Steam download speed tops at 5.1Mb/s?

[Shotmaster]

Hi there steam community.
I recently updated my internet service to 60Mb/s alnd i notice that when i download something from steam it does go above 5.1Mb/s, is it only me or you guys have the same problem/situation?

GGs

[Charlie]

I've heard about this before, Steam apparently caps at around 5MB/s for the download.

[class101 [OLED deck]]

I think you are mixing things , you don't have a 60Mb/s like but

60 Megabits internet = 6 Megabytes /secs speed

That's a common mistake to be confuse with Megabits and Megabytes

An internet provider will often advertise the highest number in Megabits in your case 60 Megabits

But to have the true speed you approx. / 10 that number, you get a theorical max speed of 60 / 10 = 6 Megabytes / s so nothing wrong

Here I have a 20 Megabits internet and I get a max speed of 2 Megabytes /secs

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by Haytham Kenway:

I've heard about this before, Steam apparently caps at around 5MB/s for the download.

its a shame having this kind of internet speed's and dont be able to take full advantage of it

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by class101:

I think you are mixing things , you don't have a 60Mb/s like but

60 Megabits = 6 Megabytes

That's a common mistake to be confuse with Megabits with Megabytes

An internet provider will often advertise the highest number in Megabits in your case 60 Megabits

But to have the true speed you approx. / 10 that number, you get a theorical max speed of 60 / 10 = 6 Megabytes / s

i know that the internet speed its mesured in bits but steam shows you in megabytes i think, but i could be wrong

[Charlie]

Steam shows the download in Megabytes (MB) and ISPs will show Internet speeds in Megabits (Mb). 5MB = 40Mb. So only 40Mb/60Mb of your speed is being utilized
8Mb = 1MB.

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by Haytham Kenway:

Steam shows the download in Megabytes (MB) and ISPs will show Internet speeds in Megabits (Mb). 5MB = 40Mb. So only 40Mb/60Mb of your speed is being utilized
8Mb = 1MB.

oh ok now i think i get it
thnx for the help guys ;)

[Charlie]

Hopefully someday Steam to remove the cap, a lot of people now have speeds that are faster than 40Mb

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by Haytham Kenway:

Hopefully someday Steam to remove the cap, a lot of people now have speeds that are faster than 40Mb

if you think they cannot remove the cap, they only can raise it because of the servers load, if one person takes all the traffic/speed the other ones will have their connections slowed
for them to raise the cap they would have to maybe raise servers speeds or number of servers

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Shotmaster:

if you think they cannot remove the cap, they only can raise it because of the servers load, if one person takes all the traffic/speed the other ones will have their connections slowed
for them to raise the cap they would have to maybe raise servers speeds or number of servers

Should have worded it better, hopefully in the future they raise the cap. 100Mb would be a sweet spot for now.

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by Haytham Kenway:

Originally posted by Shotmaster:

if you think they cannot remove the cap, they only can raise it because of the servers load, if one person takes all the traffic/speed the other ones will have their connections slowed
for them to raise the cap they would have to maybe raise servers speeds or number of servers

Should have worded it better, hopefully in the future they raise the cap. 100Mb would be a sweet spot for now.

its fine by me too xD

[Spawn of Totoro]

There is not cap on Valve's end. I download at my full speed with a 60 Mb/s connection. I get 7-7.5 MB a second.

There are many factors involved in the download speed such as congestion along the line (for a neighborhood, not just a house hold), number and quality of "hops" the connection needs to take between locations (it is never a direct link), quality of the line it's self, hardware, home network set-up, other programs that may be using bandwidth, ISP throttling ect.

Valve even has a bandwidth chart showing usage in a region. They have plenty to spare.

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

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

There is not cap on Valve's end. I download at my full speed with a 60 Mb/s connection. I get 7-7.5 MB a second.

There are many factors involved in the download speed such as congestion along the line (for a neighborhood, not just a house hold), number and quality of "hops" the connection needs to take between locations (it is never a direct link), quality of the line it's self, hardware, home network set-up, other programs that may be using bandwidth, ISP throttling ect.

Valve even has a bandwidth chart showing their max in a region and how many is in use. They have plenty to spare.

Thnx Totoro

but its a litle bit weird that my download speed is always 5.1MB it doesnt drops down or go higher than that xD

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Shotmaster:

Thnx Totoro

but its a litle bit weird that my download speed is always 5.1MB it doesnt drops down or go higher than that xD

You can always contact your ISP and have the line tested. Make sure your hardware isn't bottlenecking you either.

http://www.speedtest.net/

Test your speed on a third party site too. If you are not getting your advertised speeds, then your ISP may need to fix something.

[Shotmaster]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

Originally posted by Shotmaster:

Thnx Totoro

but its a litle bit weird that my download speed is always 5.1MB it doesnt drops down or go higher than that xD

You can always contact your ISP and have the line tested. Make sure your hardware isn't bottlenecking you either.

http://www.speedtest.net/

Test your speed on a third party site too. If you are not getting your advertised speeds, then your ISP may need to fix something.

this was the test
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4162543825

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Shotmaster:

this was the test
http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4162543825

Looks like you are not getting the full speed somewhere and it isn't exclusive to Steam.

Are you using a rounter or on a wireless connection?

If on a router, try plugging the modem directly into the computer and check the speeds again.

If on wireless, try using a network cable instead.