How is this possible?

[UnknownEngineer]

First an image, then a question about said image.

 

Note that task manger shows the local network speed in Mbps (bits, [x] x being 1 or 0). Origin however is able to get 3.7MBps, and at some points even more. As far as I know the large B stands for bytes, [xxxxxxxx] x being a 1 or a 0.

From what I have seen task manger show at maximum the "local area connection" never uses more than ~5.8Mbps bandwidth, that is ~700KBps according to my calculation. How am I able to get more than the theoretical limit in bandwidth?

 

The connection payed for allows for 8Mbps download max, and even that gets surpassed...

[twoscoops]

I also get obscure Origin downloads. Steam is usually 1.8mbps a seconds, I've had 12mbps on Origin. Not complaining though BF3 downloaded very fast.

[UnknownEngineer]

I also get obscure Origin downloads. Steam is usually 1.8mbps a seconds, I've had 12mbps on Origin. Not complaining though BF3 downloaded very fast.

I get ~750KBps for steam at max, I never get more than that. Sometimes I saw spikes that went all the way up to similar speeds as origin, the difference was that with steam those spikes lasted for just a second, with origin they can last for ~30 minutes.

At least that is the longest I have observed it on origin.

[Atlantisman]

Origin lies about download speed in my experience.

[Shalashaska]

The bit counter in origin isn't just calculated by download speed.

 

When I installed Titanfall, because I already had loads of Source games installed it pulled libraries from those and the counter exceeded 100MB/s for minutes.

 

It is good practice to ignore origin MB/s indicator because it doesn't mean anything, instead use another network monitor.

 

 

Just to be a douche, this is real.

[twoscoops]

The bit counter in origin isn't just calculated by download speed.

 

When I installed Titanfall, because I already had loads of Source games installed it pulled libraries from those and the counter exceeded 100MB/s for minutes.

 

It is good practice to ignore origin MB/s indicator because it doesn't mean anything, instead use another network monitor.

 

 

Just to be a douche, this is real.

 

You're a douche .

[Juganog]

yea origin weird sometimes, my average on steam is 2.2 but have seen it jump upto 200 even though it is only downloading at about 2

[UnknownEngineer]

The bit counter in origin isn't just calculated by download speed.

 

When I installed Titanfall, because I already had loads of Source games installed it pulled libraries from those and the counter exceeded 100MB/s for minutes.

 

It is good practice to ignore origin MB/s indicator because it doesn't mean anything, instead use another network monitor.

 

 

Just to be a douche, this is real GOML

SNIP

I don't think Origin has any libraries it can pull for this game, simply because I have no other Bioware games installed, at all.

[twoscoops]

Origin lies about download speed in my experience.

 

(It was actually BF4 I was downloading). All I know is is that I put it BF4 (25GB) on before college, came back an hour and 20 minutes later and it had finished. Thats a gig over just about every three minutes, unheard of in my household.

[UnknownEngineer]

Origin lies about download speed in my experience.

As far as I can see these speeds are not completely false. The downloads always seem to progress according to the indicated speed.

[UnknownEngineer]

I wonder if Origin could be using any kind of special compression/encoding to increase effective bandwidth.

 

From what I have seen the number on the window always progress according to the indicated speed, and the downloaded file size matches the size of the install accurately.

[TheRetiredSlave]

Origin compresses files before they send them to you. The client then reports your "download speed" as being the effective speed after the files have been uncompressed.

 

They're not *really* lying, they're just saying a different number than what you would expect..

[Atlantisman]

I have seen over 140MB/s on Origin, which is funny since the theatrical maxium speed for gig Ethernet is ~121MB/s.

[twoscoops]

Origin compresses files before they send them to you. The client then reports your "download speed" as being the effective speed after the files have been uncompressed.

 

They're not *really* lying, they're just saying a different number than what you would expect..

 

Why doesn't Steam compress the files too?

[UnknownEngineer]

Origin compresses files before they send them to you. The client then reports your "download speed" as being the effective speed after the files have been uncompressed.

 

They're not *really* lying, they're just saying a different number than what you would expect..

The funny thing to me is that if they are compressing the files then I should be getting a stable 4MBps download right? Why is my download sometimes in the actual range of my connection, ie: 700KBps.

Additionally before the near 4MBps I was getting 1090KBps, just 90KB over the ISP's limit.

[TheRetiredSlave]

Why doesn't Steam compress the files too?

 

I believe that they do, they just report it differently.. I'm not sure though.

 

The funny thing to me is that if they are compressing the files then I should be getting a stable 4MBps download right? Why is my download sometimes in the actual range of my connection, ie: 700KBps.

Additionally before the near 4MBps I was getting 1090KBps, just 90KB over the ISP's limit.

 

Not really, because it depends on the compressability of the specific files being transferred at that moment.. If game has a file that's already been compressed by the developer, then EA will be unable to compress it further and you'll see the "download speed" being closer to your actual internet speed. If a certain file is very compressible and hasn't been compressed by the developer, then EA can compress it a lot, and you'll see a "download speed" faster than what your ISP can give you..

 

There's some decent videos about compression on the Computerphile youtube channel if you want a better explanation..

[UnknownEngineer]

Not really, because it depends on the compressability of the specific files being transferred at that moment.. If game has a file that's already been compressed by the developer, then EA will be unable to compress it further and you'll see the "download speed" being closer to your actual internet speed. If a certain file is very compressible and hasn't been compressed by the developer, then EA can compress it a lot, and you'll see a "download speed" faster than what your ISP can give you..

 

There's some decent videos about compression on the Computerphile youtube channel if you want a better explanation..

I still don't understand why some things can't be compressed more than once. If you know the file type, and probably the size as well, how would you not be able to compress the file again? Wouldn't you be able to un-compress it into the compressed file it was before?

I understand not being able to do it to files that are very small, you couldn't compress 2 bits into one, but if you just kept a few guidelines that give details about the original in addition to the compression then you should be able to get the original out intact right?

 

Or does all compressing change the file in some way that makes it slightly different from the original, so that you cannot get the exact original, you just get something similar to the original.

 

I'll need to watch some of those videos tomorrow, my brain is tired...

[TheRetiredSlave]

I still don't understand why some things can't be compressed more than once. If you know the file type, and probably the size as well, how would you not be able to compress the file again? Wouldn't you be able to un-compress it into the compressed file it was before?

I understand not being able to do it to files that are very small, you couldn't compress 2 bits into one, but if you just kept a few guidelines that give details about the original in addition to the compression then you should be able to get the original out intact right?

 

Or does all compressing change the file in some way that makes it slightly different from the original, so that you cannot get the exact original, you just get something similar to the original.

 

I'll need to watch some of those videos tomorrow, my brain is tired...

 

I don't have a great understanding of the topic, but I believe that trying to compress things multiple times causes issues with ambiguity.. When you compress a file once, you delete certain parts of the file and replace the deleted sections with a smaller bits of stand-in data that tells you what you need to rebuild the deleted sections when you want to uncompress it . If you try to compress those smaller bits again, you can accidentally "smudge" (for lack of a better word) the instructions that would tell you how to rebuild it..

 

Another issue is processing time. It is true that you could use a more advanced compression algorithm that could potentially save even more space, but you would also need to use more CPU power into both compressing and decompressing the files. You would eventually reach a point where it just isn't worth it to throw more powerful CPUs at saving tiny amounts of space.