Download speeds lower than what speed test shows, and more issues with online gaming.

moontruther

Prominent
Sep 29, 2017
1
0
510
Hello, basically, I have a 50 down and 25 up internet speed, yet, I don't feel like I do. When I do speedtests, I get results like this - https://i.imgur.com/EMOkyHH.png

But, when I download say, torrents, Highest speeds I get are 1.7-2mb/s and that's with high seeded torrents and high bandwidth allocation. Issue isn't only with torrents, Steam too. On Steam it goes anywhere between 1mb-2mb/s, I just can't get past 2mb/s on any platform at any time. Even with online games, I get normal ping but then my ping just spikes and I get stutters, on any game, and any server. Obviously only me, otherwise it would be a server issue. I do speedtest just when i'm getting those spikes and my down speed is always anywhere from 20 to 48mb/s, I highly doubt Valve servers a little over 200 miles away from me need more than 50mb/s..
 
Solution
Your ISP and speedtest.net report in megabits
Steam reports in megabytes

Approx 8:1 ratio. Plus, it is whatever Steam can serve up to you, not what you can accept.

Numbers from torrenting is worse than useless as a benchmark.

svalbaard

Honorable
Aug 30, 2013
89
3
10,665
So you need to consider infrastructure. You may be getting good speed test results, but these sorts of online tests hit dedicated and optimised low load servers. In terms of actual services such as Steam or other gaming services, your ping results will always be be marginally better because a "ping" will generally hit a perimeter firewall, router, load balancer or other edge domain controller in a DMZ somewhere, rather than the ACTUAL server that is serving your content.

Torrents will always be much slower due to the nature of how the content is seeded, and presumably the lower end server or network infrasrtucture used to host the files in the first place.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Your ISP and speedtest.net report in megabits
Steam reports in megabytes

Approx 8:1 ratio. Plus, it is whatever Steam can serve up to you, not what you can accept.

Numbers from torrenting is worse than useless as a benchmark.
 
Solution