Not getting expected throughput

[geops]

I'm having a weird issue. I just got the new macbook pro with 802.11ac 1300. It connects at full 1300 at 10ft distance straight line of sight to my AC68U. However, I can never break 30MB/s over the wifi while I should be getting upwards of 60+MB/s over the ac. My storage server has well over 200MB/s transfer speeds with link aggregation and large RAID 5 array. The new OS X Mavericks has SMB 2.0 and supposedly has the SMB speeds fixed according to tests with other APs. I still can't figure out if the problem is in my AC68U or my laptop since I only have ac adapters in my macbooks. Can anyone test transfer speeds with the AC68U and see if he can achieve more than 30MB/s over 1300 ac?

 

[PrivateJoker]

I'm having a weird issue. I just got the new macbook pro with 802.11ac 1300. It connects at full 1300 at 10ft distance straight line of sight to my AC68U. However, I can never break 30MB/s over the wifi while I should be getting upwards of 60+MB/s over the ac. My storage server has well over 200MB/s transfer speeds with link aggregation and large RAID 5 array. The new OS X Mavericks has SMB 2.0 and supposedly has the SMB speeds fixed according to tests with other APs. I still can't figure out if the problem is in my AC68U or my laptop since I only have ac adapters in my macbooks. Can anyone test transfer speeds with the AC68U and see if he can achieve more than 30MB/s over 1300 ac?

You didn't mention what size files you're using to test, what method you're using to push/pull files back and forth between MacBook & your server, and what utility or process you're using to measure your speeds. It would be hard to compare without that info. Also, at very high transfer speeds, I can get a decent gap between my own machines with SSD vs mechanical HD when testing txfr speeds to and from my own NAS.

Whatever method you used to get those #s, plug in an Ethernet cable, disable the wifi, and what #s do you get then?

 

[geops]

You didn't mention what size files you're using to test, what method you're using to push/pull files back and forth between MacBook & your server, and what utility or process you're using to measure your speeds. It would be hard to compare without that info. Also, at very high transfer speeds, I can get a decent gap between my own machines with SSD vs mechanical HD when testing txfr speeds to and from my own NAS.

Whatever method you used to get those #s, plug in an Ethernet cable, disable the wifi, and what #s do you get then?

It was a simple question. Don't make it too complicated. 802.11ac 1300 connected, any file manager, SMB 2.0 protocol as already mentioned and monitoring interface tx/rx but even the file copy dialog numbers will do as I'm looking for double speed not a tiny difference.

 

[geops]

Ok, the #s you've tossed out are 30, 60, 100, & 200 MB/s? How about just running Helios test on wired & wireless, grabbing screenshots of those results (and another screenshot of holding down option & click airport menubar icon) so we can be super clear on the wifi connection at time of test.

Using the same program to do the exact same test over and over again is much more reliable of a benchmark than fleeting guesstimates based on ETA to do a file copy/move. It eliminates many spurious things that can influence a result unintentionally.

You're asking for help answering a specific performance question, and giving mostly vague (yet even, round numbered) answers.

I'm trying to help..I'm aware it's not a storage issue, I wasn't implying that it was, I was implying that your #s compared to another person with another laptop and a different file server isn't as useful as it is to compare your own exact same setup with just the NIC differing between tests...for a baseline.

I was simply asking for someone to run a file copy and give some kind of average. We don't need to make all this into a science experiment. Even only a max throughput with the ac will do for a simple comparison. Here is an exact number - my wifi never goes above 31.8MB/s (peak) and it shows connected at 1300 at those moments. I just need to know if anyone can actually achieve the ac speeds that should be achievable (~65MB/s) with the current AC68U firmwares.

 

[tl2k2]

I was simply asking for someone to run a file copy and give some kind of average. We don't need to make all this into a science experiment. Even only a max throughput with the ac will do for a simple comparison. Here is an exact number - my wifi never goes above 31.8MB/s (peak) and it shows connected at 1300 at those moments. I just need to know if anyone can actually achieve the ac speeds that should be achievable (~65MB/s) with the current AC68U firmwares.

i get 38.6 MB/s with my mac connected to 5GHz at 450mbps, using ftp transfers to my Synology NAS.

 

[PCTools]

Ouch.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[geops]

i get 38.6 MB/s with my mac connected to 5GHz at 450mbps, using ftp transfers to my Synology NAS.

That's amazing for 450. I haven't seen more than 25-28MB/s at 450 (10 feet away). Can anyone please test an ac 1300 connection?

 

[thiggins]

It was a simple question. Don't make it too complicated. 802.11ac 1300 connected, any file manager, SMB 2.0 protocol as already mentioned and monitoring interface tx/rx but even the file copy dialog numbers will do as I'm looking for double speed not a tiny difference.

Geops: PJ is trying to help. You could be a little more appreciative.
Are you seeing the same speed in both directions?
Where are you getting the idea that you should be seeing 65 MB/s?

 

[geops]

Geops: PJ is trying to help. You could be a little more appreciative.
Are you seeing the same speed in both directions?
Where are you getting the idea that you should be seeing 65 MB/s?

I was able to get 58-59MB/s via FTP so this should be some kind of OS X smb issue over wifi. SMB over ethernet is achieving expected speeds.

 

[thiggins]

I was able to get 58-59MB/s via FTP so this should be some kind of OS X smb issue over wifi. SMB over ethernet is achieving expected speeds.

FTP has lower overhead than SMB.

 

[geops]

FTP has lower overhead than SMB.

We're talking double difference. That's not just overhead.

 

[thiggins]

We're talking double difference. That's not just overhead.

Fair point.

You asked for measurements. IxChariot has pretty low overhead compared to SMB transfers. And the closed chamber technique I use produces near ideal throughput.

58/59 Mbps is higher than what I measured for three AC1900 routers.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...ghthawk/1235-asus-rtac68u/1237-linksys-ea6900

The transfer direction can matter. So can driver versions in both router and clients. The RT-AC68U isn't exactly a model of stability right now.

 

[geops]

Fair point.

You asked for measurements. IxChariot has pretty low overhead compared to SMB transfers. And the closed chamber technique I use produces near ideal throughput.

58/59 Mbps is higher than what I measured for three AC1900 routers.
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanw...ghthawk/1235-asus-rtac68u/1237-linksys-ea6900

The transfer direction can matter. So can driver versions in both router and clients. The RT-AC68U isn't exactly a model of stability right now.

It wasn't flatline and it's not an average speed. These values are peaks that were held over at least a few seconds. Still, I don't get why the OS X Mavericks wil have decent ethernet throuhput (100+ MB/s) using SMB, and the same machine from the same server using the same protocol does only 31MB/s peak using 1300 ac, and at the same time the ftp throuput over the same link from the same server is approximately double. I would think that if SMB works well over ethernet, it should also work well over wifi. The overhead difference between ftp and smb should not be more than 2-3MB/s tops at these speeds.

 

[syd]

If you're still interested:
- Apple Extreme. Link speed 1300
- Synology 1812+
- Protocol AFP
- File size 400MB
- Throughput 50 MB / sec
- Macbook Pro - 10.9.4

 

[meanmotion]

Did you ever find out what the problem was? I'm seemingly having the same issue.

I get 100MB/s+ between PC and NAS over ethernet then connect via AC and it refuses to go much over 30MB/s. Tried with two Netgear X4 R7500 in bridge mode, a Linksys XAC1900 and R7500 in bridge mode and the Linksys with the Asus PCE-68E.

All setups should deliver closer to 70MB/s in basic Windows file transfers according to screenshots from other reviews.

If it was only delivering 50MB/s or so I could put it down to overhead issues or something but not with it being less than half.

 

[meanmotion]

So I sort of got to the bottom of the issues I was having. Turned out that the throughput from my NAS was just massively throttled by being sent over Wi-Fi - something to do with encryption or protocol overhead or something. So instead I did the transfer from computer to computer and it was fine.

Only remaining odditiy was that this worked for transfers via the Asus pce-ac68 receiver but not when using two r7500 routers with one in bridge mode. In that scenario it again choked at about 30MB/s. Only tried that once, though, as I'd got the results I needed.

 

[hymnun]

I only have ac adapters in my macbooks.