Wifi and BT 5.0 on MBs?

DWD1961

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 30, 2019
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Is it still hard to find a good onboard Wifi/BT 5.00 chip for desktop MBs?

Also, is using a wifi card to game going to cause me latency issues?
 
I’ve never had any latency issues gaming over WiFi. Been running AC for so long now though, I can’t remember if it was any worse with N. I think way back in 802.11b days I’d have had issues?

basically any of the intel 802.11ac (or “WiFi 5”) chips are fine. the latest ones included BT5 (9260/9560), I think previous gen was BT4.2.

now intel’s “ax200” WiFi 6 chip is out and showing up on a lot of motherboards. It includes bt5.

you can also buy a pcie card, basically an m.2 adapter with antennae, to put one in a pcie slot if your board doesn’t have a dedicated m.2 2230 spot for WiFi built in. Most have a usb connector for the Bluetooth portion as well. They’re all over eBay for like $20 or so, some even are bundled with the WiFi cards.
 
I’ve never had any latency issues gaming over WiFi. Been running AC for so long now though, I can’t remember if it was any worse with N. I think way back in 802.11b days I’d have had issues?

basically any of the intel 802.11ac (or “WiFi 5”) chips are fine. the latest ones included BT5 (9260/9560), I think previous gen was BT4.2.

now intel’s “ax200” WiFi 6 chip is out and showing up on a lot of motherboards. It includes bt5.

you can also buy a pcie card, basically an m.2 adapter with antennae, to put one in a pcie slot if your board doesn’t have a dedicated m.2 2230 spot for WiFi built in. Most have a usb connector for the Bluetooth portion as well. They’re all over eBay for like $20 or so, some even are bundled with the WiFi cards.

Thanks for the reply. I've decided, as you point out, to just go with a card so I can have driver level control in Windows. The dongles are more for those wanting to pair a device without having any control over pairing or for disconnecting. When you say "m.2 2230 spot" does that mean a MB slot specific for wifi/BT cards?
 
Yeah - some boards include WiFi/BT and some just have a dedicated (empty) slot so you can add your own. M.2 2230 is the form factor for the little card.
 
I use a UBNT router and AP, latency or issues can come from using a junky provided router period.

Some people can feel a difference on wifi vs ethernet, but those are also people that have to play at 1080p vs 1440p bc they can feel latency.

You know you are one of those people, bc you're making a ton of $ streaming.

Otherwise use whatever works.
M.2, pcie, etc.
 
I use a UBNT router and AP, latency or issues can come from using a junky provided router period.

Some people can feel a difference on wifi vs ethernet, but those are also people that have to play at 1080p vs 1440p bc they can feel latency.

You know you are one of those people, bc you're making a ton of $ streaming.

Otherwise use whatever works.
M.2, pcie, etc.

Replying to both of you here. Wow, I ddn;t even know that slot of those tiny little chip cards existed. Now I know I have to get a board that supports that. Nice. Do they need an antenna, since they are inside of the case?
 
If you want to install the little chip directly on the board you would also need internal antennae cables that terminate in the screw connector for the external antennae. And you’d want to make sure there’s some kind of mounting bracket where you can connect them - not all motherboards that have an available slot actually include the bracket to securely mount the antennae connections.

(I had this problem recently with a gigabyte z390 m gaming, it was very frustrating because gigabyte support didn’t even know where I could get the part).

a lot of current motherboards have the WiFi/BT chip preinstalled and don’t require any work. To save yourself the headache i would suggest either getting one with it included or just doing a full size add-in card.

Here’s a Fenvi one with WiFi 6 and BT 5:

https://www.newegg.com/fenvi-fv-ax3000-pci-express/p/0XM-00JK-00075

Fenvi also sells the bare pcie card with antennae and you can add your own m.2 WiFi / BT chip if you prefer.
 
What ^ said.

Ngff is all over the map bc use cases are broad.
I consider that a good thing.

I was shopping around when I had my Ryzen setups bc their audio and networking are truly meh. I'm more likely to stuff a Ryzen build with pcie cards than an Intel build.

You'll want antennal wire long enough to suit your needs. I was eyeing an Asus pcie setup bc they're really common but their antennas aren't long enough for my standing desk when I got my current Maximus X.

Ngff or pcie may require long antennae depending on your wifi ap placement. A few feet DID NOT make my install satisfactory.

My AP was fed a cat5e from corner of my house instead of center. I ended up moving mounting my UAP AC Pro on the ceiling. I had ATT run my fiber ingress to my corner office. I just pushed a cat6 to a managed switch that handles the existing Ethernet I ran under my house. If the far corner of my house that isn't as covered my a single AP became a higher use area I'd run a 2nd AP.

Depending on your install, don't focus just on your PC when dealing with networking upgrades.....tho wifi does make reconfiguring your house easier to plan.
 
I use a Netgear A7000 USB 3.0 adapter. Seems to work great for me. My AP is on the 2nd flow and PC is in the basement. Still get 300-400mbps on the link via Speedtest for my Spectrum Cable Internet. I have had PCIe adapters but sitting on the floor in the case they do not get the best signal or speed compared to the USB one I now have. Connection speed to the AP according to the software says I have a 1300Mbps connection.
 
I use a Netgear A7000 USB 3.0 adapter. Seems to work great for me. My AP is on the 2nd flow and PC is in the basement. Still get 300-400mbps on the link via Speedtest for my Spectrum Cable Internet. I have had PCIe adapters but sitting on the floor in the case they do not get the best signal or speed compared to the USB one I now have. Connection speed to the AP according to the software says I have a 1300Mbps connection.
Were the PCI adapters using external antenna? I have an eGenous USB 2 wifi adaptor that I was going to try this morning, except I now misplaced it and can't find the fucker. I think the last time I speed tested it, it is was giving me full bandwidth. I think I tested it for jitter and latency too and no difference from laptop or pci card in my other rig.
 
Were the PCI adapters using external antenna? I have an eGenous USB 2 wifi adaptor that I was going to try this morning, except I now misplaced it and can't find the fucker. I think the last time I speed tested it, it is was giving me full bandwidth. I think I tested it for jitter and latency too and no difference from laptop or pci card in my other rig.

Yes but they still sat behind the case, between the wall and the case back and on the floor. The USB one is above the monitor on the window sill, so about 4 foot higher. The signal strength and connection speeds, and transfer speeds, increased immensely. I would get maybe 100mbps off the the mounted one compared to peaks of over 400mbps off the Netgear. I did have a cheaper USB adapted that was not as fast as the Netgear A7000 is. It is a nice unit to be honest, The connection is a 5Ghz one and like I said goes through two floors.
 
Yes but they still sat behind the case, between the wall and the case back and on the floor. The USB one is above the monitor on the window sill, so about 4 foot higher. The signal strength and connection speeds, and transfer speeds, increased immensely. I would get maybe 100mbps off the the mounted one compared to peaks of over 400mbps off the Netgear. I did have a cheaper USB adapted that was not as fast as the Netgear A7000 is. It is a nice unit to be honest, The connection is a 5Ghz one and like I said goes through two floors.
can you toss me a link to your exact model on Amazon? Also, have you tested it for jiitter and latency using the Windows CMD polling command
/ping -xx
and let it poll for a few minutes to a good connection?
 
I wanted to also ask a question about the combo BT/WiFi cards/Dongles

I recently found out that my wifi was interfering with my BT receiver in my AMP. I have a small digital amp with a built in BT 5.0 receiver, and the router/modem was about 10" from it. Every time I would connect to a web page or start other internet activity, I'd notice my music connection would stutter. I knew it wasn't congestion because I have buffers running for that. I moved my amp another 15" away from the router/modem, and the problem resolved. So how do the combo cards get around that type of wifi transmission interference with Bluetooth? The router was transmitting and the AMP with BT 5.0 was receiving. I didn't know that could actually happen.
 
Any suggestions on a good combination BT and Wifi PCI card?

the Fenvi card I linked above is a good one. They usually use Intel chips on theirs.

if you prefer a more recognizable brand name, Asus has the same thing but they charge more than twice the price:

https://www.newegg.com/asus-pce-ax58bt-pci-express/p/N82E16833320394

you can find these generic adapters all over the place on eBay too, and order a WiFi / BT chip yourself.

intel chips will be easiest for simple driver support in windows.
 
I use a UBNT router and AP, latency or issues can come from using a junky provided router period.

Some people can feel a difference on wifi vs ethernet, but those are also people that have to play at 1080p vs 1440p bc they can feel latency.

You know you are one of those people, bc you're making a ton of $ streaming.

Otherwise use whatever works.
M.2, pcie, etc.

Ehh.. I think it's going ot be less about how sensitive you are to latency and more about how a game's network code handles latency and the realities of your network situation.

Wired from PC to router is a lot easier to make fast and consistent. Low ping times doesn't mean that a particular game rewards you though. Benefit might accrue to those with higher or lower pings than the majority depending on the game and it's network code and multi-player architecture.

For me, wired is usually ~20ms +/-5 wifi is usually 34ms but can spike. Most games don't punish that, but wifi has gotten more variable as more and more people in my neighborhood put up more and more wi-fi, when I lived in an apartment that problem was WAAAAY worse. Also, unless you wired the whole house, there's likely way more opportunity for others to hop on with you and change wi-fi performance. Wired with switches in a home setting, you likely won't see you home network use impact your speeds unless you start choking the modem.
 
Worked for a game pub.
Designed and deployed 200 ps/Xbox/PC demo stations per title at E3, Pax, Comicon, etc.
I'm very fond of UBNT aps for filtering out noise and isolating signal in the noisiest environments.

Builds could be 8-13 titles, depending on the year.

So yeah, there's a lot in a stack to triage when dealing with gaming.

I once had to separate Somy from our frame, they weren't happy about the NA they brought that flipped a spanning tree causing them/us/Nintendo to go dark for half a day.
 
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