Got an Asus USB-AC56 adapter a while ago. Have had some problems with it on Windows 8.1, didn't fully connect on reboot most times. Once it's connected it's fine, always connects at 867Mbps on 5GHz. when it full connects. So I've been watching for a newer driver for Windows 8.1 to get rid of the annoying problem of a "limited" connection at reboot.
Just the other day, Asus posted a new driver for Windows 8.1, which has fixed the "limited" connection at reboot time. Now the adapter always is connected at 867Mbps.
The release note for the driver mentions that turboQAM has been added. So I figured I'd try it out and see if it did anything. Without turboQAM, the wireless adapter connects at 300Mbps on 2.4GHz. with 40MHz. channel width, 2 streams. With turboQAM enabled in dd-wrt on the R7000, it connects at 400Mbps., about what one would expect on a per-stream basis So this would seem to add about 1/3 (33%) to the connect speed, interesting. Not having seen turboQAM actually working before, I had my doubts about it.
Just for fun, tried it with 20MHz. channel width on 2.4GHz. The adapter connected at 144Mbps. Then enabled turboQAM, and it ramped all the way up to 173Mbps *smile*. Less interesting, but it surprised me a bit to see that, for some reason.
I haven't measured actual throughput with this adapter yet, but I'm impressed that the much marketed turboQAM actually does something, even if only raising the connection speed. I don't use this adapter on 2.4GHz., only on 5GHz. where I can use wireless-AC, so turboQAM doesn't matter to me, just interesting.
Just the other day, Asus posted a new driver for Windows 8.1, which has fixed the "limited" connection at reboot time. Now the adapter always is connected at 867Mbps.
The release note for the driver mentions that turboQAM has been added. So I figured I'd try it out and see if it did anything. Without turboQAM, the wireless adapter connects at 300Mbps on 2.4GHz. with 40MHz. channel width, 2 streams. With turboQAM enabled in dd-wrt on the R7000, it connects at 400Mbps., about what one would expect on a per-stream basis So this would seem to add about 1/3 (33%) to the connect speed, interesting. Not having seen turboQAM actually working before, I had my doubts about it.
Just for fun, tried it with 20MHz. channel width on 2.4GHz. The adapter connected at 144Mbps. Then enabled turboQAM, and it ramped all the way up to 173Mbps *smile*. Less interesting, but it surprised me a bit to see that, for some reason.
I haven't measured actual throughput with this adapter yet, but I'm impressed that the much marketed turboQAM actually does something, even if only raising the connection speed. I don't use this adapter on 2.4GHz., only on 5GHz. where I can use wireless-AC, so turboQAM doesn't matter to me, just interesting.