Any real-world difference between 2x2 wifi cards and 3x3 ones?

1 - Do 2x2 cards enjoy less range than 3x3 cards? And if yes, is it significantly so? (enough that I'd need to find a different plug to set up my PC for extended periods, for example)
2 - Do 2x2 cards have more packet loss issues than 3x3 cards? I do a lot of livestreaming and gaming; I want to be certain I won't drop or stutter through the fault of my card at all.
3 - Do 2x2 cards get a fraction of throughput of the 3x3 cards at any distances? If so, how close does one need to be for this to not happen? (read rest of post for more information)

Explanation of what I need to know in depth -

Basically what the title says. I know that there's supposed to be extra throughput, but I'm more concerned with range and stability. I'm planning on a new machine soon, and I noticed the new intel 7260 AC card has replaced the 6235. I was planning on getting the 6300 wifi card previously, but the 7260 looks pretty good itself. Mainly been deciding between the two; as the 7260 will have bluetooth 4.0 as well as some "smart wifi technology" as touted by intel's website, as well as far far more speed capability than my internet company even provides. Even though I usually sit near to my router, I do often get gigs at places and connections there can be far less reliable/predictable/close, so if there's a huge range difference that's a problem. Otherwise it's a cheaper card with more features and the only real difference appears to be the 2x2 antenna versus the 3x3 antenna.

I've googled much but found many differing views on if 3x3 helps with range over 2x2 or not. What I've come up with is that some people say yes, others say no, but nobody has ever swapped the cards into/out of one machine that has a certain 3x3 antenna in the display for the 6300 to take care of, so I don't know. But this is NBR and people are always doing crazy stuff and tests, so I figured why not try this here? Also, I've read that the 3x3 gives better throughput of speeds and such (about 5-10%), but a lot say only at the edges of the wireless range and it's negligible if you're not planning to operate 24/7 at the edge of a wifi area. Also I don't know if this means 5-10% of the thrown out signal; (I.E. if my signal is 50Mbps, then a 2x2 card gets me about 45Mbps on average whereas a 3x3 card will always get me the full 50Mbps) or 5-10% under maximum load (say I was using the full 300Mbps... somehow... and the 2x2 would fluctuate from 270Mbps to 300 and the 3x3 gives me a solid 300 constant). I also heard packet loss could be an issue, but I don't know. So I really want some answers to that.

As again with all my posts, please no TL;DR based replies. I don't mind questions or anything, it just wastes everyone's time if I already had the answer up here ^_^.

 

The 3x3 card (6300) should give you extended range compared to others, according to this article by Anandtech.

And from my personal experience with the Intel 6300 and a 2x2 (300 Mbps) Asus N56 router, the link speed will occasionally rise above 300 Mbps, even though I've never seen an actual sustained transfer speed from one machine to another faster than 40 Mbps, with most transfers averaging about half of that (20 Mbps). .

 

I only had a 2x2 router, with my limited testing, 2x2 and 3x3 get same signal strength. I am not sure if it will get better throughput/range though.
Dont really have to swap card, just unplug a antenna on the fly.

 

Interesting find with that article! I read a post on the forums here before about ways one could tune their wifi cards in windows to mimic the network killer cards; but seeing such a difference in them out of the box is surprising. Makes me actually consider getting one; I just have this fear of their track record in clevos of a lot of them being bad. It does seem like weak radios/quality of the antennae in the laptops/actual cards have a lot to do with it.

I'd feel comfortable buying a 2x2 antenna card now. The 3x3 won't make that big a difference in a home environment if the router is capable. I'll still probably get an intel card honestly if not for anything other than the knowledge that it WILL work in a stable manner, but it's good to know if I can guarantee a good network killer that it's a fine option and that 2x2 and 3x3 cards don't have that much difference in terms of range or speed until the edges of the connection.

 

I've owned plenty of Intel and non-Intel 2x2 and 3x3 cards. As long as it is a decent card, it really shouldn't make a huge difference. Between a 4965, 5100, 5300, 6200, 6205, 6300, all get good signal bars from our FIOS router/modem combo all the way across from the house.

 

I haven't really noticed a difference in range, I definitely get better throughput though.

 

Do the 3x3 WiFi cards have any advantage over 2x2 with public WiFi? I'm going to college in the fall.

 

In my experience, nope, I haven't noticed any difference at my university between a 6200 and a 6300, their infrastructure won't be able to give you enough throughput for a 3x3 card to make a difference in transfer speeds. There will be too much interference on 2.4 GHz for sure and they may not provide a 5 GHz network, they may provide one like mine does, but that will mostly give you the benefit or having way less interference. We recently received an e-mail asking students to turn off any wireless device like mice, etc. that they are not using because interference on 2.4 GHz is becoming a problem where I'm studying, that's how much interference you can expect. Go for a reliable wireless adapter rather than the fastest one you can get.

I can always run network throughput tests on my 6300 if anyone asks for it.

 

What about signal range and power consumption?

 

Haven't noticed any change in range between my 6200s and 6300s in the environments I use, same for power consumption.

 

Might do some testing when I can, I have the killer 1103, so I might just try disconnecting a antenna to see how much of a difference it makes, It should hopefully still work with a missing antenna.

From my experience the router will make a big difference to network performance as well.

 

The thing is that 3x3 stream router is not exactly common either, so that may make some difference when you test with different access point.

 

Indeed. My previous Trendnet router didn't have the processing power to run WPA2 encryption, and it bricked when I applied a firmware update via Ethernet.

My current Belkin router doesn't support QoS. Which means P2P services have the same priority as gaming or VoIP. Instant 300+ ms to 1000+ ms ping when my mom is using a P2P movie software. At one time, I tried to play Team Fortress 2 with a 2000 ms ping and 1 kb/s upload speed while my mom experienced no problems with her movies through P2P.

Oh god the lag.

(I have a 12 Mb/s down connection. Don't remember the max upload speed.)