Ever noticed how downloading games on Steam can slow down your entire internet? When you download a game from Steam, the client uses all the bandwidth to download the game as soon as possible. For example, with my 100 Mbps connection, Steam easily maxes out the bandwidth, leaving other activities like browsing and streaming slow and sluggish. If you want to be able to browse the internet or stream videos while Steam is downloading the game(s) in the background, you can set up a bandwidth limit in Steam. In this article, weβll show you the simplest way to limit the Steam download speed. Letβs get started.
Steps to Limit Steam Download Speed
These are the steps you should follow to limit Steam client download speed.
Open the Steam client by searching for it in the Start menu.
Go to the Steam > Settings.
Navigate to the Downloads tab.
Turn on the Limit Download Speed toggle.
Enter the bandwidth limit you want to set in kilobits (kbps) format in the Enter limit in kilobits per second field.
And there you have it! From now on, the Steam client will limit the download speed. You can instantly see the bandwidth throttling on the Steam downloads page. Since I chose to limit Steam client to use only 50 Mbps, the effective download speed is around 5 MBs per second. That means I have the additional 50 Mbps bandwidth for other internet activities like browsing and streaming.
Remove Steam Download Limit
To revert and remove the download limit in the Steam client, open Steam settings by clicking Steam > Settings, navigate to the Downloads tab, and turn off the Limit Download Speed toggle.
Download Speed β Kbps & Mbps VS KBps & MBps
Most internet service providers (ISPs) advertise their speed either in Kbps (Kilobits per second) or Mbps (Megabits per second). To find the download speed in KBps (Kilobytes per second) and MBps (Megabytes per second) divide the advertised internet speed by 8.
For example, if you have a 100 Mbps connection then the effective download speed you get from your internet service provider is 100/8 = 12.5 Megabytes (MBps) per second. The same example is applicable even if your speed is designated in Kbps. When divided, you will get effective speed in KBps.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, limiting download speed in Steam is far easier than you think. Unlike in the older Steam client, you donβt need to edit config files to limit the download speed. All you have to do is select a enter the download speed and you are done. Though the option is buried deep within the settings, once you know where to find it, things are really easy.
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