Intel 7260?

Are they released yet? I orignally found out about them trying to install Proset 16.0.0.0.3 but it turned out these only support the three variants of the 7260. A quick Google search later it looked like not a lot of websites are paying attention to this yet.

One of the 3 supports AC, the other two seems to just differ in supporting vPRO or not (and N speed max!). All support bluetooth. I'll leave some Intel ARK links here if anyone is interested. Amazon has a page up but the item is unavailable. Found another site as well offering them for $29 dollars.

Anyone has any idea when or if there will be 7300's out? Hoping for 3x3 AC with Bluetooth Hopefully these will use the digital magic Intel once spoke of to make them more energy efficient and things like that.

Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 7260 (ark)
Intel Dual Band Wireless N 7260 (ark)
Intel Wireless N 7260 (ark)
Amazon (dead link now)
Compsource (with price for AC model)

~Aeny

 

Interesting how there's zero news about this. I just found out about the 7260 from the new Intel wifi driver in Linux kernel 3.9: kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree I only see support for two variants of the dual band AC 7260 and two variants of an (unannounced?) single band AC 3160. The two variants for each are probably a BIOS-whitelist-locked version and a regular version.

I don't see the point in the wireless N models though, since neither are better than the 6235.

Anyway, glad to see that the 7260 is only $29. It's good to see some cheaper AC-stuff for a change!

 

I could be better if it's on a smaller production process, or if they use that digital magic I've once read about somewhere.. But I guess that's only going to lower heat and power consumption. I wish Intel would hurry up already and release the things, Perhaps launched alongside Haswell?
~Aeny

 

Uhmm it is June already, they are up on ARK... but cannot find a seller.
Could you provide your link Aeny?
Thanks

I am looking for the power consumption redux,
My old Centrino wireless card On versus Off, produces between half to 1 hour of less battery run...

 

I'd instantly buy one for potential powersavings and the fact that the last 4 or so drivers from Intel somehow destroy my 6300's speed. But to my knowledge no one actually reviewed/tested this card yet so there might be no reduction of power usage at all.

I was actually referring to the compsource link in the OP.
They claim to have stock and claim to ship on the same day. I've never ordered from that site but if you really want one give it a try I guess. Also make sure you're getting the RIGHT version since there seems to be 3 or so versions of the 7260.
If you do order one/get one I'd love to hear back what you think of these cards.
~Aeny

 

Interesting that it comes in both PCIe (HMC) and NGFF (M.2) version. Both single sided.

 

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth*

Product Brief:
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...ual-band-wireless-ac-7260-bluetooth-brief.pdf

As of this posting there's still no Windows 7/8 driver/software for this product on Intel Downloads

Some notebook customizing resellers have the AC-7260 in stock.

I'd much rather have a 3 antenna AC wireless card than a 2 antenna with Bluetooth.

 

Yep, no official drivers as far as I know, but yesterday I found some again and upon inspecting why they would install but silently not install the driver I found out it was another 7260 driver only. Intel proset v 16.0.4.1 (64bit only)

I'm also waiting for a 3x3 AC + bluetooth or a 3x3 AC only since I already got (really crappy) bluetooth build in. But since there seems to be no drivers for it and no mention in the linux kernel as far as I know perhaps there isn't going to be one soon.
~Aeny

 

When I first saw the 16.0.4.1 Wireless ProSet I unpacked it but there wasn't an INF with supported wireless cards.

Today there's a 16.0.5.3 driver version on station-drivers

Hoping my AC-7260 is shipped today.

 

Will be waiting for your feedback. I am also interested in that wireless card.

 

Be careful before jumping into some USB wifi adapters.

A good source of information can be found here of current and even upcoming Wireless-N and Wireless-AC adapters on Wikipedia -> http://wikidevi.com/wiki/List_of_802.11ac_Hardware

The reason I say to be careful is this, some 3x3 adapters advertise 3x Antenna's that theoretically can handle 450 mbps per stream. So 3x Antenna's by 450 mbps each antenna stream = 1350 mbps through-put (bandwidth). But, the most stupid thing is this, some of these adapters are USB 2.0 adapters which makes no sense since a USB 2.0 wifi adapter running 3x3 streams can only max out at 450 mbps since USB 2.0 ports can only do a max through-put of 480 mbps...

And the same goes for 2x2 wifi adapters.. wireless N suffers the same draw backs.. 2x2 antenna streams of 450 mbps each antenna stream = 900 mbps through-put. But again, if it's a USB 2.0 adapter, it'll only reach a max of 480 mbps bandwidth.

Stick around and wait for some of the USB 3.0 adapters.

Other than that, the Mini PCIe half card's suffer the same problems, the bandwidth on some of them cannot handle the device's "advertised" through-put since the port itself does not have that much of a bandwidth pipe.

 

The only USB 3.0 WiFi adapter I know of is the Edimax EW-7822UAC but it too has only 2 antennas and on the 802.11ac 5ghz band it's max is 867Mbps

Edimax EW-7822UAC - AC1200 Wireless Dual-Band USB Adapter

 

Intel AC-7260 Official driver software download.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...ations&OSFullname=Windows+8,+64-bit*&lang=eng

 

Thanks for update!!
So, do we have any owners of AC-7260? If yes, how is the performance?

 

The new driver states for Widows 8 but I hope it will also work for Windows 7 since I have both in my notebook.

It will also be interesting to see how the card performs with various 802.11ac routers.

I have the Netgear R6300 for close to a year and have been patiently awaiting 802.11ac half height mini pci-e wireless cards.

BTW,Gentech has the AC-7260 card in stock and is offering them as upgrades in some models.

 

I am hoping that it will work fine in Win 7 too.

That's my source(Gentech) of that card. I've already contacted with Ken. Hopefully he'll ship one to me today. Should be here in 2-3 weeks.

 

There is also the Belkin F9L1106 v2.. It's 2x2 AC USB adapter USB 3.0.

 

Actually there's 8 USB 3.0 adapters using the same Realtek RTL8812AU chip

http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Special:As...efault]=&p[class]=sortable+wikitable+smwtable

 

I guess it goes without saying but Realtek is yet to offer a good Wi-Fi card/chip so these are 8 cards not to buy.

 

for anyone interested, I have a Alienware m14xr2 I recently put a ac card in. the card I got is the Broadcom BCM4352 made by Azurewave. I found it on ebay a few weeks ago for $99 and it works great @ 866Mbps with a buffalo ac router. I just bought one of these today so ill have to see how they stack up. the ebay seller seems to be the only one with the broadcom card and has since jacked the price up to $196 lol. the 7260 I got for $59, also ebay. as far as the broadcom card, the seller actually has both the mini pcie and desktop pcie cards and wants twice as much for the mini card now. the funny part is you can clearly see in the pictures in his own posting that the desktop version is really just the mini card in an desktop adapter under a screwed on RF shield and includes antennas. dude even took a picture of the card with the RF shield removed, rofl!

 

the 7260 go for less than 30 on several sites if you google it.

 

Performance wise which one is the best? Who gets the best signal, who gets a more sustained sending and receiving mb rate, is intel any better in 5 ghz band comparing to the 62xx? What i mean in my last question is that with intel 62xx i get faster sustained sending receiving in 2.4hz band than in 5

 

My AC-7260 was shipped today from Gentech so I should have it in about a week.

I'll be testing it paired with a Netgear R6300 802.11ac router and my excellent broadband service.

My Intel 6300 and Killer 1103 do very well on the 5ghz band and I'm hoping this card will too.

 

Mine was shipped yesterday too. Will post some comparison of Killer 1102 and AC-7260 at 2.4 and 5Ghz bands as soon as I'll get it here.

 

I received mine yesterday from provantage. Bad news about the driver. I tried both the EXE and the ZIP file and could get neither to work on Win 7. If anyone else has been able to get it to work, please let us know how.

 

now that's what we want to hear I even have a 1102 so i already have a base of comparison.

I could only find drivers for Windows 8 x64 on intel's website, maybe that's the problem (WIN7).

 

Is there any way to extract the driver .dll files from the .exe or the .zip and install it manually?

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Try download the zip and use have disk (Wireless_16.0.5_De64.zip) and point to the inf

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...ations&OSFullname=Windows+8,+64-bit*&lang=eng

 

This is what I tried and it didn't work. Windows could not find anything in the folder even though the files were sitting there. Tried using compatibility mode and setting it as windows 7 and it didn't work. Has anyone been able to get this working in win 7?

 

I think you did the other way, did you use "let me pick from a list of device" -> " have disk"

I am on win8 now, I will try on a win7 machine later.

 

I told it to let me find the drivers myself and then pointed it to the driver folder on the computer where I stored the drivers.

Does anyone have any opinions about file sizes? The first two files are under 10mb and the second two are over 70mb. Oddly enough the second zip file listed on that site refers to "win7plus" in the folder structure instead of calling it windows 8.

 

I test on win7 it wont even work with the have disk method, probably will need to mod the inf.

The larger file is just that it include the wireless and my wifi software.

 

Any idea what mods will need to be done to the inf? This is all that's in the INF after the description

[version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
Compatible = 1
Class = net
ClassGUID = {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Provider = %PROVIDER_NAME%
DriverVer = 05/14/2013,16.0.5.3 ;DATE HAS TO BE IN FOLLOWING FORMAT MM/DD/YYYY

 

Would try change all the win8_64 to win7, just a guess.

 

There's already complaints on the Intel community postings about the lack of a working Windows 7 driver/software.

Please join the community and post your dissatisfaction with Intel not releasing a working driver for Windows 7 x64 with the AC-7260 wireless card.

Intel Community now back up.

http://communities.intel.com/message/197390#197390

 

waiting on drivers also

 

I thought it only come with machine on win8. And wifi card wasn't meant to be user upgraded.

 

Right now folks like me that dual boot may be out of luck.

I have W7 x64 on 2 SSDs and W8.1 leaked build on a 3rd SSD in the optical bay.

 

Had a look at the INF a bit more yesterday. I don't know why I didn't see the file being a lot longer than it was before. However, rather than modify the INF and possibly create BSOD issues I am just going to wait. It sucks that we can't use what we have purchased from an intel authorized reseller, but it is what it is.

 

The newest post on the Intel Support Community by the Intel rep

"Windows 7 will be supported. We currently do not have a timeframe for this release but we are working on it"

Drivers for Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Card?

 

Let's hope that timeframe will be short. Thanks for keeping us updated.

 

Agreed. The computer I bought this for will REALLY benefit from this card. It's currently using an intel 1050 or some such card. It's a POS that doesn't even see the 5ghz spectrum .

 

Anyone that wants to take a stab at modifying the INF to see if the WIndows 8 driver works on Windows 7 as is? So what if it blue screens... it's not the end of the world.. go into safe mode and remove the wireless card and driver... this tool makes it easy to remove the driver from the Windows Driver Store:

DriverStore Explorer [RAPR] - Home

 

Sadly it's not as simple as an INF modification. Windows 7 x64 refuses to start the Intel 7260 AC card by just an INF modification using the Win8 x64 drivers. Comparing the Win7_x64 and Win8_x64 15.8.0 drivers, the naming scheme is different so presumably there is a good amount of architecture changes, especially since the INF change doesn't work. Time to wait for Intel...

 

Well intel said support for win 7 will be available by end of Q2 which means this Friday, so only 4 more days to wait.

 

Well the mailman just delivered my care package,AC-7260 included,from GentechPC.

It took 6 days California to Seoul.

I'll do a clean install of Windows 8 for the testing as soon as I have time later today or I'll wait for the Windows 8.1 Consumer Preview on the 26th.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/win...cts-and-technologies/windows-8-1/default.aspx

 

Just tested the AC-7260 in Ubuntu 13.04 and it's missing the firmware required for the card.

kernel: [ 6.616636] iwlwifi 0000:0a:00.0: request for firmware file 'iwlwifi-7260-6.ucode' failed.
kernel: [ 6.616638] iwlwifi 0000:0a:00.0: no suitable firmware found!

The firmware it's looking for isn't available in the linux-firmware repo yet, but it's being worked on AFAIK.

Re: iwlwifi-7260-6.ucode (Linux Wireless)

 

It has been released already. You'll have to use wireless-testing tree: [PATCH] iwlwifi: add firmware for 7260 / 3160 devices (Linux Wireless)
git link: kernel/git/linville/wireless-testing.git - The wireless-testing tree, for continuous integration...

Let me know if you get it working and how.

 

I can't find the firmware in that repo you linked (maybe I just missed it?). Also, it looks like the API version has been incremented (6 -> 7), so I don't think that firmware will work with the iwlwifi driver in the 3.8/3.9 kernel.

 

I just ordered my Intel 7260 card from Ken at GenTechPC. :beer: I will try this card out in my laptops and report back my findings:

-Dell Inspiron 1525 (Intel, W7)
-HP ProBook 6475b (AMD, W7)
-Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E425 (AMD, W7)

I may have to try W8... or wait for the W7 driver.



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