Steam game downloads unstable on this PC only. | CyberPowerPC UK | Page 1

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:24 PM

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Every time I download a game, there's this weird issue where it drops to 0Mbps to 500Mbps and up (My internet can go up to 1Gbps). And it does this almost every second where the download goes and and dips for some time, which makes games I usually download in 15 minutes take 40 minutes or an hour instead. This is only on Steam for some reason, I tried Epic Games and it downloads just fine. My computer for some reason always struggle to download games on Steam which is the one platform I wish I didn't have any issues on.

On the screenshot you can see it doesn't reach its normal speeds and just has a lot of frequent dips. I have no idea how to fix this and why it only occurs on my PC. It doesn't sound like a hardware issue because other places can download things easily.

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My specs:
Ryzen 7 5800x
RTX 3070
32GB RAM

SSD: WD SN570 (1TB)
Using an MSI motherboard (AM4)

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This has been a year long issue I tried to ignore but its starting to be really bothersome

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 1:40 PM

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what are your installing them onto

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look to me your downloading them fast but taking time to move files to desired location

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:47 PM

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I'm downloading them to my SSD

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 1:47 PM

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do u have a 2nd?

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:48 PM

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Yeah but its a Hard Drive, Steam and every game downloads is in my SSD

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 1:49 PM

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also cpu could be one of the reasons steam like to Compressed the file sizes so it needs to be uncompressed normally this is done by your cpu

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:49 PM

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hmm

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 1:51 PM

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also steam likes using other drives so check if the other drive is in use

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for example when installing updates if the drive doesnt have the space for the whole game it likes to download it onto another drive then move it back

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steam sometimes sucks

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:52 PM

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just checked nothing related to steam is in my hard drive

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 1:52 PM

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it doesnt keep the files there

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it just uses it to install updates

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for example main drive is nearly full so it downloads onto my 2nd one then move its over

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also a good network card could be used to higher your download speed as for install speed thats something u need to find out

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:55 PM

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is there no way of stopping that

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 1:55 PM

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it might not be doing it could be just slow decommression and installiom

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am just giving u some areas to check mate

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task manager will let u no if it using ur other drive when sinstallation and u can check cpu usage there

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in the picture i see its stops download to install the files

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 1:59 PM

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I see on task manager the SSD is always at 100%

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HDD on 0

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Even the fan goes up when it starts downloading

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then goes quiet when it dips

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:00 PM

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how big is this game

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:00 PM

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around 70GB

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:00 PM

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tbh 40 mins isnt too bad

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what network card u got

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are u wireless or wired

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:01 PM

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the ETA isn't accurate

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:01 PM

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because it sounds like it downloads fast but installs slower

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:01 PM

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it doesn't take account for this issue and it has been 40 minutes already and its only at 30%

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:01 PM

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umm

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check what ur pc does once its installing

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going out for food ill check back later

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:03 PM

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when the dips happens and everything goes quiet, the read speed goes down to 8MB/s

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:03 PM

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check to see if 2nd drive is working

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:04 PM

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nope its not, everything at 0

robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:04 PM

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cpu high?

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:04 PM

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not really

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robust warren Apr 28, 2026, 2:29 PM

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Is it all being used by steam?

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:44 PM

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robust warren Is it all being used by steam?

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yeah, this is what me pausing the download did

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it went down a lot

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this is weird, after unpausing it the download is working fine

tropic sinewBOT Apr 28, 2026, 2:48 PM

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cprgbglitch :tada: Congrats @gusty salmon, you levelled up to 6! :tada:

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 2:48 PM

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oh i spoke to soon it dipped back to 0 again

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but i learnt something, when it was working normally for a couple seconds, my SSD wasn't running at 100%, more like 20 or 30

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now the download started to dip, SSD went to 100%

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its like its trying to catch up

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or the download process is too fast for it to handle

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but that never happens anywhere else which is confusing

exotic birch Apr 28, 2026, 2:57 PM

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@topaz moss is this typical on m.2 when downloading from steam or potentially faulty?

topaz moss Apr 28, 2026, 3:06 PM

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exotic birch <@755698397201301504> is this typical on m.2 when downloading from steam or pote...

If it's JUST steam then it's most likely steam servers

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I wouldn't assume hardware if it's not affecting other downloads

exotic birch Apr 28, 2026, 3:07 PM

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Agreed. Ok cool @gusty salmon follow the message I sent you in general as below:

Go steam (top left on steam(-> settings -> downloads -> download region -> find closest one to you the restart steam

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Try not to mix up General chat when you have a thread open^ if you’ve not had a response for a couple days, feel free to ping us (mods) - the official support channels are way quicker. Will list these below

tropic sinewBOT Apr 28, 2026, 3:07 PM

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Customer Support

:telephone: 0333 323 7776
:e_mail: sales@cyberpowersystem.co.uk
:clock3: Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:30pm

Please ensure to include as much information about your query as possible, and ensure to include your order number if you require after-sales support.

gusty salmon Apr 28, 2026, 3:51 PM

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I don't know how but that seemed to fix it

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I normally use London - UK

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because its the closest to where I live

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but the issue was that server

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moving it to Manchester - UK fixed it

exotic birch Apr 28, 2026, 4:14 PM

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gusty salmon moving it to Manchester - UK fixed it

Yeah Manchester is less traffic probably. But I use Manchester too

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We will consider that a cheat code I guess haha

#Steam game downloads unstable on this PC only.