Why Is My NVMe Drive So Slow When Steam Installs or Patches Games?
Asked by
MapleQuill47
My Transcend TS1TMTE110Q NVMe drive takes hours to install or patch games through Steam, even when the patch should only take a few minutes. Write speeds fluctuate between roughly 20 and 200 MB/s, while I expected closer to 1,500 MB/s. During downloads or benchmarks, the drive reaches about 80–83°C, although it idles around 65°C. My CPU and GPU are not blowing hot air directly onto it, and the case has decent airflow. Would adding an inexpensive heatsink solve the slow write speeds, or could something else be wrong?
Answers
A cheap heatsink could make a noticeable difference because the drive is reaching around 83°C, while its listed operating range reportedly tops out near 70°C. However, cooling alone may not turn Steam’s 10 MB/s patching into 1,500 MB/s. Game updates often involve reading, unpacking, and rewriting many files, and this budget drive can be particularly slow during that kind of sustained or random workload. Check free space, drive health, and whether the slowdown continues in a direct disk benchmark.
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The TS1TMTE110Q is an entry-level NVMe drive, so its advertised peak speed may only apply briefly under ideal conditions. Sustained writes can drop sharply once its cache fills, especially with a nearly full drive. Keep at least 10–20% of the capacity free, check the drive’s health with a SMART tool, and test it with a sustained benchmark rather than relying only on Steam. Temperatures above the rated range can also cause throttling, so make sure the drive has airflow and consider a basic M.2 heatsink.
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