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When I buy a game from GOG, it's for a few reasons:

1) No DRM. No 3rd party agreements. I keep my rights.

2) No connection requirement. I can play it even if my internet is acting up.

3) It isn't Steam. I prefer not to purchase from one of the biggest inablers of corporate bad behavior in the digital world. HOWEVER,

If I am buying a digital download, I expect the company retailing the file to be able to handle the download at modern speeds. I do not like being throttled to 1/3 (or less) of the speed I would be able to achieve from Steam. Frankly speaking, I could take the game key and transfer it to Steam, but that would mean having to put up with all the things listed above. On the other hand, I don't want to spend my entire life DL from a company who cannot support the bandwidth their products require for reasonable download times.

At the moment, I'm just posting up to say that the throttling is objectionable. More capacity needs to be added ASAP.
Throttling would be taking a full speed connection and lowering the speed. An ISP or router may do that for you.

However what if the servers or connection speed they have just happens to be slower?

OH MY GOD I HAVE TO WAIT 2 EXTRA HOURS TO FINISH DOWNLOADING! and then proceed to not download anything for a month... In which time you could in theory download the same game 100 times over.

There is going to be a balance of cost and speed. Going higher speed when it isn't used doesn't make too much sense. Phone companies would have a number of customers that was the squared to how many they could actually handle at a time bandwidth-wise. This was because people didn't talk on their phone 24/7 all the time, instead they tend to use the phone and sometimes you'll have a lot of people at once, but they never had to supply 100% speed for 100% of their customers.

Thus going to higher speeds might not be worth it. Although in cases of really big releases they might include additional servers or speed during which a lot of people may be downloading (Say Steam with GTA 5) but then lower it back down when the time had passed.
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quicksilver67: Frankly speaking, I could take the game key and transfer it to Steam
Er, no, you can't. GOG purchases are not transferrable to Steam. Frankly speaking, if I can download most games from GOG in a semi-tolerable amount of time on old and crappy DSL, then you can manage just fine with your modern speeds, even if they're throttled somewhat (and I doubt GOG is intentionally throttling anything, as this subject has come up before and most people don't seem to have any actual throttling). Waiting a few extra minutes isn't the dire life-threatening emergency you seem to think it is.
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eric5h5: Waiting a few extra minutes isn't the dire life-threatening emergency you seem to think it is.
I wonder if he's never used dial-up and is relieved to have 100k+ speeds for anything.

I've downloaded things at 5k/s only a year or two ago and honestly if you aren't in a huge hurry it isn't much a difference to just let it go overnight or longer.

Some people have no patience.
You should try satellite internet,
I had it for 15 years and full speed satellite is what most people would consider throttled.
This comes up quite often, frustratingly it may not be entirely GoG's fault.

I've got a 500Mb/s connection and right now I'm getting 20-30MB/s (160-240Mb/s), have seen it as high a 40MB/s. When I've seen users with the same issue as yours, we both tested, I'll get the same speed as usual yet on the same day someone State side also on a similar 500Mbs line was getting a 10th of my speed.
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downloadmoreram.com
That isn't throttling, thats the serves being slower than your internet. Poland is not the server farms of Silicon Valley
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quicksilver67: the throttling is objectionable
+1, agree with you quicksilver67.
Download speeds might not be the end of the world nor a 24x7 constant demand, nor the entire GOG responsibility (ISPs + CDNs + any of the pieces of the blackbox called internet + households, etc.)
but Being GOG a digital store, the download speeds must be a top priority; I mean, they should have enough infrastructure & support to monitor, track, balance and ensure quality speeds delivering the goods sold.

Not an easy duty without a doubt, but sorry: it’s the -chosen medium- :)
downloads a game through a browser
Seems to be working fine for me, download speed is what it should be.
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InkPanther: downloads a game through a browser
Seems to be working fine for me, download speed is what it should be.
Maybe it's a 'If i can't get it at 100MB/s then it's crap' mentality? I'm not sure. 600k/s for me is more than sufficient for nearly everything.

Would i like faster? Sure i would. But i don't expect the world.
Post edited November 04, 2021 by rtcvb32
Open a new support ticket. Set the Problem Type to the relevant "Slow download speed..." option. Bear in mind to keep the support ticket open, you'll have to reply to an automated e-mail. After that, it may take several weeks before you receive a response.

Exactly what speeds are you getting? Whether downloading through GOG Galaxy or a browser, my download speeds have been on the higher end of 25-40 MB/s. That's pretty much the best performance I've seen out of my connection.
Spoiled, much?

My download speeds from GOG can vary as well when the server (which clearly hasn't got the capacity of bigger stores, and I never expected it would) is a little taxed. Too, sometimes my ISP might be suffering a bit of congestion, or the local mobile tower in the area has hundreds of people streaming content on their phones and ruining my download speeds.

The point being, I've learned to put up with it. I still get my monies worth from GOG. I'd be complaining if the downloads timed out (or were downloading incomplete like last month), but they are totally within tolerance here.

I know, do something else while it downloads. Or even try a download manager for your manual downloads. Those who suffered from dial-up and early DSL know well the waiting game and developed patience.
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rtcvb32: Throttling would be taking a full speed connection and lowering the speed. An ISP or router may do that for you.

However what if the servers or connection speed they have just happens to be slower?

OH MY GOD I HAVE TO WAIT 2 EXTRA HOURS TO FINISH DOWNLOADING! and then proceed to not download anything for a month... In which time you could in theory download the same game 100 times over.

Thus going to higher speeds might not be worth it. Although in cases of really big releases they might include additional servers or speed during which a lot of people may be downloading (Say Steam with GTA 5) but then lower it back down when the time had passed.
None of this makes sense. In 1994, I was using a phone company for internet access. I haven't used one in nearly 20 years. Broadband... maybe you're heard of it? Or maybe you're just a fan of DL things at 1.5Mbps? I run speed checks all the time. I know how to traceroute, etc., I know when I'm getting throttled by GOG; I also know that people are throttled at Steam (a company that takes 30% of game profits for hosting, btw).

The thing is, even in off-peak hours, I'm being held to Dialup speeds at GOG (1.5Mbps). At Steam, while still being throttled, I DL at about 15.9Mbps. Say I've got 16 files to DL, and each is just over 4gigs. Best speed, about 1.5Mbps. I'm sure you can do the math. Here's a hint: it ISN'T 2 hours longer. Time is money. True, there's a trade-off here. If I was paying less for GOG games, naturally, I would expect slower DL speeds. But I'm not. I'm paying the same price I would at Steam (sometimes more), or any other legitimate DDL, for that matter.
low rated
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quicksilver67: Frankly speaking, I could take the game key and transfer it to Steam
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eric5h5: Er, no, you can't. GOG purchases are not transferrable to Steam. Frankly speaking, if I can download most games from GOG in a semi-tolerable amount of time on old and crappy DSL, then you can manage just fine with your modern speeds, even if they're throttled somewhat (and I doubt GOG is intentionally throttling anything, as this subject has come up before and most people don't seem to have any actual throttling). Waiting a few extra minutes isn't the dire life-threatening emergency you seem to think it is.
Well, you're mostly right. They changed the way they had things setup. It used to be, you got the codes with the games, but my understanding is that went away a few years back. Some of my games still have the codes, but they are older codes, and are not up to current Steam standards. The last one that actually worked was SoSE. I've heard you can file a request for a game key (and they don't seem to have any problems coming up with ones for gift purchases), but I'm not sure that would get you anywhere these days.

Now, where you're wrong is regarding DL times. I suppose if you're still just DL games like "Sorceress" or some 80's stuff, and you live in Arkansas hills, you might think you're okay with your high speed 1.5Mps modem. If that works for you, good on ya. But I run at more than 100x that. The games I buy have many files, and those files can be just over 4gigs each. When I am forced to DL those games at your speeds, it makes me sad, it makes my router sad, and it makes my wallet sad. And it makes GOG seem a lot sadder by comparision.