Steam Download Speeds don't match Internet Speeds?

[Birblover12]

I have almost 500 MBs internet, but when I download anything from steam (have tried dozens of downloads) it only goes up to 40-50 MBs tops. Even if I'm the ONLY device using the internet, it still is only like 1/5 of what my speeds should be. I've made sure that Windows isn't downloading a huge update or anything, so not sure what could be causing this.

 

Any advise? 

[BiotechBen]

4 minutes ago, Birblover12 said:

I have almost 500 MBs internet, but when I download anything from steam (have tried dozens of downloads) it only goes up to 40-50 MBs tops. Even if I'm the ONLY device using the internet, it still is only like 1/5 of what my speeds should be. I've made sure that Windows isn't downloading a huge update or anything, so not sure what could be causing this.

 

Any advise? 

What are your system specs? 

When downloading a game you also have to unpack the compressed files, so it is likely going to be less than your ISP "up to" speed

[Blue4130]

4 minutes ago, Birblover12 said:

I have almost 500 MBs internet, but when I download anything from steam (have tried dozens of downloads) it only goes up to 40-50 MBs tops. Even if I'm the ONLY device using the internet, it still is only like 1/5 of what my speeds should be. I've made sure that Windows isn't downloading a huge update or anything, so not sure what could be causing this.

 

Any advise? 

Steam defaults to Megabytes/s and internet plans are sold as megabits/s, that is likely where you issue is. 50 MB/s is roughly 420mb/s.

[djenson]

21 minutes ago, Birblover12 said:

I have almost 500 MBs internet, but when I download anything from steam (have tried dozens of downloads) it only goes up to 40-50 MBs tops. Even if I'm the ONLY device using the internet, it still is only like 1/5 of what my speeds should be. I've made sure that Windows isn't downloading a huge update or anything, so not sure what could be causing this.

 

Any advise? 

This post makes me feel young again when i like you was perplexed at the weird anomaly's of download speeds. 

MB = Megabytes

Mb = Megabits

 

1MB = 8Mb

 

Your internet will be 500Mb/s - This roughly match's the 50MB/s shown on steam once you allow for router QoS and other network traffic. 

 

[Godlygamer23]

Your ISP measures speed in megabits, not megabytes. So the upper case B that was used for your "500MB" figure should actually be changed to 500Mb instead, which results in about 60MB/s. Depending on how fast your destination drive is, and how fast your computer can decompress the files, this will have an influence on how quickly you can download content.

[dogwitch]

On 9/1/2023 at 8:36 PM, Godlygamer23 said:

Your ISP measures speed in megabits, not megabytes. So the upper case B that was used for your "500MB" figure should actually be changed to 500Mb instead, which results in about 60MB/s. Depending on how fast your destination drive is, and how fast your computer can decompress the files, this will have an influence on how quickly you can download content.

also if storage device has cache on it or not.

[Birblover12]

On 9/1/2023 at 5:18 PM, djenson said:

This post makes me feel young again when i like you was perplexed at the weird anomaly's of download speeds. 

MB = Megabytes

Mb = Megabits

 

1MB = 8Mb

 

Your internet will be 500Mb/s - This roughly match's the 50MB/s shown on steam once you allow for router QoS and other network traffic. 

 

This makes a LOT more sense, seems a bit slimy from the internet company's pov but otherwise at least I know it's not something on my end!

[Godlygamer23]

1 hour ago, Birblover12 said:

This makes a LOT more sense, seems a bit slimy from the internet company's pov but otherwise at least I know it's not something on my end!

Marketing lol. 

[LIGISTX]

2 hours ago, Birblover12 said:

This makes a LOT more sense, seems a bit slimy from the internet company's pov but otherwise at least I know it's not something on my end!

It’s been like this since the start of the internet. When we had dial up modems in the low kb per second, that’s just the way it was set up. Then as things progressed and speeds increased, they were not going to change the units.