[SOLVED] WiFi drivers from motherboard manufacturer's website versus other sources ?

[tsndx]

My motherboard is a B650 AORUS ELITE AX. Many months ago I had a problem where even after installing the wireless drivers from gigabyte's website (correct motherboard model and revision number), my download speeds looked like a half-rectified sine wave at very low speeds. I scoured the internet for possible solutions, and eventually found someone link to this: https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=8852CE

Downloading the cabinet file from that website and installing it through powershell made my wireless download speeds about 10 times faster (yes the speeds using the drivers from gigabyte's website were that bad) and it was a consistent speed, no longer that half-rectified look.

I understand that these are both drivers for the wireless adapter built into the motherboard, but why is the one from the microsoft website so much faster? Why wouldn't gigabyte have a mirror of that one? Is this really only a problem I faced? How would an average person even find out about this (I know I did, but I doubt most put the time into troubleshooting these things as extensively).

(Just to clarify, this post is not about troubleshooting, my problem was solved long ago. I'm more curious about why this driver worked so much better)

Edit: I also want to note that it is not as if the wireless drivers on gigabytes website are insanely outdated. The one currently listed is from April 27th 2023, and while that is decently old, it isn't old enough that I'd expect such awful results from it.

 

[Math Geek]

i've seen similar results before and it's rather random which driver works the best or if there is even any difference between them.

my best results tend to come from neither of those sources but rather from the actual wifi chip manufacturer's site. for instance your board likely has the intel module and this is the drivers from intel themselves

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/204836/intel-wifi-6e-ax210-gig/downloads.html

so now you have 3 options to try and my experience has it as a total crap shoot which works the best or if they all do the job.

it is hard to guess why your specific experience happened or if anyone else even had the same issue. but you found the correct solution which is to try another driver source such as windows update or straight to intel/broadcom/etc... for their drivers. one of them usually does the trick

the "average person" most likely is using whatever windows update installed and only seeks other options if there is an issue and only after being directed to a specific file to try. we are the exception here in that most of us are very knowledgeable and already know what the other sources are and how to find them.

 

[dwd999]

I understand that these are both drivers for the wireless adapter built into the motherboard, but why is the one from the microsoft website so much faster? Why wouldn't gigabyte have a mirror of that one? Is this really only a problem I faced? How would an average person even find out about this (I know I did, but I doubt most put the time into troubleshooting these things as extensively).

Let's be frank, the Gigabyte people are just too cheap to employ enough people to monitor these components' drivers and update the website in a timely manner. Its not just them, I've seen ASUS do the same thing. And I've seen that Realtek isn't totally blameless since its difficult to find drivers on their own website. Its all about a lack of resources and staffing devoted to support. Be thankful that at least you're smart enough to figure out there are 3 motherboard revisions and two chips being used so you got the correct one and self-supported yourself to a happy ending.