which is really faster wifi or ethernet

[cookiez6]

So I am doing a lot of researching lately because I just build a new pc and want to start online gaming.
I understand the theory is that Ethernet is faster than wifi. By looking at router info I assume that now days the different priced router only have difference in the wifi speed but the Ethernet port all the same 1000mps but now days wifi goes much faster than that ,the fastest I found was the Asus Router AT-RC5300 going up to 4334mps.

So by research I find out the now there are cat6a and cat7 Ethernet cable that can go faster than 1000mps , going up to 10000mps Can someone tell me how does cat7 work,?can any router support cat7? Does it work the same as the Ethernet cable that I am already using (possibly cat5?) if it doesn't then how do I set it up?

I understand Ethernet cable always more stable than wifi and that I still need adapter that can take that speed to reach that full speed.
So now here is the real question ,does mean it's now wifi is faster than Ethernet cable?

 

[bill001g]

Why do you think wifi can go 4334mbps. You are being snowed by marketing guys. They add multiple radio speeds together even though you pc can only use a single radio. Then they add the transmit and receive speeds together. This would be like calling a gigabit ethernet 2 gigabit....except ethernet can actually send 1gbit and receive 1gbit at the same time. On top of this if you use cat6a cable and your devices have 10g ports you can get 10gbit in both directions. There is massive overhead in wifi and you can only get really high rates in artificial test conditions.

Go to some of the testing sites that measure WiFi speeds. At commonly used distances they get maybe 300mbps download. If you put the pc directly next to the router and use extremely uncommon nics that have 4 antenna you can get more but why would you not just use a ethernet cable it you are 1 ft away.

 

[cryoburner]

What are you even using this network connection for that you think you need such high speeds? Online gaming will be limited by the speed of your Internet connection, which will almost certainly be well below the maximum speed offered by a regular wired Gigabit router. If you just "want to start online gaming", you don't need your network to operate at anything more than 1000 mbps. Even an older 100 mbps wired router might be fine if your Internet speed is below 100 mbps, which it more than likely is.

The only reason that one would likely want higher networking speeds than what a 1 Gigabit router can offer would be if they stored regularly-accessed files on a fast network-attached storage device, instead of locally on their computer. This doesn't sound like your usage scenario though.

 

[Solandri]

The speeds advertised for WiFi are link speeds. The speed at which the device and router communicate with each other at the base level. There's a ton of error-correction coding added on. Real transfer speed under ideal conditions is typically about half the link speed. Real-world speeds (at reasonable distance) is about 1/3 the link speed if there's no interference. Also, a lot of these new routers base their advertised speeds on MIMO (multiple streams) and multiple bands. Your device has to support all these streams and bands to achieve the advertised speeds.

e.g. My AC1900 router is supposedly 1900 Mbps. But that's an amalgam of 600 Mbps at 2.4 GHz, 1300 Mbps at 5 GHz. My laptop's WiFi card only supports single-band (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, not both simultaneously). And at 5 GHz it only supports 867 Mbps (doesn't support more simultaneous streams). The best real-world speed I've seen is about 45 MB/s, typical about 25-35 MB/s.

Ethernet is a lot more straightforward. If your computer and router/switch supports Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps), then you can transfer at Gigabit speeds. And since there's no external noise or interference, it will usually hit the top speed. Gigabit can hit 125 MB/s, although the drive, filesystem, or network protocol (like SAMBA) can slow it down. However, devices which support Cat 6a and Cat 7 are still rare and expensive.

Also FYI, hard drives top out at around 150 MB/s on sequential transfers (newer large HDDs can hit about 225 MB/s). Small file speeds are even worse - about 1 MB/s for a HDD, 30-70 MB/s for a SSD. So unless you're transferring large files from a SSD to a SSD over th enetwork, you're highly unlikely to need anything faster than Gigabit ethernet for the near future.

 

[cookiez6]

Why do you think wifi can go 4334mbps. You are being snowed by marketing guys. They add multiple radio speeds together even though you pc can only use a single radio. Then they add the transmit and receive speeds together. This would be like calling a gigabit ethernet 2 gigabit....except ethernet can actually send 1gbit and receive 1gbit at the same time. On top of this if you use cat6a cable and your devices have 10g ports you can get 10gbit in both directions. There is massive overhead in wifi and you can only get really high rates in artificial test conditions.

Go to some of the testing sites that measure WiFi speeds. At commonly used distances they get maybe 300mbps download. If you put the pc directly next to the router and use extremely uncommon nics that have 4 antenna you can get more but why would you not just use a ethernet cable it you are 1 ft away.

So how does cat6a cable work. Can it be used on any router?

 

[cookiez6]

so you guys are saying ethernet cable (cat6 because I still don't know how 6a and 7 works)will always be faster than wifi no matter what. and here is the router that i was talking about https://www.amazon.com/Rapture-GT-AC5300-Tri-band-AC5300-Gigabit/dp/B071DPCKQ6/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1506946029&sr=1-7&refinements=p_89%3AAsus

 

[cookiez6]

The speeds advertised for WiFi are link speeds. The speed at which the device and router communicate with each other at the base level. There's a ton of error-correction coding added on. Real transfer speed under ideal conditions is typically about half the link speed. Real-world speeds (at reasonable distance) is about 1/3 the link speed if there's no interference. Also, a lot of these new routers base their advertised speeds on MIMO (multiple streams) and multiple bands. Your device has to support all these streams and bands to achieve the advertised speeds.

e.g. My AC1900 router is supposedly 1900 Mbps. But that's an amalgam of 600 Mbps at 2.4 GHz, 1300 Mbps at 5 GHz. My laptop's WiFi card only supports single-band (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz, not both simultaneously). And at 5 GHz it only supports 867 Mbps (doesn't support more simultaneous streams). The best real-world speed I've seen is about 45 MB/s, typical about 25-35 MB/s.

Ethernet is a lot more straightforward. If your computer and router/switch supports Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps), then you can transfer at Gigabit speeds. And since there's no external noise or interference, it will usually hit the top speed. Gigabit can hit 125 MB/s, although the drive, filesystem, or network protocol (like SAMBA) can slow it down. However, devices which support Cat 6a and Cat 7 are still rare and expensive.

Also FYI, hard drives top out at around 150 MB/s on sequential transfers (newer large HDDs can hit about 225 MB/s). Small file speeds are even worse - about 1 MB/s for a HDD, 30-70 MB/s for a SSD. So unless you're transferring large files from a SSD to a SSD over th enetwork, you're highly unlikely to need anything faster than Gigabit ethernet for the near future.

Does it mean even if you have a dual band wifi adaptor which is capable of receiving 1900mbps then you will reach higher speed but still lower than Ethernet cable . what about higher speed router will it be the same case?

 

[cookiez6]

What are you even using this network connection for that you think you need such high speeds? Online gaming will be limited by the speed of your Internet connection, which will almost certainly be well below the maximum speed offered by a regular wired Gigabit router. If you just "want to start online gaming", you don't need your network to operate at anything more than 1000 mbps. Even an older 100 mbps wired router might be fine if your Internet speed is below 100 mbps, which it more than likely is.

The only reason that one would likely want higher networking speeds than what a 1 Gigabit router can offer would be if they stored regularly-accessed files on a fast network-attached storage device, instead of locally on their computer. This doesn't sound like your usage scenario though.

sorry being misleading with my question. it is not all about gaming or my connection speed. It's more like a general question about internet speed which I would like to know more about.

 

[bill001g]

The cat6a cable is only the minor part of getting 10gbit. It its like buying race car tires and putting them on your economy car. You car will still go no faster

The end device and the router/switch must have 10g ports. It is not just the ports it is the whole device than must be designed to put data out at 10g. The cable is only tiny part of the huge costs.

Again why do you think you can get 1900mbps on a adapter. You need to start reading the fine print than believing the headline numbers designed to con the lazy people who do no research.

A dualband adapter only has a single radio it can only run on 1 band at a time. Even if you did something silly like put 2 wireless nic cards in your machine there is no way defined to combine the radio bandwidth.

A cat5e running at 1gbit will always be faster than any wireless you can find.

Go look at this site. Even then they are testing using nics that have feature that are extremely rare. Its not like you can put a 4 antenna nic card in your cell phone.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/119-5-ghz-profile-dn/35

 

[Nyrin]

Cables are generally going to be faster than wireless, but when you ask "is cat6a always faster than wifi," that's indicating a fundamental misunderstanding: the connection media determines *potential* throughout, not actual. You can contrive a WiFi situation that's faster than a wired link, it'll just be tougher.

Think of it like comparing roads. If I asked "is the freeway always faster than the bike trail," that'd be a weird question. Sure, the freeway is usually faster, but if there's an accident or a traffic jam, I might be a lot faster on the trail. But the trail will never have me going 70mph down it with any consistency.

 

[cookiez6]

Cables are generally going to be faster than wireless, but when you ask "is cat6a always faster than wifi," that's indicating a fundamental misunderstanding: the connection media determines *potential* throughout, not actual. You can contrive a WiFi situation that's faster than a wired link, it'll just be tougher.

Think of it like comparing roads. If I asked "is the freeway always faster than the bike trail," that'd be a weird question. Sure, the freeway is usually faster, but if there's an accident or a traffic jam, I might be a lot faster on the trail. But the trail will never have me going 70mph down it with any consistency.

good way of putting it. So I can be happy to say with my cat6 cable speed will not be passed by any wifi connections

 

[svalbaard]

Yes.