Killer Wireless-AC 1550 Review

Intel WLAN Drivers v20.40.0 / BT v20.40.0

 

Wireless Proset 20.40.0.4 release notes:
https://downloadmirror.intel.com/27615/eng/ReleaseNotes_WiFi_20_40_0.pdf

 

Thank you Phoenix and WTP, it's an excellent driver

 

Does this driver actually do something good?

 

Yes, the web pages load almost instantly and provide stable connectivity.

 

In my new choices for the Killer 1550 advanced settings I'm leaving them on the installation defaults but still unchecking the turn off to save power option.
In the Killer Control Center I'm manually adding the up and down speeds to 1800.0 Mbps that are just above the theoretical 1733.30 Mbps.I'm not running a speedtest from within the Control Center.Everything else in the Control Center stays as installed defaults.
In my R7800 router settings I have manually entered 1000.0 Mbps up and down in the QoS.I'm not running a speedtest from within the router settingsI've selected channel 48,it's unused and recommended and checked the Beamforming,MU-MIMO and HT160 boxes in the Advanced Wireless
I've used TCPOptimizer and adjusted Windows 10x64 Power settings to highest levels.
I have Bluetooth turned off.I have no BT devices connected.
I've installed the latest 20.40.0.4 Windows 10 x64 Intel Wireless ProSet and have the newest Killer Control Center from killernetworking.com

 

That's all good but I was waiting for the ending........

 

Ending????

The quest for best performance will never end,only stalled!

EDIT:
I think we can all agree that line of sight with the router is best and going through floors,walls and doors less than optimal.

What do you guys consider the optimal line of sight distance between PC and router?

 

i think @Phoenix was waiting / hoping for some throughput results

 

The highest theoretical data rate speed possible with my hardware is 1733.30 Mbps and that's already been achieved as shown in previous postings in this thread.
As always,data rates fluctuate between the max and lower.What I'm looking for are settings that might result in a smaller fluctuation range between the max 1733.30 Mbps and my current low point of 936 Mbps or at least have a higher rate for longer periods.
With the router and notebooks positions stationary even home network file transfer speeds of the same file can vary greatly even when performed in a close time frame.
I'm beginning to think it's not something that can be adjusted much with the hardware and software available?

 

If you have such high ISP speeds, QoS will be almost useless plus a strain on the CPU at that point. Also actual speeds will never cross 950-960+ on Gigabit connections and you would theoretically want enter 90-95% of your average ISP speeds in QoS settings other wise QoS would break when given speeds drop below those entered, so for consistency sake you take less than offered, it would still allow you to use max available speeds when there is no contention though.

 

I swear these killer wireless cards are beastly to say the least. It utterly poops on everything I've used before.

 

You mean 1535 and not 1550, correct?

 

Both.

EDIT: nvm I had 2x 1535.

The 1535 is beastly then

 

If you look back, 1550 reviews aren't so good whereas 1535 is better.

 

Which Killer 1550 reviews are you referring to?

While they are not perfect my 2 are performing better than all the wireless cards I used previously.

I never had a Killer 1535 but did use with success a 1525 for a few years

 

Is there a Windows 7, drivers only, package for the AC 9260? Could only find Windows 10 drivers (full PROSet suite) on the Intel download center.

 

No, Windows 10 only.

 

Killer 1550 seems to have W7 drivers (manual INF installation via device manager). You think I can install Killer 1550 drivers on the AC 9260?

 

The inf pack is for all the Killer adapters combined, the 1550 is still Win 10 only. The drivers within are directly from Intel & Qualcomm. The older Qualcomm ones have Win 7 drivers in the pack. Even Rivet/Killer states it’s Win 10 only and so does their driver PDF, unless I missed something.

 

Ah OK :\

 

I meant OP's review. Which router do you use?

 

I have a refurbished Netgear R7800 that I bought off Amazon over a year ago.

At the far end of my 1 level townhouse the furthest distance possible inside the house 45' and 5 walls from the router is my Surface Pro 4 Tablet(Marvell Avastar wireless-ac controller).The data rate measured in inSSIDer is an awful 87.5 Mbps to 234 Mbps with a signal strength of 60 dBm

 

So what's the verdict? Upgrade over the 1535 or no? The random disconnects with my XBOX One controllers are driving me bonkers with the 1535. I bought the 1550 but hesitant to install it now.

 

Multiple variables can impact performance between card models like antenna placement within the laptop, incompatibilities within certain APs etc. You will probably find just as many people having issues with the 1535 just like you are having. If you have issues with the 1535 nothing wrong in trying the 1550 if you already have it. I have no issues with the 9260ac which is the same card so you might have the same experience as me. You won't know till you try, unless replacement is a big hassle in your laptop.

 

Don't! you will waste your time and regret it.

As for the disconnections on the AC1535, I have never had one disconnection.I don't use the Killer Performance Suite, just the INF Drivers:

Killer WLAN Driver v12.0.0.468/BT v10.0.0.448

 

My suggestion is to install the Killer 1550 you own and judge it for yourself.

You bought it for a reason?

 

Point I was making in the previous post, different cards will behave differently in different environments and laptops. You had issues with the 1550 and I know multiple who had issues with the 1535. It had nothing to do with the suite (which had other issues), it was the Qualcomm Atheros drivers (Killer doesn’t make drivers or these WiFi cards at all, literally nothing more than branding plus the suite). For example the 6174A in some Latitudes had the same issues (as they’re pretty much the 1535 and use the same drivers). It’s better for him to try and figure it out as there is no garuntee he will have the same experience as you.

 

So many questions! First off, I apologize for my absence. I was very backed up with other projects, and have only now had time to revisit the forums.

After reading through the entire thread, one thing sticks out - the wildly fluctuating link speeds, even when you have line of sight to the router. Since you have tried multiple adapters, even including an Intel version, the issue is not in the hardware itself. It's probably not an issue that is native to the hardware or drivers, either, or I would be hearing about it from users, and this is the first I have heard of this particular. This means that something else is happening.

Keep in mind that the 1550 (or 9260) is asking for more power from both your laptop and your router in order to sustain a connection. I think there is a failure further up the line that is causing the results that you are seeing.

The power, as well as all of the other resources in your laptop, is controlled and delegated by your OS, BIOS and chipset drivers, so make sure your BIOS and chipset drivers are up to date.

If that doesn't resolve it, evaluate how your router is plugged into its electricity supply. Is it plugged in using a surge protector or battery backup? Try temporarily plugging it straight into the wall and see if that makes a difference. Make sure the firmware is also up to date on the router, though I think that was mentioned. Also try disconnecting all other devices, just to make sure that the router can give all available power to the connection with the 1550. If any of these router-related ideas work, you may be looking at a faulty router, or maybe just a bad power supply for the router, which wouldn't show up until you are trying to use an 80+80 connection.

Otherwise, I suggest making sure your operating system isn't doing something weird by booting into a WinPE environment, if possible. If you are familiar with doing this, it's much faster to troubleshoot this way than to clear out drivers, network reset, etc, which is what I would normally suggest. Unfortunately, there are not currently Linux drivers for the 1550, or I would suggest doing that. If you do boot into a WinPE environment for testing, make sure you have the .INF package for the 1550 on hand. If you are not familiar with booting into a WinPE environment, try completely clearing out and reinstalling the drivers, as per my guide here - https://www.killernetworking.com/driver-downloads/kb/faq/58-clean-install-any-driver.

Unfortunately, I'm not really privy to that information. That's above my pay grade and outside of my sphere or knowledge. I do know that, as far as tickets coming in through our website goes, the number of 1550-specific issues would have to be defined as "nearly none", though it's hard to say how many 1550s are actually in use, as opposed to installed in various machines and sitting on retail/distributor shelves.

I'm not sure why Clevo said that. The 1550 should work in any M.2 Wi-Fi keyed slot whose motherboard does not have a whitelist block. It doesn't like converters, though.

The one 1550, which is based on the Intel 9260, is the only one that is out now.

Any time you are troubleshooting, make sure to temporarily set your Killer Control Center's speeds to something much higher than your actual provider's speeds. so that it doesn't throttle your connection unnecessarily. Then, once everything is working properly, re-run the speed test and use those values.

The 1535 seems to handle converters pretty well, though you might have rescan the PCI Bus when it comes out of sleep mode. This is done in Device Manager by clicking Scan for hardware changes.

Your channel width probably changed. Auto is rarely optimal. In order to achieve the 1733 Mbps link speed, the router needs to be set to 160 MHz channel width. If you leave it set to Auto, it may use a smaller channel width as smaller channel widths give a more powerful signal and are less prone to conflict from other routers on nearby channels. The router has no idea what you're planning to connect to it, so auto may not be the best choice, as it's not going to flip to the higher channel width when other devices are already connected since that would briefly disconnect those devices.

-- Anthony with Killer Networking

 

If you've seen my posts on the forum and how I handle updating the drivers threads and BIOS, you'd probably guess that I have everything up to date from BIOS to drivers.

Now, with the release of the new Intel WLAN/Bluetooth Driver v20.40.0, I am testing again.

PS: Strange that Intel released this driver last week but nothing from Killer yet

Latest speedtest:

 

I had a feeling. However, I still think there is something going on with the power supply, either to the adapter or the router. The one constant is that when you're asking them both for more power, the link speed begins fluctuating dramatically, indicating that one of them is not being able to consistently deliver more power.

As to the driver, I have read the release notes, and 20.4.0.1 does not address any issues that we have noted with the 1550. We are currently validating the next version of the driver.

-- Anthony with Killer Networking

 

Really excited to test the new driver from Killer then. Speeds seem way better now by the way. Oh I forgot to mention earlier that we don't use any electric surge protection or UPS. The router is connected directly to the wall.

 

@Phoenix
Does your laptop Bios identify the Intel 9260 and Killer 1550 as Intel AC-9260 / Killer Networks 1550, or PCI_DEV&_MUNCHJUMBOBLAHBLAH_8086 ?

Why hasn't anyone brought this up?

@Killer_Networking

 

Where do I check

 

Very first menu, system info on the very left. Shouldn't have to unlock bios menus to see it.

 

I never use 'auto' unless there is no other option.In the Killer 1550 adapter's advanced settings there is no 5ghz channel width option other than AUTO.
Auto is the ONLY choice.
Please take a look!

My router has an HT160 setting that I DO USE and stated in my posts in this thread.

 

No router I know has an option to force “HT160 Only” and that would be counterproductive as it would not work with HT80 only devices, and won’t let the router fall back for better signals and stability, hence they don’t give you that option. On the adapter side auto is better and adapter will switch depending on situation (though no option is available) and 160Mhz has lower range than HT80 so it would be bad to force that just like how forcing 40Mhz is a terrible idea on 2.4Ghz in High congestion environments. Simply forcing wide band in “dirty” or signal “edge” environments could actually be detrimental to latency and overall stability. In addition at times you may actually get lower throughput. Unless you are the only one at home and don’t roam more than a few feet from the router I wouldn’t try something like that. (range also depends on your home construction/materials and router placement)

Same happens with MU-MIMO, just because you enable it doesn’t mean the router will use it, it will balance benefit/cost of using it and enable when conditions are right as it’s computationally intensive.
Look at sfx2000’s (former Qualcomm employee) last post: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/is-anyone-using-mu-mimo.40553/page-2#post-394705

 

I had similar problem where my router dc plug wasn't properly connected to surge protector. Killer 1535 refused to connect to it but Intel 3160 connected to it but wasn't stable. After correcting the issue, Killer instantly connected to 5G AP.
Phoenix You might have to check with MSI if they didn't blacklist or introduce reduced Wifi performance via BIOS update. Maybe @Falkentyne can decode register values using RW everything.

 

@Vasudev there's nothing in the EC RAM I can use for that

 

Its locked in mine too. So phoenix also uses modded BIOS or what?

 

@Vasudev

Yes but that's not the problem.
But I'm a poor person with a ghetto setup so I can see nor test no differences between the intel 8265 and 9260. They work the same to me. I don't have resources like so many other people here do.

 

On my R7800 at least, testing the 8265ac on my Inspiron 7577 (1GB+ size file transfers to and from ReadyNAS524X) I would get around 60/35 (D/U) one floor directly below the router and with the 9260ac its about 70-72/40-50 (D/U) on HT80, others however are getting similar results for both.

The Dell branded Broadcom (Dell 1820) WiFi card in my sister's XPS laptop had connectivity isssues at her college so I ordered the 9260ac for $~26 and put my 8265ac in her laptop. If not for my sister needing a different adapter I would have just stuck to the 8265ac.

 

Does 20.4.0.1 look like it's the solution to your link speed and overall connection speed issues? Has it improved stability?

 

my driver is 20.40.0 not .1 and yes, it has improved things drastically. The connection is more stable @ 526MBPS now vs the constantly fluctuating connection reaching all the way down to 35MBPS

 

Is this the link speed, or speeds that you are actually achieving? I wonder if they just added a buffer in the displayed link speed due to complaints about it jumping around.

-- Anthony with Killer Networking

 

Link speed.

Here is an example of me copying a large file from my computer over the network to a USB 3.0 attached drive to my Nighthawk X10:

 

Yeah, I'm not sure how much I would base your speeds on that. Router attached storage solutions aren't exactly fast.

I set up a testing environment just now, to compare for myself, as I haven't messed with router attached storage in a while, and my results were similar, even though my transfer speeds otherwise are good.

From my 1435 to a machine connected by Ethernet, transfer speed was 70-75 MB/s.

From my 1435 to a USB 3.0 HDD plugged into my WRT32X in the USB 3.0 port was 35-40 MB/s, and that was with no other computers doing anything else to tax the router's resources.

--Anthony with Killer Networking

 

So I had been running the 1550 without issue until today when I decided to upgrade to the Windows 10 Spring Creator's Update. As soon as I did that I saw huge connection speed instability, I downloaded the 20.40.0 drivers and my issues went away. I don't know if you have been running Windows Insider's Builds but it may explain the issues you had with the older drivers.

 

@Falkentyne

This is what appears in the BIOS:

 

@Killer_Networking

Killer just released a new driver, I extracted it from the Killer suite and uploaded it:

Killer 1550 WLAN Driver v20.50.0.4/ BT v20.40.0