Downloading a game and playing one at the same time

[pcslookout]

How many people here do this ? What kind of hardware do you truly need to be able to do this without any slowdown ?

Processor wise, disk wise, ram wise, etc ?

Example Intel i5, Intel i7, SSD 256 GB, SSD 512 GB, 8 GB of ram, 16 GB of ram, etc ?

I know it is not done often but when it is what kind of system is best to have when doing it ?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

You want a fast internet connection. I have 50mb and I can DL something and play something else online with a small slowdown. My machine is pretty old Q9650 8GB new ssd.
The real question is what game and how large of a download. Plus what you are willing to tolerate, game slowdowns are very subjective.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Most games can spare a bit of CPU to handle saving to disk if you have an i5 or i7.

But if you're playing anything online then like Fanatical Meat said having a fast connection is the important part. Having an SSD will also help for not stalling on level loads while trying to write the downloaded data.

 

[pcslookout]

Thanks guys I already have a i5 2500k overclocked, SSD, fast internet and 8 GB of ram so thought maybe I need something else to help more.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Also, even with fast internet if the downloader grabs 100% of the bandwidth then an online game could stall.

I don't think Steam gives you an option to limit its use, but I could be wrong.

 

[pcslookout]

Also, even with fast internet if the downloader grabs 100% of the bandwidth then an online game could stall.

I don't think Steam gives you an option to limit its use, but I could be wrong.

True that is why I use cFos Speed!

 

[Red Storm]

You certainly can throttle download speed in Steam.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

You certainly can throttle download speed in Steam.

Thanks I've noticed it does do some balancing on its own.

 

[KentState]

Steam seems to pause downloads when you start a game for me. Never been in a big enough hurry to force it to download.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Steam seems to pause downloads when you start a game for me. Never been in a big enough hurry to force it to download.

You can right click a paused download and start it again but agreed I almost never do it.

 

[cbrunny]

do this often. never had any problem that was noticeable.

 

[Sabrewings]

Steam seems to pause downloads when you start a game for me. Never been in a big enough hurry to force it to download.

There's a global setting to prevent that from happening, if you desire.

 

[local]

I do this all the time and never had a problem. I just make sure I am playing an offline game while doing so.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

There's absolutely no issue doing this, on virtually any hardware (except maybe if you have a 5200 RPM drive and a very good internet connection?). If latency is a concern, just restrict D/L speeds from within steam settings (as an example) or whatever the <insert client> provides.

 

[BxgJ]

I've downloaded many games while playing another, though usually I play something that's not an online game while doing so. Haven't had any problems or noticed any slowdowns.

 

[zinfamous]

As long as you had the minimum 4GB RAM by 2008, you should be fine.

 

[Smoblikat]

Built a new rig for my buddy to use:
I5 3470, 16gb, GTX580, 256gb SSD + 500gb HDD. I was installing a bunch of steam games while playing left 4 dead with him on the same computer. Didnt slow down one bit and I have a 25/5 connection. All of this was happening on the HDD as the SSD is just a boot drive. I know the disk can handle at least 90mb/s of throughput and the downloads were only using 10mb/s-ish. CPU overhead wasnt an issue with splitscreen on a 3.6ghz I5.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

How many people here do this ? What kind of hardware do you truly need to be able to do this without any slowdown ?

Processor wise, disk wise, ram wise, etc ?

Example Intel i5, Intel i7, SSD 256 GB, SSD 512 GB, 8 GB of ram, 16 GB of ram, etc ?

I know it is not done often but when it is what kind of system is best to have when doing it ?

There's really no problem doing this. Downloading even at a fast rate such as >100Mbit requires next to no CPU power, not really any RAM to speak of, it requires some disk access but that's minimal outside of extremely high bandwidth downloads (Gbit+). I doubt the FPS hit to gaming would be noticeable, inside margin of error.

The only think that might be slower is load times in games, when the game has to take new assets off the disk, and that's assuming the download you're doing is writing to the same disk you want to load from. Even then you're talking about marginally slower load times, not actual in game performance.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I don't ever just download a game and watch the screen. I'll play something that has quick sessions or a rogue-like that doesn't really count if I have to stop midway when the game is done. Binding of Isaac is usually my go-to, but ever since I got Xfinity, the game is usually done downloading before another game loads.

 

[you2]

what is more likely to be an issue is when steam writes to the disk (for download) than cpu usage. cpu usage for even 1gb (which you won't get) is very small.