Steam peaks at 2.8 Mbps, and SSD writes are down in the kilobytes per second. The drive doesn't show high active time, and I haven't set a download limit. Raising Steam's priority hasn't helped. What should I check?
Why is Steam downloading so slowly when my SSD is barely writing?
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u318~foldrule_5
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Start with an internet speed test and compare it with what Steam reports. Check the units too: Mbps is megabits per second, while MB/s is megabytes per second. At 2.8 Mbps, the theoretical maximum is only about 0.35 MB/s before overhead.
If other downloads are also slow, investigate the connection first. If they're much faster, focus on Steam's settings or download server.
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Check the download region in Steam's settings. Try a nearby region, then another one if there's no improvement. Server load can vary, especially around a big release. While you're there, double-check the bandwidth limit and any other download settings.
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Low disk writes don't necessarily mean the SSD is the problem. Steam downloads and unpacks files during installation, so check CPU usage as well as disk activity while it's running. A busy CPU can slow the rate at which it processes the download, even when the drive doesn't look maxed out.
If the network is consistently slow but neither the CPU nor disk is busy, the connection or download server is a more useful place to look.
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