Query about Intel 8260ac WiFi card

Can I replace ac7260(PCIe) with this 8260NGW card, I know that M2 form factor cards can not be used but the information on these pages are confusing,
http://www.intel.co.uk/content/dam/...ual-band-wireless-ac-7260-bluetooth-brief.pdf
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...t-briefs/dual-band-wireless-ac-8260-brief.pdf

 

No you can't replace a PCIe 7260 without an adapter. Adapters seem to noticeably limit performance according to @WhatsThePoint who at one point tested a card with an adapter.

Can I ask what's your reason for such an "upgrade"? Apart from BT 4.1 there is nothing in particular about 8260 that would be better than 7260.

All in all - if you have 7260 PCIe like I do - that's the best card you can get - ever. No new cards are compatible and adapters seem to slow M.2 cards by so much that it ends up not being an upgrade at all.

 

Thanks downloads, you are right about the 7260ac card, it's excellent card for me as well, just saw the release of this new card and was wondering whether it will benefit my laptop, I guess that this new card is for slimmer netbooks and laptops, I am not interested in changing my card, Thanks again for your time.

 

Can you provide more details on the performance hit? All I saw was one user saying they took one but not how much of one etc.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/killer-1525-802-11ac-adapter.765576/page-2

That said, the reason for the upgrade is beyond just BT 4.2 (not 4.1) depending on the card you get. I want to get an 8260 intel card because they are 802.11ac Wave 2 and support additional features that came with Wave 2...

But now am questioning the performance hit... My understanding is though the antennas are different FWIW but in my case I want to do it on an itx build so that part doesn't matter, I can easily swap cables.