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I have had an issue with steam where it just does not download at my full speed all the time.

when steam is using full speed it is at around 35MB/s but that is only for like the first 10 seconds of the download and after that it just dips to anywhere between 1MB/s to like 15MB/s. And when i am downloading it keeps stopping and starting.

If i pause the download and start it again it goes to 35MB/s and then dips like when i start the download. This is very annoying when downloading big games. I have tried to fix it countless times but no luck

The things i've done try to fix it:

-Tried to change to heeps of diffrent servers

-cleared the download cache

And the worst part about this is that something like epic games launcher or other programs are always at full speed. This only happens to steam and no other program

If you can help please reply! THANK YOU

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  • Have you checked if you have a limit in place in the Steam settings? Though the fluctuations you speak of may indicate you don't already. My thought is when you first start the download, it hits your max speed and then throttles down to whatever you have set in your settings.
    – Timmy Jim ♦
    Jan 19, 2021 at 19:55
  • You don't mention your expected download speed. 35MB * 8 = approx 280Mbit. Is this in line with your expectation? Are you wireless or wired? Have you tried looking at Resource Monitor to look at disk and CPU usage (steam may be d'loading, and then writing in bursts; decrypting; patching very large ZIP game archives etc). If the game uses very large archive files, and they are being patched in place, then steam may be "unzipping, patching, rezipping" The non-steam path of exile way back when used to do exactly this.
    – Yorik
    Jan 19, 2021 at 20:32
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    @TimmyJim I do not have a limit set in place this i did check but forgot to mention. and
    – OlliBB
    Jan 20, 2021 at 8:00
  • @Yorik 35MB/s is the full speed the epic games launcher can achieve at all times and i'm wired
    – OlliBB
    Jan 20, 2021 at 8:00
  • At some point I believe Steam start pre-allocating and unpacking downloads as they download so if your storage medium (hard drive) cannot keep up with the download speed then the download speed suffers.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Jan 20, 2021 at 15:51

1 Answer 1

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If you switch steam servers, that might not be something on steam's side, but more on your ISP's side.

When you start downloading huge payloads it limits you.

So I would try this. Try a speedtest.net when you are not downloading, and one when you are downloading and getting slow speeds. If its your ISP, you should see a difference.

That or try a download with another service. If a download on the Epic Game Store seems to do the same thing, then it would also point to your ISP.

Then, with that in hand, have a talk with your ISP as to why your downloads are throttled like that.

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