Well it's about time, a much requested feature has been finally added to the Steam beta, the ability to set how fast you want to download a game. With this ability, you can still download games through Steam while doing other things that require an internet connection on your computer, without having really slow speeds.
You can also play multiplayer games while downloading Steam games. Just alt tab out of the game once, start the game download, and alt tab back in. No more high pings just because you are downloading a game through Steam at the same time!
Below are the full Steam Client Beta patch notes: (patch notes after the page break.)General
- Added rate-limiting of Steam game downloads, via Settings -> Downloads
- Added "View" button to the downloads page for workshop items that shows you which items have been updated
- Linux
- Fix handling of http_proxy environment variable http:// prefix in some instances.
- Overlay enable hotkey now handles more shifted keys correctly.
- Most-recently-played tray menu will not have an extra separator if no games have been played.
- Added a settings dialog where you can enable or disable desktop notifications, sounds, and timestamps. If you have previously enabled desktop notifications, you may need to enable them again.
- Fixed an issue where web chat would not attempt to reconnect if it became disconnected from the server.
- Friends who are using Steam for iOS or Android will show as "Online" instead of "Online on Mobile Device".