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6127
XPS 13 (9300) poor Wi-Fi download speed
My brand new XPS13 fresh install from factory gets only at half of the Wi-Fi download speeds compared to my other Wi-Fi enabled devices (Macbook pro, iPhone, Playstation, etc). All my devices tend to get 60Mbps and more download, while the XPS13 gets 30Mbps at best.
The adapter is: Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650s 160MHz (201D2W)
The driver specs are (as reported in device manager0:
- Provider is Intel
- Date: 07/01/2020
- Version: 21.70.0.6
Any pointers at what could be the problem?
Saltgrass
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July 12th, 2020 09:00
Is suppose the first thing would be my card is using driver version 21.90.3.2 from 5/4/2020..
I run the system on the 5 GHz band for speed and have an AX router. My link speeds in Settings-Network are showing 2402/2402 Mbps. Of course I have no way to verify it is even getting close to that speed.
My card did not come with the Dell laptop it is currently on, so all drivers and software were installed at the time the card was installed, not by Dell..
If you have been asked to set your ISP speeds, did you do that? I keep mine on 1500 Mbps which is the default setting in the Killer Control Center.
There may be a bandwidth controlling software install which can limit your bandwidth. I can't remember the name but it is something like Smartbyte. But if it is running, it may be limiting to save bandwidth for streaming bandwidth to give those activities priority.
bacillus1
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July 11th, 2020 00:00
I suggest you do a search for Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650s 160MHz on the net as lots of folk have complained about this very issue.
Roland10pont
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July 11th, 2020 02:00
Thanks I already did and can kick myself that I did not do this before buying the computer.
Roland10pont
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July 11th, 2020 03:00
I switched to ethernet cable. Wi-Fi is too unpredictable on the XPS, the strange thing is it looks like something throttles the speedtest app. I know it sounds strange
RuskinF
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July 11th, 2020 03:00
There are two questions in this answer.
1. What is the maximum speed of the Wifi adapter?
2. Can your processor process the data from the Internet at speeds equivalent to the speed of the Wifi adapters of your device?
DELL-Cares
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July 11th, 2020 03:00
Still didn't work? ^VA
DELL-Cares
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July 11th, 2020 03:00
You could also refer here https://dell.to/3eiUuTe to resolve this.
Roland10pont
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July 12th, 2020 06:00
Speedtest Ookla app measures 20Mbps download. Which is ok-ish but all my other wireless devices running the same Ookla app go easy to 60Mbps download. 20Mbps is so low, the XPS13 should be able to handle way more. I wonder if I can uninstall this silly Killer Control Center app?
Roland10pont
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July 13th, 2020 06:00
So indeed the Killer Control Center was the root cause. For some reason it does not like the Ookla speedtest app and decided to throttle this at 20Mbps. I have in settings disabled the automatic stream detection as this disables the "intelligent" traffic management functions of Killer Control Center. Now Wi-Fi speeds are as good as what I get on all my other devices. I hope this kills Killer completely if not I will uninstall all of it.
What puzzles me is that Dell puts so much extra crap software on a laptop of +1600 euro. This is on top of all the crap Microsoft adds event in Windows Pro. Why do I need Candy crush, Killer Control Center etc on a professional laptop.
Saltgrass
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July 13th, 2020 09:00
Did you check to see if that speed test was one of the apps for which you could set the priority so it could get full speed?
Bandwith managers, Quality of Service (QoS) type settings can effect or not effect, certain types of connections..
Roland10pont
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July 13th, 2020 09:00
I can see that in the apps tab of the Killer Control Center it allows you to prioritise and throttle on a per app level. in the overview tab you can prioritise broader categories e.g. gaming or streaming. The Ookla app was a windows app and that goes apparently in the low priority. Another windows app, name escapes me now, to test the internet speed was not throttled. Anyway I don't like software deciding what is good for me or not, especially if the software looks like it is just out of beta testing:-) Typically when your gaming you know you should just run your game and when you stream you just stream.