesn't affect the rate at all. What's going on?

[Iceira]

Try see if disk is busy at windows resource.

ps.
You could have worlds greaest wan line , will not help if disk cant keep up or is in use by other app, disk defragmentation or laptop backup procedur, and no we are not kidding you here, alot of user learn this later then they do such if you had such laptop that has setup such Solutions.

ps.
And you can find 100 of steam post with BG3 issue, and user has under 500gb free.
own support page "DO SAY, HAVE WAY MORE FREE SPACE THEN NEEDED" this is not a joke.

then game install hit 250gb in install size , you need 1TB free space.on boot disk, and we are soon there depend on game devs huge games today, and im not so sure we will explan how things work anymore.

much easier to say do you have 1TB free space , if not then get it. or buy bigger better disk end of debat on free space here.

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Hi Iceira and thanks for your input!

The disk is mainly idle and I can download other things to it at full speed while the BG3 download is going on. For reference, `winsat disk -drive d -seq -write` shows 385.42 MB/s (bytes, not bits) **while downloading BG3** - so it's capable of ~3000 Mb/s sequential writing. Randomly writing to the disk as-if it was fragmented shows 219.86 MB/s, so a worst case would be ~2000 Mb/s. The disk speed is not the problem. The disk had over 500 GB free when the download started, which should be more than double the amount required. It still has 421 GB free after Steam has reserved space for BG3, so I can't see an issue with that either.

Edit: Now it had a brief period (~10 seconds) where I got 400 Mb/s. For a moment I thought the problem was gone, but it then went back to between 0 (actual zero) and 4 Mb/s where it stays most of the time now.

[Iceira]

In the past we did see games make so many small files then it took way more time to index it, could this be part of the problem here, ( i know BG game serie's i will buy it later do me a favor )
locate the folde rdo a "alt + Return and tell us how many files they have made to the game )
could explan alot why things go slow, but what shall we compare it with i dont know other games from same timeline or size maybe.

do note i work with servers i have seen app lost its ways and cant handle file index , almost like app cant give ETA or ETC is more the right way to say it. ( not sure many know ETC but i know many know ETA mean

[Iceira]

And im sure it dont look like the write behind cache here at SSD, sense you dont mention the hamonica effect on DL speed. ( it could be that but , but you also need to know how internet protocol work, many know them start then increase until you can keep up and should stay at that peak, unless that line get more users or congested, it dont look like this in this case.


ps.
maybe BG3 devs did DL things you dont need anymore or should i said DL thing we have seen before not activated, yet part of all-in-one DL, many game devs do this today.
and then DLC get release then its just a file that granted acces to it.

all part of same files so technicaly, noting is wrong other then its slow, and we hase all seen patch in the past to every build , what a nightmare, could be part of the problem here.

dont forget we are steam usre here, i dont know if game devs did this, but we do understand why, just because we learn how many do it in other games.

there are many games with files and things never get activate or is abandoned, we just dont talk about it here normaly. require many years of gaming to notice this in our games.

[Iceira]

You should talk with own ISP, they could have a partners partner with a issue atm, until fixed
problem with this is not always own ISP that is the issue and they have no choise, or worst case a emergency repaire, that mean here and now,

ps.
In the old days we had sms service, but its like that is seen as why bother, then there is noting you can do about it, problem is also sends a msg, not to try solve and waste tiem on it then you know better then they do have repaire on it.

I write so you can see the value of it, also sends our isp a msg, why that service is better then nothing.

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There are currently only 261 Files in 22 Folders taking up ~154 GB. Regarding protocols, ISP and writing speed. As I mentioned, I can download from other sources to the same disk without issues. Downloading through the same NIC as Steam is using, while it's using it and writing to the same disk Steam is writing to (while it's writing to it) gives me a combined download + writing speed of 800 Mb/s.

Measuring what actual speed I get from my ISP without writing to disk, I get an actual download speed of 910 Mb/s through the same 1000 Mb/s NIC as Steam is using - while Steam is using it! My ISP is clearly delivering so there would be no point in talking to them about it.

Steam is not very busy unpacking the content either. The disk I/O stays low at all times and the CPU is idling at 3%.

[Iceira]

We have seen other blaim ISP throttle its speed , maybe one of them ISP partners partner is doing it. ( and you still need talk with own ISP so they can confirm this.
again we fishing for things here. ( sense it dont help no matter what DL zone you did )

You know tracert command, but that dont mean you can see where it go, ( ISP area )

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I think it's far fetched to think that it's throttled by another ISP since it doesn't matter where I tell Steam to download from. If it was one specific route, then _maybe_ but I've even tried a server in the US and in other parts of Europe and things didn't change. As a matter of trace the routing, there is not even a single visible hop between the last of my ISPs IP addresses in the route and the destination in the US. I can download other, non-Steam, content from the US at full speed, so the transatlantic connection is also solid :-)

Right now, everything points at the service that is fronted by Steam. It is not delivering the content at a very high speed.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by Sutaretar xvf /dev/null:

I think it's far fetched to think that it's throttled by another ISP since it doesn't matter where I tell Steam to download from. If it was one specific route, then _maybe_ but I've even tried a server in the US and in other parts of Europe and things didn't change. As a matter of trace the routing, there is not even a single visible hop between the last of my ISPs IP addresses in the route and the destination in the US. I can download other, non-Steam, content from the US at full speed, so the transatlantic connection is also solid :-)

Right now, everything points at the service that is fronted by Steam. It is not delivering the content at a very high speed.

Go ahead make ticket, but you do know DL fromother place also mean diffrent route and other region and paty to it, ( this is why get a ISP help is the only way to knwo whats wrong.

atm. from my view point , and lets see if you have this 24hour later. ( you can try earlig moring and hope path insteam has lesser user online , and this is what i mean lesser traffic so technicaly you should have better DL.

again we are over in things from ISP to that place yuo have also why other DL to other palce aient going though same path.

and this is out of usres hands what and how ISP and there partners paertner has a issue..

but llets see if steam support will reply if they had a own issue atm.

gl with it.

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"you do know DL fromother place also mean diffrent route and other region" - Yes, that's why I've tried different Steam download locations. They all serve at a terrible speed. I've also tried to download non-Steam content from misc. places and have had no such problem. It would be a remarkable coincidence if only the Steam content takes routes that are this severly impaired while everything else takes "the good routes".

Right now I've selected Sweden - Gothenburg, which ought to be the closest for me. I practically live right next to the physical station and have a 10 Gb/s connection to it. The active connection made by Steam seems to go to 162-254-198-46.valve.net (Washington, US) though. Perhaps that is actually the closest server they have which makes it odd that they have such a fine grained list of serving locations to choose from.

Hopefully, the download will be done by Tomorrow morning so I won't be able to check if there's a difference. I haven't noticed any difference during the hours the download has been going on right now though. If I pause the download and then resume it, it often spikes around 600-700 Mb/s for a few seconds - and then it's back down to 0-10 Mb/s.

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Originally posted by Iceira:

this is why get a ISP help is the only way to knwo whats wrong.

The ISP or its partners were not involved in the throttling and the infrastructure at my place wasn't the problem. The services Steam uses to provide the content just did not deliver at a better speed.

I also noticed that I could download a patch for CounterStrike to the same disk @ a steady 600+ Mb/s, so that most probably comes from a different content provider.

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@https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197997861796 Do you have any other possibility than that you were wrong?

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https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/4845399746423370713/#c4845399746424126074 - Do you have anything to add? You seem to be commenting in the same way without deeper knowledge frequently so, perhaps it's time to stop?

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by Sutaretar xvf /dev/null:

Originally posted by Iceira:

this is why get a ISP help is the only way to knwo whats wrong.

The ISP or its partners were not involved in the throttling and the infrastructure at my place wasn't the problem. The services Steam uses to provide the content just did not deliver at a better speed.

I also noticed that I could download a patch for CounterStrike to the same disk @ a steady 600+ Mb/s, so that most probably comes from a different content provider.

Steam does't use a service, they own their own datacentres. Steam has Petabits of bandwidth, it could destroy you measly gigabit connection.

If you can't max out your connection, and you've tried different servers, the issue is at your end.

https://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/

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Originally posted by MancSoulja:

Steam does't use a service, they own their own datacentres. Steam has Petabits of bandwidth, it could destroy you measly gigabit connection.

Sure, if they served the content at that speed, my end would be the bottleneck. They did however not.

Originally posted by MancSoulja:

If you can't max out your connection, and you've tried different servers, the issue is at your end.

It's not and it was a very big differece in the speed I got when downloading CS from that I got when downloading BG3. 600+ Mb/s vs. 0-10 Mb/s.