Why does Blizzard & Task Manager show VERY DIFFERENT download speeds? 6 Mbps vs 54 Mbps.
I am experiencing the same, except much worse. Downoading the new MW update at 920 KB/s.
I have 1GB/s fiber speeds. Been waiting about two hours for 40GB. Unacceptable.
Hey there Gorilla,
The Task Manager in Windows will show “Bits” per second for network speeds whereas the Battle.net app uses “Bytes” per second for download speeds. This is why the numbers are very different! A Byte is eight Bits.
The reason we use Bytes is because it’s more similar to how storage space works on computers. For example if you have a 500 GB solid state drive, that’s 500 Gigabytes instead of Gigabits which would be much much smaller. Eight times smaller to be exact!! That way if you have a 50 MB patch and are downloading at 5ish MB/s, you can expect it to take 10 seconds or so assuming the MB/s doesn’t fluctuate at all. Of course patches are not usually that small and the internet is always fluctuating due to active use by, well, everyone who uses it.
As for why Windows uses bites I can’t say much since I’m not a Microsoft employee.
Slightly related, Internet Service Providers and most “Speed test” websites tend to also use bits per second to make the number appear larger than it actually is (advertising technique I assume.) Make sure to check the fine print on those advertisements to verify Bytes vs Bits!! It’ll help you know what you’re paying for when comparing options between providers.
I do hope the info helps. If there’s anything else you might need just let us know.
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Resource manager says 3.5Mb/s incoming, my bandwidth is 40MB/s.
Battle.Net is showing download speed of 300-350Kb/s, server change and speed limit “trick” not working.
It shouldnt take me hours to download a 1GB patch with fibre internet
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