Steam download speed fix on AMD system

SupremeSpecimen · 2026-04-22 02:40:33

Hi so new arch user here running with kde plamsa. i wanted to put my 2 cents since i was able to fix a common steam download speed problems many people have. First off im running a lenovo legion slim 7 amd powered laptop. i Recommend Brave AI tool which helped me with most of the troubleshooting fixes and wanted to share this info before the chat history was deleted. (also sorry in advance im new to the forum and idk how to make this easier)

so first thing was i had to get steam installed.

i had to enable multilib repository in /ect/pacman.conf which i had to edit the file in a text editor like "kate" i used and manually searched for the files i needed (because idk how to shortcut this stuff yet lol) i found the files by looking in the bottom left at the storage device with the kernel installed (for me it was a 50gb chunk of my ssd)

so i located /ect file, then the pacman.conf text file, scrolled down to find
[multilib]
#Include = /ect/pacman.d/mirrorlist
and deleted the # symbol. then save the file. then i ran $ sudo pacman -Syu to update the system, and used
($ sudo pacman -S steam) to install steam.

once installed i troubleshooted the download speed which if i ran a speed test on browser i get ~800mbps wireless speed. on steam my download wouldnt get more than ~200mbps.

so the main fix for me was getting DNSMASQ working on my system and disabling IPv6.

installing dnsmasq
this parts was trial and error for me so ill just run thru the whole procedure of issues and workarounds i ran into.
started by running ($ sudo pacman -S dnsmasq) in terminal. then i ran ($ sudo systemtl start dnsmasq). which gave me a "trying to start job for dnsmasq.servie failed" message. which was a conflict with "systemd-resolved" so i tried disabling "systemd-resolved" with ($ sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved). which gave me a message saying "trying to stop service but triggering units are still active".

part of this is kinda a blur so basically i was shown how to disable and stop "systemd-resolved" abunch of ways that idk if they worked or not tbh lol.
sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved
sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved
sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved.service systemd-resolved-monitor.socket systemd-resolved-varlink.socket
sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved.service systemd-resolved-monitor.socket systemd-resolved-varlink.socket
most of the time i got "triggering is still active" as a response.

so then i tried this: ($ sudo systemctl edit dnsmasq.service) and added these lines:
[unit]
before=systemd-resolved.service

and still got dnsmasq.service failed.
then i tried manually using "kate text editor" opened (/ect/systemd/resolved.conf.) and uncommented these lines by removing the # symbol behind them and saved the file:
#DNS=1.1.1.1 8.8.8.8
#FallbackDNS=1.0.0.1 8.8.4.4
#DNSStubListener=no
then i restarted with ($ sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved) and then ran
($ sudo systemctl start dnsmasq) and ($ sudo systemctl enable dnsmasq)
and was successful! yay!

then i verified dnsmasq was infact working properly with ($ systemctl status dnsmasq.service) and looked for "service enabled" in green text. then i confirmed it was listening on port 53 with: ($ sudo ss -lntp | grep :53) and and got this response:
LISTEN 0 4096 0.0.0.0:5355 0.0.0.0:* users:(("systemd-resolve",pid=14405,fd=14))
LISTEN 0 32 0.0.0.0:53 0.0.0.0:* users:(("dnsmasq",pid=14416,fd=5))
LISTEN 0 4096 [::]:5355 [::]:* users:(("systemd-resolve",pid=14405,fd=16))
LISTEN 0 32 [::]:53 [::]:* users:(("dnsmasq",pid=14416,fd=7))

see that the 2nd and 4th "LISTEN" with "53" have "dnsmasq" on them.

i then used Kate editor and opened (/ect/resolv.conf) and scrolled and found
nameserver 1.1.1.1
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 192.168.1.1

next i used ($ drill archlinux.org | grep "query time") and it gave me no response so i had to troubleshoot that:
i used Kate editor and opened (/ect/dnsmasq.conf) and found (#no-resolv) and removed the # to add it to the file. also added those nameserver lines aswell. and it looked like this
no-resolv
nameserver 1.1.1.1
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 192.168.1.1

and saved the file and then restarted dnsmasq with ($ sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq)
next i retried the drill command ($ drill archlinux.org | grep "query time")
i got a response of 40msec and ran it again and got a response of 51msec and a 3rd time and got 155msec which means there was still issues.

i then had to install "NetworkManager" with:
($ sudo pacman -S plasma-nm) installed and restarted my system to make sure it setup properly.
i then had a problem where it wouldnt connect to my wifi using networkmanager because it would tell me my password was wrong (it was correct) the issue was it conflicted with "iwctl" so i had to disconnect my wifi from "iwctl" then i got connecte thru networkmanager.
either manually go thru "iwctl" and use (station wlan0 disconnect) or ($ sudo systemctl disable --now iwd) which i think did weird things so i re enabled it and did it manually.

then i got wifi connection thru networkmanager and restarted dnsmasq with:
($ sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq NetworkManager) capital N and M or it wont work. i then opened my network settings and in the "other DNS server" i entered 127.0.0.1

now we go back to running the "drill" command again
($ drill archlinux.org | grep "query time"
got an error like "warning: could not create a resolver structure" "try drill @localhost if u have a resolver running on your machine"
then i tried ($ drill @localhost archlinux.org) got "error: @server ip could not be converted" then i ran
($ drill @127.0.0.1 archlinux.org) 3x 1st ping i got 152msec, 2nd 0msec, and 3rd 0msec.

SUCCESS!!!!! download speed on steam went from ~200mbps for me to ~700mbps on wireless connection with 1Gb internet speeds!

Hope this helps anyone else out there i kinda had fun writing this post.

cryptearth · 2026-04-22 03:29:00

first and most important: please avoid blog-style posts/topics - although this is a user-help-user forum this isn't a place for personal blogs

second: although i didn't even had a good read a couple of things:
- whenever you do a speedtest - use a cable first instead of wifi to eliminate wifi as a factor from the equation; playing around with wifi doesn't make any sense unless you first proven the underlying connection is actually capable of the speed by first testing via cable
- your issue is not related to neither amd nor a mobile platform at all! i use a ryzen 5600 on a msi b550-a pro and get upwards of 500mbit/s via steam with ipv6 enabled, using systemd-networkd and the stub dns of my isp provided router - what you exoerience is a ipv6 related peering issue with your specific isp
- several of what you wrote is nonesense or outright wrong; if it actually does make a difference what interface and backend you use and if you resolve local or stub or if you enable or disable ipv6 something else is the issue - instead of fixing that you merely tinker with the symptoms
- if you want to use AI - fine, nobody denies you to do so - but please, spare us from it - this is a forum where experienced users help those with less experience - and we have some really smart people here - but we do it all in our free time - and hardly anybody here wants to waste thiers with AI slop
- you have a 1gbit/s connection - this hints towards fiber or coax - cool - but if your isp struggles that hard with ipv6 and dns that you can improve your situation by disable ipv6 and resolve local you should contact your isp and complain about thier bad service or switch toca different one - this issue has nothing to do with linux!

seth · 2026-04-22 05:56:44

so the main fix for me was getting DNSMASQ working on my system and disabling IPv6.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam/ … load_speed

Arch Linux

#1 2026-04-22 02:40:33

Steam download speed fix on AMD system

#2 2026-04-22 03:29:00

Re: Steam download speed fix on AMD system

#3 2026-04-22 05:56:44

Re: Steam download speed fix on AMD system

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