[SOLVED] Why is one of my devices getting gigabit internet speed but not the other if they both support it?

[Jorge24]

Today I got Fios gigabit internet. My desktop PC that has a MSI 970A-G43 Motherboard which I think is supposed to support up to 1000Mbps but I'm only getting around 300-400Mbps download and 600Mbps upload on an Ethernet connecting with a Cat6 cable.
The technician who installed Fios connected his Verizon tablet (that runs android) to the same Ethernet cable and consistently got around 700-900Mbps down. On my laptop I'm getting around 600-700Mbps down.
The technician said my CPU could be the reason why my speeds are down. Should the CPU affect the test speeds at all? I have an AMD FX 6300 and an ADATA SU800 1TB SSD that according to their site has a

"Sequential R/W performance (max) of Up to 560/520MB/s
*Actual performance may vary due to available SSD capacity, system hardware and software components, and other factors"

For most of the tests I used https://www.speedtest.net to test the speed but I also tried Google's speed test that yielded about the same results. The technician did the test on his tablet using the app version of www.speedtest.net and he also installed another speed test app upon my request to prove that he was still getting faster speeds than my desktop.
I'm using Fios G1100 Quantum Gateway router.

I have noticed that in Task Manager's Performance tab:

• Before speed test, SSD usage is 0% and stays at 0% during the test so I don't think the SSD is the bottle neck.
• Before speed test, RAM usage is 50% (4GB out of 8GB) and that didn't really change during the test.
• Before speed test, CPU usage fluctuates around 30-45% and stays the same during the test.

Things I have tried with no success:

• Turning off the Windows Firewall
• Installed the latest LAN drivers provided by the MOBO manufacturer
• Tried multiple speed testing sites in Firefox and Chrome
• Disconnected and reconnected the Ethernet cable
• Restarted my PC
• Made sure other programs were not downloading anything

The problem is clearly linked to my desktop PC's hardware or software but what could it be? Even though my motherboard says it supports up to 1Gbps, could it be that the other components are not good enough to handle 1Gbps?

 

[jsmithepa]

This question is asked everyday in one form or the other.

The major culprit is W10 requires a W10-specific LAN driver, this should be supplied by your Mobo's vendor and if pre-built, Dell, HP etc, are the one specifically designed for your machine.

I assume both of your good and no-good machine are plug in to the same ethernet switch.

 

[Jorge24]

This question is asked everyday in one form or the other.

The major culprit is W10 requires a W10-specific LAN driver, this should be supplied by your Mobo's vendor and if pre-built, Dell, HP etc, are the one specifically designed for your machine.

I assume both of your good and no-good machine are plug in to the same ethernet switch.

Thank you, I thought that could be the issue too so yesterday I went to the MSI website and installed the latest LAN drivers they had but unfortunately that didn't fix it. I'm aware this question has been asked a lot and I did do some searching in this forum before I posted and tried the solutions/suggestions others posted.

 

[failboat]

I highly recommend trouble shooting with iperf3. It only uses cpu and ram. Your disk can be the culprit here. Your ram will cache for a little bit.

Run the server on the pc you know has the best speed and disable it's firewall. then run the client from all your other devices. It's also a great way to test wifi. one of them should be wired for that. speeds can differ both directions with wifi. it's a little harder to test and you can't adjust the firewall on many devices.

some low power arm cpu might choke with 1Gbs NAT, but x86 it's not an issue at all. AES is another story. many systems can't keep up with encryption. AES-NI on intel speeds it up. AMD has something similar.