If that is the case, does that mean SteamPipe uses more CPU than other applications that download?

If SteamPipe uses this much CPU when downloading, then is not suitable to play a game and download at the same time, since it will reduce the performance of the game

What does SteamPipe actually do that use this much CPU?

It does a lot of decryption, decompression, and delta-patching work. You're right that in some situations, it's not suitable to play a game and download at the same time; for this reason, I believe downloading games while playing is off by default and has to be explicitly enabled by the user.

@kisak-valve what is within expectations for download CPU consumption? I've recently noticed my client get up to ~100% cpu during downloads. I'm pretty sure this only started in the past month or two.

Steam client version Nov 14 2019
Distribution Archlinux
Opted into Steam client beta?: Yes
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes

Experiencing the same.

Same issue, system was almost unuseable while Steam was downloading a new proton prefix. This is unacceptable.

I just started downloading Phoenix Point, and steam consumed over 300% CPU on an AMD 5600X pretty much the whole download.

 PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU  %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 2722 rcorre    20   0  833844 520036 242920 S 341.5   1.6   4:14.77 steam

I see this is marked as "Not a bug" -- is that accurate?

I'm on Linux 5.14.8-arch1-1, with the Sept. 17th steam build.

I have an AMD Ryzen 5 2600, but my cpu usage in top -i and htop seems really high as well and I'm just updating my games.

Because of this, my cpu is running at 75 - 80 C instead of 50-60, and it also means I need to keep everything else closed if it is downloading...

I'm using a more recent version of Arch Linux than rcorre is: 5.14.14-arch1-1

I'm using Steam downloads for cooking bacon (vegan bacon).

Maybe they should accelerate themselves on the GPU 🧐

I have an AMD Ryzen 5 2600, but my cpu usage in top -i and htop seems really high as well and I'm just updating my games.

Because of this, my cpu is running at 75 - 80 C instead of 50-60, and it also means I need to keep everything else closed if it is downloading...

I'm using a more recent version of Arch Linux than rcorre is: 5.14.14-arch1-1

+1 also using a ryzen 5 2600

limiting it to 500mbps instead of allowing it to reach about 800mbps (I have gigabit internet) reduces the CPU usage drastically and no longer causes my system to stutter

sys info

inxi -b
System:
  Host: Kiseki Kernel: 5.17.5-256-tkg-pds arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.24.5 Distro: Garuda Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: X470 Taichi serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends v: P4.86 date: 01/27/2022
CPU:
  Info: 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 2600X [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 4077
    min/max: 2200/3600
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] driver: nvidia v: 510.68.02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.3 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 2560x1080
    2: 3840x2160~60Hz
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2
    v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 510.68.02
Network:
  Device-1: Intel I211 Gigabit Network driver: igb
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.96 TiB used: 3.02 TiB (102.1%)
Info:
  Processes: 462 Uptime: 45m Memory: 31.27 GiB used: 11.97 GiB (38.3%)
  Shell: fish inxi: 3.3.15

🔴 IMPORTANT

The most likely cause of this issue is not CPU utilization, but IO cache starvation for other applications.

To fix this problem Steam shall implement as IO write mode "write-through". Aka flush pieces to storage as soon as they complete validation.