Question Just curious why PC is slower than phone on Wi-Fi ?

[AJAJAJ]

My internet is 300Mbps. On Wi-Fi my phone was getting 30Mbps and my PC was getting 90. I replaced the $25 dollar router i had from Walmart with one i got on sale on Amazon for $40. My phone now gets 280Mbps, i assume this is the max I'll be able to get on a 300Mbps plan. My PC now gets 180Mbps. I'm fine with the pc getting 180, it's way more than i need, I'm just curious why the phone seems to be able to max out my internet speed but my PC can't. Does the phone just have better Wi-Fi hardware built into it? The phone is a Galaxy S21 5G, the PC says Realtek 802.11ac. I tested them the same distance from the router (D-Link DIR-1950 IEEE 802.11ac), about 15 feet through 1 wall in a single story home.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Probably because they run on entirely different protocols and the phone has much less overhead than the PC does.

 

[gggplaya]

Probably because they run on entirely different protocols and the phone has much less overhead than the PC does.

At those speeds, they are both using wireless AC and both machines should have the same 2x2 configuration. But at 180mbps on the PC, one of your antenna's may be detached internally so it's only running 1x1.

I would download the proper drivers for the PC as well. From the laptop or mainboard manufacturer. Don't use the windows discovered driver, they always cause problems.

 

[AJAJAJ]

At those speeds, they are both using wireless AC and both machines should have the same 2x2 configuration. But at 180mbps on the PC, one of your antenna's may be detached internally so it's only running 1x1.

I would download the proper drivers for the PC as well. From the laptop or mainboard manufacturer. Don't use the windows discovered driver, they always cause problems.

I updated the drivers from a link on the HP website. It still seems to only go about 180-200. It's not a big deal, that's plenty fast, just strange that phone is so much faster.

This is what Realtek says about the hardware.
802.11AC/ABGN PCIE WLAN WITH BLUETOOTH 5.0 SINGLE-CHIP CONTROLLER

• Supports up to Bluetooth 5.0
• TFBGQ 2.5x2.5mm package
• 802.11ac/abgn
• 802.11ac 1x1
• Bluetooth 5.0

I noticed there are affordable external Wi-Fi antennas you can hook up with USB 3 to the PC but considering how fast it already is i figured it's not worth the $40 for extra speed i don't need.

 

[gggplaya]

• 802.11ac 1x1

Whoop there it is. It's only a 1x1 antenna. I just assumed it was a 2x2 with 1 antenna wire disconnected because I didn't think an OEM would install a 1x1.

180-200mbps is correct for a 1x1 antenna with wireless AC with 80mhz channel width. I would expect about 400mbps with a normal 2x2 wireless AC radio.

Your system is working as it should, nothing is broken. It's just a 1x1 radio.

Does your motherboard this wifi controller in an ngff slot? Is the controller removable, you could just upgrade it to something better and newer for $20.

 

[AJAJAJ]

I updated the drivers from a link on the HP website. It still seems to only go about 180-200. It's not a big deal, that's plenty fast, just strange that phone is so much faster.

This is what Realtek says about the hardware.
802.11AC/ABGN PCIE WLAN WITH BLUETOOTH 5.0 SINGLE-CHIP CONTROLLER

• Supports up to Bluetooth 5.0
• TFBGQ 2.5x2.5mm package
• 802.11ac/abgn
• 802.11ac 1x1
• Bluetooth 5.0

I noticed there are affordable external Wi-Fi antennas you can hook up with USB 3 to the PC but considering how fast it already is i figured it's not worth the $40 for extra speed i don't need.

Whoop there it is. It's only a 1x1 antenna. I just assumed it was a 2x2 with 1 antenna wire disconnected because I didn't think an OEM would install a 1x1.

180-200mbps is correct for a 1x1 antenna with wireless AC with 80mhz channel width. I would expect about 400mbps with a normal 2x2 wireless AC radio.

Your system is working as it should, nothing is broken. It's just a 1x1 radio.

Does your motherboard this wifi controller in an ngff slot? Is the controller removable, you could just upgrade it to something better and newer for $20.

I'm not sure, it's just a HP mid range gaming pc i got on sale for Black Friday at Walmart a few years back, so I'm guessing most of what's in it is the cheapest they could get away with, which is ok with me considering how low the price was for the cpu and gpu that are in it. I also live alone and only use the pc for watching media and online gaming, the 90Mbps i was getting before i got my router was already more than i needed, i just figured for 40 dollars I'd see how much faster my phone and pc would go on a new router. The jump on the phone from about 30 to 280 and the pc from 90 to 180 is definitely way more than I'll ever use. I was just curious about why a phone would max the 300Mbps but the pc wouldn't, and now i know! I never would have figured that out on my own. Thanks for the help, pretty cool info.

 

[gggplaya]

I'm not sure, it's just a HP mid range gaming pc i got on sale for Black Friday at Walmart a few years back, so I'm guessing most of what's in it is the cheapest they could get away with, which is ok with me considering how low the price was for the cpu and gpu that are in it. I also live alone and only use the pc for watching media and online gaming, the 90Mbps i was getting before i got my router was already more than i needed, i just figured for 40 dollars I'd see how much faster my phone and pc would go on a new router. The jump on the phone from about 30 to 280 and the pc from 90 to 180 is definitely way more than I'll ever use. I was just curious about why a phone would max the 300Mbps but the pc wouldn't, and now i know! I never would have figured that out on my own. Thanks for the help, pretty cool info.

Yea makes sense. Black friday specials are like that. They'll cheap out wherever they can to get the price right since they're losing money on that stuff.

Having more bandwidth won't help with gaming or most other tasks. But it will help with game downloads and updates, it'll literally make your updates twice as fast.

 

[AJAJAJ]

Yea makes sense. Black friday specials are like that. They'll cheap out wherever they can to get the price right since they're losing money on that stuff.

Having more bandwidth won't help with gaming or most other tasks. But it will help with game downloads and updates, it'll literally make your updates twice as fast.

Yeah very much, i downloaded NBA2k24 after i got my new router. The game is something like 150GB, so downloading @ 20MB/s instead the older 10MB/s was kind of a big deal.