Speed tests over loopback/ Windows
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Test conditions:
-Using multiple BitTorrent clients on the same computer over 127.0.0.1 loopback.
-The files being transferred are all on a ramdrive (almost 5 GB DDR3), so effectively ruling out slow drives as well.
-CPU is Intel i5 650 3.2 GHz -- dual core with hyperthreading.
-Unless stated otherwise, these speeds are all UPLOAD speeds to uTorrent v2.2.1.
-The test is a single TCP connection at a time -- 1 seed to 1 peer, which may show severe pipelining issues. Multiple seeds to multiple peers could be faster depending on program designs, but would certainly cause a much larger CPU load.
-As many settings as possible were disabled in the various BT clients -- no DHT, LPD, trackers, uTP, and even half open connections were set as low as possible since only 1 connection had to be made. Were more settings enabled, CPU loads should be higher. Peers were manually added to the torrent so even a local tracker was unnecessary.
*Tixati v2.2.5 -- 55 MB/sec peak and sustained 30 MB/sec. ( maxes out a CPU core -- 25% of CPU's max as it has 4 virtual cores)
Notes:
Seems Tixati acts single-threaded and is unable to spread its CPU load between multiple cores.
When I set other very high CPU-using apps to highest priority and Tixati to lower priority, its speeds plummeted -- it even stalled out and crashed once.
*Transmission v2.84 for Windows -- 37 MB/sec often being unable to sustain an upload speed over 20 MB/sec (CPU usage: at 2-5%...)
Tixati to Transmission is a "blazing fast" 8 MB/sec.
Transmission to Tixati runs at 12.5 MB/sec.
*Deluge v1.3.12 -- 101 MB/sec. (CPU ~36% , ~40% in non classic/BG mode)
*uTorrent v2.2.1 -- 130 MB/sec, 100 MB/sec sustained (CPU: 25%) -- this was uploading to qBitTorrent.
*qBitTorrent v3.3.0beta -- 130 MB/sec, 120 MB/sec sustained (CPU: 33-36%)
qBitTorrent to Transmission strangely also runs at 8 MB/sec. Transmission is at 2% CPU...qBT while uploading to Transmission is bouncing between 0-2% CPU.
Transmission to qBitTorrent runs at 111 MB/sec.
Notes:
-Both Deluge and qBitTorrent use libtorrent, so results are similar.
-uTorrent writes whole pieces in 1 go, qBT and Deluge do not:
http://forum.deluge-torrent.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=36959
-Deluge 10 Gbit/sec seedbox results:
http://forum.deluge-torrent.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=53423&sid=2ade6937d0d00f986802f924f10910b2
-multi-file torrents are slower than single file torrents of the same size:
https://qbforums.shiki.hu/index.php/topic,2627.msg12725.html#msg12725
Conclusion:
Even with the fastest possible connection and storage devices, common BitTorrent clients are likely incapable of significantly exceeding 1 gigabit/sec (~120 MB/sec) transfer speeds due to their complexity and/or lack of parallel processes. The tests were typically bottlenecked by my "slow" CPU. If I disabled hyperthreading, a BT client could use half my CPU and possibly be faster.