Do downloads through different mediums use more CPU?

I don’t know if I’m just seeing something unique to my computer, but I’ll use an anecdote to explain what I’m talking about.

I’ve been downloading an anime series called Naruto. While I’ve had a lot of concurrent downloads on Kazaa trying to get episodes from this series, I rarely noticed that it used a significant amount of the CPU. I was even able to play Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic while downloading through Kazaa. Currently, I am downloading 2 of the episodes through Internet Explorer, and it’s my inexpert opinion that there is more CPU usage occuring when downloading through IE than there is through Kazaa. Is this accurate in any way, or am I hallucinating? And if this is actually the case, why does IE use so much more CPU?

Was it downloading faster with IE? More packets to process = more CPU usage.

I’d expect Kazaa to use more CPU, actually. It has to answer searches, route other people’s packets, and look for more sources while you’re downloading.

Even with a large amount of downloads or high speeds through Kazaa, I rarely have it use the same amount of CPU that I am noticing being used when high-speed downloads are occurring through Internet Explorer (or, in this case, BitTorrent, although I don’t know if that makes a difference).

This is the BitTorrent homepage in case anyone is curious or would like more information.

Well, BitTorrent will certainly use more CPU power than regular IE downloads, and probably more than Kazaa, since you’re more likely to be uploading as well as downloading.