Intel AX200 and AX92U - AX Wifi a lot slower compared to AC?

[Gilad]

Hi Guys,
I am running the AX-92U set (mesh mode), split the networks to 3 (one for 2.4GHZ, one for 5GHZ and one for AX 5 GHZ).
All connects fine.

I have a PCI Intel AX200 card with 2x2 external antennas.
When I connect to the router using AC I get a 899Mbps connection speed and a download speed of 400Mbps with about 12ms ping (I got a 500MB ISP).
When I connect to the router using AX I get a 1Gbps connection speed but only 200Mbps download and a 14ms ping.

All are with same router, same PC, same card.

Am I missing something? Does it make sense that AX is SLOWER then AC on the same card?

 

[L&LD]

I was not aware that you can run AC and AX modes concurrently on any (single) router?

 

[OzarkEdge]

Hi Guys,
I am running the AX-92U set (mesh mode), split the networks to 3 (one for 2.4GHZ, one for 5GHZ and one for AX 5 GHZ).
All connects fine.

I have a PCI Intel AX200 card with 2x2 external antennas.
When I connect to the router using AC I get a 899Mbps connection speed and a download speed of 400Mbps with about 12ms ping (I got a 500MB ISP).
When I connect to the router using AX I get a 1Gbps connection speed but only 200Mbps download and a 14ms ping.

All are with same router, same PC, same card.

Am I missing something? Does it make sense that AX is SLOWER then AC on the same card?

Are the AC/AX card OEM drivers up-to-date?

OE

 

[Gilad]

Yes. Got the latest driver from Intel for the AX200 (for Win 64 2404) and they work fine.
I tried on my Galaxy Note 10+ and it happens there too - AX is always 40-60% slower compared to AC.

Can't figure out why. I hoped someone tackled it before and had some insights (even with another model).

 

[Going_Strong]

Hi Guys,
I am running the AX-92U set (mesh mode), split the networks to 3 (one for 2.4GHZ, one for 5GHZ and one for AX 5 GHZ).
All connects fine.

I have a PCI Intel AX200 card with 2x2 external antennas.
When I connect to the router using AC I get a 899Mbps connection speed and a download speed of 400Mbps with about 12ms ping (I got a 500MB ISP).
When I connect to the router using AX I get a 1Gbps connection speed but only 200Mbps download and a 14ms ping.

All are with same router, same PC, same card.

Am I missing something? Does it make sense that AX is SLOWER then AC on the same card?

Although I do not own your model of router (I have the TP-Link Archer AX11000), I would say from experience that a lot depends on whether you have a specific channel set manually for your AX clients.
When I choose "Auto", I get a link rate of no more than 1,2 GHz (albeit a higher actual speed than you), however once I manually select a certain channel (which will obviously vary between users), I easily get the 2,4 GHz link rate (and a higher actual speed).

EDIT:
And you have set the channel width to 160 MHz, right?

 

[Going_Strong]

I was not aware that you can run AC and AX modes concurrently on any (single) router?

I've had separate modes (N, AC and AX) set up on my Archer AX11000 for months, with everything working properly.
I would think this is obvious and commonplace?

 

[L&LD]

No, not obvious or commonplace. But a good source of gremlins, I'm sure, within a single WiFi environment.

 

[Going_Strong]

No, not obvious or commonplace. But a good source of gremlins, I'm sure, within a single WiFi environment.

Well, no gremlins here, luckily for me.

 

[Gilad]

Although I do not own your model of router (I have the TP-Link Archer AX11000), I would say from experience that a lot depends on whether you have a specific channel set manually for your AX clients.
When I choose "Auto", I get a link rate of no more than 1,2 GHz (albeit a higher actual speed than you), however once I manually select a certain channel (which will obviously vary between users), I easily get the 2,4 GHz link rate (and a higher actual speed).

EDIT:
And you have set the channel width to 160 MHz, right?

Yes channel width is 160 but it is set on auto for the control channel. Do you have any tips on how to choose the best channel for the ax band?

 

[Going_Strong]

Trial and error. Although quite a few users have had success with various wifi analyser apps.
I get the best results with my dedicated AX band (5 GHz band no. 1) set to channel 36, but this is just my scenario.

 

[Gilad]

Trial and error. Although quite a few users have had success with various wifi analyser apps.
I get the best results with my dedicated AX band (5 GHz band no. 1) set to channel 36, but this is just my scenario.

Thanks! Painful and long process buy I will try.
The analyzer apps tend to not show ax bands but I'll search again.
There are No other ax routers near me so I can choose freely.

 

[Gilad]

One more question: do you have the ax bandwidth set to 20/40/80/160 or did you set it manually to 160?

 

[Going_Strong]

One more question: do you have the ax bandwidth set to 20/40/80/160 or did you set it manually to 160?

Manually to 160 MHz, and this is what I would recommend.
Just keep in mind that I'm referencing my router - a TP-Link.

 

[psychopomp1]

Hi Guys,
I am running the AX-92U set (mesh mode), split the networks to 3 (one for 2.4GHZ, one for 5GHZ and one for AX 5 GHZ).
All connects fine.

I have a PCI Intel AX200 card with 2x2 external antennas.
When I connect to the router using AC I get a 899Mbps connection speed and a download speed of 400Mbps with about 12ms ping (I got a 500MB ISP).
When I connect to the router using AX I get a 1Gbps connection speed but only 200Mbps download and a 14ms ping.

All are with same router, same PC, same card.

Am I missing something? Does it make sense that AX is SLOWER then AC on the same card?

No, the slow AX throughput will be down to your Asus AX -92U. I also have a laptop with an Intel AX200 card and it hardly ever connects at more than 1.2 Gbps when paired with my Asus RT-AX89X. However the same card connects at 2.4 Gbps to my Netgear RAX200 router (main router) in most parts of the home, and as a result I'm not using the AX89X anymore (sat collecting dust). So the Intel AX200 is certainly capable of very high connection rates depending on your AX router. Use a different AX router (Netgear or TP Link) and you'll probably find you get better speeds on AX.

 

[alba666]

You will have mesh back haul overhead on the AX connection.
Retest with the remote node down.

 

[Gilad]

You will have mesh back haul overhead on the AX connection.
Retest with the remote node down.

I'm posting back to let you all know that Alba666 was 100% right. When I took the 2nd node down speed rocketed to the maximum on the AX band.
That means the backhaul is indeed slowing it down.
That said, it's still strange as the log shows a inter-node speed of 2.5Gbps and my ISP is only 0.5Gbps hence I would expect the overload to leave enough leg space for a full speed Internet bandwidth.

 

[psychopomp1]

I was not aware that you can run AC and AX modes concurrently on any (single) router?

You definitely can. On my Netgear RAX200, both of the 5Ghz bands have a mixture of AC and AX clients which run simultaneously.

 

[Gilad]

I just wish there was a way to secure bandwidth inside the backhaul for non-backhaul communication.
I.e I get a 2.5Gbps backhaul connection and want to secure 0.5Gbps out of it for AX clients.

 

[L&LD]

You definitely can. On my Netgear RAX200, both of the 5Ghz bands have a mixture of AC and AX clients which run simultaneously.

That is not what I am commenting on. It seems that one band is set to AC while the other band is set to AX on the same router. I don't see this working well at all.

 

[alba666]

I'm posting back to let you all know that Alba666 was 100% right. When I took the 2nd node down speed rocketed to the maximum on the AX band.
That means the backhaul is indeed slowing it down.
That said, it's still strange as the log shows a inter-node speed of 2.5Gbps and my ISP is only 0.5Gbps hence I would expect the overload to leave enough leg space for a full speed Internet bandwidth.

AiMesh wireless backhaul is a weird bird. I have my old AC88 with the bad WAN port as a node and the AX92 as the master. Sometimes it grabs the AX 5GHz-2 radio on the AX92 for the backhaul, other times it grabs 5GHz-1. Even though the AC88 only supports AC.