2x2 tri-band router vs 4x4 dual-band router

[wiivile]

I'm trying to decide between buying a tri-band router (Linksys EA8300, with two 867mbps 5ghz bands and one 400mbps 2.4ghz band) and a dual band router with 4x4 antenna (TP-Link C2600, one 1733mbps 5ghz band and one 800mbps 2.4ghz band).

I don't really understand what the advantage of 4x4 in the TP-Link C2600 is- aren't most devices 1x1 or 2x2? So how would they be able to take advantage of 4x4 antennas? Wouldn't they be limited to 1x1 or 2x2 speeds? In that case, wouldn't it be better to have the two 867mbps 5ghz bands, since anything over 867mbps is wasted? With two 5ghz bands, at least, you could theoretically keep devices separate to avoid interference.

 

[Internet Man]

I'm trying to decide between buying a tri-band router (Linksys EA8300, with two 867mbps 5ghz bands and one 400mbps 2.4ghz band) and a dual band router with 4x4 antenna (TP-Link C2600, one 1733mbps 5ghz band and one 800mbps 2.4ghz band).

I don't really understand what the advantage of 4x4 in the TP-Link C2600 is- aren't most devices 1x1 or 2x2? So how would they be able to take advantage of 4x4 antennas? Wouldn't they be limited to 1x1 or 2x2 speeds? In that case, wouldn't it be better to have the two 867mbps 5ghz bands, since anything over 867mbps is wasted? With two 5ghz bands, at least, you could theoretically keep devices separate to avoid interference.

Since 4x4 routers dominate the 5 GHz Downlink Profile router chart, it's safe to assume that the extra tx/rx chains and spatial streams do improve performance even for lesser clients. All testing is done with 2x2 clients. The additional chains/streams may improve the receive sensitivity and/or improve signal coverage of an area enabling the higher performance.

A tri-band router is most appropriate if you have a large number of 5GHz clients since you can split them across the two 5GHz radios. They also make sense if you plan to configure another router as a wireless bridge since one radio can be dedicated entirely to that purpose.

The C2600 does support MU-MIMO, so if you had multiple clients that also supported MU-MIMO then they could, in theory, use the four streams more efficiently. Using MU-MIMO, a single 4x4 radio could handle two 2x2 clients at the same time. Real-world benefits of MU-MIMO have been minimal though: Why You Don't Need MU-MIMO