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WiFi 6 (802.11ax) not much faster than WiFi 5 (802.11ac)?
I recently upgraded to the NETGEAR CAX 80 AX6000 with AX-WiFi6 support. I ran a speed test on a laptop with intel AX201 160mhz and got 1500mbps (1.5gbps) on WiFi with ping around 2ms but when I did tests on devices like the M1 iPad Pro and literally every other devices my speeds most of the time is almost identical to AC-WiFi 5 speeds at 650mbps, I rarely get speeds above 700mbps from 700-900mbps, sometimes the WiFi even drops to 400, 200, and even 90mbps. I have the AP set to 4800mbps transmit mode which I think enables 160mhz and also the Channel is at 128, don't seem to have any issues there because none of my neighbors is using DFS channels and I don't get radar interference. To recap, on 80mhz devices, the speeds didn't improve, and in fact is sometimes worse than AC-WiFi 5 (Plus I only have 6 devices on the 5ghz band) All of my tests are done either using the command prompt/terminal, iPerf, or reliable internet speed test servers like speedtest.net or Ubiquiti WiFi man App.
2 Replies
panirwane wrote:I recently upgraded to the NETGEAR CAX 80 AX6000 with AX-WiFi6 support. I ran a speed test on a laptop with intel AX201 160mhz and got 1500mbps (1.5gbps) on WiFi with ping around 2ms but when I did tests on devices like the M1 iPad Pro and literally every other devices my speeds most of the time is almost identical to AC-WiFi 5 speeds at 650mbps, I rarely get speeds above 700mbps from 700-900mbps, sometimes the WiFi even drops to 400, 200, and even 90mbps. I have the AP set to 4800mbps transmit mode which I think enables 160mhz and also the Channel is at 128, don't seem to have any issues there because none of my neighbors is using DFS channels and I don't get radar interference. To recap, on 80mhz devices, the speeds didn't improve, and in fact is sometimes worse than AC-WiFi 5 (Plus I only have 6 devices on the 5ghz band) All of my tests are done either using the command prompt/terminal, iPerf, or reliable internet speed test servers like speedtest.net or Ubiquiti WiFi man App.
For a better understanding of Wi-Fi, Duckware is an excellent reference.
https://www.duckware.com/tech/wifi-in-the-us.html
A condensed answer boils down to variations in connected client hardware and software.
Kitsap is correct. Reading through that can give you a better understanding of wifi speeds/expectations.
Many devices didn't support 160hz wide and only 80hz wide so don't see a ton of benefit (if any). But for the devices that can support 160hz wide channels, its a nice speed increase. Some of the AC router supports 160hz wide as well and were pretty high performing as well.
