Not so scientific comparison of intel 6200 and atheros 9382(killer 1102 generic)

Since I have both laying around and my 5ghz seem to be botteneck the ISP @ my room, so I decide give them a try.
Important : It is not a killer 1102, it is a reference card (ANATEL branded in this case) using the same chipset. The ebay seller claim it is pull from a samsung chrome book. I forced the Killer 1102 driver on it.(Atheros driver on the web give same result)

Router is netgear wndr3700v1 running 40mhz 5.2Ghz at highest channel possible (NA).
ISP is 50/5 cable.
Both card is attached to my m6600 into 2 mpcie slot using wwan and wifi antennas.
Test is done using CCDmark(2x50MB, sequential only) on a network drive(ext3) attached via USB. Speedtest is used as reference and validation. pingtest.net is also checked.
Number of repetition is 2-3 at my pleasure. repetitions are done alternately. All test are done within an hour.
Was goona do it in safe mode but did not brother since it was close last I tested.
Location : My room ~20ish feet from router with 2-3 walls in between
LAN:
speedtest 58/8
CCD (will do it tomorrow ~~, but it should not bottleneck the wifi consider people are getting 10MB+)

Config 1:
9382 wwan antenna/dmc mpcie slot
CCD 5.9/2.1
speedtest 57/8

6200 default wifi antenna/default mpcie slot
CCD 4.8/5.1
speedtest 48/7.8

Config 2 :
6200 wwan antenna/dmc mpcie slot slot
CCD 4.6/4.5
Speedtest 47/7.8

9382 default wifi antenna/default mpcie
CCD 6.6/2.2
speedtest 57/7.9

Pingtest.net:
LAN:12
6200 :18-20(A)
9382 : 28-29(A)

Midway Conclusion : @ my room, 9382 download speed fall off less and allow me to use my full ISP bandwidth. However the 9382 upload speed is crapped for w.e reason. Ping on 9382 is actually higher but the difference is negligible under most circumstance.

Driver:
Atheros driver is absolutely stupid, the options are WORTHLESS. Intel allow me to pick preferred band(and it actually do what it say...) or run at only 5.2 GHZ if I want to. During the test, there had been times that the atheros decide to hit on 2.4ghz(have to use same SSID for dual band since my family is clueless) and the test result is horrible. (City with 20+ 2.4ghz wireless around ftw)

Real conclusion : the 2 chipset performance are real close. Either will make your 5.2ghz happy. If you happen to use alot of upload bandwidth(torrent seed/write on NAS), and happen to have a atheros; you may want to test a bit before settle on it.

 

Thanks for the comparison.

I find it peculiar that upload speed would be limited at this level- we're talking 1MB/s here.

I would be interested in up/down transfers to and from a local source (NAS, another wired computer) to see what's the effect with higher local transfers.

 

You should do another test with standard atheros drivers.

 

Did and they show same result ~

 

LAN to usb ~ 14-16MB
seem to me their is a wireless to USB cap around 5-6MB cause of the router (test when placed next to router)

Tried some wlan to wlan and wlan to lan (2x 6200@5ghz/1000mbps lan with SSD next to router)
wlan to wlan float from 5 -8 MB/s
wlan to lan(or lan to wlan since I cant remember) can hit 14-17 MB/s

If 1 wlan use 2.4Ghz and 1 use 5Ghz, "seem" like there is increase, but CCD is so painful and the number floats I just give up ~~.

 

Thanks for the clarification. Quite an impressive speed- WLAN-->LAN 14-17MB/s

 

Here is a screenshot of my own LAN to WLAN transfer using a 6200 with a Linksys E3000 on 5GHz:


WLAN to WLAN 6200 to Linksys WUSB600N using a Linksys E3000 on 5GHz:


6300 to 6200 using a Linksys E4200 on 5GHz

 

Thanks must admit didn't expect those results.

 

my 2 cents (equally posted in a similar thread) - from my own experience:
There are lots of issues with the Killer/Atheros driver issues, resulting in random disconnects and other problems. No driver is fully working yet or without issues, speaking for 1103 card. In addition, it has no real benefit whatsoever, or even performs worse. I would highly recommend to use an Intel card as the support system is just so much better. I am still stuck with my Killer card but will replace it as soon as I get a chance (am travelling) with an Intel card.

 

I'm not a big fan of the Intel software suite. I always just install the basic wireless drivers on my computers. But really, the worst trouble a wireless card has ever given me was an Intel 6300 in a desktop.

 

Oh really? Can you share more on this? As this is the card I was attempting to replace my current Killer with.
(ur in shanghai? i'm moving back to Shanghai today )

 

In my bedroom at my mother's house, I always had some trouble connect to the wireless network with a cheap card, so in 2006 I bought a top of the line 108G card from Asus and it worked flawlessly. Eventually I upgraded my computer to the point where I no longer had PCI, only PCI-E, so I had to upgrade the wireless card. The 6300 was just freshly released, and I had been very happy with my 5300 in my laptop, so I bought one. The motherboard I had happened to have a mini PCI-E port on it for wireless, so I didn't even need to buy an adapter. Well with this computer the wireless was slower, and it would drop out a lot, and sometimes not be able to reconnect. So since the Netgear router was so old, that was upgraded to whatever the top end Linksys router was at the time. The wireless signal was a little stronger, but things didn't really get much better. Finally I thought it might be the 6300, so I tried an Intel 5100, and then swapped the 5300 from my laptop, but they were the same. But in my laptop the 5300 didn't have any problems even in the same place as my desktop. Then I put in a generic Dell card that used an Atheros chipset that I had pulled out of my laptop when I swapped in the 5300. Magically, my problems disappeared. I really don't know what was going on there, but the netbook I'm typing on now has the 6300 installed.

Yes, I live in Shanghai, near 中山公园.

 

I'm guessing that somehow your motherboard and Intel cards had a hate for each other and weren't playing nice. One of those weird cases where components just don't work well together. I've seen a motherboard refuse to take one model Corsair RAM (we tried a couple of sets of the same model) but work fine with other brands with the same clocks and timings.

So far the Intel adapters in all of my laptops have been performing flawlessly. The crappy Atheros that came stock in my G73 and N50 not so much, but cheap Atheros stuff is cheap and doesn't reflect the high end ones.