If you're the kind of person who likes to download games while playing them at the same time, we've got good news! Xbox has pushed out a new update to Insiders that aims to improve installation speeds "while games are running".
The best way to download games is always when you've got nothing running in the background, but for situations like these, it sounds like this new update makes some excellent improvements. Here's an early look:
At the moment, this feature is only available for members of the Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox Insider ring, and it'll roll out to more members in the near future before going public. It shouldn't be too long until everyone has their hands on it.
We'd love to know if you've spotted any major differences with this, so if you're an Alpha Skip-Ahead member, throw your results down in the comments. In any case, faster download speeds can surely only be a good thing!
How often do you download games in the background while playing? Let us know in the comments section.
Comments 17
Here I am with a 500 mbps download speed internet and only getting 300 or less mbps regardless of if i'm playing a game or not.
Title made it sound like it was available for all. Oh well.
Finally (if true)!! Background download speeds has been one of my biggest complaints when it comes to XSS (followed by Quick resume flakiness).
Series X download speeds are black magic. I pay for 100mbps and the Series X dowloads at around 130mbps. My hardwired Switch only gets 70mbps and my PS5 gets 95mbps.
@Lup It will be very soon. They sometimes push these Insider updates out to everyone within a few days.
I have my Series X on wireless and on average is showing 120mbps when downloading from a 250mbps connection.
Much more annoyed at the gargantuan size of some Xbox first party games, it's now a regular occurrence to go above 100+GB.
I’m only on around 70mbps, so if it’s a large game I try and download overnight where possible.
I get about 300-350mbps from a 350mbps wired virgin fibre connection on the series x, faster than my switch and ps5 (freshly laid fibre cables last year)
Ah great. This'll be good for those really big games (and they're only going to get bigger) so you're not having to leave the Xbox idle while they download.
I know there's a whole "Ready to Play" thing where you play a game while it's still installing, but I've had several times where the game will crash or glitch out if you do that so I always wait until it's 100% finished.
My xbox one was always slower than my ps4 in downloading and installing , same for my series x and ps5 , don't even know why this is , both on 5g both on same network , the ps5 takes half the time.
@Shushibda I find the opposite with mine. My Series X and PS5 sit next to each other, equal distance from the router but I seem to get faster download speeds on the Series over PS5.
@GeeEssEff I find the same when comparing, Series X usually considerably faster and both have the same wired fibre connection with the same CAT 8 ethernet cables
@Sakai @GeeEssEff @Shushibda personally, without game running neither of the consoles ever experienced slow download speeds for me. Rather they all max my internet connection. But Xbox, while running a game at the same time, is just bizarre (it sometimes drops to 1,5 Mb/s, that is a lowercase b).
@Cikajovazmaj When not running a game, my series x gets 300-350mbps, my ps5 gets about 150-190mbps. Both on the same 350mbps fibre connection and both using the same brand of CAT 8 cable.
The switch is noticeably slower still but that is wireless as I have the launch model without the ethernet port in the dock. Don't think I have ever got above 65mbps from my Switch, which is one of the reasons why I never buy games online for it and always buy physical
@Sakai I don't have any issues with either console when not running a game (typically, I even dock Switch to wired connection if I start a download while not actively playing).
But turning on a console, getting notified there is a 10 GB patch for a game I want to play, and then not being able to play anything else while I wait (as it'll tank the speed) is ridiculous. I have no idea how that ever passed QA at MS.
@GeeEssEff weird
I always thought it was weird how slow downloads were if a game was "running", I mean I get it if I was actually playing and the game was chewing up processor power, but even when i am not actively playing & was checking download progress the download speed was still slow, obviously lazy coding as opposed to we hit the hardware limits...
2nd complaint is how slow wireless downloads are vs wired. I find it hard to believe it's a hardware issue vs lazy coding. My old phone from 2018 can download 2x faster on my wireless network, same spot vs Series X. Series X tops out at 180 Mbps even if I move it next to the modem in the basement, if I download via ethernet max speed tops out at 800Mbps, then after 1-2 GB starts to throttle down, but still I find it hard to believe the Xbox hardware does not at least do 300+Mbps, it's got to be lazy software programming...
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