The PS4 doesn't make it very obvious exactly what programs are running. For games, the interaction model is that opening a new game closes the previously running one. This is not how other apps work; they remain in the background indefinitely until you explicitly close them. And it's gets worse than that. If your PS4 is configured to suspend any running apps when put to rest mode, you can seemingly power on the machine into a clean state, and still have a hidden background app that's causing the OS to limit your PSN download speeds.
This might explain some of the superstitions about this on the Internet. There are people who swear that putting the machine to rest mode helps with speeds, others who say it does nothing. Or how after every firmware update people will report increased download speeds. Odds are that nothing actually changed in the firmware; it's just that those people had done their first full reboot in a while, and finally had a system without a background app running.
Ps4 Download Game While Watching Netflix
Download File: https://miimms.com/2vJcwP
But why? I think the idea here must be to not allow the network traffic of background downloads to take resources away from the foreground use of the PS4. For example if I'm playing an online shooter, it makes sense to harshly limit the background download speeds to make sure the game is getting ping times that are both low and predictable. So there's at least some point in that 7kB receive window limit in some circumstances.
It's harder to see what the point of the 128kB receive window limit for running any app is. A single game download from some random CDN isn't going to muscle out Netflix or Youtube... The only thing I can think of is that they're afraid that multiple simultaneous downloads, e.g. due to automatic updates, might cause problems for playing video. But even that seems like a stretch.
The biggest problem is that the limits get applied based just on what games/applications are currently running. That's just insane; what matters should be which games/applications someone is currently using. Especially in a console UI, it's a totally reasonable expectation that the foreground application gets priority. If I've got the download progress bar in the foreground, the system had damn well give that download priority. Not some application that was started a month ago, and hasn't been used since. Applying these limits in rest mode with suspended apps is beyond insane.
Fourth, whatever method is being used to decide on whether a game is network-latency sensitive is broken. It's absurd that a demo of a single-player game idling in the initial title screen would cause the download speeds to be totally crippled. This really should be limited to actual multiplayer titles, and ideally just to periods where someone is actually playing the game online. Just having the game running should not be enough.
Interesting to have some figures on this matter although I thought everyone was aware of the fact that apps being open at all limited the download speed. (anyone that's ever started a download then launched a game and gone back to heck and witnessed the sudden change in speed will likely have realised I'd hope). That said I have apps set to be suspended in rest mode but have measured how fast the same download took Both with ps4 on and in game and in rest mode with game suspended and even accounting for changes in Internet bandwidth that occurred in that time period the download when in rest mode was almost twice as fast. Something not explained by changes in Internet bandwidth. Out of interest I don't think you said we're you using normal Ps4 or ps4 pro? As the pro in theory has faster clocks peed on cpu which might effect how games using cpu effect any download limiting in those cases it also has the newer WiFi chipset I believe.
This was on an non-slim PS4. Yes, there could be a difference between "game running" and "game suspended in rest mode"; specifically it does look like actively playing a game can cause the download to genuinely starve for CPU. (You can find the section where this is discussed by searching for "Horizon").
Hmmm... I just wonder if receive window affects ps now applications as well. Sony would shoot themself in the foot if it does since ps4 allow to play ps now game while normal game is idling in the background. Can this be easily verified I wonder...?
Interesting article! My friends and I do not only have the slow download problem, but something even worse: The "preparing download" takes over 10-20 minutes times, often even longer than the download itself (especially when loading updates for installed games). Did this issue ever occur to any of you guys? I really wonder if there is a fix for this
My belief is that they've done this intentionally to prevent performance issues from downloading quickly, probably with a big issue being disk access from downloading so fast, as well as affecting latency for online games and CPU usage.
While using a local proxy is a good workaround the PS4 (at least the original model) can be almost unusable while downloading (especially multiple downloads), causing both the games and OS to stutter and the controller to become unresponsive, taking 3 or 4 seconds to react to a button press.
The static limit on the receive window means that your setup still ends up unusable due to the downloads being too fast, while other people have their downloads unnecessarily throttled to a speed far below the effective disk speed.
Of course "A single game download from some random CDN" can "muscle out Netflix or Youtube". It all depends on your Internet connection. I live in the middle of nowhere and get 1Mbps. I can just about stream SD video as long as nothing else is using the connection, and so I applaud anything Sony are doing to throttle downloads when anything else is using the Internet connection.
Second, it has a ton of false negatives due to only looking at what's happening on that PS4 system. That's an absurd assumption: in the modern world a household will have half a dozen devices using the same internet connection. The current solution does not help at all for the case where I'm trying to watch a Youtube clip on my computer while the PS4 downloads something, or someone is trying to read a webpage on their phone, etc.
I managed to download Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault and a couple other games the other night on WiFi for my Playstation 3. Had zero problems, downloads started immediately and were consistent until they were finished.
So how does an old, 12 year old console from the past generation give me better speeds and better consistency than a modern console that is supposed to be good? Even downloading indie games off of PSN on the PS4 takes ages sometimes.
Lou Contaldi specializes in both reviews and the business behind gaming. He began writing about tech and video games while getting his Juris Doctor at Hofstra University School of Law. He is maybe the only gaming journo based in Nashville, TN.
In any case, when you download any of the two applications on our PS4 through the PS Store, they will be added to the TV and Video category of the list of applications and games in the PS4 main menu. To access them we just have to scroll through the menus and press X on the app we want to access.
This isn't exactly something that Sony advertises like, "Hey! Put your console in rest mode to download games faster." It's not a feature in that regard. This is just something that a good portion of PlayStation users have noticed. It's all anecdotal, but most people will tell you that there is a noticeable difference between download speeds in rest mode versus while the console is on. Rest mode, for the most part, appears to download games quicker.
The thought process behind it is this: Since your PS4 is in rest mode, it doesn't need to be running background apps or using other network features. With these suspended during this time, you'll tend to notice download speeds improve as the console can put more of its energy and brainpower into downloading the game.
Buying a new router to increase download speeds can certainly work, but it is an investment you'll need to think carefully about. If you experience decent connections while playing online games that aren't causing you any troubles, it may not be worth your money to invest in an expensive gaming router solely to download games quickly on your PlayStation 4. However, picking up a mesh router such as the Netgear Orbi Whole Home WiFi Router (opens in new tab) is a good idea as it provides reliable internet signals to all of your devices in every room of your house. 2ff7e9595c
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