Wi-Fi adapter shootout: Qualcomm versus Intel in an 802.11 battle - duncanboyaceing

At a Glance

Expert's Valuation

Pros

Same low gear response time and jitter
Very fast TCP throughput at foresighted range
Handy assembling of utilities

Cons

Non compatible with newer, quicker 802.11ac standard
Supports exclusively two spatial streams

Our Finding of fact

The Killer Wireless-N 1202 is a worthwhile elevate for gamers and others who require deficient-latency wireless network connectivity.

Gamers are always hunting for a contending abut, and the folks at Sasquatch Networks—now a part of Qualcomm Atheros—have long promised to deliver mesh interface cards that do better with online games and other latency-sensitive applications. To demonstrate its art therein area, the company sent Maine two superposable Alienware notebooks, one equipped with Qualcomm's Grampus Wireless-N 1202 and the other with Intel's Centrino Advanced-N 6230.

We benchmarked two otherwise identical Alienware laptops: one outfitted with a Killer Wireless-N 1202 NIC (left) and the other with Intel's Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (right).

Both NICs are dual-band adapters that can connect to an 802.11n router on either the 2.4GHz operating room 5GHz waveband. Some too support deuce spatial streams for a maximum animal link rate of 300 megabits per second. Any gaming-laptop manufacturers, including Alienware, offer Killer NICs American Samoa standard equipment, patc others bid the adapters as added-cost upgrades. You can also buy one of these cards past itself and rising slope your existent notebook, provided that the system has an available Mini PCIe slot to host the card (a common feature on better notebooks). The Killer Wireless-N 1202 is certainly cut-price enough: I've seen it selling online for as little as $35 (Intel's card is street-priced at about $30).

The key selling point of Killer NIC technology is its ability to identify the types of traffic traveling terminated your network and to assign higher antecedency to latency-sensitive traffic, much as online games, HD video, and sound.

Latency is a measurement of time delay. When applications much as online games and streaming media encounter too more than latent period, you'll end up with circumpolar and/Beaver State audible glitches and hiccups. If you're playing a first-person shooter with an online opponent, rotational latency can render you a frustratingly easy target.

To evaluate each board's ability to battle network latency, Qualcomm provided me with its Gaming Meshing Efficiency (GaNE) benchmark to measure knock (the time required for a packet to brand a discoidal trip connected the network) and jitter (undesirable deviations in signal timing). Qualcomm offered to allow U.S.A to study the program's source code to see that there were none shenanigans.

Measuring Ping and jitter using GaNE

GaNE measures true-clip performance from deuce wireless clients immediately, recording the results on a third computer that's hardwired to the network. This way, both node adapters are field to the same environmental conditions—an important variable when you're benchmarking tune performance. The tool measures rotational latency between deuce networked PCs by sending a 100-byte packet along a round trip over the network all 50 milliseconds (100 bytes is the typical packet sizing on gaming networks, and 50ms is the typical interval betwixt packets on the assonant). I used my longtime favorite 802.11n Wi-Fi router, a dual-band Asus RT-N66U, for these tests.

The GaNE benchmark, which measures rotational latency and jitter, shows the Killer whale NIC to be the superior Wi-Fi adapter for rotational latency-sensitive applications such as online games.

I located up the two wireless clients about 9 feet from the router in the same room, so no walls stood in between, and I wired them to the router's 2.4GHz network. I then performed six runs of the GaNE benchmark. GaNE rumored an middling ping time for the Killer Wireless-N 1202 of all but 1.5 milliseconds, and an median ping of closely 4 milliseconds for the Intel card. What's more, GaNE measured one-and-a-half times more jitter with Intel's card than information technology did with Qualcomm's. The Killer NIC delivered similar performance when I switched the clients over to the router's 5GHz meshwork—slightly to a lesser degree 2 milliseconds—but Intel's circuit card registered a much higher average pink of nearly 8 milliseconds.

TCP throughput

I too used the Asus RT-N66U to compare the adapters' TCP-throughput performance, exploitation JPERF (the Java front end to the TCP-throughput bench mark iPERF). The two adapters traded places on the 2.4GHz frequency band, only when the Killer Wireless-N 1202 won, IT won away a significant leeway. When the client was in the Saami room as the router, 9 feet away with nobelium walls in between, it was 10.7 mbps faster than Intel's component. And when the client was in my Home Office, 65 feet away and separated by three insulated interior walls, the Killer NIC was more than 25 mbps faster. At the two locations at which Intel's adapter prevailed—in the kitchen (20 feet from the router) and in the home theater (35 feet from the router)—the margins were just 0.5 mbps and 4.0 mbps respectively.

Qualcomm's Killer Tune-N 1202 and Intel's Advanced-N 6230 had comparable execution on the 2.4GHz banding, but the Killer NIC was much faster when situated far from the router.

When I tested each adapter happening the 5GHz network, Intel's NIC performed much better—at close range, at the least. In the bedroom run, the Centrino Advanced-N 6230 delivered TCP throughput of 196.0 mbps to the Killer's 121.0 mbps. And when I moved the clients to the kitchen, Intel's component was more than twice as flying as Qualcomm's. Merely when I tested apiece node at longer distances, the tables turned, and the Killer NIC delivered dramatically higher TCP throughput than Intel's card. In the home theatre, the Sea wolf delivered 81.1 mbps to the Centrino's 30.1 mbps; and in the home bas, Qualcomm's card produced a rate of 63.8 mbps to Intel's 34.9 mbps.

On the 5GHz band, Intel's adapter was much faster than the Killer whale NIC at close range. But the Sea wolf card turned the tables at long range.

Upgrade to 802.11ac if you can

Indeed Qualcomm's Killer Radio-N 1202 is a great Wi-Fi adapter. What happens if you've upgraded—or are planning to upgrade—to a router based along the new 802.11ac touchstone? Fortunate, such routers are backward-compatible with 802.11n, so a Killer NIC bequeath still work with one. But if that's where you'Re at, I suppose the advisable bet is to switch to an 802.11ac adapter. In fact, some notebook manufacturers—including Alienware—are already oblation 802.11ac Badger State-Fi adapters As received equipment on higher-end laptop models (and tellingly, Alienware does not offer the Killer NIC—which is presently available only when in 802.11n configurations—as an option on those models).

You should also remember your else option: a hardwired ethernet link. If you don't mind stringing overseas telegram, a hardwired connection will be quicker than some wireless frame-up, and you won't have to worry much active latency Oregon jitter at every last. But most mass preceptor't want to hassle with cables these years, because wireless connections are thusly much more convenient.

If you're purchasing a new gaming notebook and the seller offers the Killer NIC as a modestly priced kick upstairs (read, no longer than $30), it's definitely worth the money. The same goes if you're upgrading a laptop with a Mini PCIe slot and two internal antennas (Qualcomm's Killer Tune-N1103 supports three antennas). But if you can get an 802.11ac adapter, that would embody an even better investment. In fact, I'm surprised Qualcomm isn't already offering a Killer whale NIC supported that specification.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/453147/wi-fi-adapter-shootout-qualcomm-versus-intel-in-an-802-11-battle.html

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