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General discussionThere is Definitely Something Wrong With Download Speeds Here.(65 posts)(65 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 12, 2024
So I decided to give this a shot and yeah, it's definitely a browser issue. I tested this with Battlefront II (Classic) and downloading through the browser, the download speed was pretty low. However, the apples to apples comparison using Galaxy and Steam gave me similar speeds. Personally, it's not an issue since using Galaxy is just much easier anyway.
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Posted June 12, 2024
There is no clear answer to this. For some users it is faster, for some Browsers it is faster...

Maybe some US servers are limiting download speeds over browser... i can only guess. Still... using a rather rare Firefox, my download speed is fine. Most likely the speed is dictated by the local servers but it is not a general GoG issue.
Posted June 12, 2024
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StingingVelvet: Can't speak to the website, but when I download offline installers through Galaxy I get 50MB/s usually. Same as Steam, roughly. Maybe it's another example of them prioritizing the client though, I dunno.
In another speed discussion someone pointed out that the clients (Galaxy included) may use multithreaded downloads by default, while with a browser you download with one thread per file. That could explain also the speed difference.

I seem to be getting around 20-25 MBytes/sec browser (Edge) download speeds (downloading only one file) both at home and at work for GOG offline installers. Fast enough for me even if it is not capping my 600Mbit/s connection.

I recall I tested some months ago also all the different client downloads (Galaxy, Steam, EA, UPlay, Epic), and I recall Galaxy was among the speediest with them, not to be ashamed, at least when downloading/installing games with it (not downloading offline installers). Downloading offline installers with it seemed at least somewhat speedier too, but as said, it was possibly downloading several files at the same time in different threads, so not directly comparable to downloading one file with a browser.

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Mixcoatli: So I decided to give this a shot and yeah, it's definitely a browser issue. I tested this with Battlefront II (Classic) and downloading through the browser, the download speed was pretty low. However, the apples to apples comparison using Galaxy and Steam gave me similar speeds. Personally, it's not an issue since using Galaxy is just much easier anyway.
To make the test more relevant, you should have tried to download several files (e.g. 4) at the same time with the browser because the client (Galaxy or Steam) is most probably using several download threads as well.
Post edited June 12, 2024 by timppu
Posted June 12, 2024
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OldFatGuy: I have seen multiple posts about this lately, and of course have seen the multitudes of responders saying "It's basically your fault" to those that post it.
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timppu: I haven't gotten such an impression. Lower download speeds seem to affect some areas, and it is indeed interesting some people seem to get servers in the Fastly CDN lottery that are on other continents, like the Slovenian person who for some reason seems to connect to some US server.

I don't know what is the logic with the server selection, how does it select one. I always seem to get the closest Fastly server which is located in my country, and I am fine with the speeds.

Check your "browser download server" location with these instructions (remember to use the IP-number, not the host/domain name):

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/what_is_happening_with_download_speeds_on_the_offline_backup_files_its_a_snails_pace_now/post11

That is:

In Windows command prompt, type:

nslookup gog-cdn-fastly.gog.com

Take the IP address from the output, and check its location with e.g. https://www.ipaddress.com/ip-lookup

Also to note, I think there are two different discussions regarding the speeds. Some are getting very abysmal speeds and even broken connections, e.g. 500kbit/sec or such. Those are most probably something at the user's end, e.g. their firewall or virus scanner or ISP affecting it.

Yours however, with a 5 Mbytes/sec download speeds, is probably at GOG's end, ie. either you are not connecting to the nearest server in the CDN lottery, or GOG is deliberately throttling web page downloads to 5 MBytes/sec per file download (I've seen such practice with many web pages, you get e.g. 5MBytes/sec per file download, so if you download e.g. three files at the same time, you get 15Mbytes/sec speed combined, 3x5Mbytes/sec).

It would be convenient to blame your ISP for throttling downloads to 5Mbytes/sec per file for non-Steam and non-Netflix sites, but then it should affect also Nexusmods and such. In Thailand I recognized that the ISP would limit downloads from abroad to much slower speeds, ie. if the server was abroad, it would be capped to certain limit, but if the server was located in Thailand, it would be much faster. Or at least that's how it seemed to me.

While it is not optimal, at least 5 Mbytes/sec is still pretty respectable speed, ie. you can still download stuff from GOG. I used GOG for a long time limited to 1.1Mbytes/sec download speeds (10Mbit/s), upgraded to 600Mbit/sec line but I have actually thought about downgrading my internet to 25Mbit/sec (around 3 Mbytes/sec?) line because it would be free of charge for me. If I occasionally need faster download speeds, I can use my mobile phone for tethering which can reach 100Mbit/sec, or my wife's phone which can reach 300Mbit/s I think (of course it would be a bit silly that my fixed internet connection is many times slower than my mobile phone data connection, but there you have it...).

I am not saying you should be happy with your 5Mbytes/sec download speed from GOG, just that it could be worse, ie. GOG might be totally unusable for you.

I just tested my browser (Edge in Windows 11) download speed from GOG, and I am getting around 25Mbytes/sec with a single file download. So yeah, at least it doesn't seem to affect all areas for GOG, ie. if it is GOG throttling the downloads to e.g. 5Mbytes/sec per file, I am not seeing that behavior. Anyway, I suggest:

1. Check which server you will connect with your browser downloads.

2. If you are using Windows, consider testing downloading the offline installers with Galaxy, in case it gives you much better download speeds, as it seems to many people. (I still get good download speeds with a browser, but I recall Galaxy would give me even higher download speed when I tested it earlier; maybe Galaxy is a multithreaded downloader?).
Oh i had to use command promt and not website nslookup. Didn't know that before.
Anyway i got the ip and it's in Italy as it seems the fastly.
Europe
Country Italy (IT)
State Lombardy, Milan (MI)
City Milan

Also downloading more files at once doesn't improve speeds in browser.
I wonder what was different what kind of cdn gog used before the summer problems in year 2023 that browser speeds were 20-24 megabytes per second on edge browser.
Post edited June 12, 2024 by Fonzer
Posted June 12, 2024
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timppu: In another speed discussion someone pointed out that the clients (Galaxy included) may use multithreaded downloads by default, while with a browser you download with one thread per file. That could explain also the speed difference.
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But I tested for that, just using the browser for both GOG and NexusMods. Both using a browser, with screenshots above, with NexusMods using just the browser about 42 MB/sec and GOG using just the browser about 5 MB/sec.
Posted June 12, 2024
I just did it again, with new screenshots. GOG and Nexusmods. Both using the same browser. And I circled the time stamp to show I did it one right after the other (it takes me a minute or two to go through the PrintScreen, Paste into Paint, then save to JPG.because using the snip tool makes the box showing speeds disappear)

GOG - 3.4 MB/sec
Nexus - 49.0 MB/sec
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Posted June 13, 2024
I gave it two other tries. I tried BF2 Classic again and another one. BF2 Classic was consistently slower for me using Vivaldi versus Galaxy or Steam. I did notice however that re-downloading the game in the morning through Vivaldi was significantly faster than last night. Galaxy was consistently faster too, averaging 38 MB/s versus the 25 or 26 from last night. I tried it with another double-dipped game and the results were similar: slower using a browser, much faster using a launcher. It didn't matter if I downloaded a single or multiple files simultaneously. So yeah, I have no idea what's going on with the browser downloads.

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timppu: To make the test more relevant, you should have tried to download several files (e.g. 4) at the same time with the browser because the client (Galaxy or Steam) is most probably using several download threads as well.
I'm going to assume you meant to say more accurate and not relevant since it is already relevant to the OP, that browser download speeds are slower.
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Posted June 13, 2024
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timppu: To make the test more relevant, you should have tried to download several files (e.g. 4) at the same time with the browser because the client (Galaxy or Steam) is most probably using several download threads as well.
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Mixcoatli: I'm going to assume you meant to say more accurate and not relevant since it is already relevant to the OP, that browser download speeds are slower.
It is not about "accuracy" (but relevancy) if you are comparing apples to oranges (ie. downloading in one thread instead of several).

Sure they are both still fruits, but still...

What is still relevant is if you get much higher download speeds downloading in one thread from e.g. Nexusmods (as the OP stated as an example). That is a relevant comparison. There the reason might be that the GOG Fastly CDN server is throttling each download thread to certain value, or that server is on another continent, or such.

I downloaded some big files from another web site the other day. There it was quite clear they were limiting each download thread to 5 MBytes/sec because that was exactly what I was getting when downloading one file, and when I downloaded three at the same time I got a combined 15 MBytes/sec download speed. It could be the same at least for some GOG Fastly servers.

For me, downloading a GOG offline installer from a GOG Fastly server located in Helsinki, Finland, I get pretty much around 25 MBytes/sec for a single file browser download, both from my home and work. So at least it doesn't seem to be any global phenomenon that the single download thread might be limited to a certain pretty low value (with GOG).

I presume in most cases the reason is that for some reason people get connected to GOG (Fastly) CDN servers that are far away from them, like the Slovenian person who is for some reason connecting to an US server.
Post edited June 13, 2024 by timppu
Posted June 13, 2024
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OldFatGuy: I just did it again, with new screenshots. GOG and Nexusmods. Both using the same browser. And I circled the time stamp to show I did it one right after the other (it takes me a minute or two to go through the PrintScreen, Paste into Paint, then save to JPG.because using the snip tool makes the box showing speeds disappear)

GOG - 3.4 MB/sec
Nexus - 49.0 MB/sec
I don't know if you tried it already, but:

1. Did you check to which CDN server GOG connects you, as per the instructions I gave earlier? Just to make sure GOG is not connecting you to some Taiwanese or Australian download server.

2. What kind of (combined) download speed do you get if you download 3 or 4 of those GOG game files at the same time? Is it still limited to e.g. under 4 MBytes/sec, or is the download speed effectively multiplied? If so, that would suggest GOG is throttling each download thread in your case.

Now that you mentioned it, I need to check if Nexusmods would give that high download speeds in one thread, downloading that same New Vegas texture pack. I don't recall ever getting 50MBytes/sec browser download speeds ever, even though I have a 600Mbit/s (75MBytes/sec?) internet line. That seems exceptionally good, especially for a free site like Nexusmods...

I guess this is the link, downloading some big file from there:

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43135?tab=files

EDIT: Oh, scratch that. It seems Nexusmods does require you to pay up if you want download speeds of over 1.5 Mbytes/sec (sometimes it lists that limit as 3 MBytes/sec, go figure why it keeps changing)... So apparently you have a paid Premiun account on Nexusmods then? Premium account apparently gives you multithreaded downloads as well.
Post edited June 13, 2024 by timppu
Posted June 13, 2024
Gog wants more people to use galaxy so there's a good chance they limit browser download speed
Post edited June 13, 2024 by Quantum_Quark
Posted June 13, 2024
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Quantum_Quark: Gog wants more people to use galaxy so there's a good chance they limit browser download speed
In my case they seem to "limit" it to 25 Mbytes/sec per file, so there is no great incentive for me to use Galaxy instead.
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OldFatGuy: EDIT: That's what, 13 times faster??? Good luck competing with that. Although perhaps with Galaxy the numbers are closer. Probably not a fair comparison with a Steam client that obviously has some download advantages versus a plain browser. I can't comment on that because I've never even installed Galaxy once.
If this is a genuine problem for you, shouldn't you try Galaxy then, in case you get much better download speeds there, be it due to multithreaded downloads or whatever?

I don't really use Galaxy either but that didn't stop me from installing it anyway, just to test if there are differences in download speeds. Downloading games (offline installers) with lots of parts is much easier on Galaxy anyway because you need to click only once to download all the files, not several times like with a browser.
Post edited June 13, 2024 by timppu
Posted June 13, 2024
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timppu: In my case they seem to "limit" it to 25 Mbytes/sec per file, so there is no great incentive for me to use Galaxy instead.
You're one of the lucky ones

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timppu: Downloading games (offline installers) with lots of parts is much easier on Galaxy anyway because you need to click only once to download all the files, not several times like with a browser.
Much work to do extra mouse clicks? I think the world's gotten a bit too soft
Even if galaxy is a tad easier there are other things to deal with, like the way galaxy auto starts when running a game
Post edited June 13, 2024 by Quantum_Quark
Posted June 13, 2024
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timppu: In my case they seem to "limit" it to 25 Mbytes/sec per file, so there is no great incentive for me to use Galaxy instead.
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Quantum_Quark: You're one of the lucky ones
Hard to say as there has been no poll, whether poor or ok download speeds are the norm with GOG browser downloads. Generally only those who have download (speed) issues voice their opinion on the matter.

Also, it might just as well be that the people using a browser for GOG downloads are already in the minority. Hard to say for sure.

I normally use gogrepoc.py once a month or less to download all my GOG (English Windows) offline installers (to clarify, download of course only updated or new files, not all games from scratch every time). I presume those are registered as browser downloads, I don't think gogrepoc uses the Galaxy API to download the games, even if that might be possible too if I've understood right.

If I decide to try out a GOG game, I probably download it with a browser (instead of installing straight from my own local GOG installer repository), just to make sure I am running the latest version of the game, and not a month(s) old version that I have on my GOG installer hard drive.

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timppu: Downloading games (offline installers) with lots of parts is much easier on Galaxy anyway because you need to click only once to download all the files, not several times like with a browser.
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Quantum_Quark: Much work to do extra mouse clicks? I think the world's gotten a bit too soft
Even if galaxy is a tad easier there are other things to deal with, like the way galaxy auto starts when running a game
With some games the extra clicks can be very exhausting, e.g. Cyberpunk with 28 + 11 = 39 parts, or Baldur's Gate 3 with 33 parts. Just to download one game. With games like that, I rather use the local installer which I've already downloaded with gogrepoc.py.

As for Galaxy being autolaunched with offline-installed GOG games, I agree that can be annoying if you don't want it to launch. At least there are ways around that, but of course that also is extra effort, so one must decide which is a bigger drawback, slower download speeds and having to click 39 times to download Cyberpunk + Phantom Liberty, or having to create a direct shortcut to the game exe in order not to launch Galaxy with the game.

EDIT: As I keep saying, I wish GOG would enable the possibility to download the offline installers, or maybe even the Galaxy-installed versions, of the games with optional p2p (peer-to-peer). Just like Humble Store lets you optionally use a torrent client for downloading your offline installers, instead of the direct download links from their servers.

That should help many people who have speed issues with the direct browser downloads. The downside would again be that they'd have to use an additional download client (e.g. a torrent client) for those downloads, not a browser client, but as long as p2p was optional, not forced...
Post edited June 13, 2024 by timppu
Posted June 13, 2024
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timppu: With some games the extra clicks can be very exhausting, e.g. Cyberpunk with 28 + 11 = 39 parts, or Baldur's Gate 3 with 33 parts. Just to download one game. With games like that, I rather use the local installer which I've already downloaded with gogrepoc.py.
To me that's not hard work, hell I would click that many times in a few minutes while playing Diablo
Still I can understand if some people want to avoid it, like those with carpal tunnel or large game collections

edit;
could gogrepo be giving you better dl speeds via extra threads or such?
Post edited June 13, 2024 by Quantum_Quark
Posted June 13, 2024
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Quantum_Quark: edit;
could gogrepo be giving you better dl speeds via extra threads or such?
It lets you decide yourself in how many threads it tries to download (different) files at the same time. I think the default is 4, I don't think having more than that helps anyway, I have actually set it to 2 or 3.

I guess I am getting similar download speeds with gogrepoc as I am getting with a browser (when downloading several files at the same time), but then I don't seem to have an issue with browser downloads either. I presume if I did, I would get similar results with gogrepoc as it uses the same interface as a browser to download your stuff, as I've understood. So from GOG's perspective, I guess gogrepoc appears as yet another browser doing its stuff.

I am not sure about lgogdownloader, I have gotten impression it might use the Galaxy API to interact with GOG, not sure if it would affect the download speeds as well ie. it is downloading for "Galaxy servers" and not the servers that a browser uses; I've been under the impression they are two different set of download servers.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionThere is Definitely Something Wrong With Download Speeds Here.(65 posts)(65 posts)
(65 posts)