Question Big differential in speed tests between two different laptops

[elvisruns]

Hi-
I just had my internet provider replace the service line to the house, and decided to test out my work laptop and personal laptop, and it turns out there's a huge difference download speed even though they're right next to each other. This is done over wi-fi.
My office laptop is a Dell Latitude 9330, and it's network adapter is Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz. It's speedtest is download is 199.64/upload is 19.44
My personal laptop is a Dell XPS 13 and it's network adapter is a Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650AS 160MHz. It's speetest download is 80.28/upload is 73.34/upload is 14.35.
Now, I've got quite a few Chrome tabs open on my personal laptop, but I'm running quite a few programs on my office laptop (Autodesk Revit, MS Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams, Bluebeam Revu). Is there really that much difference in the network card or the wi-fi antennae that would give my office computer that big a difference? Are there any settings I can tweak or things I should look for on my personal laptop? And having just done this a few minutes ago and not looked it up, can I replace the network card in my personal laptop (will take suggestions if that's a possibility)?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Rokinamerica]

Test them at the same time, nothing else running.

 

[bill001g]

I would try ethernet cables just to be sure but is likely something different in the wifi connection. Although not likely that simple if one machine uses 2.4g and the other 5g you will get very different speeds. You might be able to tell something by looking att the connection speed on pc wifi connection. Microsoft of course likes to move this around when they patch things. It used to be on the status page but if you dig around your will see it.

The speed number you see is not really the speed it is more the encoding that wifi nic and the router negotiated. On ethernet it is easy you see 100 or 1000 or maybe 2500. Wifi has many many different number based on how good the signals are and what the best speed they can get is.

In the end it likely is not going to matter. You only need big bandwidth numbers for large downloads. other stuff like web browser or video streaming will not use more that is actually needs and will not run better or faster with a large bandwidth.

If you do a large download a temporary connection with a ethernet cable will be the best option.