Windows Bandwidth Balancing

[JFK1350]

Forgive me if this is a really ignorant question. I recently got a new computer with an extremely fast SSD so my steam and other downloads really take advantage of available bandwidth. I've noticed during downloads sometimes my web browsers stop working as if it's run out of bandwidth (I have a 200mbps connection). Is that a thing? Wouldn't the OS be load balancing so to speak to distribute bandwidth to applications requesting it? This happened today while downloading Microsoft Flight Simulator.

[Skiiwee29]

No, if you have a download using all your ISP provided bandwidth, then it will cause problems for other applications attempting to connect and use it as well as other uses unless you have QoS setup on your router to say this type of traffic takes priority over this so it would prioritize that over any other. 

[JFK1350]

6 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

No, if you have a download using all your ISP provided bandwidth, then it will cause problems for other applications attempting to connect and use it as well as other uses unless you have QoS setup on your router to say this type of traffic takes priority over this so it would prioritize that over any other. 

I've definitely seen that happen between devices just never between applications on the same host OS

[SlayerOfHellWyrm]

On 8/2/2023 at 6:41 PM, Skiiwee29 said:

No, if you have a download using all your ISP provided bandwidth, then it will cause problems for other applications attempting to connect and use it as well as other uses unless you have QoS setup on your router to say this type of traffic takes priority over this so it would prioritize that over any other. 

That said, Steam lets you configure download bandwidth limits so that you can avoid this by telling it never to take more than 500 Mb/s from a 1 Gb/s connection. It might be something to look into @JFK1350. i'm trying to recall off the top of my head as I'm not on my personal computer atm, but it should be something like Steam > Settings > Downloads > Download Restrictions > check off Limit bandwidth to:  and then set the value in KB/s. Keep in mind, B/s vs b/s. 1000 KB/s (1MBs) is actually 8x that (8,000 Kb/s or 8Mb/s) when converted. This is because of bytes vs bits. Internet speeds are measured in bits, but Steam pulls shows in bytes. So, whatever you want to set the limit to, take that value then divide it by 8 (to go from bits to bytes), then convert to KB, and that's the value to put in. 

[problemsolver]

To help out @SlayerOfHellWyrm since they weren't at their computer:

1. Use Wolfram Alpha to calculate desired limits for Steam.  Example is you have 200 Mbps connection, so 125 Mbps for Steam is reasonable.
2. Configure Steam (I've highlighted the relevant settings that need to match).  You can swap to KB/s but then you'll need to re-calculate in Wolfram Alpha like SlayerOfHellWyrm mentioned.  I would just leave it as depicted below and adjust to whatever number you need.
3. Since you mentioned your internet is 200 Mbps, I've set everything up for reasonable settings with that speed.  There are a lot of assumptions that have to be made, and this will make your Steam downloads slower, but I think this is a good balance to start with and you can tweak as desired.  Remember that most consumer internet top speeds vary throughout the day as they are best effort delivery (i.e. you won't always get 200 Mbps)