Download speeds going from 26 MB/s to 0, then only going up to about 5 - 10 every few seconds and then stopping again.

[Sabruui]

So I've had this problem for about 4 years now but when stream first came out and for a while never had a single issue with this. It's not my hardware, it's not my isp, it's stream. They need to fix this because I know for sure I am not the only one with this problem.

People have said it's because stream stops to unpack files that are compressed but I don't believe that to be the case when every single other game service like this gives me a constant stream of my highest download speeds and I am able to play them right away.

Games with similar size take 3-5x as long on steam than any other service and I'm sick of it. I just want them to fix their servers because it's unbelievable how good it used to be compared to now. And changing regions doesn't work, or clearing download cache.

I know I'm venting, but enough is enough. I hope they see this and can sympathize and maybe take a look, because it's hard to support them when I pay for a game on steam but I have to wait half a day to play it, when in everything else I can usually get the game started within 30 minutes of starting a download. It's
It usually starts at 26 MB/s and then drops to 0 within 1 minute. And then I'm lucky if it even comes close to that every again. It takes 5 minutes just to start downloading again too get to 5-10 MB/s then back down to 0 for a few minutes again. It's driving me crazy there are no solutions for it and it's been going on for years with nothing being done.

[Jerry]

I guarantee, it is your CPU or hard drive, that cannot keep up. Give it a try by limiting your download speed to half of what it currently reaches at its peak and see, if it still keeps dropping off as often.

[Sabruui]

Originally posted by Jerry:

I guarantee, it is your CPU or hard drive, that cannot keep up. Give it a try by limiting your download speed to half of what it currently reaches at its peak and see, if it still keeps dropping off as often.

Every other service I use does not have this issue, so I don't see how you can guarantee that.

[Jerry]

As has been said by the answerer before me, the vast majority of users never encounter this problem, including myself since I joined 8 years ago. My internet simply does not have the speed to outrun my hardware.

[Sabruui]

Originally posted by nullable:

Originally posted by Sabruui:

So I've had this problem for about 4 years now but when stream first came out and for a while never had a single issue with this. It's not my hardware, it's not my isp, it's stream. They need to fix this because I know for sure I am not the only one with this problem.

Millions of people can download games fine without the issue you describe. So while you may feel it's a Steam issue, how do you address the lack of issue for so many others? Perhaps it's possible you have an issue and you want someone to fix it. You've absolved your ISP and lay the blame at Steam's feet. But Valve doesn't control all the variables between their server and your PC, not even close.

Originally posted by Sabruui:

People have said it's because stream stops to unpack files that are compressed but I don't believe that to be the case when every single other game service like this gives me a constant stream of my highest download speeds and I am able to play them right away.

I understand the argument. Other services work fine, but Steam doesn't, therefore it must be Steam. Maybe it is. But maybe there's some over-simplicity to the logic you're not accounting for.

End of the day I've been using Steam for 18 years across a dozen PC's, and half a dozen ISP's and have not had the issue. And again, millions of people also don't have an issue. And you might not want to ignore that in your rush to cast blame.

You may not have ruled as much out as you think. But if you're determined to blame Valve for your woes, and you're sick of it, you might consider just using other services that work better, no?

I'm definitely not the only one with this issue as I've been looking for solutions for years, and there are tons of posts on the Internet saying the exact same problem with better hardware than mine. Where is the logic in other services using the same exact speeds to the fullest and not bogging down my system in any way. I've checked usage while downloading and they are sub 50% usage. I've had steam since the day the half life 2 demo came out when I was 12. Never had these issues before a few years ago.

[Sabruui]

Originally posted by Jerry:

I guarantee, it is your CPU or hard drive, that cannot keep up. Give it a try by limiting your download speed to half of what it currently reaches at its peak and see, if it still keeps dropping off as often.

I have an i5-10300h, 16 gb of ram and running everything else at max speed. Why can I download a 100gb game in an hour on battle.net but it takes 4 hours to download something that's 50gb on steam?

[Sabruui]

Originally posted by Jerry:

As has been said by the answerer before me, the vast majority of users never encounter this problem, including myself since I joined 8 years ago. My internet simply does not have the speed to outrun my hardware.

If you search YouTube or Google for this there are thousands of people with this issue.

[Satoru]

Steam Download Issues and How To Fix Them 

A Guide for Steam

By: Bodomi

This unofficial guide will go over different troubleshooting steps to fix download and connection issues with Steam. 简体中文 (translated by Vixinity) | 日本語 (translated by maruhoi1) You can also view this guide via Google...

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections

Steam was pushing 1 PETABYTE PER SECOND globally of data when CP2077 came out.

Your downloads are limited by

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

Its not steam

[Sabruui]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Steam Download Issues and How To Fix Them 

A Guide for Steam

By: Bodomi

This unofficial guide will go over different troubleshooting steps to fix download and connection issues with Steam. 简体中文 (translated by Vixinity) | 日本語 (translated by maruhoi1) You can also view this guide via Google...

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections

Steam was pushing 1 PETABYTE PER SECOND globally of data when CP2077 came out.

Your downloads are limited by

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

Its not steam

Tell me why my speeds work fine with everything else then? I'm not using any Antivirus other than windows defender.

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Sabruui:

Tell me why my speeds work fine with everything else then? I'm not using any Antivirus other than windows defender.

If you read the guide you'd know why

[d3str0y3r]

Originally posted by Sabruui:

Originally posted by Satoru:

Steam Download Issues and How To Fix Them 

A Guide for Steam

By: Bodomi

This unofficial guide will go over different troubleshooting steps to fix download and connection issues with Steam. 简体中文 (translated by Vixinity) | 日本語 (translated by maruhoi1) You can also view this guide via Google...

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections

Steam was pushing 1 PETABYTE PER SECOND globally of data when CP2077 came out.

Your downloads are limited by

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

Its not steam

Tell me why my speeds work fine with everything else then? I'm not using any Antivirus other than windows defender.

Steam downloads are different from other gaming clients.

Unlike other gaming clients, Steam compresses game files for downloads. This results in much smaller download sizes, often 30% - 60% less.
This is also why Steam shows a different size when asked to install a game than while downloading it.

This results in much less data to be transferred and overall quicker downloads if your hardware can handle it, but also more work for your drive and CPU. This causes your computer to work more when downloading games and software via Steam.

[henkkass]

Try to borrow a modem from a friend and try that. Or try Wifi

[Xivka Tosh Rozenfel]

This problem is still happening to different people around the world. all specs are fine, this is Steam launcher for sure.

[Clad07]

Hi all.
I had the same problem recently, and the solution for me was to clear some space on my SSD. Although my SSD wasn't full, I only had 200GB remaining, and I was trying to download a 130GB game.
It appears that Steam downloads and uncompresses the game simultaneously, and doesn't always show the correct progress in terms of downloaded vs uncompressed data. To check if the game is fully downloaded, you can go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\downloading. In my case, the game was already fully downloaded, so it was clearly a disk space issue.
The only solution that worked for me was to clear up more space.

I cleared up 80GB, and Steam instantly showed a more stable download (but still not perfect ; perhaps due to my bad SDD statistics...).

[Griffin185]

I have a top spec machine i9-12000, hods of RAM and good SSDs. It most definately IS Steam. Not one single other game providing portal has the woefully poor system that Steam has. I have struggled with this issue for some time and Steam continues to ignore it. Shameful.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by Griffin185:

I have a top spec machine i9-12000, hods of RAM and good SSDs. It most definately IS Steam. Not one single other game providing portal has the woefully poor system that Steam has. I have struggled with this issue for some time and Steam continues to ignore it. Shameful.

If you have disk working at 100%, then your system is to busy, then get a better disk write system, this dont ruleout wan line cant delive it to your wallplug. ( and how many other local user is using your wan lines such things matters , and many forget multi unit access to same wan-line's shared bandwide has a cost.

then it actual dont matter how fast your pc is.

and please dont say toy have not read other steam post about this, gather proof is part of claim, atm you have nothing. this is how things works today, be happy someone dare or bother with a diffrent point of view, other usre have post steam dotn have delivery issue with 10g network, sense i dont have that i cant confirm it. but i ahve seen and been with backbone before 10g is nothing, now you are over in server with Raid systeam that can handle with inc data.

gl with gather proof and tell steam about its possible they have configuration bug , but that is rare , and require many steam user from same region to point at something ,even same isp is also a clue. but this post is scatter all around the world, this dont add up.


and dont forget own local region isp issue also a possibility.