Question Best cheap Wifi Card that supports 5ghz?

Dylan202

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May 9, 2019
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The speeds i get upstairs is pissing me off.
My wifi card only supports 2.4ghz and my Router supports 5ghz. I've been searching around and found a couple but not sure if they are reliable since i dont know much.
For example there are some that support 450mbps and others that support 1200mbps, even though my broadband package is 200mbps does it matter?

thanks
 

Dylan202

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May 9, 2019
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5 ghz actually has less range than 2.4 ghz. so if your issue is a range one, then you would actually be making it worse. 5 ghz is much faster for sure if you are close enough to get the weaker signal.

i use this adapter myself and though it is not the chepaest it works very well.

https://www.newegg.com/global/uk-en/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G2HZ1900
What about my speedtests from my phone?

I get way more speed with 5ghz than 2.4ghz from the sane location as my PC. Almost double the download speed.

Shouls i still consider getting a 5ghz wifi card?

Regardless getting 20mbps down and 28ms ping isnt good enough lol i need to change something.
 
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Math Geek

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sounds like 5 ghz would be a good idea for you then. you'd see a good increase in speed.

ping however is another issue entirely. wireless will always introduce higher ping times. switching to 5 ghz likely won't help that at all. hard wiring with ethernet is the only way to normally help ping time which may or may not be an option for you.

when looking at advertised speed of a device, what's on the box is not even close to what you will see real world. especially when talking about AC adapters. you never get "theoretical" speeds like the box says for many reasons. also an AC adapter usually has a portion of the speed for the 2.4 ghz range only. so an advertised 1000 mb/s adapter likely has around 400 of that reserved for 2.4 ghz and then more loss to to normal issues. you could expect maybe 300 mb/s for the 2.4 and 450-500 mb/s for the 5 ghz with such an adapter.

so it is always good to grab one with way more speed than you actually need to adjust for these false numbers.

for instance the one i linked to gives me about 650-700 mb/s from a GB line that produces about 980 mb/s in reality. and that is sitting 5 ft from the router. so it's advertised 1200 mb/s speed is actually pretty close since i know 400 mb/s of it is for the 2.4 ghz range. i only lose 1-200 mb/s in "theoretical speed" in real world use of the 5 ghz range.
 
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Dylan202

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May 9, 2019
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sounds like 5 ghz would be a good idea for you then. you'd see a good increase in speed.

ping however is another issue entirely. wireless will always introduce higher ping times. switching to 5 ghz likely won't help that at all. hard wiring with ethernet is the only way to normally help ping time which may or may not be an option for you.

when looking at advertised speed of a device, what's on the box is not even close to what you will see real world. especially when talking about AC adapters. you never get "theoretical" speeds like the box says for many reasons. also an AC adapter usually has a portion of the speed for the 2.4 ghz range only. so an advertised 1000 mb/s adapter likely has around 400 of that reserved for 2.4 ghz and then more loss to to normal issues. you could expect maybe 300 mb/s for the 2.4 and 450-500 mb/s for the 5 ghz with such an adapter.

so it is always good to grab one with way more speed than you actually need to adjust for these false numbers.

for instance the one i linked to gives me about 650-700 mb/s from a GB line that produces about 980 mb/s in reality. and that is sitting 5 ft from the router. so it's advertised 1200 mb/s speed is actually pretty close since i know 400 mb/s of it is for the 2.4 ghz range. i only lose 1-200 mb/s in "theoretical speed" in real world use of the 5 ghz range.

Okay i understand, from the wifi card i linked it says that 300mbps is for the 2.4ghz, whereas 450mbps is for the 5ghz. As said before my broadband provids 200mbps so it should be sufficient enough?

For the ping im not sure what to say because my phone consitently gets 11 ms whereas my computer gets 15 to 28. Im just hoping for some improvement
 

Math Geek

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yah i would guess that should be enough for a 200 mb connection. i get about that much with mine on 2.4 ghz on the 400 mb/s it says it should do.

the ping may or may not get better, i don't know that much for sure. but if your phone is seeing better ping, then it surely is likely/probable.

good luck. do let us know how it worked out. always folks asking about such things and would be nice to have a solid experience to reference.
 
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SHMILY

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Mar 1, 2019
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The download speed of 2.4G is about 2mb/S. If use 5G, you can gain a better experience in download and watch video online.When plasying game, the 2.4G and 5G are same.
Your Amazon link product is too expensive. lololol