Killer Wireless-AC 1550 Review

My internet speed is this:

 

@Phoenix To be honest I haven't had very good experience with QoS but if I were you I wouldn't cap bandwidth but try to use dynamic QoS in such a way that no one will be left out.
I kinda hope that dynamic finally prioritization got better.

 

I would Set QoS to 90/20 to start with. Make sure to set device priorities after that.

 

Ok I am trying it for a while now. I let the Nighthawk's built in speed test run and decide my internet speed and updated the optimization database



Then I ran a speed test, almost the same speed:

 

Use manual settings not the auto and then use 90/20.

 

but isn't the whole point of QoS to limit the upload which may choke your internet from devices like phones that are constantly uploading photos to the cloud, performing large backups, etc, and thus the upload has to also be limited to let's say 15mbps? correct me if I'm wrong

What do you think @downloads

 

That 90Mbps and 20Mbps are the maximium bandwidth overall that the router will "allow" and then it will divide that bandwidth depending on the devices connected and the assigned priorities. Those initial limits are to prevent bufferbloat because if the router is trying to divide lets say 95/25 and during a down spike your ISP only is giving lets say 92/23 then QoS would "kinda break" as its trying to divide bandwidth that is exceeding available limits.

 

I had 100 Mbps Internet service from Time Warner Cable/Spectrum for a few years and briefly tried their top speed @ $25/mo extra 400 Mbps but cancelled it after 2 months.
A few days ago I got a letter from Spectrum stating I was being upgraded to 200 Mbps service without any additional charges per month.

Today it started working.

 

@Phoenix I'm curious how auto-tuning will work although there are two factors here - one is that the Qos Engine needs to know the connection speed to manage things - this is OK and there is no problem with manually setting upload and download to let it know that.

Another matter is that I hope that automatically assigning priority withing that known boundaries to certain devices and/or applications will make it a smoother experience for everybody - this is whet I hope has improved since the last time I have tested it.

 

Well, I'll test it for a few days and let you know. I'll do stuff like downloading large files (ISOs so don't get the wrong impression ), using my VPN, VOIP Calls, etc

 

Wow that is amazing man! I wish I had your internet!

 

fun but true story: when me and my gf arrived here in singapore, i was naturally on the lookout for an internet connection contract that suited our needs (our previous connection was just 16 down / 1 up, so our expectations were quite low to be honest ).

i ended up getting us the cheapest plan i could find... at 200 down / 20 up for 17 USD a month

the other plans have a range of 0.5 / 1 / 2 / 5 Gbps, so you can imagine our reaction this is like internet paradise around here, completely insane.

Sent from my Xiaomi Mi Max 2 (Oxygen) using Tapatalk

 

For about twice the price, you could get symmetric 1 Gbps! And welcome to Singapore!

 

I just drooled over your internet speed.
U mm.. Phoenix do you see anything under QOS stating WMM in advanced section/page? I enabled that and even under heavy load VoIP doesn't suffer whilst downloading torrents, updates, new SW pkgs on 3 PCs, 3-5 phones on youtube video streaming etc.. on my low speed connection 10Mbps up and down optic fiber.

 

station-drivers just posted Intel Wireless ProSet 20.40.0.4 WHQL if anyone's interested in trying it.

 

I am using the station driver that you posted just to test as much as I don't condone the usage of station drivers. Anyway, I've moved my router from the storage room and put it in the hallway, so it's only 10 feet away still but with only 1 door which is my room's wooden door between us. The link speed is fluctuating between 585Mbps down to 265Mbps then up to 650Mbps and so forth.

5 bars on the signal strength in the taskbar icon which goes down to 4 bars sometimes. I dunno what's up with this card it's so flaky

 

Also depending on where you live the upper channels may have much higher power limits than the lower channels. So look into that. Only down side with that is, to use HT160 you need the lower channels as I mentioned a while back the 80+80 split bonding is not supported in the 9260/1550 on upper channels as far as I know and additionally at HT160 range will be less so take that into account as well. HT80 on upper channels should net you more consistent speeds. Do file transfers and check as link rates alone can sometimes be meaningless.

 

Seems like an improved card from the previous one. Will order one of these monsters!

 

What thread have you been reading?

 

Oops, kinda just saw those marvelous download speed and upload speed and got excited so Killer 1535 it is

 

Little update guys, so I moved the router out of the storage room as I mentioned earlier so it's now only 8 feet away from my computer and instead of being behind 2 wooden doors now it's only behind 1 door which is my room's door..... even with the latest driver from Station Drivers the link speeds keep fluctuating between 525MBPS and 170MBPS and yesterday it went down all the way to 7 MBPS! literally! My internet just crawled to death so I checked the link speed and it was 7MBPS.

sorry @Killer_Networking I will no longer put up with this or reinstall it on my laptop as it's a hassle to keep swapping out cards.

This Killer 1550 AKA Intel 9260 is the worst wireless card ever made in history. Period.

 

Those link speed looks really slow. I reckon throughput Boost technique was disabled.
Anyway that's bad speed and continuous link speed fluctuations kill browsing experience completely.

 

IMHO, a WLAN card should work good out of the box without needing to change settings. That's how all my previous cards worked anyway, with the Killer 1535, not once did I need to go to the advanced settings and change anything. This card does NOT, I repeat, does NOT deserve the Killer badge on it and Killer Networking shot themselves in the foot partnering with Intel. All Intel cards I've had before had inferior range compared to Killer cards, starting from the Intel 7260 to the Intel 8265 and now the worst of the worst....the 9260

 

Oh my, so you didn't tweak Killer 1535 at all! I did tweak it for max range and speed. Now, it has become a routine for me. Also, I don't Clean install everytime like you do! So I understand your situation managed everything is tiresome and of course PITA!

 

The only other Killer card was like the 1535 and it’s lower sibling both based on the QCA6174/A. Seriously the 9260ac and 8265ac are great cards. I have actually replaced the very unstable 1535 that disconnected all the time and it was very picky about which router chipsets it “liked” in my sister’s XPS with the 8265 from my 7577 and no more issues then I got the 9260 for myself it has no issues either. Most of my father’s company’s (Medtronic) Dell Latitudes and Precisions use Intel cards ranging from the 7265 to 8265 in thousands of units and are pretty reliable in general.

It definitely sucks though that your experience was bad but there is something else going on as I posted speeds and the great range I was getting. I also think it could be having an issue with your router, the R9000 maybe the Atheros 10K firmware for that router is finicky. Try to see how it works with maybe another router you may have. If you went through 2 cards or maybe try Newegg rather than a reseller on Amazon.

 

It may work for you but I don't know what's up with mine. As I told you before I've had 3 cards, one was the actual Intel 9260 and two are the Killer 1550 bought directly from Killer so it can't be a lemon

Not once has my Killer 1535 disconnected. I don't use the Killer Performance suite though, just the INF Drivers

 

Yeah damn, I really feel sorry for you. Did you try an older router as a last resort? Just to ensure it’s not a compatibility issue with the R9000? Even though it uses the same chipset as the R7800 it maybe using an older/newer ath10k firmware. At least on the R7800 the latest update borked the WiFi causing intermittent slowdowns with the older 38 firmware being the best.

 

Ohh why don'y you use Killer suite, its great these days!

Ath10k driver contains Most killer card firmware on linux and it just works perfectly! On workstation laptops, Intel simply kills the competition, it performed just fine on most thinkpads w/o any issues. Maybe they use a spl. sauce in BIOS!!

 

I meant the driver/firmware on the router not the card. That is on Netgear’s side. At least on the R7800 the firmwares after the .38 update result is intermittent slowdowns. So maybe you can test another router just to eliminate the router as a possible cause.

As for the 1535 as I said it was picky about certain chipsets as it would disconnect at university access points intermittently but not at her apartment. You probably haven’t used it with those chipsets that it has issues with.

Sometimes these things are like puzzles lol. Like how the 1535 works for you but not my sister. Then how you have issues with the 9260ac but not me. So many variables at play lol. In the end I just hope you stick to a card that works for you. Honestly if I suffered the issues you did I would also be pissed, so I can understand your frustration.

You could actually try the 3x3 Broadcom cards if you want more speed without having to worry about HT160. Of course you would also need to order a third antenna cable. But again it will be a lottery of comaptability.

 

Wifi cards should work whatever routers you connect without too much struggle. You shouldn't need go into every ruter setup you connect to and have to tweak the settings for have it to work... A laptop is portable... This means you use it everywhere. Not just home tied to the desk table in the office nearest possible the router!

Not all use whatever software package coming with hardware.

 

I believe in sane defaults.

If an end user has to struggle to get acceptable performance out of component, the component is flawed. Be it by design or function, defaults should not result in anomalous behavior.

Having to tweak a Wireless card (for best performance?) is an asinine burden passed down to the end user. I'm writing off the Killer 1550 and sticking to the Qualcomm-based QCA1535 for the foreseeable future.

Problem is, some resellers may not offer you the option to switch to the older and superior card.

 

Firmware is part of a router not a software package..... Comsumer side routers aren’t as well tested and companies push out basically new products to stay competitive so new adopters become beta testers effectively. So yeah you will have to at times make changes to accommodate various situations.

Same reason why Support is so bad due to the low margins they get. I say this as a networking tester for 4 years.

Also some clients and routers don’t behave well like try enabling MU-MIMO on a router with a Broadcom client and it will on many occasions go into a 1x1 mode. Or like the fact that Broadcom routers lose performance with MU-MIMO enabled.


You may say you shouldn’t have to do anything and everything should work without issue. This is being a bit idealist as realworld unfortunately can be much different. Also this (1550) is a fairly new product, so some people will have certain issues under certain conditions that will get fixed eventually even the 1535 had issues that were slowly ironed out. As I say in networking old is gold. I was really hoping his issue would be fixed as he spent so much time on it. He probably is better off with the 1535 at this point if it works well.

Lastly if interested I think some of you should join beta testing with Netgear.

 

I talked about the Killer suite. See my reply to @Vasudev
And there is a difference between work well (not fully optimized) vs. not well at all.

 

This an odd case where everyone involved is right

It's true that Wi-Fi cards should not require any tinkering to make them work properly but at the same time we all know the price of being an early adopter. If you buy a brand new router, Wi-Fi card a laptop or a game you are an official guinea pig.

It's also true that regardless of the fact that you have Broadcom-based, Atheros-based or Intel-based hardware on either side, it should work fine - that's why we have a Wi-Fi standard. Unfortunately it's not the case. We've had conflicts all over the board in the past and this will not stop anytime soon.

Typical users do not have enough networking hardware not do they have access to radio test chambers to properly test who is at fault where.
I had to walk back some of my claims after I put blame squarely on Intel in what seemed like a sure thing.
While @Phoenix did test his 9260 with two different routers one Broadcom-based and one Atheros-based which makes it more likely that the blame can be put on Intel, it's still not obvious as - I assume - both tests were conducted in the same laptop and I'm pretty sure in the same wireless environment. Something as mundane as how antenna cable were routed inside the laptop or if one card respects DFS while the other doesn't might make a difference here.

Either way I agree with all of you in this instance. For me it's interesting but I am an assigned moderator for this sub-forum for a reason. For anyone why just expected a fully working fast card, it's more like frustrating.

That sounds interesting.

 

@Phoenix I'm getting new machine soon and I selected 9260 so should I change to 1530 ?


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Yeah go for Killer 1535. Always choose most tested ones. You can ask Donald to swap the card for old Killer card instead of Intel.

 

What does Donald have to do with this? He's not an HIDevolution Gaming Team Member

 

Sorry, I forgot. Got really confused since he asked about buying from HIDev on Discord. P870Tm1.

 

Doesn't Donald handle the orders?
I'm confused now.

 

Dude the guy is not buying from HIDevolution! He said so in his what notebook shall I buy thread so Donald cannot change his WLAN card when he is buying a tap top from another reseller

 

Ok I'm not member of HIDEVOLUTION due to different vendor but i'm a member of this forum so i can participate with you guys. I think its good thing if we have different vendors so we can discuss pro & cons and other stuffs. What you say.


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Sorry for the confusion guys.
@NIGHTMARE Do you use the same nickname on Discord too?

 

Yes


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Ok, you can read this thread from the first and assess the performance or real world usability of Killer 1550.

 

It's better if i go for 1535 instead of 9260.


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Yes. I think your iPhone uses XMM Intel radio chip right? If so, the experience should be more or less similar. If you get random dropouts you might see same issues on Intel card as well! It isn't stable on 5GHz band and prefers to use 2.4GHz.

 

Well iphone don't have such issues but I have this dropping issue in intel 7265 so I have to disable the Bluetooth to get proper connection.


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Read Phoenix's review which is typical use case from any user's POV. He had good reviews about 1535 or 8265.

 

offcourse you can, no one said this is an HIDevolution or anything discussion. What I did say when someone suggested you to contact Donald to change your WLAN card is "what does Donald have to do with this" since I know you're not getting your machine from HIDevolution. No one said this is a restricted discussion for HIDevolution Gaming Team members

 

I'm happy with the two Killer 1550 I purchased off Amazon.The difference between the Intel 9260 and Killer 1550 is the Killer Control Center.

I get good connection speeds and file transfers on home network on a notebook 15' from the R7800 router in line of sight and a Desktop PC with a Killer 1550 in a PCI-E x1 adapter.The desktop is in the center of the house 30' and 2 sheet rock walls from the router that's at the far end of the house in the living room near the TV.The router is connected to an Arris SB8200 cable modem.

Windows Wi-Fi Status and inSSIDer reports these theoretical current date rates
MSI GS60 notebook 1560.0 to 1733.3 Mbps and file transfers from USB attached storage to the notebook up to 101 MB/s
i8700K/MSI Z370 MB/Samsung 960 Pro desktop 939.0-1733.3 Mbps and up to 80 MB/s file transfer from USB attached storage to the desktop.

Tera Copy is used for the file transfers

The router's 5ghz band is set to channel 48

Besides any personal TCP and PC optimizations the rest boils down to the router + router settings,Killer 1550 advanced settings and Killer Control Center settings.

I've manually entered up and down speeds in the router QoS(1000.0Mbps max allowed) and the Killer Control Center(1800.0Mbps).I don't run a speed test from inside the router's QoS or in the Killer Control Center.

Putting our heads together we should be able to come up with a collection of best settings that work.

What's worked for you and what hasn't?