download causes high CPU usage.

[BOT Retard]

So I'm currently downloading something on my PC, it is not using the internet. My CPU usage is at 99 when download it and my temps are at 190-200F and I have to downclock my CPU in the processor power management so it's running at 4GHz instead of 4.6 GHz. Why is it using my CPU to download? It's indeed using my hard drive because that's always at 99 or 100 disk usage. But why my CPU? What does my CPU have that my hard disk can't do by itself? Because I find it pointless that my CPU is even needed during this download. I have the i7 4790K.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by DirtySurge0619:

So I had this similar problem and I have an i7 10700k and I was downloading COD BO3 and all of a sudden my pc kept crashing and it kept crashing due to 100% utilization as soon as my computer would boot into windows and start stearn, it was also hitting 5.0 Ghz and then BSOD but I saw it was also using the network at 100% 1GB, so once I saw the issue I paused the download and it would bring everything down and back to normal utilization. So if you are having this issue just pause the download and then once it drops the utilization just resume and repeat as needed.

Well don't put any game clients in OS Startup, as they can never launch with admin privileges this way. Boot your OS and wait til everything had loaded and cpu usage settles down to nothing, which shouldn't take long on a modern PC using an SSD and 16gb or more of ram. Then launch game client via the right click of shortcut, run as admin option. You can disable auto download queue by setting a download period you typically would never use or have the PC on during... such as say 2am-3am or something like that. If you do get any pushed updates you can (X) it out and that will get pushed down into the scheduled download queue listing. Then you can scroll through that list and click the add/up arrow button on the updates you wish to actually have start now (added to the Download Now Queue) leaving the rest you don't need right now for a later time.

[RageMastaX]

im also having an issue im trying to download a game on my pc and my cpu sky rockets to 70% or higher my pc lags glitches and i try to limit my download to 300 MBPS cuz my steam downloads a game at a woping almost a gig literally when my steam does that my cpu sky rockets around 90% i download some games on my 3 TB HDD or my SSD and my M.2 SSD

[[☥] - CJ -]

I previously explained why CPU usage is High with High Download speeds
Its normal

QoS via Windows, the router or Steam settings is your only option

Or you could simply let a game download Before doing anything else.

[_I_]

may also be part of windows malware or other av scanning files that are new/changing

[[☥] - CJ -]

That also.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Downloading safe stuff, like from a game client, configure your AV apps so that it never scans any game folder stuff, such as the Steam or Steam Library folder structures, do this via your AV apps exclusions. Or use an AV suite that has a pause protection or gaming mode and enable that as needed to avoid it needlessly scanning safe stuff like when you are having the PC download a game via Steam for example. You shouldn't be using any HDD these days, use an SSD. Even if all you have is a single ssd in the system, you can download TBs worth of games to the ssd and as they finish, move them to your secondary hdd via Steam move option.

This can also be done in Origin or Uplay, although is a bit trickier.

[RageMastaX]

i have know idea what u guys are talking about im installing my games on a SSD and M.2 SSD but even when i installed games on my 3TB HDD this never happened before im experiencing alot of performance drop while my game downloads and my pc is glitching out and when i also limit my download speed to 300 MBPS its still around 70 or 90% on cpu usage i cant even move my mouse without it glitching out i even stopped wallpaper engine still glitching TF out

[Aris]

I previously explained why CPU usage is High with High Download speeds
Its normal

It's not normal, it happens only with Steam. With my old i5 Steam download speeds were actually capped because that CPU would sit at 100% usage. Now with a Ryzen 5900x, CPU usage is 30%. It's insane that a download uses 30% of a 12 core CPU. Downloading to an SSD or an HDD doesn't make any difference.

That while GoG, XBox/gamepass client, Epic, uPlay, Origin, Battle.net all barely use the CPU and download at full speed of my connection (60-70 MB/s). It's only Steam that has this insane CPU usage (really, the other clients didn't use more than 5% on the i5).

Steam is doing something very inefficient when downloading. And I remember this started happening only a few years ago (2-3 maybe? I'm not sure).

[[☥] - CJ -]

Its not just the CPU though, the benefits of a newer NIC can also lower overall CPU usage.

However
I just tested again https://www.speedtest.net/result/11572753549
During download CPU nearly maxed during Download while the Upload phase was around 30-40%

But you have to take into account that you are running a much newer system so all that in addition to what i mentioned above will yield different results.

And i'm using an OC'd i5 2500k mind you, but using a PCIE NIC instead of onboard.

All in all, newer hardware will naturally fair better compared to older hardware
so in a sense i was correct in saying its normal.

Not saying Steam isnt partially at fault, highly likely it does things differently compared to other clients, but as i had shown doing a normal speedtest is enough to cap the CPU (for me at least), so that should say something in itself that results will vary.

Hardware and Network config matters.

[Aris]

I just tested again https://www.speedtest.net/result/11572753549
During download CPU nearly maxed during Download while the Upload phase was around 30-40%

Now test it with the desktop app. With the web version CPU usage would go up to 16% for me, with the Windows store version it would stay at 2-4% (considering the app runing would already eat 1-2%, running the test increased CPU usage only by 1-2%). HTML is the performance killer here.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Well thats interesting..
21% Download 15% upload even with upload having higher speeds when using the windows store app..

well hmm..

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by Aris:

I just tested again https://www.speedtest.net/result/11572753549
During download CPU nearly maxed during Download while the Upload phase was around 30-40%

Now test it with the desktop app. With the web version CPU usage would go up to 16% for me, with the Windows store version it would stay at 2-4% (considering the app runing would already eat 1-2%, running the test increased CPU usage only by 1-2%). HTML is the performance killer here.

See if hardware acceleration is ON or OFF in your browser settings.

One way to reduce the usage and overall demand when downloading from a game client...

> temporary change the app that is downloading to Low Priority via Task Manager > Details.

> Cap the bandwidth to allow some breathing room. Like if you wish to use other Web browser while your app downloads a large file or game.

> There is little excuse for your PC not having at least one ssd. If you only have one ssd, download to it. Once the download load is done, move it to another drive. It's not hard to move games.

> Have hardware acceleration enabled in gane clients and Web browsers. This reduces cpu load as it uses the gpu to display and compute the visuals. If you disable this, it will be cpu only and this generally does not help in an OS such as Windows.

[Piramidion]

Originally posted by Aris:

It's not normal, it happens only with Steam. With my old i5 Steam download speeds were actually capped because that CPU would sit at 100% usage. Now with a Ryzen 5900x, CPU usage is 30%. It's insane that a download uses 30% of a 12 core CPU. Downloading to an SSD or an HDD doesn't make any difference.

That while GoG, XBox/gamepass client, Epic, uPlay, Origin, Battle.net all barely use the CPU and download at full speed of my connection (60-70 MB/s). It's only Steam that has this insane CPU usage (really, the other clients didn't use more than 5% on the i5).

Steam is doing something very inefficient when downloading. And I remember this started happening only a few years ago (2-3 maybe? I'm not sure).

Actually, Steam is doing something very efficient in terms of download speed. I looked up this info too, and what I found was this: Steam downloads are made up of highly compressed chunks. After a chunk is downloaded, it utilizes the CPU of your PC to decompress it, while the download of other chunks continues. This means that you won't have to wait for your game to decompress after you downloaded it.

Now, it seems pretty obvious, that high CPU usage also has something to do with your download speed. The higher your download speed is, the more chunks you manage to download, and the more chunks your PC has to decompress at once, thus increasing your CPU load to the roof. I have Intel Core i7 6820HK - it's not the fastest, but still it's a pretty fast CPU. When my bandwidth was 2.5 MB/s, the Steam downloads were barely noticeable in regards to CPU usage. Now it's 30 MB/s, and I have to abandon all other work during Steam downloads.

[_I_]

its also limited by drive speed/iops

[RageMastaX]

I have an Intel Core i7 9700k and my CPU goes up to 100% CPU usage when I download something on Steam it uses my full download speed it also goes up to 800 Mbps which is way too fast for downloading I have never seen anything download that fast origin goes to high CPU usage when it loads in the main menu by itself