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Downloading from Steam cripples PC's speed

StingBull
By StingBull
in Troubleshooting
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Whenever I download anything on Steam no matter the file size my computer slows down. Is it because of my HDD?

 

It only happens with Steam though, I don't have this issue with torrents or any other downloads.

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
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What actually slows down? Is it only your browser? If so, it's just Steam eating as much bandwidth as it can. You can reduce this effect by manually setting a download speed in steam: Steam>Settings>Downloads>Set Download speed to: 

 

If it's actually slowing down offline applications, (which it shouldn't be) you either have an extremely low end processor, or it's something other than the actual downloading of games causing it.

CPU: 5930K @ 4.5GHz | GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti AMP! Extreme edition @ 1503MHz/7400MHz | RAM: 16GB Corsair Dom Plat @ 2667MHz CAS 13 | Motherboard: Asus X99 Sabertooth | Boot Drive: 400GB Intel 750 Series NVMe SSD | PSU: Corsair HX1000i | Monitor: Dell U2713HM 1440p monitor

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What actually slows down? Is it only your browser? If so, it's just Steam eating as much bandwidth as it can. You can reduce this effect by manually setting a download speed in steam: Steam>Settings>Downloads>Set Download speed to: 

 

If it's actually slowing down offline applications, (which it shouldn't be) you either have an extremely low end processor, or it's something other than the actual downloading of games causing it.

 

It's slowing down my computer in general. I got Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. Why am I not getting the same slow down when I'm downloading a torrent?

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
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It's slowing down my computer in general. I got Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. Why am I not getting the same slow down when I'm downloading a torrent?

Hmm...your processor is more than sufficient, so I'm not sure why it's slowing down your system. Are you sure all steam is doing is downloading a game? 

 

When you say slowing down, what do you mean? Applications taking longer to open etc?

 

It could be that your HDD is having trouble reading and writing at the same time, which it shouldn't be....I'd try a clean install of Windows to a different drive and see if it makes a difference...

CPU: 5930K @ 4.5GHz | GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti AMP! Extreme edition @ 1503MHz/7400MHz | RAM: 16GB Corsair Dom Plat @ 2667MHz CAS 13 | Motherboard: Asus X99 Sabertooth | Boot Drive: 400GB Intel 750 Series NVMe SSD | PSU: Corsair HX1000i | Monitor: Dell U2713HM 1440p monitor

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Are you sure all steam is doing is downloading a game? 

 

When you say slowing down, what do you mean? Applications taking longer to open etc?

 

It could be that your HDD is having trouble reading and writing at the same time, which it shouldn't be....I'd try a clean install of Windows to a different drive and see if it makes a difference...

 

Yes, I'm only downloading on Steam. Slow down affects everything from switching to different windows, opening folders, file transfer... Computer responds much slowly.

 

I was suspecting my HDD as well. I think it was this: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
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how much and what type of RAM do you have?

 

4 GB of DDR2 RAM.

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
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4 GB of DDR2 RAM.

That could also be a problem, depending on it's speed, it's running at 1066MHz, correct? 

CPU: 5930K @ 4.5GHz | GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti AMP! Extreme edition @ 1503MHz/7400MHz | RAM: 16GB Corsair Dom Plat @ 2667MHz CAS 13 | Motherboard: Asus X99 Sabertooth | Boot Drive: 400GB Intel 750 Series NVMe SSD | PSU: Corsair HX1000i | Monitor: Dell U2713HM 1440p monitor

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Can you check whether the CPU and ram utilization of steam is abnormally high when downloading. I used to run steam on an old Athlon 64 single core CPU without slowing down. Also scan your HDD for errors.

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That could also be a problem, depending on it's speed, it's running at 1066MHz, correct? 

 

It's 800 MHz RAM actually.

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
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You're RAM in my opinion is the problem for sho.

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.”

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It's 800 MHz RAM actually.

Oosh. Your RAM is the prime suspect here. Could you look at your RAM utilization when you next download a game to give us some idea?

CPU: 5930K @ 4.5GHz | GPU: Zotac GTX 980Ti AMP! Extreme edition @ 1503MHz/7400MHz | RAM: 16GB Corsair Dom Plat @ 2667MHz CAS 13 | Motherboard: Asus X99 Sabertooth | Boot Drive: 400GB Intel 750 Series NVMe SSD | PSU: Corsair HX1000i | Monitor: Dell U2713HM 1440p monitor

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I have started a download couple of hours ago, while it did slow down noticeably at first after a while it smoothed out.

 

Steam doesn't use too much memory actually. At all times it's tenth of the RAM Firefox usually uses.

 

I'll say that the issue is that my RAM isn't fast enough. Oh well, it's not too bad. It's a nuisance rather than a problem.

The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and despair leap at thee, beat not thy breast and curse thy evil fate, but thank the Builder for the trials that shape thee.
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This problem is usually due to the hard drive being in use - it slows the read times because it is writing to the disk and therefore slows other programs down.

CPU: Intel i5 4690k  GPU: Sapphire R9 290 TRI-X OC

 

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I have started a download couple of hours ago, while it did slow down noticeably at first after a while it smoothed out.

 

Steam doesn't use too much memory actually. At all times it's tenth of the RAM Firefox usually uses.

 

I'll say that the issue is that my RAM isn't fast enough. Oh well, it's not too bad. It's a nuisance rather than a problem.

You might be able to improve it by defragging your hard drive.

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