Why do files download at different speeds on different devices on the same network?

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i.e. downloading on a console is quicker than downloading on laptop

In: Technology

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You can’t download faster than your network chip can receive packets, your CPU can process the data, and your storage drive can write the data being downloaded. So if one device constantly downloads faster than another that could be one reason.

Even ignoring differences in device hardware or network connections, the fact is things download at different speeds on the internet because you’re downloading from different servers that have different upload speeds, and ultimately it depends on how much other traffic there is at the time. It’s not a coincidence we use the term “traffic” for transmitting network data, each car is a user trying to send data; a wire, like a road, has a limit to how much data it can carry; and too much traffic results in congestion which slows everything down.

Consoles are only going to be downloading from Sony or Microsoft servers who have lots of bandwidth, a laptop could be downloading from Amazon or from a desktop in some person’s house. That could explain why if you are seeing a console consistently download faster than a laptop, and it’s not because of different hardware, or wired vs WiFi or something.

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