Question New Gaming PC has rather slow download speeds compared to consoles owned and network speed ?

[plasticbeans]

Hey there! I recently bought a Gaming PC and was trying to download the first few games into my library, however, I've noticed it to be quite slow compared to what I would have on console (25Mbps).

Currently I'm receiving Download speeds of around 3.5Mbps, although when running speed tests I could be getting 30mbps down and around 10mbps up. I've tried using numerous guides and videos to see if I could fix the slow speeds, TCP Optimiser didn't seem to do anything, even swapping out the old ethernet cable for a newer one.

I'm just really confused if there could be something on the PC that's hogging the bandwidth or speeds, and I'm not sure on how to locate any potential files or programmes that could be doing that.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

What are your pc components?

 

[bill001g]

So are you actually sure you are getting 3.5M"bits"/sec. Speedtest is by default in Mbits and most file downloads are MBYTES.
In addition 3.5MBYTES/sec is extremely close to 30mbits/sec.

 

[samuil0000]

Are you sure you are not confusing MB/s and Mb/s?
It is possible that the servers you are downloading from are slow. When measuring internet speed you are automatically connected to the fastest server available to you.
You can check what is using bandwidth using the task manager > processes, click on network to sort by highest to lowest, but I don't think that is the problem.

 

[gggplaya]

3.5MB/s = 28mbps.

 

[DSzymborski]

3.5MB/s = 28mbps.

Well 28 Mbps. mbps would be millibyte, if you could have such a thing.

But the point on precision is accurate. Sadly, the OP has not yet returned to clarify.

 

[plasticbeans]

Hey there, thanks for the replies, as asked for I have attached my specifications. I did consider whether it was megabits per second but it is megabytes after looking into it. Apologies for the late reply, was away for a few days.


Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700KF 3.60 GHz
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)

Edit: I forgot to add my Motherboard Specification:
ASUS® PRIME B760-PLUS D4 (LGA1700, PCIe5.0, USB 3.2)

 

[bill001g]

Then everything is working as it should. This is where many of the tools confuse people into thinking there is something wrong when it is working properly. It would be nice if things were consistent.

It is very common for data downloads to use MBYTES because they only are concerned with the actual files you end up with. File sizes are always in bytes.

Numbers used in networking include all the overhead data used to get the data between the server and the client...things like the ip addresses take up space. This is why numbers from network test tools and downloads do not come out exactly at 8 times when you convert bytes to bits.

I am not sure why some game consoles use Mbits for downloads.

 

[gggplaya]

I'm assuming you have DSL internet or FTTC(Fiber to the cabinet, then DSL to the house), hence the 30Mbps speed? Is this correct?

Then the 3.5MB/s is correct for your internet speed. 3.5MB/s = 28Mbps.

 

[plasticbeans]

I'm assuming you have DSL internet or FTTC(Fiber to the cabinet, then DSL to the house), hence the 30Mbps speed? Is this correct?

Then the 3.5MB/s is correct for your internet speed. 3.5MB/s = 28Mbps.

Yes, we have a FTTC then DSL to the house. Unfortunately for our household, BT still haven't upgraded our area to fibre optic yet.

Thankyou for the clarification of speeds and connections, I will be planning on swapping out most (if not all) of our ethernet cables from Cat 5 to Cat 7 cables and then maybe contact my ISP to see if there are any other packages for higher speeds that aren't too pricey (Think we're already paying around £35p/m).

Thanks for all your replies, I've learned something new

 

[bill001g]

Don't waste your money on new cables. Cat7 was never finalized standard. You can get 1gbit on cat5e at the full 100meters. Cat5e can also run even 2.5g and 5g at short distances.

If you would want better cable you would buy cat6a which is rated for 10gbit at 100 meters but you will see no difference at all if you do not have 10gbit ports.

Your internet can not even use a 100mbps port so it is silly to worry about cables. If you had a issue with a cable it would cause data loss not a speed issue.

 

[gggplaya]

Yes, we have a FTTC then DSL to the house. Unfortunately for our household, BT still haven't upgraded our area to fibre optic yet.

Thankyou for the clarification of speeds and connections, I will be planning on swapping out most (if not all) of our ethernet cables from Cat 5 to Cat 7 cables and then maybe contact my ISP to see if there are any other packages for higher speeds that aren't too pricey (Think we're already paying around £35p/m).

Thanks for all your replies, I've learned something new

I don't think upgrading your house will help you at all. The bottleneck is the old copper telephone lines they're using from the Telco cabinet to your house. Those were originally designed and wired for telephone. They were never intended to carry data. But here we are today. The wire guage, length and twist rate limit the speeds to your house. When they originally quoted your a price, they likely did a speed test for the higher plan you could get without errors on your line.

For some reason cable tv never caught on in the UK as big as it did here in the United States. But in the 80's and 90's, they wired nearly every house for cable tv. The Coax cable from the power poles to the house can handle gigabit speed since the wire is thick and shielded. It was designed to transmit many channels of analog video. Cable Internet is where most American's get their internet at high speeds, in areas where fiber wasn't run directly to the home.

In the UK, I think Virgin Media tried to run cable tv to some areas. If your house is wired for coax, that's probably the only way to get high speed internet until they run FTTH. As it stands now, the UK is far behind most countries in terms of internet speed.