[SOLVED] Steam is using 20-50% of my CPU when downloading

[j.gumienski305]

Anytime I start to download something on steam, it and Avast Service combined take up like 80-100% of my CPU usage which I feel is a lot especially for my CPU. Even when Avast is disabled for steam still takes up a good 30%. When I tested on my friends computer with similar specs, his steam used a maximum of 10%, averaging around 5%.

My temperatures for my CPU average about 50 C, so the temperature isn't a problem.

My specs for my computer are:
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Intel Core i7 7700k clocked at 4.4GHz with 1.2v
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) Desktop Memory Model F4-2400C15D-16GVR
MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon
Radeon RX 580 8GB base clock
500GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO
1TB Seagate ST1000DM003-1ER162
1TB Western Digital WDC WD10EZEX-00WN4A0
PSU is Corsair CX750M

 

[shmoochie]

What happens when you completely disable avast? Most of the threads I am reading blame various antivirus software because they are ignoring steam exceptions only while downloading. I also found this solutions if you want to give it a try: https://appuals.com/computer-hangslags-when-downloading-from-steam/

 

[j.gumienski305]

Okay so I did that and it did seem to drop the usage down by quite a bit, but now steam is downloading a lot slower than it should. For example I usually pull about 40-50 MB/s and now it's like 5 - 15 MB/s

 

[shmoochie]

If you are talking about disabling HPET, then I have no idea why that would result in slower internet. It is basically a small clock attached to a register that acts as a more stable real time clock for synchronizing certain tasks. It is not really used in Windows 10 unless software is written for it, but Steam sometimes uses it for certain tasks. It basically timestamps information so that the cpu can organize and find it in registers.

Are all downloads on the computer slower now, or is it just Steam?

 

[j.gumienski305]

Okay steam is back to using 30+ CPU percentage and UPLAY has the lowered download speed for me as well.