How to limit the download speed of Steam

If you are new to Steam, you will find that when downloading, downloading a game will make your network system slow down a lot. This reason comes from the fact that when Steam downloads the game, the Client will use almost 100% of the Internet bandwidth to bring the game to the computer in the fastest way.

In this case, if you only use one device connected to the Internet, there will be no problem, but if you use many devices, the other devices will have super slow network speeds. To solve this problem, you must set up Steam's download speed limit (Download) so that other devices still have enough bandwidth to connect to the Internet during Steam's game download.

1. How to limit the download speed of Steam Client

Step 1: Open the Steam application on your computer. Then, select Steam => Settings to view the settings of the Steam Client.

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Step 2: The Settings window will give you a lot of different settings, but we are looking for a way to limit the Download speed, so we will select the Download item in the list on the left.

The Download section of the Steam Client appears, then find the line Limit Bandwidth to - Limit bandwidth when Downloading and tick them.

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Step 3: At this point, the Enter a new value below dialog box will appear and this is the place to help you limit Steam's Download speed.

When you enter download speed limits, remember that they use KB/s and you must convert if you want to enter the exact speed you want. The table to convert units GB/s, MB/s to KB/s is as follows:

1. 1 GB/s = 1000 MB/s = 1,000,000 KB/s
2. 1 MB/s = 1000 KB/s

For example: If you want to limit Steam's Download speed to 2 MB/s, enter 2000 in the Enter a new value below field.

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Step 4: When you have set the Download speed limit parameter to complete, select Apply to apply the changes and select OK to finish the installation.

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This is our result after limiting Steam's Download speed, you will see the system display the message: 'Throttling Limited To…'.

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2. How to choose the right download speed limit for Steam

If you do not know that you need to limit Steam's download speed accordingly, you have to calculate a bit between the network speed of the package you are using and your needs:

Step 1: You proceed to access SpeedTest and click Go to check the current network speed.

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Step 2: After having the Download speed of the network you are using, you proceed to set up Steam's Download speed limit.

Normally, for other devices or other network tasks to work stably, without too much lag, you should set Steam's Download speed to 50% of the Download speed of the Internet in use.

For example: The network you are using has a Download speed of about 64000 Kbps – equivalent to 8000 KB/s (to convert to KB/s, please divide by 8). In this case you need to set the Download speed limit for Steam to 4000 KB/s.

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3. How to Remove Steam's Download Speed ​​Limit

In case you hang up at night to download heavy games, you should remove Steam's Download speed limit to achieve the fastest system speed. Removing the Download speed limit is very simple, you just need to uncheck the Limit Bandwidth To box.

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With Steam's download and download speed limit, you will have a stable network connection for other devices if you share the same network connection. Besides, your surfing, web browsing while playing games is not affected too much when Steam Client updates games and downloads games. Hope these useful sharing will help you have a better experience for Steam!

Lesley Montoya

Update 11 July 2021