Just upgraded to an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265

So I have both the Killer AC1535 and the Intel AC 8260

The Killer AC1535 has an issue where if you are downloading a few files and basically put the card under heavy load, it simply disables itself from device manager and thus, disconnecting you temporarily. I was experiencing the same issue myself and when I googled it, I found this: http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19658353

seems like others are also having the same issues. I tried every driver out there for the card but it's the same, seems like a hardware issue maybe. I don't even install the Killer Suite, just the barebones driver.

Although I have to say that the Killer AC1535 has the best range, my ASUS AC5300 router is located in a bedroom that is 12 feet away from where my laptop is located and I would get 5 bars full on the connection and the speed never drops below 866 MBPS and that is using ASUS Smart Connect which automatically places my connection on the best Wireless band (2.4 GHz or one of the two 5 GHz networks)

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So I had ordered an Intel AC8260 as well with my laptop as a backup. My connection seems snappier with it, as in, despite the Killer AC1535 having MU-MIMO technology which is also supported on my router, doing basic things such as web surfing seem snappier, I mean there is no lag before you click on a bookmark or URL link and the time you actually starting to see the page load which isn't true for the Killer AC1535

the only issue or quirk I might say with the Intel AC8260 is that its range is weaker, I would only connect @ 399MBPS to my ASUS AC5300 router unless I disabled Smart Connect and manually connected to a 5 GHz network but even then, the speeds would fluctuate between 650 MBPS and 866 MBPS.

Although I must add, that going to public places which have different routers, I often find it easier to connect to these networks with the Intel Card. With the Killer AC1535 I had a lot of instances where I would connect to the network but would have no internet connectivity until they restarted their router for some reason.
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Now I came across the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC8265 the other day and was very interested in it since it now supports MU-MIMO technology.

I ordered it from this guy from eBay ( $36 USD per card) : http://www.ebay.com/itm/191953046897?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Communication was fast with the reseller and he shipped it within 1 day

I ordered 2 of em to keep 1 as a spare and here they are:



They came in a cardboard box, and actually had an instructions manual and a set of screws so I was all set.

do note that on this card, the Black Antenna and White Antenna positions are inverted unlike how they were on the Intel AC8260 and the Killer AC1535, not a big deal but just wanted to let you know.

I didn't even have to install any driver since the Intel AC8260 Driver is the same one for the Intel AC8265

I don't know if this is a placebo effect but I feel that my browsing is snappier now, the lag is non-existent when clicking on links as if the page I was clicking on was cached in the background..

The wireless range is not as good as the Killer AC1535 but slightly better than the Intel AC8260 and add to the fact that this card actually works as intended and doesn't disconnect makes it the best WLAN card on the market right now and I highly recommend it.

Here are my speed test results:

Intel Wireless-AC 8260:



Intel Wireless-AC 8265:




This is NOT a technical review by any means, it is merely a user's perspective. End result, I am happy with this small upgrade!

@Papusan @bloodhawk @boricuafly @Mr. Fox @ssj92 @hmscott @GTVEVO @Johnksss@iBUYPOWER @Shakeeb Anjum @Prema

 

Great review man!!

As a person who plays WoW, WLAN latency and reliability is essential, this provides valuable real world perspective on the two cards.

 

Great writeup! I've already ordered an 8265 as well a few days ago... Thanks to a post you had in another thread some where!

Mine is still on the slow boat from China though. And my EVOC is still "in production ". Nice to hear it's a noticeable difference

 

yeah, ive spotted the 8265 as well and noticed the MIMO capability, interesting stuff. could make it the first worthwhile upgrade for my 7265 in a long time especially at that price point, availability here in Germany is given from 25€ incl. shipping

Sent from my Huawei Mate 8 NXT-AL10

 

Nice, thanks for the write-up man.
Im thinking of picking up one as well, to see how well MU-MIMO works. For now my 8260 maxes out my current connection.

Spoiler: Lala Land

 

Nice info. I am not impressed with my 8260 and wish I had purchases another 1535 for El Cazador. I have had a 3 out of 3 perfect experience with the 1535... zero problems or complaints. Maybe I will grab one in a couple of months to play with. At $35 there is nothing to lose.

 

Strange how you didn't have any issues with the Killer AC1535. I hope you checked the link to the Dell forums in the OP

And this post here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/intel-8260-vs-killer-1535.782842/page-5#post-10378763

 

The issues with Killer and Intel cards are very dependant on the routers they are connected to. And what other devices are connected to the router at the same. Specially if the router isn't good at handling multiple channels at the same time.
The image in the spoiler above, is using the 8260, notice how there is 1 less bar and the link speed is at 866 Mbps?
With the Killer 1535 the bars are always maxed out, but the link speed never crosses 4xx Mbps .
Also the Killer isn't able to max out my internet connection, it tops out at 75-85 Mbps.
However when my friend connects his Mac book Pro or the iPhone, my network takes a nosedive, be it the Intel or the Killer cards connected.
I normally have 4 devices connected to my AC-RT68U. Even If i connect another 4, the network stays all normal. However the moment an apple device shows up, my speeds and latencies **** the bed.

Point being there are a lot of other factors involved as well, when it comes to which network card is better. And it will vary by the network they are being used on.

 

My killer 1525ac has been rock stable on my router.. Can't say the same for Intel cards which usually connect including the 7260/7265... It really depends on your router etc..

 

Ordered it and hope for it to come sooner than dec. 28 lol... anyway thanks for the headsup. killer has been giving me issues with my MSI and now the EVOC...

 

The only thinking Killer products gave me is they killed my connections

 

That's pretty much what happens with someone does QoS improperly.
That said, a proper router would make a much bigger difference than a new network card. I've pretty much got tired of consumer stuff, and I've moved to Mikrotik and Ubiquiti gear.
They are a colossal pain in the ass to configure (especially Mikrotik), but once its done, you can pretty much go full throttle on everything and see no slowdowns.

 

I disable QoS and don't like it. I like giving full bandwidth to whatever app I'm using on my 100MBPS Down / 20 MBPS up connection.
BTW, I have an ASUS RT-AC5300 router

 

Yeah... why did you buy that? The hardware is meh for that price and the antenna elements doesn't really help.
Good router needs 2 critical elements.
1. Good software, which is something ASUS is not known for.
2. Proper hardware design. Having lots of RAM and FLASH and a fast processor does not constitute good hardware design.

Critical things people don't consider when buying routers.
1. Higher antenna gain = "flatter" signal. 2dbi gives you something along the lines of a sphere, 9dbi gives you a really flat doughnut, which is bad for multi level houses, but good for horizontal coverage.
2. Beam forming > high gain antenna. But to do beam forming, the router has to know where the antenna elements are, which is not possible with those crazy spider legs (since you can move it around).

 

I thought it was a good upgrade after I owned the AAC68U for 3 years, I was disappointed. The wireless range is the same despite it having beam forming and MU-MIMO. Furthermore, as you said, ASUS Software sucks, they still can't get SmartConnect to work perfectly and the last firmware update on their flagship router is dated back to September. I was hoping they would put more focus on optimizing the firmware on a regular basis for their flagship router that costs an arm and a leg.

What other consumer router would you recommend that has great wireless range? I live in a 2 bedroom apartment and the router is in the living room. My wife sometimes complains that she loses connectivity in the bedroom which is about only 15 feet away

 

Drywalls or concrete ?

 

concrete, but there are no walls between the router in the living room and her room. just her wooden door obviously which is closed

 

Honestly, can't really recommend a consumer "router" (which is actually a misnomer, since its a combination device).

I put one of these in the center of my parents house, https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lr/
The house is about 4000 sq ft (single floor) and nowhere is it less than 4 bars and the negotiated link speed is great.

For myself, I'm using a Mikrotik RB951G-2HnD ( https://routerboard.com/RB951G-2HnD), its ugly as all hell, but the signal and link speed beats a Netgear R7000 "Nighthawk" (the marketing is strong with the Netgear team lol).
There's an upgraded version of the RB951 called the hAP AC ( https://routerboard.com/RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT), it's back ordered with my supplier, so it'll probably get here after the new year.

The Ubiquiti piece is easier to setup, and its best paired with a EdgeRouter. The Mikrotik is far more difficult to setup, but more flexible and you get fine grain control over EVERYTHING (too much sometimes, especially for the SOHO user).

EDIT: TL; DR If you don't have advanced routing and or firewall needs, get the Ubiquiti LongRange AP only. If you want fine tuned control of your network, get the Edgerouter as well. Or... opt for a Mikrotik if you're willing to learn RouterOS.

 

So I finally have my Intel dual band AC-8265 installed and super impressed. I am not sure why killer was acting up, but My experience is well pleased

 

hi why u saying u got intel 8265 in title and then in post u changed it to Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 ?
8260 was launched in 2015 and 8265 in 2016 ..
https://ark.intel.com/products/86068/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-8260
http://ark.intel.com/products/94150/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-8265

and your network speed is half only .. u need to change it in your router to achieve 867Mbps

Another thing on picture there are two same ? why there is no the killer 1535 picture ?
Buying from ebay from china they can be not original but fake ones or half faulty .. be careful

exactly same mine in my laptop .. no any network speed drop at all .. very very rarely I have disconnection but router is downstairs am upstairs like 10m air line distance ..
but in killer network manager ''enable advanced stream detect once enabled internet speed is like half .. that I don't understand and even killer double shot pro seems not working good for me at all.. I don't know if it on purpose lowers speeds to leave network speed faster don't know..

well of course best router is with 3 sticking out antennas.. but they are costly ..

 

Where did you see that I said I bought an 8260? I said in my initial laptop order, I ordered the Killer 1535 AND the Intel 8260 coz that's what was available. Then I upgraded to the Intel 8265.

This is a 100% trusted re-seller from China, check his feedback. I am enjoying my fake Chinese Intel 8265 thank you

 

Disable advanced stream detect... It's like a network manager or QoS manager which throttles your speeds randomly.. I always leave it disabled here!!

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

old killer manager version was describing it differently .. there were two options 1. use wireless for gaming ; this is probably stream detect nowadays and 2nd was fast internet speed ; that was probably disabling stream detect.. for surfing on internet and downloading.. now in new version it is advanced stream detect and killer doubleshot pro ..
but if I disable stream detect , am unable to select double shot pro .. I'll disable them both .. I never play multiplayer ..

In your very firtst post and very first sentence..
But then I realised u had both intels and then killer which wasn't in title..
The seller can be nice but u don't know where they have them from.. Many are engineering samples.. so check the network speed if it is not dropping .. I had best intel wifi few years back and from begining had 866Mbps network speed then later on it dropped to half.. never gone up back ..

 

Yes I can't find the card locally in Dubai.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

I can certainly add my own experience on this one.

I have no idea if the bloatware was already there before Qualcomm got KillerNetworking, or if it was implemented by Qualcomm themselves. IT gave my Winodws 7 AIDS and I was unable to uninstall it. Using the Killer Removal only made things worse since it still didn't allow me to uninstall their bloatware but managed to screw my Intel 7260 AC connectivity so bad I had to do a system restore.

Yes, a lot of reviews on the Internet will show you how wonderful their software is in reducing latency for games while you can still do intensive download tasks. But all this comes at a cost of BSOD's and not being able to uninstall it afterwards.

Since then, I've done a full reinstall and only kept the vanilla drivers for the other Killer product in my laptop: E2200. I'm not touching their software suite anytime soon, even though I noticed that since moving on as Rivet Networks they managed to cut out a large part of the previous bloat.

 

Now this is the kind of a topic I was really hoping for -> I have an Acer S7-392-9890 with the crappy Intel N-7260 and was looking for a long time for a replacement. Just ordered it for $29 on AliExpress, I guess it'll take about a month to arrive! I will report as soon as I get it!

(You can find my issue with N7260 on this topic)

 

Once it arrives let us know bout performance and if there are any differences..

 

I get nothing locally in Dubai

I order everything from the US, be it a laptop or a small upgrade such as an SSD or a WiFi card

 

Well SSD,GPU and CPU you can find. But if you looking for small stuff which is not fast moving, so its hard to find it here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

the reason to buy the 8265 is because it does 802.11R and 802.11K and 802.11V for the future tech or wifi. people are now using AC and some might be stuck on the older N or who knows A , B or G even. But there are others coming.

 

Let me explain : 802.11R is for roaming from one AP to the next, you won;t lose your call or connection, it becomes seamless when switching to the best network. It basically really quickly connects to AP's to become seamless in transition. Less thinking.

802.11K connects to various AP's and creates a connection using whats best out of the bandwidth available. Like say you have a better AP nearby but its 90% saturated, and another that is far away but weak signal, the 802.11 will use that last 10% of the good AP and then also combine some speeds with the further weaker AP to give you greater throughput.

802.11V allows to know the latency of the connection and take it into account, like how many hops to the provider for instance, say two different networks have same strength and the AP's have the same speeds, say both are AC networks, and at 100%. But one is connected to better provider using fiberoptics, and the other is connected to like DSL instead and over an older longer line.
Well the 802.11V knows which is faster, and technically even if the faster network has less connection, if you have the 802.11K which blends network usage, it will take a bit of both to speed up, and if you have the 802.11R going as well, you can seemlessly go from one network to the other and not lose as much data.

Anyways, hope this explains why, the OP had his experience. In his example, in public places, he is the only one getting full speeds because of the 8265's 802.11R/K/V technologies.(this is where it shines)

Alright now to ping the world.... discuss!

@Papusan @bloodhawk @boricuafly @Mr. Fox Fox @ssj92 @hmscott @GTVEVO @Johnksss@iBUYPOWER @Shakeeb Anjum @Prema @Phoenix

I hope this explains why the 8265 is MUCH MUCH better for roaming and with multiple networks and really worth the upgrade.

however the 8260 is a proven good card perfect for a person at home with only 1 AP.

but - if your in a neighbourhood at a coffee shop or school grounds, and the area has like 10 free networks that you join all of them already have thier cookies on your computer and presharedkeys etc.. like your at a coffee shop but theres like 4 coffee shops to select from... all within connectivity distance, then the 8265 is a godsend for you, you will be the only one with responsive internet.




the killer 1535 and other QoS based NIC software's are a gimmick IMO.
You have the same options on the INTEL cards. You just have to go after them manually.
Your router can probably do all this QoS stuff for you too.

You also have options on the INtel chips if you go to device manager...

 

Do you know if the range has improved from the 8260 to the 8265?

That would also be important to know for a home user with some distance between their operating position and the wireless AP.

 

well, it takes less to connect, i.e see 802.11R so it will stay connected longer, instead of actually tming out ans showing it was disconnect for a microfraction, thus it technically connects better and has better throughput because of that./ Since these are radio signals oor such, they;re not 100%, so connecting faster with less effort, DOES improve even a perfect signal by like 1-10%

What I hate is, how no where is this stuff explained, in these terms, so I thought to bring it here and explain it. I bet for the next couple years people read the posts in this thread to learn the differences, lol.

I'm designing a site to try and see how I could maybe start a real business with my hobby-like services, and I will make little texts and graphics with these sort of "features" explained better, amongst other things, like explaining to the average user how many chokes and volt regs are on a motherboard for a given laptop or videocard and how it makes a difference for AVR and stability of I/O functions etc..
Like when you go to a EVGA page and look at thier products or an MSI page, they have all these incredible features looking so nice the way they present it, but to most of us, or most consumers - it's all fluff without any meaning. We really do not know what we are buying. I care SOOOO much about being open and honest and forth coming with this information. I hope to make it so my way of epxlaining these small features, gives a small boost to LGA laptops and the like over the BGA ones. They always cut features but they were never transparent with what those features were to begin with, and all of this was reminded to me by how the 8260 vs 8265 is presented. No one is saying which does which or how or why. Like why is there a 8265 when if you test them both in a room with a single AP they are like 1-2% differences. Yet if you have them on a tablet and are running from one floor to the next in an office building with 10+ AP's the 8265 is like comparing DSL to dial-up. No Killer 1535 QoS is going to help you in the office or at a coffee ship in this specific example (Although, QoS can be great at a coffee shop, if you max the bandwidth for only what your doing and forgo the rest for priorities, like if your sending urgent emails - make email application highest, and surging lower etc..)

 

the range HAS improved slightly,

My router is 10 feet away from my laptop, with the 8260 I get 3 bars only but with the 8265 I ge 5 bars

 

instead of bars you should check for the throughput speed in Mbit, thatll give you more detailed info

 

true, but with such close distances, something is wrong if your at 10ft and having issues... My wife says she see's her iphone 4 connect when she is 3 blocks away, at the mall , to our house.
Would be about 450M-500M away. However, this is a neighborhood with just old people, who probably have no wireless devices haha

 

I agree 100%. I recently bought an XPS13 laptop 9360 laptop with Killer wireless card. I had problems with it from day 1 and only while connecting to 5GHz channel. I have a TP-Link Archer C7 router and I spent days upgrading firmware and installing various driver version for the router as I never thought it could be wireless card of a brand new system.
After reading online I realized that it is the Killer wireless card which has issues. Btw I had a lenovo thinkpad yoga before xps13 and it connected to archerc7 without issues on the 5Ghz channel.
Then I spent even more days dealing with BIOS upgrades .. killer driver installations (various versions) .. disabling advanced stream detect etc etc .. nothing worked..
Finally, opened a ticket with Dell and requested them to install an Intel card instead and they did.. Got the 8265 installed with the latest drivers from Intel website and absolutely no problems whatsoever.. also no issues with signal as other have experienced here.

 

@cmb2980 In all fairness Archer C7 has/had issues with Killer cards. See here: http://forum.tp-link.com/showthread...er-crashed-by-Dell-laptop-with-Killer-adapter
TP-Link made special beta firmwares available to deal with this specific issue.

 

So, my 8265ac card appears to be doing bad things D=

My jitter is ridiculously high at all times, and gaming online is basically impossible. I have tons of ping spikes just to my modem (using CMD to ping /t for it). I'm using WLAN Optimizer and it still is giving issues, so it isn't searching for networks. My sister's 8260ac has no issues. My P370SM3's 7260ac has no issues. All connected to the same network (though the P370SM3 is off at the moment).

Any ideas? Anyone with perfectly working 8265ac cards want to tell me their driver versions? I tried the one from Eurocom and a direct download from intel's website, neither of which made any much difference.

 

1- Only install the INF Drivers as the PRO/SET app prevents a lot of apps from starting up. see: Apps not loading on startup in Windows 10 [SOLVED]

2- This is the latest driver (INF): Intel Wireless Driver WLAN v19.30.0.4 / BT Driver v19.30.1649.0949

Be smart...be like Phoenix

 

Seems I DON'T have the most up to date driver, then. I appear to be on 19.10.2.1, from 2016. BGAtel's website must have lied to me.

I don't have an app startup issue, just the fact that my jitter is through the roof. I'll uninstall the drivers and install those through device manager now, then.

 

I don't know what page you were looking at bro, the latest drivers are here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/86068

I just extracted the INF files to install without the Intel PRO/Set app

 

Welp that driver is for Windows 10 only... I need the 8.1 driver.

I checked the first Pro/set wireless driver for 8.1 and it's the one I already have.

 

oh sorry I missed the fact that you're on Windows 8

 

Yeah, I have the driver already.

 

are you connected to the 5GHz or 2.4 GHz network? try switching an see if it makes any difference

 

I'm on a 5GHz ac network. I can try switching I suppose.

 

also, make a system image, then try this, TCP Optimizer

 

Should have got the killer card... Never would have had such issues

Be smart... be like Tom

 

Do you still use TCP Optimizer still on modern OSes. It been a long time since I used one. Every OEM including Intel is making users to forcefully switch to w10 but the problem still persists on older hardware that are driver-less after upgrading to 10 from 7.
@D2 Ultima: Have you tried troubleshooting network problem via right clicking your network icon, then click Troubleshoot Problems. Another thing is to enable n or ac only mode in your router. Hey installing ProSet Wireless with crapware services seems to have done the trick on my sister's lappie with Intel. You can set every services that Intel installs to manual startup or Delayed startup. Intel doesn't have huge disk writes like Killer one. This is my observation. If you can write which services are there I can help. Just don't disable Intel Zero config service or something. @Phoenix will agree with me that Intel services doesn't causes lags like Killer.
@TomJGX: Yep killer doesn't have that problem but has disconnection issues.