Simple Question on internet speed/bandwidth

[xxxlun4icexxx]

Alright, dumb question probably I know but I know nothing about networking really.


Currently my internet speed that I pay for is speeds up to 150 mpbs. If I go to Ookla and do a test I usually get 150ish download/10-15 upload.

So say I go to steam/origin/pretty much any place you can download a game, when I am downloading a game at 14/15mbps why does my ping all of the sudden sky rocket in a game like my network is insanely throttled? I guess I just don't get:

#1 why that happens

#2 what's the point of having a high download speed if when you're using a fraction (15mbps/150) everything else acts like you're on dial-up.

Always wondered, never asked.

 

[ss202sl]

is that 15 Mbps or 15 MBps? There's a difference. Steam on my system will use everything it can to download and update games.

 

[Snipergod87]

15MB/s is close to 150Mb/s (notice the change in case).
Steam measures downloads in MB/s, speedtest in Mb/s.
You are using your entire download rate.

 

[xxxlun4icexxx]

15MB/s is close to 150Mb/s (notice the change in case).
Steam measures downloads in MB/s, speedtest in Mb/s.

Ah ok that makes sense. My bad haha.

 

[failboat]

Networking equipment has a buffer. When you download @ max packets on the ISP network are coming in and if your line is full they will go to the buffer. When the buffer fills any packets that come in after that drop. When TCP drops it signals ACK0 the sender to reduce throughput. UDP packets just send and if they are dropped nothing happens. TCP gets resent with lower throughput. TCP constantly ramps throughput as successful ACKs come back.

Swamping the line is called bufferbloat. the increase in latency is from a packet sitting in buffer before coming. dropped packets will impact your game as well. both cause positions of people in games to be delayed. the dropped UDP ones might make it seem like they teleport. if you get a bunch of packets from the buffer then it might look like they are stuck then move really fast.

You can throttle steam downloads to 85% of your bandwidth and you will likely be fine.