What WLAN Card To Pick.

Greetings guys.

I want to upgrade my laptop WLAN card and i wanted to ask what is the best choise between theese 3 cards:

Intel Centrino Ultimate N 6300 (Using 3 Antenna)
Bigfoot Killer N 1103 (3 Antenna)
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 (2 Antenna)

I know that the 3rd card have draft AC that is difrent compared to the other 2.

Also my laptop have 2 Antenna atm, but i dont might adding another 1.

I heard that Killer 1103 give significant boost in latecy/ping, but i also heard that they don't update drivers.

About antenna's, i know that N draft have 150Mbps each antenna (so 150x3=450Mbps), but the new draft AC will have 433Mbps (so 433x2=866Mbps) so it is fine with 2 antenna.

Anyway i want also know what card is the best between theese, that should be the best on the market.
I also wanna know what people say about the AC 7260 card, it's worth taking it now or, since it's a new techonolgy, wait until it evolves.

Thank you

 

First off we need to know what laptop your asking about that will info and give a better idea as to what wifi will work in it. Not all wifi works from laptop to laptop. So you should also look at the manufacture site on your laptop to see what wifi options it can be upgraded to that will also give you a better idea as to what to look for in wifi hardware to buy.

 

My Laptop is an MSI GT70, and all the 3 cards i linked up are compatible, its the standart mini PIC connector.

 

Question #2
What router are you using?

If you arent using an AC router the AC 7260 wont perform as well as the other two.

Now for the other two.
Ive never used either but researched both pretty thoroughly and Bigfoot is the clear winner.

So If you have an AC router the 7260 is a better choice but make sure you check out the thread here on drivers and set up. I just got mine working 100% today Connected to an ASUS AC RT68R router. If not then the Bigfoot. Also be aware of the PITA it is to run the third antenna wire if you dont already have one, Its a rarity for it to be found stock in a laptop.

Im getting very good performance now out of the Intel AC 7260 with 867 Mbps connection if Im in the same room and 780Mbps if Im in another through a wall. Im maxing out and actaully exceding my ISP speeds at 84Mbps down and 35Mbps up. As for LAN performance.

20MB file through LanTest to a 4TB HD connected via USB 3.0 to my router.
Write Time = 0.8802545 Seconds
Write Speed = 181.7656080 Mbps
Read Time = 1.2745427 Seconds
Read Speed = 125.5352240 Mbps

 

While I agree that the router is instrumental here (it's a performance of a certain setup not a single device) I would like to point out that 7260 is backwards compatible with 802.11n so it's not true that it won't perform as good as the other two. Obviously it might be slightly better (on the account of newer hardware) or slightly worse (on the account of relatively poor drivers) but there wouldn't be much difference.

If it wasn't for the drivers 7260 would be a clear winner - it's cheap and future proof. Unfortunately due to constant driver issues it's a bit hazardous to recommend it to someone who doesn't actually need it (as in someone who owns an AC router)

 

I agree with downloads. The 7260 AC isn't as good for gaming due to driver issues where the ping isn't consistent. Anyways, gaming doesn't require huge bandwidth compared to streaming Blu-ray etc. It requires optimized QoS and low latency and Killer 1202 wireless-N card has the Killer Doubleshot software that automatically prioritize streaming (more bandwidth available and higher packet priority) and gaming (ensuring low latency and maximum priority) kind of like QoS: Killer Gaming :: Solutions :: Combo

 

Now i am focusing on getting the network card for the laptop, than i will get a new router.

Meanwhile i wanted to know if it's worth taking the Intel AC+router or it is better get one of the other 2 cards and a normal N router.

Since i also use the laptop for gaming, reading your answers i got that Killer 1103 is better than the Intel 6300.

On the other hand i wonder if it's better take the AC card instead of the 1103.

 

And about the driver issiues, as i said i have read that Killer Developers don't update the drivers regullary.
On some forums i also read that the reduced ping is just commercial and it don't do so much to reduce lag/pings, can this be true

Thank you for the Reply so far

 

This story about reducing latency is indeed mostly untrue because it's achieved by prioritizing UDP packets on your computer against other packets on your computer.
Meaning it while it will help to reduce latency if you are playing a game and downloading something at full speed, it will not do a thing if you are playing a game and someone else using the same router is downloading something.

Also keep i mind that local latency is far lower than the Internet latency. You can ping your router and check that against a ping test on the internet. So Killer card can in some cases reduce part of the local latency and costs like it's made of gold.

 

Ow i get it, so the UDP prioritize is helpful only if i use a P2P program for download while playing?
In other cases it's useless?

 

Prioritizing UDP packets will be helpful against any other traffic - not necessarily P2P. Downloading something via a browser would also significantly increase latency unless UDP was prioritized over TCP.

I'm not saying these Atheros cards are bad - to the contrary. They just cost a lot and don't do any wonders as many people expect or claim.

 

Ok, got it.

Thank you very much

 

If you have the MSI GT70 then do you have the Killer double shot with the Killer 1202 wireless card?

You were asked earlier in this thread about which router you are presently using but you didn't reply to that.

AC cards are not available yet from Intel or Killer that use 3 antennas so these may be well worth waiting for.

IMO,if you have the Killer 1202 and a simultaneous dual band 300Mbps or higher N router now I's stick with it until there's 3x3 cards and more AC-1900 routers and upgrade both parts at the time these are available.