Question Different download speeds on two different systems ?

[Stormside]

Hello, I am currently having some interesting issues regarding download speeds on my computer. I originally built my current PC in 2022 and the entire time I've had it, I have had issues with download speeds regardless of WIFI or ethernet connection. I pay for gigabit internet yet when I download apps/games I usually saw a max of 100mbps. I tried updating drivers, chipsets, BIOS and never ended up finding a solution. I had the issue before and after I upgraded to windows 11. Fast forward to today, I decided to upgrade my computer and installed a new motherboard, CPU, ram etc. I installed the new hardware and sure enough I had the same download speeds.

Where it gets interesting is that I used the old hardware to build my wife a computer and when I went to download a game on steam for her, the download speed shot up to 500mbps. The only difference in hardware was a new Samsung SSD and graphics card compared to what I had mediocre download speeds with. How with essentially the same hardware does the new computer have such drastic differences in speed? I have checked the health of my current SSD and the read and write speeds are all up to par with what they should be. I have tried troubleshooting myself and can't seem to find a solution. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on what could be going on I would really appreciate the help.

 

[cruisetung]

Most likely cable or LAN ports (on motherboard, switch or router) issue

router brand/model and motherboard LAN chipset brand/model?

 

[bill001g]

I suspect having issues with the wifi also may have gotten you off the troubleshooting path.

Since it is 2 different motherboards and even more that the old motherboard now works correctly I would suspect a bad cable. It is extremely common when you see speeds limited to just under 100mbps for the problem to be a cable.

It could have been a cable say between the modem and the router that would slow down wifi also. Since it works on another machine it is much more likely it is the cable between your current machine and the router. This might be more complex if you are using cables that run through the walls of your house.

There is some screen that microsoft keeps moving around that shows the ethernet port status that shows the speed. I suspect it will say 100/100.

It does not take much for cable to go bad. Could be it fits loosely in the jack or some wire inside the plug has detached. Luckily new cables are a cheap thing to try. Be careful there is a massive amount of fake cable sold. You need nothing real special just cat5e but it must be pure copper with wire size 22-24. The main fake cable to avoid are those flat cables that have wire that is much too thin to meet the certification standards to be a actual ethernet cable.