[SOLVED] Intel WiFi 6 onboard adapter speed

[mickrc3]

What is the best possible WiFi speed on AsRock X570 Phantom Gaming X? I know that they claim 2.4Gbps as the max but I'm currently getting under 700mbps using the onboard Intel adapter. That wasn't an issue since I bought it because I was connected to my router by ethernet and getting 990mbps that way. But I just upgraded my fiber to 2Gbps support and can only get more speed via wireless since the company provided (and required, since they have a custom firmware package onboard it) only has a single 2.5Gbps ethernet port which is dedicated to the fiber line WLan. There are 6 downstream ethernet ports but they top out at 1Gbps. I'm only going to see a benefit if I can get a faster WiFi connection. So can I get the onboard adapter to get closer to its claims? Do I need to buy a PCI-E X1 adapter or a USB 3 adapter and if so, recommendations?

 

[Lutfij]

According to your specs;

https://pg.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570%20Phantom%20Gaming%20X/index.asp#Specification

the wireless adapter is an Intel® 802.11ax WiFi Module.

You might want to go into Device Manager and see what your wireless adapter's model is. BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

 

[mickrc3]

The motherboard adapter is an Intel WiFi 6 AX200 160Mhz. Dual Band, 2x2 antenna setup. Max possible speed is 2.5Gbps. The max speed is from using both the 5G and 2.4G radios together and AsRock's website claims it does so automatically but I don't think that it working that way at least in my case. My router doesn't offer direct addressing to each radio so only one connection is offered, with the router defaulting to 5G and automatically providing 2.4G when the device connected is limited to that band.

I have the latest driver for the WiFi module. Date 8/7/2023, version 22.250.1.2

My MB BIOS is stable on 4.40 which I admit is 2 years old but last updated when I switched my Ryzen 9 3900X to a Ryzen 9 5900X so I could give the 3900X to my son. I might go ahead and flash to 5.01 the current stable version since 5.41 is still in beta, but first I want to see what benefit I would get out of that since I only update the BIOS when necessary.

My provider is Fastwyre Fiber Internet in Bellevue, NE. They started offering 1Gbps fiber in February of this year to compete with cable internet and I had it installed in April when they made it to my subdivision. Then last week they started to offer 2Gbps fiber and I decided to switch to that. Their required router is a Gigaspire 6U which is WiFi 6 and provides 6 1Gbps ethernet ports downstream, connecting to the fiber adapter through a 2.5Gbps WLan port. Unfortunately Gigaspire (which only sells to service providers, not individuals) doesn't sell a router with two or more ethernet ports faster than 1Gbps and even if they did I don't know if or when Fastwyre would start providing them. The fiber management software is embedded in the router's firmware so it cannot be bypassed (I tested that first). Because of where it was installed I can't use ethernet to connect to their router without having the cable snake across the basement floor. So I lost my 1Gbps connection I was used to and instead have this wireless connection which peaks at about 750Mbps but typically runs in the high 600s.

My main reason for upgrading the fiber was due to the number of connected devices in our house. We have 3 PCs, five laptops, two IPad Pros, two Fire Tablets, six Echo Shows, five Fire TVs, 1 Roku, 1 home theater receiver, 1 weather hub, 1 Ring video doorbell, two security cameras, several smart power switches, two 3D printers, one laser all-in-one, and two IPhones that connect in the home.

 

[mickrc3]

A couple of things:

One, although the fiber phone person told me that my new line was already activated - it wasn't. So all of my previous tests were worthless. The tech that actually switched the fiber to 2Gbps did so on 10/23/23, so now I have in theory faster connections.

Two, after not being able to get the onboard WiFi to go faster than 800Mbps I disabled it and installed a WiFi 6E PCI-E x1 card and with the new fiber I get connection speeds of 1.2Gbps between my PC and the Router. That is 20% faster than the Ethernet connection I had before, without a line snaking across the floor but 600Mbps short of the advertised speed of the card so I might replace it yet again. And by mid-summer 2024 the tech says that they will have Gigaspire 10U routers which have a 10Gbps port for the local Lan so I can up the speed of my mesh network which is currently limited to 1Gbps due to the required Ethernet tethering with the fiber router. I could also get a new card for that PC for faster wireless connections. Or the upstairs PC can still connect via Ethernet coming from the nearby mesh node and get a solid connection at 1Gbps.

 

[kanewolf]

A couple of things:

One, although the fiber phone person told me that my new line was already activated - it wasn't. So all of my previous tests were worthless. The tech that actually switched the fiber to 2Gbps did so on 10/23/23, so now I have in theory faster connections.

Two, after not being able to get the onboard WiFi to go faster than 800Mbps I disabled it and installed a WiFi 6E PCI-E x1 card and with the new fiber I get connection speeds of 1.2Gbps between my PC and the Router. That is 20% faster than the Ethernet connection I had before, without a line snaking across the floor but 600Mbps short of the advertised speed of the card so I might replace it yet again. And by mid-summer 2024 the tech says that they will have Gigaspire 10U routers which have a 10Gbps port for the local Lan so I can up the speed of my mesh network which is currently limited to 1Gbps due to the required Ethernet tethering with the fiber router. I could also get a new card for that PC for faster wireless connections. Or the upstairs PC can still connect via Ethernet coming from the nearby mesh node and get a solid connection at 1Gbps.

It is not 20% faster. Why? Because wired ethernet is full-duplex and WIFI is half-duplex. You would have to have a 2Gb link speed to equal gigabit wired.

 

[mickrc3]

It is not 20% faster. Why? Because wired ethernet is full-duplex and WIFI is half-duplex. You would have to have a 2Gb link speed to equal gigabit wired.

The amount of time that the PC to Router connection would be used upstream and downstream at the same moment is small, especially since I am a non-gamer so almost all of my network traffic is downstream web-surfing. The effective speed is faster than WiFi but not twice as fast wired over wireless because the upstream path is active so little of the time.

And as I noted - once the fiber company changes over to the Gigaspire 10U router which directly connects to the fiber hub without using the 10Gbps WLAN/LAN port, leaving it available to connect to my Mesh using the TP-Link's 2.5Gbps WLAN port or I could directly connect my PC using the 2.5Gbps port on the motherboard. That would force my Mesh network to stay connected to the Gigaspire using a regular 1Gbps Ethernet port. But I am satisfied with the speed I have through WiFi 6 and without the Ethernet cable on the floor so I will let the Mesh have the faster Ethernet.