Intel 9260 not working at 1.73 Gbps

[pepemosca]

I had bought this card: Intel-9260-NGW-WiFi-BT-5-0-Card-Dual-Band-WLAN-M-2-NGFF-1-73Gbps-01AX769-W25 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-9260...N-M-2-NGFF-1-73Gbps-01AX769-W25-/232756669233

The hardware Id is:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2526&SUBSYS_00148086&REV_29
​

I have this Dell XPS 15 9570 computer:

1 210-AOYM XPS 15 (9570)
1 486-27723 CNX97007
1 338-BOMR 8th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-8950HK Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.8 GHz, 6 cores)
1 370-AEFR 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 2666MHz
1 490-BEMR NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1050Ti with 4GB GDDR5​

I'm using Windows 10.

The thing is my network connection doesn't go faster than 866.7 Mbps.
From what I can read, that's wave 1. Reference: https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...5725/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html

But, I get 1.3 Gbps with my old MacBook Pro using both of my routers:

• ASUS RT-AC86U
• ASUS RT-AC66R

I'm using this latest driver: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/99445/Intel-Wireless-AC-9260
I had connected both antennas into the card like this picture: https://imgur.com/OiKY6Bt
So, my question are:

• What I'm missing?
• Do I have to change anything on the driver?
• Is my wireless card a fake?
• Does the card need 3 antennas to reach Multi User (MU-MIMO)? The old MacBook Pro has 3 antennas
• Should I add some isolation tape to the metal pack over the antenna connectors?
• Is normal that I don't see installed the Intel ProSet? https://www.intel.com/content/dam/s...ork-and-i-o/wireless-networking/5649_img2.jpg

Thanks!

 

[Internet Man]

160MHz channel bandwidth is required in order to achieve 1733Mbps speeds with the 9260 since it is only a 2x2:2 (two spatial stream) device. 160MHz channel bandwidths are non-standard with 802.11ac and few routers support it. Your ASUS routers do not support it. This means that you will be limited to 867Mbps link rates when connecting to these routers or any others which only support up to 80MHz channels.

 

[pepemosca]

160MHz channel bandwidth is required in order to achieve 1733Mbps speeds with the 9260 since it is only a 2x2:2 (two spatial stream) device. 160MHz channel bandwidths are non-standard with 802.11ac and few routers support it. Your ASUS routers do not support it. This means that you will be limited to 867Mbps link rates.

Thank you very much for your clarification!

So, this Intel 9260 supports 1733Mbps even if it has 2 antenna connectors.
If I happend to find a router that do support 1733Mbps, I don't have to change any setting on my wireless driver to get it work?

By the way, Is normal that I don't see installed the Intel ProSet?

Also, don't you find strange that Dell places this "metal plate" over the antenna connectors? Do you think it could shortcircuit the antennas?

 

[thiggins]

So, this Intel 9260 supports 1733Mbps even if it has 2 antenna connectors.
If I happend to find a router that do support 1733Mbps, I don't have to change any setting on my wireless driver to get it work?

I have the same card. There are no settings to change. The only bandwidth choices on both bands are "20 MHz" and "Auto" (default). Leave the defaults.

By the way, Is normal that I don't see installed the Intel ProSet?

In Windows 10, yes.

Also, don't you find strange that Dell places this "metal plate" over the antenna connectors? Do you think it could shortcircuit the antennas?

That piece is metal, but has a non-conductive coating. It prevents the antenna connectors from working loose.

 

[pepemosca]

So, looks like I'm doing OK.
Thank you all for the clarifications and confirmations!

 

[thiggins]

I confirmed the AC9260 links at 1.7 Gbps with a NETGEAR R7800 with HT160 mode enabled (Advanced Wireless).

My limited testing shows throughput bounces around a bit when the link is loaded steadily > 500 Mbps.

 

[pepemosca]

I never stop learning from this forum. Thank you all!

 

[sfx2000]

I confirmed the AC9260 links at 1.7 Gbps with a NETGEAR R7800 with HT160 mode enabled (Advanced Wireless).

My limited testing shows throughput bounces around a bit when the link is loaded steadily > 500 Mbps.

Interesting - one would guess that the thruput would be a little bit higher...

I'm seeing 500Mbps on 80MHz channels on a AC 7265 Intel adapter (chromeOS on Lenovo N22-Touch)

 

[pepemosca]

Interesting - one would guess that the thruput would be a little bit higher...

I'm seeing 500Mbps on 80MHz channels on a AC 7265 Intel adapter (chromeOS on Lenovo N22-Touch)

View attachment 14359

How far are you from the Access Point?

 

[sfx2000]

160MHz channel bandwidth is required in order to achieve 1733Mbps speeds with the 9260 since it is only a 2x2:2 (two spatial stream) device. 160MHz channel bandwidths are non-standard with 802.11ac and few routers support it. Your ASUS routers do not support it. This means that you will be limited to 867Mbps link rates when connecting to these routers or any others which only support up to 80MHz channels.

160MHz channels is supported in 802.11ac - in both 80+80 and 160MHz

It's a bit of a challenge to hit - 160MHz is going to hit DFS, so the DFS checks are in place so the AP might start in 80MHz channels first before clearing any potential radars...

Marvell does 160MHz - Linksys on their WRT3200acm and WRT32x does that one, I'm not sure if anyone else does...

Qualcomm - Netgear has a couple - if I recall, they're 80+80, and I'm not sure if they do 160

 

[sfx2000]

How far are you from the Access Point?

meter and a half perhaps...

 

[thiggins]

Interesting - one would guess that the thruput would be a little bit higher...

I didn't say it doesn't produce throughput higher than 500 Mbps. Things just seem to get wonky as channel congestion rises.

This is one run with the AC 9260 in Dell XPS13 w/ Win 10 Pro and NETGEAR R7800 with HT160 mode enabled running full blast, iperf3 TCP/IP, about 6 feet from router.

 

[sfx2000]

So, my question are:

• What I'm missing?
• Do I have to change anything on the driver?
• Is my wireless card a fake?
• Does the card need 3 antennas to reach Multi User (MU-MIMO)? The old MacBook Pro has 3 antennas
• Should I add some isolation tape to the metal pack over the antenna connectors?
• Is normal that I don't see installed the Intel ProSet? https://www.intel.com/content/dam/s...ork-and-i-o/wireless-networking/5649_img2.jpg

1) Not missing anything - client and router need to agree on the connection settings - and they pick the common denominators - and Intel is quite good actually, they don't do the "trick" settings that takes things out of standards

2) No changes really needed on the drivers - advanced settings, watch out for items like "throughput booster" as it can cause more grief

3) Probably not - depends on the reseller, but generally I've found the Intel cards on eBay for WiFi to be good, they're so inexpensive that it's not really profitable to fake them, unlike 10GbE ethernet cards, where one does need to be careful

4) It's a two-stream card, so two antennae are all that's needed.

5) Not really - the connectors themselves self shield, so not a problem

6) Pro-Set is usually useful in Enterprise - for home networks, a driver only install is generally good enough

 

[sfx2000]

I didn't say it doesn't produce throughput higher than 500 Mbps. Things just seem to get wonky as channel congestion rises.

This is one run with the AC 9260 in Dell XPS13 w/ Win 10 Pro and NETGEAR R7800 with HT160 mode enabled running full blast, iperf3 TCP/IP, about 6 feet from router.

edited and merged posts

Interesting - would be cool to see the action messages between the AP and client STA to see if things are changing there...

Also interesting to note that while the 160MHz example that @thiggins shared - average is about the same as the 80MHz example I did - a bit more casual, but similar results across the chart

The key difference though is that the 80MHz example is more consistent through the run - and this likely is going to be a better end-user experience, IMHO...

Similar to Wide Channels in 2.4GHz - the AP/Client might have the opportunity to get some higher bandwidth, but it's opportunistic and can be inconsistent.