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kiddsupreme's avatar
kiddsupreme
New Contributor

Extremely slow downloads on Valve's Steam Service

Hello,

I'm trying to determine how I can have speeds like this:

But download from Valve's Steam like this:

This has been going on for the better part of 2 years now. The only reason I haven't asked a question earlier is I do most of my gaming on consoles. But on occasion I'd like to play my PC games as well. However, it becomes a detriment when downloads are constantly lower than they have been in the past (I was easily getting above 30 Megabytes, not Megabits, in the past from Steam).  

Here are my stats from my cable modem:

I'm at a loss for what could be causing these consistently slow speeds with Steam, while allowing EVERYTHING else that uses my Internet connection to run at the expected rate.

TL;DR -- Steam is slow, but used to be fast. I'd like it to be fast again please. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

1Mbps
cable modem
cox internet
slow issue
speed
steam
Valve

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  • ChrisW's avatar
    ChrisW
    Former Moderator

    Hello kiddsupreme,

    Your download rate from Stream may vary depending on the conditions of the connection. Some things that may affect your download speed could be: how much traffic the Steam server is experiencing, the available amount of upstream bandwidth that their servers are providing, and of course packet loss. Based on your screen shots you modem connection and speed is healthy. Are you able to run a ping test to the Steam server and provide the results?

  • kiddsupreme's avatar
    kiddsupreme
    New Contributor

    Unfortunately Steam doesn't have that feature; more than likely because they have their own CDN. However, they do let you change your download location. Being in San Diego, its been set to that. So after choosing other close spots (Los Angeles, Phoenix, etc.) I started trying different locations (New York, Atlanta, San Francisco) as well. Finally found a location only named "LAN Event (USA)". Chose that, and I got the following:

    Now my speed is topping at at 45 Mbps... which is better than what I was seeing. Still, way lower than in the past (easily hit 100-150 Mbps before).

  • kiddsupreme's avatar
    kiddsupreme
    New Contributor

    Chris W.,

    I might owe you an apology. Did further digging, and found this:

    I guess, according to Valve, I'm actually EXCEEDING the average. Wish this was available a couple of years back so I could confirm/deny my previous speeds.

  • DeeJ1's avatar
    DeeJ1
    Former Moderator

    Hi kiddsupreme,

    Glad you're able to check from this point on and we also thank you for your feedback and the update.