Steam Download causing PC to stutter

[ProTyr]

Hey all

Wonder if anyone can assist me here,

Having a issue where, when i have steam set to unlimited download speed it causes my PC to stutter like mad, i run wallpaper engine and you can see the stutter (Visually but it can be felt using the system) in the wallpaper when a download is going and as soon as i pause it, its 100%.

I have checked the health of my m2 and that seems fine, i have formated to see if that fixes it but it didnt.
Ive Tried setting the download location to a second m2 in the system and same issue.

My Specs

12700k
32GB HyperX
RTX 4090
Samsung 980 1tb

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[ProTyr]

here is a Recording i did to show the issue:

 

[bunnypants]

You can try updating your network card's drivers and disable interrupt moderation and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Nyt Ryda]

Some applications might be more sensitive to Steam decompressing and writing data in the background.
I've experienced some stutters when Steam is doing that in the background while I'm playing certain games, I usually make sure to pause downloads while I play.

Is it the whole system? Have you tried without wallpaper engine to see if you can feel it?
I just tried the same on Steam with the same game (no wallpaper engine), and at 60MB/s downloads speed on my 13700K/Seagate 1TB PCIE 4.0 I feel zero stutter in Chrome or switching windows despite 40-50% performance core utilization on Windows 11.

 

[Wolfeh]

Is your steam library on the same drive as your OS(I would guess so based on the listed specs, just confirming)?

Drives tend to have a hard time when writing to multiple locations. I have a separate drive for steam, for this reason.

 

[ProTyr]

Is your steam library on the same drive as your OS(I would guess so based on the listed specs, just confirming)?

Drives tend to have a hard time when writing to multiple locations. I have a separate drive for steam, for this reason.

Ive tried on 2 diffrent Drives, one with OS one without both M2

 

[ProTyr]

Some applications might be more sensitive to Steam decompressing and writing data in the background.
I've experienced some stutters when Steam is doing that in the background while I'm playing certain games, I usually make sure to pause downloads while I play.

Is it the whole system? Have you tried without wallpaper engine to see if you can feel it?
I just tried the same on Steam with the same game (no wallpaper engine), and at 60MB/s downloads speed on my 13700K/Seagate 1TB PCIE 4.0 I feel zero stutter in Chrome or switching windows despite 40-50% performance core utilization on Windows 11.

Yeah as i siad the Wallpaper engine is there purly to shwo it happening but even without it running there is stutter in everything,, Moving windows, browsing etc etc

 

[eyetac]

Steam games are heavily compressed, so your CPU has to work hard to decompress, especially if you have a fast internet connection.

Found this:
i had this same issue i found a fix that worked for me. Open task manager. look at steam When ur downloading a game under POWER USAGE if it says very high/ high this is why you computer slows down.
to fix that go to your power management plan settings. and change your power plan to balanced. I had mine set to Ultimate performance which was why the whole computer would slow down. because steam was eating all my power. If ur power plan is on high performance just put it to balanced and see if that works.

 

[ProTyr]

Steam games are heavily compressed, so your CPU has to work hard to decompress, especially if you have a fast internet connection.

Found this:
i had this same issue i found a fix that worked for me. Open task manager. look at steam When ur downloading a game under POWER USAGE if it says very high/ high this is why you computer slows down.
to fix that go to your power management plan settings. and change your power plan to balanced. I had mine set to Ultimate performance which was why the whole computer would slow down. because steam was eating all my power. If ur power plan is on high performance just put it to balanced and see if that works.

No Luck, my steam is at Very High power but changing power plan does not fix it

 

[ProTyr]

can also add that the Audio stutters, ie if the wallpaper has audio you can here is stutter as well as the image

 

[ProTyr]

Video withh Audio:

 

[valiente]

100% something with your Hard Drive - Seeing spikes to 300ms response time is atrocious and probably not running on the correct PCI-E Lanes.

Where is your NVME plugged into?

 

[eyetac]

Ya, your internet speed is really fast, so steam is completely saturating your cpu with decompression.
Either limit your download speed so your cpu can rest a bit, or in task manager, set the cpu prioroty of your wallpaper thing to high priority.

I can imagine that wallpaper is quite a resource hog.
Maybe disable it whilst downloading?

 

[valiente]

Try download CrystalDiskMark and post the results.

Looking to see if the values match your expected results

 

[Areola Grande]

What speed is your line? Steam downloads and decompression can be VERY taxing on a CPU. The reason most people don't see this is because the connection is not that fast, but on a really fast line your can overwhelm a CPU quite easily.

 

[valiente]

Ya, your internet speed is really fast, so steam is completely saturating your cpu with decompression.
Either limit your download speed so your cpu can rest a bit, or in task manager, set the cpu prioroty of your wallpaper thing to high priority.

I can imagine that wallpaper is quite a resource hog.
Maybe disable it whilst downloading?

Doubt that is the issue here - I sometimes download from local Steam Cache and saturate Gigabit and I don't experience issues like that...

 

[eyetac]

Doubt that is the issue here - I sometimes download from local Steam Cache and saturate Gigabit and I don't experience issues like that...

I think he's noticing it because he's using this live wallpaper, which makes it noticeable.
an SSD issue wouldn't cause a stutter to this wallpaper that I presume is installed on his C Drive.

It may be by default installed as a 'low priority' service, in which case, it will definitely get less cycles from the cpu.

I set OPENRGB is a low priority on my gaming pc, and when I load up Jedi Survivor or run cinebench, the RGB animation stutters big time.

 

[J37]

Ya, your internet speed is really fast, so steam is completely saturating your cpu with decompression.
Either limit your download speed so your cpu can rest a bit, or in task manager, set the cpu prioroty of your wallpaper thing to high priority.

This isn't apples to apples, but I've used Steam local network game transfers and completely saturated a 2.5Gb connection. Didn't have any issues on the machine that was downloading or on the machine that the files were being pulled from.

Not saying you're wrong, I've got a few mates with 1Gb connections and none of them have the issue mentioned in the OP.

@Prokill out of curiosity try... *Download Process Lasso - This isn't a fix per se but I'm curious if anything changes.

Process Lasso - Steam
CPU Priority: Always > High
CPU Affinity: Always > Deselect CPU 0, but leave the rest selected
I/O Priority: Always > High

 

[eyetac]

This isn't apples to apples, but I've used Steam local network game transfers and completely saturated a 2.5Gb connection. Didn't have any issues on the machine that was downloading or on the machine that the files were being pulled from.

Not saying you're wrong, I've got a few mates with 1Gb connections and none of them have the issue mentioned in the OP.

@Prokill out of curiosity try... *Download Process Lasso - This isn't a fix per se but I'm curious if anything changes.

Process Lasso - Steam
CPU Priority: Always > High
CPU Affinity: Always > Deselect CPU 0, but leave the rest selected
I/O Priority: Always > High

Local game transters isn't the same as downloading steams highly compressed files though.


Local game transfer is just a copy.

 

[J37]

Local game transters isn't the same as downloading steams highly compressed files though.


Local game transfer is just a copy.

It downloads the game, as if it was downloading via the net. It doesn't copy the files. It still compresses & decompresses as it would do normally. Host machine CPU, CPU in the machine that's downloading and network gear all effect download speed. I went from a 9600K to a 9900K in the host machine and doubled my download speed on the download machine (now limited by network speed). It's been a while since I've used this feature, but IIRC the host machine CPU completely maxes out doing the transfer and with that said I never experienced any stutter/lag on it. Again, not saying you're wrong, 12700K is a decent CPU and I would be surprised if its struggling because of a 1Gb connection.

To add: Both machines mentioned above were using m.2 drives (not an important point, but relevant).

 

[valiente]

I think he's noticing it because he's using this live wallpaper, which makes it noticeable.
an SSD issue wouldn't cause a stutter to this wallpaper that I presume is installed on his C Drive.

It may be by default installed as a 'low priority' service, in which case, it will definitely get less cycles from the cpu.

I set OPENRGB is a low priority on my gaming pc, and when I load up Jedi Survivor or run cinebench, the RGB animation stutters big time.

He strictly says it is not just the Live Wallpaper that is stuttering, it is the entire machine - It is just easier to show us on the Live Wallpaper.

Live Wallpaper or not, that does not seem normal to feel any kind of stutter on a machine like that, no matter what you are downloading.

 

[ProTyr]

He strictly says it is not just the Live Wallpaper that is stuttering, it is the entire machine - It is just easier to show us on the Live Wallpaper.

Live Wallpaper or not, that does not seem normal to feel any kind of stutter on a machine like that, no matter what you are downloading.

Yeah alot of people are blaming Wallpaper engine here and i need to make it clear this happens even with it off but there is no way i can show you without using wallpaper engine to show the stutter

 

[ProTyr]

This isn't apples to apples, but I've used Steam local network game transfers and completely saturated a 2.5Gb connection. Didn't have any issues on the machine that was downloading or on the machine that the files were being pulled from.

Not saying you're wrong, I've got a few mates with 1Gb connections and none of them have the issue mentioned in the OP.

@Prokill out of curiosity try... *Download Process Lasso - This isn't a fix per se but I'm curious if anything changes.

Process Lasso - Steam
CPU Priority: Always > High
CPU Affinity: Always > Deselect CPU 0, but leave the rest selected
I/O Priority: Always > High

This seems to fix the issue, i reverted and it happens again as soon as i apply the settings it stops.

Thanks for that, is there a long term solution without the need for CPU lasso ?

 

[J37]

This seems to fix the issue, i reverted and it happens again as soon as i apply the settings it stops.

Thanks for that, is there a long term solution without the need for CPU lasso ?

I'm not sure tbh. You can do the same via Task Manager, but every time you restart your machine or close/open Steam the settings will reset.

Process Lasso is technically the long term solution as it applies those settings everytime you start your machine. I can't remember if you need to buy a Process Lasso license though (don't think you do).