Question Any idea why Steam downloads (capped by Disk write speed are so bad with M2 SSD?

[Gavenz]

I remember on my old system steam downloads/installs being lightning quick on my old system.

Last year I upgraded to a new system the Steam downloads start strongish but very quickly crash into a very low speed seeming capped for the disk wrote speed

I tried to run CrystalDiskInfo to see if there was any problem but doesnt show anything

Seems very odd that is really good but minute or so after starting it just slows to a crawl every time. Any help would be amazing. Thank you.

PD: I have tried several of the quick search "fixes"

- Resetting Download Cache
- Putting Steam as priority on Task manager
- Disabling Windows Wirte Caching for the disk...

Nothing seems to work

 

[Ralston18]

Update your post to include full system hardware specs and OS information.

= = = =

Starting with your PC use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to observe system performance.

Process Explorer

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time Observe system performance while idling and then start the Steam download. Watch what changes especially when the download speed slows to a crawl.

Make take a bit of trial and error to discover what is happening.

If nothing is discovered then the next step is to use the router's admin pages to observe network performance.

Who has full admin rights to the router? You will need help from that person.

 

[Gavenz]

Like it would go good for a bit and then just plummet

 

[Gavenz]

 

[Gavenz]

When downmload is going well the disk doesnt seem to max all the time and eternet graphic is pretty uniform

but when the download seems to go highwire the disk maxes and the ethernet graphic seems to go patchy

 

[Gavenz]

Not sure how useful this is, this is after running the download a while, its in Spanish can help translating if needed

 

[drivinfast247]

How full is the drive?

 

[Gavenz]

I havent noticed fullness affecting it

+ Curious facts:

- Whenever I stop the download and restart again it speed sup for a bit until it stagnates again

- Seems to speed a bit towards the end of the download aswell on its own

- Downloads from the Steam workshop seem to download pretty quick



+ Maybe useful experiments?

- Try to download something to the Main system SSD and the storage HDD?
- Try using my Phone connection even though it wont be a fast chekc if at least it will be consisten?



Would be really nice to know what really is the bottle neck, Connection/ports, hardrive, grumkins?


Thing is downloads outside steam don't really feel slow and I havent noticed SSD acting up in any other way, shape or form while playing games from it. SO it all feels very alien to an uninitiated like me.

 

[randyh121]

I've had this same problem for years with steam. 1gig fiber connection, all m.2 samsung ssd's. Steam still has slow downloads.

 

[Gavenz]

Yeah It is most perturbatory, my old, crappier system with the exact same connection was zoom zoom with downloads.

 

[geofelt]

A ssd will have a fast cache in which to store writes.
Then, the contents of the cache are written to the underlying nand blocks which are much slower.
Once the fast cache is filled and writes still are coming, the write speed becomes that of the slower nand blocks.

If you download very large files, it will likely go faster if the target is a 7200 rpm HDD

 

[stonecarver]

Things you can try in Steam. Go to settings, than downloads and find a download location with less population. You can clear you Download Cache " steam will make you re-log in " sometimes your cache gets stupid and hoses download speeds.


Tic on or off the choices that apply to you.

Limit download speed

Throttle downloads during gameplay

and the rest of the list.

 

[Gavenz]

Found a solution!

Searched for the Drive Name and bottleneck and foudn this very informative reddit thread:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

Which basicly said:

Download the WD application, update the firmware and disable Write-Cache

This fixed the download/installs speeds for me!

Hope it helps anyone else having the same problem!