Ethernet vs WiFi Disk Usage

[phortyphive]

Time for an odd question...
But first, the background. When I am downloading a game or an update on steam, my "disk usage" is usually pretty even with my "network usage." Well I decided to try downloading with a wireless adapter instead, to see if I could speed it up (I know, that's backwards. Just keep reading...) I did get a little better network speed (not sure why), but my disk usage has literally gotten 4 and sometimes 5 times faster! I am running an SSD on my MSI mobo.
I've just heard that wired connections are almost always faster than wireless. That makes sense to me; signals traveling through a physical line is faster than through the air. I am the only device using a wired connection when I am plugged in. When it's wireless, there are probably an average of 6 other devices.
Any ideas?

 

[bill001g]

If it actually does run that way then you have some strange bug in your pc.

Depends on the SSD but most are faster than even a gigabit ethernet so you should it should never have a impact. Since I assume you are downloading from the internet that will likely be the slowest part so it will be the bottleneck not the network connections.

In any case the data is loaded to a memory buffer when it is received form the network. The memory buffer is then passed to the disk subsystem and it transfers the data to the SSD. There is no direct connection between the network cards and the disk system. The buffer likely can hold multiple data packets. It really doesn't matter if the data got put into the buffer from the wifi card or the ethernet card. When the disk system gets the buffer it all looks the same.

I suspect your issue is you have too many variables involved to get good testing. Even what files you download makes a lot of difference. I know a lot of games I download download very fast since I have a fast internet connection and then it takes forever for it to extract and install all the files. I have one of the fastest SSD on the market it is more that the way the data is compressed and uncompressed is very ineffecient.

Your best test is always something simpler like speedtest to test network performance. Even that will be mostly affected by your internet. If you really want to test your system you could use tools like IPERF that will test network performance between devices inside your house.

Unless you have some strange bug it is likely just some issue with how you are testing. Ethernet should always be faster than wifi and SSD transfer should be faster than both and not related to how you got the data.

 

[phortyphive]

If it actually does run that way then you have some strange bug in your pc.

Depends on the SSD but most are faster than even a gigabit ethernet so you should it should never have a impact. Since I assume you are downloading from the internet that will likely be the slowest part so it will be the bottleneck not the network connections.

In any case the data is loaded to a memory buffer when it is received form the network. The memory buffer is then passed to the disk subsystem and it transfers the data to the SSD. There is no direct connection between the network cards and the disk system. The buffer likely can hold multiple data packets. It really doesn't matter if the data got put into the buffer from the wifi card or the ethernet card. When the disk system gets the buffer it all looks the same.

I suspect your issue is you have too many variables involved to get good testing. Even what files you download makes a lot of difference. I know a lot of games I download download very fast since I have a fast internet connection and then it takes forever for it to extract and install all the files. I have one of the fastest SSD on the market it is more that the way the data is compressed and uncompressed is very ineffecient.

Your best test is always something simpler like speedtest to test network performance. Even that will be mostly affected by your internet. If you really want to test your system you could use tools like IPERF that will test network performance between devices inside your house.

Unless you have some strange bug it is likely just some issue with how you are testing. Ethernet should always be faster than wifi and SSD transfer should be faster than both and not related to how you got the data.

Yeah I think that you are right and it just loaded it weird, because it hasn't happened that way since. Doesn't really matter tho. I just know that when I download a game it will be a while before I can play it. We just got fiber optic internet in our area, but I haven't convinced my family that we should get it yet lol
I just noticed that it wasn't downloading the way that it always has before, and it made me stop and think about it...
Thanks for your response!