[SOLVED] PCI 4x4 AC versus integrated AX

[Firf]

I understand the advantages of AX, however when using a high end AC router (e.g. ROG GT5300AC) (wifi-5) with a PCI 4x4 networking card, should I be moving that PCI 4x4 to a new PC that has integrated AX? The 4x4 has amazing signal quality, however my new desktop will be coming with an integrated Killer AX1650 AX 2x2 adapter (looks like no external antennas).

Should I expect the AX adapter to outperform my ASUS PCI 88 4x4 when using a high end AC router? As a side note, my desktop would be the only wi-fi 6 capable device in my network across all devices.

I thought I could ping this group and avoid having to perform testing if many of you think that, for example, using the AX adapter would be a slam dunk advantage over the PCI powered 4x4 I already have that also uses ROG specific capability around beam-forming, etc. (which I assume is still brand specific...?).

Any input is appreciated!

 

[bill001g]

Way too many variables to say for sure.

The problem with 4x4 is it has to dig 4 signals they intentionally overlapped out of all the interference form your neighbors wifi. For a very long time after 802.11ac was finalized nobody could get it to work well. If you could just keep adding antenna and getting more bandwidth we would have 100x100. There is much less increase going from 3x3 to 4x4 than from 1z1 to 2x2.

The key advantage of 802.11ax is that it uses 160mhz channels. It also uses a much more dense encoding so a 1x1 802.11ax signal will have massively more bandwidth and since it is not using any tricky mimo it gets a much higher percentage.

So if it uses the same qam256 as 802.11ac. a 2x2 802.11ax signal should have the same theoretical bandwidth as a 4x4 802.11ac. But because it is using actual radio bandwidth to double the speed rather than trying to be tricky and overlap the signals 802.11ax should get more actual bandwidth in the real world rather than some fake lab numbers. In addition if the signal is strong enough to use qam1024 on 802.11ax it get about 25% more speed.

The huge problem with 802.11ax (ie wifi6) is that using so much bandwidth almost guarantees that you can no coexist with your neighbors. Everyone will stomp on each other so it is hard to say how good it will ever work. Many times you get better results using a 20mhz channel that nobody else is on if that is possible.

I am playing wait and see on this stuff. Wifi6e stuff is just starting to get on the market. It will make all normal wifi6 equipment obsolete because it includes support of the 6g radio band which has massive amounts of radio bandwidth. At least for a while you can not overlap your neighbors.... untill we get wifi7 or whatever that attempts of use all the radio blocks on 1 device.

 

[Firf]

First - Thanks for the detailed response (forums rock!). I appreciate it.

Great call on picking an isolated channel and sounds like it’s worth giving th AX a try. I wouldn’t mind not using the card to keep down heat and free up a slot.

I’ll post my findings, may be a few weeks as I’m still awaiting the new machine.

Again, thanks for taking the time to reply, learned a few things.