[SOLVED] PCIE WiFi Adapter vs USB Wifi Adapter help

karthik.gems

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I am looking for wifi adapters for my pc and came across this article.

Here they are comparing pcie and usb wifi adapters. Two models - Tplink Archer T4U (USB) and Archer T4E (PCIE) - fall within my budget and these are available in my country.

In the tests shown in that website, the usb model T4U performs better than T4E pci model. How is this possible?

And for my purchase decision, should I go with T4U or T4E?

(My router Archer A6 has the same MU-MIMO tech and supports dual-band).
 
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Solution
bill100g's post above is good. It points out that many factors difficult to optimize can affect real performance.

Aside from that, though, there is a small difference between those two devices. It is not clear from their web pages whether they use the same chip for their core functions. But both say they use the new MU-MIMO technology and MUST be in contact with a Router that also uses that technology and conforms to WiFi standard 802.11ac (or higher) to deliver that performance. To grasp what MU-MIMO does, look at this web page.

https://www.networkworld.com/articl...why-you-need-it-in-your-wireless-routers.html

Basically in MU-MIMO these WiFi adapters create two separate communication channels (one...
Test results really mean nothing since they did not come to your house and run all the tests in the environment you are in. Way to many variables to wifi to even make predictions. Can be as simple as the router is moved even 1 inch in any direction will cause the results to be different.

If the PCIe cards and the USB device transmit at full legal power and have full size antenna they should perform about the same. The key problem with both is the location of the antenna. PCIE cards unless you buy the expensive models that let you extend the antenna to the top of the case suffer from a lot of signal being blocked by the case and other metal. USB device have the same issue if you would for example plug them into a back USB slot. Because you can put a USB on a long cord it helps with the blocking of signal. You have to be very careful with USB devices though many do not output the full legal power.

In the end this is a trial and error thing to find a unit that works best in your particular install.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
bill100g's post above is good. It points out that many factors difficult to optimize can affect real performance.

Aside from that, though, there is a small difference between those two devices. It is not clear from their web pages whether they use the same chip for their core functions. But both say they use the new MU-MIMO technology and MUST be in contact with a Router that also uses that technology and conforms to WiFi standard 802.11ac (or higher) to deliver that performance. To grasp what MU-MIMO does, look at this web page.

https://www.networkworld.com/articl...why-you-need-it-in-your-wireless-routers.html

Basically in MU-MIMO these WiFi adapters create two separate communication channels (one from each WiFi band) with the router and use both of them simultaneously as if they were different users. But the driver software keeps track of which channel is doing which part of your overall communication tasks and blends the results appropriately. It is a little odd that, between the two types of adapters, the PCIe one claims slightly lower max speed on the 2.4 GHz band - no explanation why, but maybe there's a small hardware difference between the two adapters. According to the article you linked to, the total difference in performance is small.

You should note the things that are important to achieve these data speeds. As I said, you must have a router that uses the 802.11ac (or higher) standard and has at least both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands in use, and supports this MU-MIMO feature. Then IF you are using the USB device, you MUST have it connected to your computer using a USB3 port for maximum data transfer - a USB2 port is MUCH slower!

You also should be aware of a factor not discussed on the web pages. The 5 GHz band is a significant improvement over 2.4 GHz for two reasons: the 5 GHz band contains MANY more channels for simultaneous use, and each of those channels can handle data about twice as fast. BUT the 5 GHz signals do NOT penetrate intervening structures as well as the 2.4 GHz band ones, so the range from router to WiFi adapter is shorter for 5 GHz. If your particular location is not close to the router, you may never get any 5 GHz use from either of those adapters. In our home we have good triple-band routers and I use WiFi to connect my cell phone to the internet. Works great anywhere in the house on both bands, depending on which band I choose to use on my phone settings. BUT when I'm out at the back of our yard working on my car, the phone can just get contact using the 2.4 GHz band, and no contact at all on 5 GHz band.
 
Solution

karthik.gems

Reputable
Nov 5, 2018
86
4
4,535
bill100g's post above is good. It points out that many factors difficult to optimize can affect real performance.

Aside from that, though, there is a small difference between those two devices. It is not clear from their web pages whether they use the same chip for their core functions. But both say they use the new MU-MIMO technology and MUST be in contact with a Router that also uses that technology and conforms to WiFi standard 802.11ac (or higher) to deliver that performance. To grasp what MU-MIMO does, look at this web page.

https://www.networkworld.com/articl...why-you-need-it-in-your-wireless-routers.html

Basically in MU-MIMO these WiFi adapters create two separate communication channels (one from each WiFi band) with the router and use both of them simultaneously as if they were different users. But the driver software keeps track of which channel is doing which part of your overall communication tasks and blends the results appropriately. It is a little odd that, between the two types of adapters, the PCIe one claims slightly lower max speed on the 2.4 GHz band - no explanation why, but maybe there's a small hardware difference between the two adapters. According to the article you linked to, the total difference in performance is small.

You should note the things that are important to achieve these data speeds. As I said, you must have a router that uses the 802.11ac (or higher) standard and has at least both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands in use, and supports this MU-MIMO feature. Then IF you are using the USB device, you MUST have it connected to your computer using a USB3 port for maximum data transfer - a USB2 port is MUCH slower!

You also should be aware of a factor not discussed on the web pages. The 5 GHz band is a significant improvement over 2.4 GHz for two reasons: the 5 GHz band contains MANY more channels for simultaneous use, and each of those channels can handle data about twice as fast. BUT the 5 GHz signals do NOT penetrate intervening structures as well as the 2.4 GHz band ones, so the range from router to WiFi adapter is shorter for 5 GHz. If your particular location is not close to the router, you may never get any 5 GHz use from either of those adapters. In our home we have good triple-band routers and I use WiFi to connect my cell phone to the internet. Works great anywhere in the house on both bands, depending on which band I choose to use on my phone settings. BUT when I'm out at the back of our yard working on my car, the phone can just get contact using the 2.4 GHz band, and no contact at all on 5 GHz band.

Thanks doc for the reply. That's a very thorough explanation. Fortunately enough, my router Archer A6 has the same MU-MIMO tech.

My pc is situated at nearly 10 to 12 feet from the router with a wall in between. So in my scenario, would a usb adapter like T4U works better or the pcie one T4E ?
 

karthik.gems

Reputable
Nov 5, 2018
86
4
4,535
Test results really mean nothing since they did not come to your house and run all the tests in the environment you are in. Way to many variables to wifi to even make predictions. Can be as simple as the router is moved even 1 inch in any direction will cause the results to be different.

If the PCIe cards and the USB device transmit at full legal power and have full size antenna they should perform about the same. The key problem with both is the location of the antenna. PCIE cards unless you buy the expensive models that let you extend the antenna to the top of the case suffer from a lot of signal being blocked by the case and other metal. USB device have the same issue if you would for example plug them into a back USB slot. Because you can put a USB on a long cord it helps with the blocking of signal. You have to be very careful with USB devices though many do not output the full legal power.

In the end this is a trial and error thing to find a unit that works best in your particular install.

Thanks for the reply.

My router is like 10 to 12 feet distant from my pc and there is a wall in the middle. So would you say the USB adapter works better in my scenario? I cannot do trial and error here, sadly in my country, amazon doesn't take return for electronic parts. And I will have to figure out the better one before buying.
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
At that distance there should be no problem with either WiFi adapter. That assumes, of course, that the wall is a normal wall, not a sheet of metal. AND it assumes that you do have a USB3 port to connect the one adapter to - as I said, a USB2 port would make it MUCH slower. I should add this: to get full speed data transfer, the USB3 adapter should be plugged into a USB3 port on your computer, and NOT into a USB3 HUB outside the computer. That is because an external Hub must send ALL data from its connected devices through the single cable to the host port, and that sharing might make data transfer from the WiFi adapter a bit slower.