Download speeds

[Starkiller Spectrums]

Hi! If I have a 100 mbps internet connection, how much data should I be able to download from, for example, Steam? I'm getting around 10 - 12 MB/s download, when my friend says he's paying for the same 100 mbps speed, but his download speed in Steam is between 50 - 60 MB/s. 

[glenalz81]

This maybe?

 

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1698294337776133856/

[Skiiwee29]

There are 2 different measurements used for speeds and quite often get confused.

 

You have Mbps, or Mega Bits per Second

 

then you have MB/s, or Mega BYTES per Second.

 

You have 8 bits in 1 byte.

 

So if you have 100mbps download speeds, that would equal about 12MB/s, which is exactly what you're getting in your download speed. 

 

There is an option in the Steam settings to switch this under the download tab. 

 

[Jimkirk363]

I have a 500mb connection and can only hit a max of 72mb /s.

[Jimkirk363]

Edmond those were the days.

[Moonzy]

Transfer speed is normally measured in bits

but steam somehow measures it in bytes, perhaps it's because they want normies to easily understand it since storage is measured in bytes, so their game size is in bytes

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Networking

[Lurick]

1 hour ago, Jimkirk363 said:

I have a 500mb connection and can only hit a max of 72mb /s.

By default steam shows in megabytes per second. 72MB/s = 576Mbps which is a bit above what you're paying for but not out of the realm of unusually high.

As @Skiiwee29 mentioned, you can change it to show in bits per second. This is done because as, at @Moonzy alluded to, storage is bytes and data transfer is bits. Data is transferred as a 1 or 0, which is a bit, but the smallest amount of storable data is 1 byte (8 bits).