CS:GO downloading => high ping

[reckoner04]

Since the Steam forums appear to be down I thought I'd ask here:

Why does csgo.exe (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) almost constantly download so much data? Is it possible to lower the rate/turn some related feature off?

The problem is that I have a very bad internet connection and my ping reacts very strongly to downloads happening while playing. It so happens that I very often lag due to high ping while playing CS:GO, which I found out is because there is often a downstream of 15 to 40 kByte/sec due to csgo.exe. There is also an upstream of about 2 to 3 kByte/sec, but I think that's normal for FPS games.

What's strange is that it happens on both official Valve servers and on community servers (there is no data transfer while I'm not connected to a game server) but it doesn't happen constantly. Some days, it doesn't download/lag at all, and on some days, I can't play at all because my ping is at about 100 to 300 ms non-stop.

This is really annoying, of course. Did anyone else have this issue and can maybe help me solve it? I'm sure the problem doesn't lie in some other program downloading stuff, it's actually csgo.exe doing the downloading. I also have no problem playing other online games (WoW, CS 1.6, SC 1 and 2, etc.). If I forgot to mention something important, please just ask.

Thanks.

[llDemonll]

how else do you plan on playing a multiplayer game if you don't download data from the server so that your computer knows what's going on?

Your question is ambiguous; you can't solidly recreate the event because it seemingly is only happening sometimes, you don't have issue with other games that should react the same (WoW's data transfer is about the same)

I'd get a network traffic monitor and run it on your computer. I've never looked for one, but get one that can log network traffic. This way when something happens, you'll be able to look at the logs and see what programs / packets are eating up your bandwidth

[reckoner04]

how else do you plan on playing a multiplayer game if you don't download data from the server so that your computer knows what's going on?

Your question is ambiguous; you can't solidly recreate the event because it seemingly is only happening sometimes, you don't have issue with other games that should react the same (WoW's data transfer is about the same)

I'd get a network traffic monitor and run it on your computer. I've never looked for one, but get one that can log network traffic. This way when something happens, you'll be able to look at the logs and see what programs / packets are eating up your bandwidth

Of course it's going to download data, it just seemed to be too much to me. I thought usual multiplayer games require about <10 kByte/sec, so if it's 40 that would be the first trace I'd follow to solve the problem... does WoW really require that much bandwidth? I'll check my bandwidth usage the next few times I play various games to see if it's indeed higher or not.

What exactly do you mean with "network traffic monitor"? When I checked I saw that csgo.exe is pretty much the only program receiving and sending packets with the rates as stated in the OP, so I'm not sure if that's what you mean or something else. I'm no expert .

Do you think it's something else (not bandwidth)? What's also strange is that it can come and go even in a single session on a server. And yes, I didn't manage to reliably recreate the problem.

Thanks for your input, I'll try to investigate further tomorrow (going to bed now).

[llDemonll]

By network traffic monitor I mean a program that will log all the incoming and outgoing data the your computer is receiving/sending. Ideally it would categorize it by which program is sending it, how big the packet is, and with a timestamp (so you can see how often it's sending)

This would let you build a report during your high ping spikes to see what programs are sending/receiving and how much data they're sending/receiving

[reckoner04]

It is indeed not the bandwith usage causing the lag. So, what could it be?

[glo]

CS:GO matchmaking servers have had rubber banding problems since release. Also, the entire CS series downloads more than average traffic while playing due to it being a league FPS. The netcode was developed to be immaculately accurate, so unfortunately more data is required.

[reckoner04]

CS:GO matchmaking servers have had rubber banding problems since release. Also, the entire CS series downloads more than average traffic while playing due to it being a league FPS. The netcode was developed to be immaculately accurate, so unfortunately more data is required.

I guess the rubberbanding problem is just what I experience when I'm moving with a team mate while touching them (with collision). Well, I found out that the download rate doesn't seem to be the problem (unless I'm dumb...) since the rate can be about the same even when I'm not lagging.