download speed differences

[Trocify]

ok so whenever i download a game using a launcher like steam or battle net the highest download speed i get is 10mbps which is terrible to what it should be but when i decided to download something off of the windows store my download speed was more of what it should be in the 50s so can anyone tell me why that is. Are those launchers throttling my download speed cause that's what it seems like but idk

[Lurick]

Steam, Battle.net, and a lot of other download clients display it in MBps (Megabytes per second) while other applications display it in Mbps (Megabits per second). 1MB = 8Mb so if you take the steam download speed of about 10MBps and multiply it by 8 you get 80Mbps and that's a tad over what you're supposed to be getting (If you're paying for 50) so you're good

[Ausfernando]

The same happens to me, on every computer (3 computers to be exact) and every network (6) and in 2 steam accounts and 2 battle.net accounts

[Lurick]

Just now, Ausfernando said:

The same happens to me, on every computer (3 computers to be exact) and every network (6) and in 2 steam accounts and 2 battle.net accounts

See above. They display it in megabytes which is 1/8th of a megabit. Multiple the speed by 8 to get it in megabits

[GER_T4IGA]

You can check if you set a limit in the launchers
Steam->Settings->downloads
Your ISP could be throttling or the datas centers could be to far away while microsofts data center's are closer and therefore performance is superior

 

[Ausfernando]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

See above. They display it in megabytes which is 1/8th of a megabit. Multiple the speed by 8 to get it in megabits

yeah I saw before, thanks for helping 

[Lurick]

3 minutes ago, Ausfernando said:

yeah I saw before, thanks for helping 

On steam you can go into Settings > Download and check the box "Display in bits per second" and it will convert it for you.

 

Just for anyone who's wondering why bits vs bytes matters. Technically they should all display it in bytes since 1 byte (A combination of 8 1s and 0s) is the smallest form of consumable information by a computer however information is transmitted in bits (1 and 0). ISPs advertise in bits because the number is bigger and technically how they transfer information. On the other hand nobody can really decide on how they should display it so you get some downloaders and programs displaying it in how much consumable information per second they get (MB/s) and others displaying it in the transmit speed in bits (Mbps)

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, GER_T4IGA said:

You can check if you set a limit in the launchers
Steam->Settings->downloads
Your ISP could be throttling or the datas centers could be to far away while microsofts data center's are closer and therefore performance is superior

 

The only time distance plays a factor for speed is for DSL with regards to distance from the node. Everything else is just a matter of latency when it comes to distance. Being 5 feet or 500 miles away doesn't impact the speed you'll get unless there is link congestion at the exchanges into the ISP's network.

[Trocify]

ok now i'm testing it by downloading gears 4 and it's staying around the 10 to 11 mark and i pay for up to 100mb plan with cox the preferred 100 am i missing something but this is an upgrade to the old 2-3 mbps i was getting with my old router so maybe a better router or wifi adapter? cause the new router supports the 100mbps plan    

[Lurick]

Just now, Trocify said:

ok now i'm testing it by downloading gears 4 and it's staying around the 10 to 11 mark and i pay for up to 100mb plan with cox the preferred 100 am i missing something but this is an upgrade to the old 2-3 mbps i was getting with my old router so maybe a better router or wifi adapter? cause the new router supports the 100mbps plan    

If you're downloading over WiFi then there will be some speed loss so a different adapter could close the gab but if you're getting between 10 and 11 MBps (80 to 88Mbps) then you're really close to the 100Mbps mark. You'll rarely get exactly as advertised but if you're within spitting distance then it's good and they usually won't do anything. The one thing nobody really talks about is overhead. Each packet of information will have some overhead that's not counted by the application but does count towards the download speed you get so generally if you're within a few Mbps then you're good.

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, Trocify said:

ok now i'm testing it by downloading gears 4 and it's staying around the 10 to 11 mark and i pay for up to 100mb plan with cox the preferred 100 am i missing something but this is an upgrade to the old 2-3 mbps i was getting with my old router so maybe a better router or wifi adapter? cause the new router supports the 100mbps plan    

100Mbps = 12.5MBps. Considering you're paying for 100Mbps, it doesn't mean you're going to get that constantly or at all, just that's the max you pay for. 

 

Seems like your speeds are fine to me. 11MBps is 88Mbps, so fairly close to your 100Mbps plan. 

[Trocify]

thanks