PCE-AC68 card vs. RT-AC1200G+ router

[leon]

I am using a RT-AC68U router and have a PC connected to it via cable. On the PC, I run iperf server.

On another PC, I have the PCE-AC68 adapter with recently updated driver. I get ~ 150Mbits/sec running the iperf client, using UDP protocol.

I then setup the RT-AC1200G+ as media server and connect it to the same PC using cable. To my surprised, I can get >900Mbits/sec.

Between the PCE-AC68 and RT-AC1200G+ as an adapter, I do not understand why the RT-AC1200G+ can out perform the PCE-AC68 by so much. Yes, RT-AC1200G+ may have 4 antennas but the main router RT-AC68U has only three antennas. Am I missing something? Are there settings PCE-AC68 on that I should check?

 

[Internet Man]

From your thread on hardwarezone.com.sg I see that the clients are separated from the rotuer by 8 meters with one wall in between. I'd guess that the signal between two routers is probably better since the RT-AC1200G+ has better receive sensitivity and higher transmit power. Try re-running the test without a wall in between.

150Mbps is unexpectedly low for the PCE-AC68 though. It's probably worth playing around with some of the settings. This thread suggests enabling/disabling beamforming, Turbo QAM, and interference mitigation. I would probably disable these features. TurboQAM only applies to 2.4GHz 802.11n and the other features likely do more harm than good.

This review has some LAN Speed Test results between a PCE-AC68 and a RT-AC68U. It shows 359.9Mbps in Zone 2 which is probably most similar to your setup. That number is an average of the upload and download speeds.

Also, 5GHz networks can still suffer from interference. Try identifying and avoiding 5GHz channels that other nearby networks are using. What link rate is the PCE-AC68 reporting?

 

[leon]

Thank you for your continual support!

I tried to re-install the ASUS driver/utility. While the installation process when well, I could not locate the ASUS wireless utility.... I am not sure why. Hence I am unable to change any of these setting except for beamforming. The setting for beamforming is under "Network connection"->Wifi properties->Advanced->"BeamForming"->Enable. I played with a few other settings but did not see any significant improvements.

Is there a way for me to completely uninstall the drives and restore the settings to it default? I might just have mess-up the setting, and I like to have the Asus utility back.

I move the PCE-AC68 antenna such that I can have a directly line of sight. The speed improves to ~250Mbits/sec. This is still way below the link reviewed you shared, where Zone 2 is ~360Mbit/sec and even Zone 3 is 276Mbit/sec when none of these are in direct line of sight.

There is no speed improvement for RT-AV1200G+ when it is in direct line of sight. I am still getting >900Mbit/sec.