How Fast is WiFi 6?–WiFi 5 vs. WiFi 6 Speed Comparison Test | ASUS

Is WiFi 6 really faster?
Check out our real-world WiFi 5 (802.11ac) vs. WiFi 6 (802.11ax) speed test to find out.

See the peak throughput we got in previous RT-AX88U testing at:

[sdqsdq]

that router look like its ready to fly, lol

[alexatkin]

This test is so misleading, I can get 700Mbit from a LOCAL (LAN) server on WiFi 5 in the same room.

To get a true comparison you need to test to a LOCAL server, using the SAME WiFi adapter and at different distances from the router to show how it scales. Just the fact you used a different WiFi adapter could account for the differences here, WiFi 6 could be making zero difference to the results.

[davidchen]

It’s kind of disappointing, I thought it would be faster

[akeylawhite]

360Mbps from WiFi 6 802.11ax. Honestly, not that impressive. Claimed to be Gig+ on paper, which we of course will not see out of impossibly ideal conditions, but was really hoping for better than 380. Sad times.

[BishopNelson]

This doesn't actually test anything. Connections to an ISP are famously unreliable and even if you hit that 500mbps cap, your link speed to the router could be at 800mbps or more. This doesn't tell me anything.

[RickywonG]

In my country we have 1000Mbps download, 500Mbps upload speed. The only thing is that this router is expensive as hell.

[martinyousif]

Great short vid but that background music was so obnoxious. I could barely hear him.

[rincewindthewizzard]

I'am getting 350 Mbit/s on MiPad 4 Plus and 250 on Redmi Note 7, both ac standard and maximum of my 500 Mbit/s ISP via Wi Fi on PS5 (ax standard). I am using recently released Asus rt-ax82u. New routers are awesome.

[madsfrederiktoft]

I changed the wifi/BT card in my Asus 2020 laptop from a AC 9560 to a AX 201 and that gave me faster and more stable wifi. Even though my fiber company router is still only Wifi 5.

[jonmcgrath]

Wow, that was a disappointing few minutes of my life!

If you're going to do a side by side "test" like this you need to provide specific information that is crucial to the results you get! Was the AC Router setup using a 40Mhz, 80Mhz or 160Mhz channel?? Was the adapter compatible with 80 or 160Mhz?! The same thing goes for the AX test! Was the Router AX1800? or AX11000? What kind of Adapter were you using, was it 2x2? 3x3? 4x4? There are soooo many variables that were left out!!

Was the test done in the same position? Antenna config? Was it near the router or far away? "WiFi 6" (which I think is a HORRIBLE naming scheme btw) was designed for "noisy" or "crowded" environments...

Try testing 802.11AC in the middle of a large city where thousands of other networks exist and you'll see unbelievable speed drops because of interference! 802.11AX on the other hand was designed specifically for this kind of situation - "on top of" so called channels (a set of frequencies), AX also uses what is known as "Color Coding". A technology that allows other networks that would normally interfere pass by undetected while the router "picks out" the traffic intended for that network. You can have a LOT more co-existing networks with AX and no interference (something you can't do with AC)!


There is a lot more to these technologies, but this is the most simple way I could think to explain it. Imagine cars on a Highway... Is the highway 2 lanes wide? 4 lanes? 8 lanes? Obviously, traffic is going to move quicker on an 8 Lane highway - the same is true for a 160Mhz "wide" channel! How many cars are on the highway? If there is only 1 car, it's going to move quickly with ease! If there are 10, 000 cars it may move a bit slower, 100, 000 cars and you may have a traffic jam! This is no different than many co-existing networks, the more networks the slower the traffic with AC. Now imagine lanes being stacked on top of each other, blue go on the bottom, red goes on level 2, green goes on level 3, etc. An AX link is similar, it looks only for a specific "color" going by and ignores the rest.

AX is in it's earliest stages, but we're already seeing significant increases in speed - this will only get faster as so called "AX11000" Adapters come out to match the "AX11000" Routers. Use AX in a crowded environment and you'll see it really shine!

[policani]

Something is wrong with your test methodology. 802.11 AC supports speeds that are faster than your 500mbps ISP provides. You wont notice the difference between a properly configured AC and AX router unless you have more than one connected device attempting to use WiFi at the same time or until ISPs figure out how to deliver speeds faster than 1gbps.

[AdrianSandu_d]

This test is pointless. Because it uses speedtest and the ISP tests are very buggy. Because you can get more depending on how large of a channel you have set on your wifi5 and your card if it supports 2x2 or 3x3 MU-/MIMO. This test makes wifi6 look useless.

[safakkoklu]

On AC WIFI, I got 600-700 Mbit/s. These tests in this video are not good examples.

[StauceanuRadu]

you don't have fast enough internet to test any of these routers!

[yujiesang]

Lots of misinformed comments here. A fair comparison has to done under the same condition. Of course you can get faster speed on wifi 5 when you are much closer to the router. This guy did a very good job comparing wifi 5 and wifi 6 under the same condition with the same computer and same distance to the router.

[ruimjpedro]

I just did 393MB/s on my 1GB line and with WIFI-5 lol, more than this guy did with WIFI-6.

Please @Asus get this tests done on a propper internet line.

[mk]

I like this short videos and a very short cut amazing easy comparison!! Thank you so much for answering a lot of questions in my head .. thank you again!!

[palguin]

such test is useless, the test should be:　 A pc connected vai wifi6 writing to a NAS

[adytexas]

I am getting a little over 400mbps straight from AT&T 's router with wifi5. Would this setup handle more than 400mbps?

[milkotsanzov]

My first AX88U died after 5 months. I hope the replacement will work more time.