High speed PCI-E wireless network adapter?

justrightlizard · Mar 3, 2018

Currently I am looking for a network adapter for my computer. I need one that will sustain near the same speeds as Ethernet. I receive a 500mb/s download and 50mb/s upload speed from WOW isp. My router is the Netgear AC1750 (https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Smart-Router-Gigabit-Amazon/dp/B00Z0V2NQ8). Currently I am using some crappy usb wireless adapter that only picks up about 200mb/s from my router. If I were to purchase this network adapter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F42V83C/?tag=pcpapi-20&th=1 Would I receive the full 500mb/s speed or about the same to what I currently get (200mb/s)? If this one is not good enough, then could you please link me to one that could sustain those speeds?

Also for the record, my computer is directly above my router, the room below.

Thanks for all the help!

kanewolf · Mar 3, 2018

There is no wireless adapter that will give you ethernet speeds. Above a router is a bad place. The antennas are designed to radiate horizontally.
If you want the full speed you are paying for, you will have to get an ethernet cable upstairs. Instead of buying WIFI adapters, pay someone to properly install an ethernet cable.

justrightlizard · Mar 3, 2018

I'm not really in the best position to get a CAT6 wired through the floor. So without hard-wiring, would this adapter (or any other adapter) boost my current speeds?

kanewolf · Mar 3, 2018

Probably not. Pay to have the wire installed if you want the internet speed you are paying for.

Solandri · Mar 3, 2018

Your AC1750 router is a 3x3 MIMO device capable of 1300 Mbps over 802.11ac WiFi. That's a link speed though - the speed at which the router and the WiFi device can communicate. There's a lot of error correction coding that's added on, which will drop real-world use speeds to be about half to 2/3 the link speed. So expect max real-life throughput to about 850 Mbps best case, closer to 650 Mbps on average. Lower in non-ideal cases. Achieving that requires:

■a WiFi adapter which supports 3x3 MIMO (simultaneous broadcast by 3 radios over 3 antennas)
■sufficient separation of the 3 antennas. MIMO works by broadcasting different signals simultaneously over the same frequency, and relying on the directionality of the received signals to separate out the different transmissions. So avoid putting all three router antennas in a straight line pointed at your computer, orient the antennas differently, and don't put the router in an open space in the middle of the room - signals bouncing off of obstructions can help with directionality.
■close proximity to the router so there no bandwidth reduction due to weak signal strength
■no devices attempting to communicate with the router at the same time
■little to no interference from other nearby RF sources

The first one is the hard one to achieve right now. The vast majority of 802.11ac products out there are 2x2 MIMO - capable of only a 866 Mbps link speed, about 500 Mbps real-life throughput best case. The Asus adapter you've linked is indeed a 3x3 card, so should be capable of hitting over 800 Mbps throughput - provided the other conditions are met. (They have a new one out which is 4x4, but kinda pointless since your router is only capable of 3x3.)

Also be aware that newer 60 GHz 802.11ad devices are starting to show up. With a compliant router and adapter, this is capable of a 4600 Mbps link speed, so should be able to achieve 2-3 GB/s throughput (faster than Gigabit Ethernet). But the range will be extremely short and heavily impacted by obstructions.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/802-11ad-wifi-guide-review/

justrightlizard · Mar 3, 2018

So from what you are saying, I would probably only get 250-300mb/s with this adapter. Or are you saying that I will get the full 500? To me all that matters is the highest speed. If it's only a 50-100mb/s increase from my current 200 then it's not really worth the price. But if I can get that full speed then I am definitely willing to spend the 80-100 dollars.

Also, from what the other person said about just wiring my PC. I really want to wire my pc to my router, but that would require me to drill a hole through my hard wood floors and I don't think my parents would be amenable to that. How would I go about getting a CAT6 through my floor without having to drill a giant hole through the floor. That being said, I would only want to do CAT6 if the wireless adapter is not efficient enough. Thanks for the help.

Solandri · Mar 3, 2018

justrightlizard :

It's 3x3 MIMO. Best case you'll get about 850 Mbps. Average speeds are likely to be close to the 500 Mbps you want.

How would I go about getting a CAT6 through my floor without having to drill a giant hole through the floor. That being said, I would only want to do CAT6 if the wireless adapter is not efficient enough. Thanks for the help.

"Not enough" is a bit nebulous. Yes 3x3 MIMO is capable of giving you over 500 Mbps. Whether it can deliver that depends on all the other factors I listed.

If you can't drill holes, you can try Powerline Ethernet or MoCA (Ethernet over cable TV cable), though I'm not sure either of those are capable of hitting 500 Mbps real-world speeds. You can run white Ethernet cable up near the corner of the wall and ceiling where it's not very visible. Or if your walls have wainscoting near the ceiling, you can run the cable above that where it's tucked out of sight. You can pull the decorative wainscoting off the walls near the floor. There's usually a small gap between the floor boards and the drywall that you can tuck cable into. You'll need some sort of white filler putty to hide the nail holes in the wainscoting after nailing it back in place. Or if there's a relatively short run of air conditioning vents between the two rooms, you can run Ethernet cable through it to get from downstairs to upstairs.

vmfantom · Mar 4, 2018

If you really need gigabit throughput on wifi, you'd use the now deprecated 802.11ad standard (WiGig) on both the router and an adapter. That's what it's for. But 60 GHz attenuates over extremely short distances.

The most MIMO streams you can currently find on 802.11ac PCIe adapters is 4, for a link rate of 1733 Mbps if both the router and client are 4-stream.

As Solandri mentions, the contention window means that you receive only a fraction of the link rate on wifi. The only way to get approx. 940 Mbps throughput on 802.11ac is by literally connecting SMA jumper cables between a router's radio chains and an adapter's radio chains. Which means, it wouldn't be wireless. Otherwise, expect 40% of the link rate on average.

A few 802.11ac routers can hit 500-600 Mbps throughput, but most are 4-stream and you'd need a 4-stream client to hit that throughput, with very little attenuation. The TP-Link AD7200 Talon has that, along with 802.11ad support. (You can read the link below or check out max throughput for 5 GHz on SmallNetBuilder for other comparable routers.) But you should be on the lookout for 802.11ax routers soon rather than investing in 802.11ad gear, since it's more or less defunct.

Bonded MoCA 2.0 adapters can hit 1 Gbps MAC layer throughput, but only a few products are bonded MoCA 2.0 compliant. The one shown in the link below is.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/List_of_802.11ad_Hardware
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/33009-tp-link-talon-ad7200-multi-band-wi-fi-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2
https://m.ebay.com/itm/1-Gbps-MoCA-Adapter-2-Pack-for-Ethernet-over-Coax-Highest-Speed-Available/183069068944

Search

High speed PCI-E wireless network adapter?

justrightlizard

Commendable

Solandri

kanewolf

Titan

justrightlizard

Commendable

kanewolf

Titan

Solandri

Illustrious

justrightlizard

Commendable

Solandri

Illustrious

vmfantom

Notable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page