Windows 10: Is 5GHZ really 10 X faster than 2.4 GHZ

Hi folks

@theveterans
There's a difference between accessing a web site via Wifi and transferring FILES between two computers on your LAN.

I doubt even on 5GHZ wifi you'll get an average speed of transferring a 5 GB file between TWO separate computers at much more than around 11 - 12 MB/s (MegaBYTES / sec). You might see a crazy value for a few secs at start of the transfer but after about 1 sec or so it will settle down.

These files are going from HDD on computer 1 to HDD on computer 2 so of course HDD and MOBO bus speeds will come into play as well. For Local HDD -->Ext USB3 connected (via SATA - USB3) speed is around 250 - 300 MB/s - about 20 X as fast not unexpectedly of course.

I doubt on decent wifi you'll get much faster throughput then 11 - 12 MB/s as I've said -- however on a LAN then of course all bets are off as that depends on the LAN quality which can easily be 1GB/s.

The Internet connection speed to your ISP is irrelevant here -- it's how fast and how much throughput you can get through a Router.

You can generally get better throughput if you use a Router as an Ethernet-wifi bridge.

For example connect a Laptop's LAN to an old router you can set as an Ethernet bridge and ensure this router connects to your wifi 5GHZ in "Bridged mode". The throughput will almost certainly be better than simply using the Wifi card on a laptop. If you don't have a LAN card on the laptop a cheap USB-->LAN costing around 5 USD works wonders too.

I use the Bridged system for connecting a NAS box (actually 2 NAS boxes) to my LAN as they only have Ethernet connectors and as I'm running Linux it's almost impossible to find decent USB wifi adapters that work. The throughput is fine for streaming full 1080p HD movies via PLEX to remote TV's etc. So long as you can get more than 5MB/s streaming should be fine.

For 4K UHD movie streaming -- not tried it yet as I get that direct on my SKY Q box direct into a decent sized TV via satellite. I'd imagine though you'd need to have a minimum of around 20 MB/s or better to stream these movies to remote devices and as for the 8K mega super UHD TV - don't even think about it at the moment.

I think we'll soon need Wifi etc available up to the multi GB/s soon -- I think consumers demands this time will be well beyond the capacity of the ISP's to supply it and hardware manufacturers to produce the relevant hardware in any decent timely fashion.

I think also in the technical spec for 5GHZ wifi ac the max is about an average of 860 Mb/s in any case (MegaBITS) -- might be wrong there but it's about that order. Technically if everything is OK you could get 1Gb/s (GigaBITS) but real life situations will shave around 15% off the maximum. So 11 - 12 MB/s is the BEST you can do (MegaBYTES) unless you know how to bypass The Laws of Physics.

There's obviously confusion here about BITS/sec and BYTES / SEC. Windows explorer displays transfer in BYTES/SEC. Most Internet speed tests are BITS/Sec.


Cheers
jimbo

 

@jimbo:
"I doubt on decent wifi you'll get much faster throughput then 11 - 12 MB/s as I've said "
That is quite off; If theveterans get a connection @866.5Mbps over WiFi, actually the File Transfer speed will be as much as (max.) 23.10MB/s. And in best conditions the "lost" will be around 5%. With increase of "poor" Signals, will dramatically decrease speed. Even just moving LapTop few 10th of Inch or rotate slightly will affect Signal.
And as 5Ghz vs. 2,4Ghz, that is not the question, the question is what 802.11 Standard is negotiated among all Devices in Network and which speed they connect. So, I suggest to configure every device "No Band Preference". As a matter of fact, WiFi will use Both 2.4 and 5GHz in 802.11AC.

 

That's just a USB 3.0 flash drive that's attached to the router doing read from USB to WiFi.

When I used to have a desktop attached to the router via Ethernet, Ethernet -> WiFi will get about 50 MB/s max speed on an 866.5 Mbps connection and average of 30-35 MB/s when transferring large 4.3 GB ISO files. WiFi to Ethernet is slower since the TX power of my Surface Pro 3 is much less than the TX power of the router obviously (around 20 MB/s Max for SP3 WiFi -> USB).

@ jimbo, laptop/tablet WiFi -> laptop/tablet WiFi transfer will be a lot slower and I would bet that I would get the same 11-12 MB/s speed that you are getting. To maximize the WiFi speeds, you must have the same router in bridge mode. That for sure will max out the WiFi - WiFi transfer speed since both have the power and range to penetrate obstacles thus maximizing speed.

Overall, I'm happy that my 300 Mbps internet flows through cable -> WiFi with one wood wall in between the router. I'm certain that cement wall will surely kill the 5 GHz WiFi and 2.4 GHz connection will be more beneficial and stable despite less speed.

 

37 MB/s = 296 Mbps which is below the average max realistic peak throughput of 500 Mbps with 367 Mbps of "overhead". I read that somewhere on SmallNetBuilder, but can't pinpoint the reference.

 

Just did a throughput test from my SP3 to LEXAR USB flash drive that's attached to my router. I get a max 16 MB/s transfer rate. I don't know if the WiFi or the USB write speed or even the router's processor is the bottleneck.

 

That is correct.

That is not True, completely off.

 

To Test your USB 3.0 speed , WIndows a good Performance Test Utility.
In an elevated command prompt type:
WinSAT disk -Drive X:
where X is the Drive letter of your USB3.0