Is Steam throttling my downloads?

[Nukesnipe]

So I pay for 50 mbps download speed, and on average get about 35 mbps down. This should translate to about 6 and 4 MB/s download speeds, respectively, and I do get this sometimes on Steam. Hell, sometimes it even goes as high as 9 MB/s, but that's rare.
Thing is, lately I've been lucky to crack 750 KB/s, and as far as I can tell, it's just Steam. If it's late at night at like, 3 AM I might get 4 MB/s, but under most circumstances lately I can't even break a single megabyte.
There's no other devices in the house using the internet right now, I have the download server set to a city an hour away from where I live, I've checked and made sure that my ISP, Windows and Steam aren't set to throttle my connection, and I've cleared my download cache. I've done everything I can think of to try and get my download speeds up, but I really don't think it's anything on my end.
So, any ideas on how to fix it? Or do I just have to love with Steam downloads taking forever if I don't download overnight?

[Chompman]

The reason it sounds like is your network/isp if you are getting much faster speeds at night as during peak hours it sounds like it's too congested to get your full speed.

It's the holidays so there are probably more people using it then normal and if your network does not guarantee a minimal speed then this is common for a oversold network.

[Nukesnipe]

引用自 Chompman：

The reason it sounds like is your network/isp if you are getting much faster speeds at night as during peak hours it sounds like it's too congested to get your full speed.

It's the holidays so there are probably more people using it then normal and if your network does not guarantee a minimal speed then this is common for a oversold network.

Idk about that, it's been going on like this for about a month and a half, and it's only an issue with Steam.

引用自 nullable：

Valve is not throttling your below average internet speeds.

I've got 750Mbps service, I can download games from Steam at like 90MB/sec. People with multi-Gigabit connections can download even faster.

That's nice, I don't care how fast your download speeds are. If you bothered to read my post, you would see that my issue is how inconsistent it is.

[Elucidator]

Try a different dns. The dns partly decides which route your connection takes to reach a server.


Also run this in cmd:
netsh ip reset
netsh winsock reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /registerdns

Restart your modem/router thing, (get the power off of it, let it drain electricity till its empty, then put the power back on)

If you're using Wi-Fi, make sure you're within 3meters of the antenna.

If that is not enough, also run sfc /scannow in cmd, and then let windows update do its thing.

[Nukesnipe]

引用自 Elucidator：

Try a different dns. The dns partly decides which route your connection takes to reach a server.


Also run this in cmd:
netsh ip reset
netsh winsock reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /registerdns

Restart your modem/router thing, (get the power off of it, let it drain electricity till its empty, then put the power back on)

If you're using Wi-Fi, make sure you're within 3meters of the antenna.

If that is not enough, also run sfc /scannow in cmd, and then let windows update do its thing.

It said there's no "ip reset" command but I ran the rest, I'll restart my PC in a few minutes. And I've done that with my modem, and this is a wired connection. Will edit this post in a bit with results.

[Adam Beckett]

I see, there is a common misconception, when it comes to "is Steam throttling my download speed".

AFAIK, Steam is using Akamai (3rd party service), which delivers the fastest download speeds around the globe for the past 20 years. There is no 'upside' for Steam to throttle connections. FIFO (first serve) applies. The faster your download is finished, the faster the next user can be served.

... but their constant fibre, high speed connection does mean nothing, since you are never directly connected to the servers - your ISP is. And your ISP decides how much of your bandwidth will be served.

It is the ISP - your local - Internet provider - who decides which traffic is handled which way and throttling is part of their network management.

While they most likely are not 'man-handling' individual connections, they have certain strategies to prioritize packets.

"Steam" maybe on their list of '2nd' or even '3rd tier traffic'. Paid customers (Amazon AWS, or Netflix) might be preferenced packets (part of the TCP/IP QoS priority protocol handling).

[TwistedWulf]

引用自 nullable：

Valve is not throttling your below average internet speeds.

I've got 750Mbps service, I can download games from Steam at like 90MB/sec. People with multi-Gigabit connections can download even faster.

Do you not know what throttling is? you have 750 mbs internet and only download at 90mbs a sec? That is sad. I have 500mbs and steam downloads at 60mbs to 80mbs a sec, Yet other places I download at 200+ Mbs, steam has simply always had way below average download speeds.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

引用自 Twisted Ginger：

引用自 nullable：

Valve is not throttling your below average internet speeds.

I've got 750Mbps service, I can download games from Steam at like 90MB/sec. People with multi-Gigabit connections can download even faster.

Do you not know what throttling is? you have 750 mbs internet and only download at 90mbs a sec? That is sad. I have 500mbs and steam downloads at 60mbs to 80mbs a sec, Yet other places I download at 200+ Mbs, steam has simply always had way below average download speeds.

MB/s =/= mb/s

Please read how he posted the rates again.

750 mb/s / 90 MB/s = ~8.3

[Nukesnipe]

引用自 Adam Beckett：

I see, there is a common misconception, when it comes to "is Steam throttling my download speed".

AFAIK, Steam is using Akamai (3rd party service), which delivers the fastest download speeds around the globe for the past 20 years. There is no 'upside' for Steam to throttle connections. FIFO (first serve) applies. The faster your download is finished, the faster the next user can be served.

... but their constant fibre, high speed connection does mean nothing, since you are never directly connected to the servers - your ISP is. And your ISP decides how much of your bandwidth will be served.

It is the ISP - your local - Internet provider - who decides which traffic is handled which way and throttling is part of their network management.

While they most likely are not 'man-handling' individual connections, they have certain strategies to prioritize packets.

"Steam" maybe on their list of '2nd' or even '3rd tier traffic'. Paid customers (Amazon AWS, or Netflix) might be preferenced packets (part of the TCP/IP QoS priority protocol handling).

If this is the case, then I'm gonna be frakkin' peeved. I want the service I pay for, y'know?

[RPG Gamer Man]

Your ISP might be throttling your downloads. If you hit certain limits with your ISP, they may limit how much you can download. This includes all things from all devices that connect to internet using your account. It is common that ISP throttle speeds, especially during holidays and most busy days.

For more info on this:

https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/internet/what-is-internet-throttling/

[Satoru]

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

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections

Your steam downloads are limited by

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

[Nukesnipe]

引用自 nullable：

引用自 Nukesnipe：

That's nice, I don't care how fast your download speeds are. If you bothered to read my post, you would see that my issue is how inconsistent it is.

I answered the question in your topic title.

You may not care that other people have higher speeds, but perhaps you care about how we have consistent performance too. Ultimately

引用自 Twisted Ginger：

Do you not know what throttling is? you have 750 mbs internet and only download at 90mbs a sec? That is sad. I have 500mbs and steam downloads at 60mbs to 80mbs a sec, Yet other places I download at 200+ Mbs, steam has simply always had way below average download speeds.

Do you know what megabits and megabytes are?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte

Take careful note of the abbreviations, they are significant and if you get an understanding of the subject and the math involved (don't worry it's basic) then you might be able to read my post and recognize I was being fairly precise. And you'd see where you went wrong pretty obviously then.

Better luck next time.

No, you didn't. You came in here to brag about how fast your internet is and insult me for having inferior internet. Once again, if you bothered to read my post, you would clearly see I know the difference between mbps and MB/s. But you don't care about helping, you just wanna wave your e-peen around.

So, kindly, buzz off.

[Nukesnipe]

引用自 Satoru：

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

Steam can obliterate 1gbps connections

Your steam downloads are limited by

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

I don't think any of these things are the problem, because, like I said, I can get really good download speeds only sometimes.. If it was an issue with any of these, then I wouldn't be getting decent download speeds ever.

[TwistedWulf]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

引用自 Twisted Ginger：

Do you not know what throttling is? you have 750 mbs internet and only download at 90mbs a sec? That is sad. I have 500mbs and steam downloads at 60mbs to 80mbs a sec, Yet other places I download at 200+ Mbs, steam has simply always had way below average download speeds.

MB/s =/= mb/s

Please read how he posted the rates again.

750 mb/s / 90 MB/s = ~8.3

:qr:

MBS and mbs is still freaking Megabytes per second. lmao Caps do not change that....

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

引用自 Twisted Ginger：

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

MB/s =/= mb/s

Please read how he posted the rates again.

750 mb/s / 90 MB/s = ~8.3

MBS and mbs is still freaking Megabytes per second. lmao Caps do not change that....

MB = Megabytes

mb or Mb = Megabits

[Elucidator]

引用自 Nukesnipe：

Will edit this post in a bit with results.

Nothing?
Did you try a different DNS yet?

Its possible its a piece of software interfering with Steam
Steam uses a hacker's method of gaining the highest system previllages on your PC in order to bypass restrictions if it is nessecary and hasn't changed that approach for a long time.

Windows is prioritizing itself on that level, so something like windows update or some kind of windows check could diffidently slow down your download/writing.

Other things that can affect speed apparently vary in number. There was one user who found out that for some reason, his download speed increased when he disabled "Disk caching on the device", which is a feature designed to increase writing speed.

Anyway its hard to guess.