What's the best performing Atheros wireless chip?

[RamGuy]

It's a jungle of different wireless atheros chips out there, we've got everything from AR5008, AR5009, AR9220, AR9260, AR9280 etc..


I'm looking for the best performing, 5GHz capable one!
Which would that be? One of the newer 2x2 ones, or perhaps one of the slightly older 3x3?


I'm lost in the jungle of Atheros chips and want recommendation on what chip to go for! And will I be better of using the same chip in both my notebook and router, or would best Atheros chip + best Intel chip or some other combo actually be better?

 

[stevech]

why look at chips rather than end-item products?

Any product using the WiFi trademark has to have passed tests to prove it is IEEE compliant and interoperable for whatever it claims, e.g., 802.11a/b/g/n.

in 5.8GHz, most gear is 802.11a.
11n gear for 5.8GHz is emerging now.

 

[RamGuy]

I figured chips would be the best thing to start with, then I could search for different cards (mini-pci, mini-pcie, pci-express, pci or cardbus) after I had figured what chip to go for.


I've tried to use Smallnetbuilder's wireless charts in order trying to draw a picture of how the different brands (Atheros, Broadcom, Intel and Ralink) and their different chips works today.

Most of the routers seems to be using Atheros, I guess it has something to do with cost or something? And there doesn't really seem to be that much of a difference between them.

For instance we've got the WNDR3700 and DIR-825 featuring the same AR9220 / AR9223 solution, but still we see almost a 10mbps difference in the 5GHz Average Download 40Hz chart? There is also a 6-8mbps difference without running 40Hz?


So we actually see bigger differences between two routers running identical radios, than we mostly do between completely different brands?

How can this be? Is there something with the firmware and it's wireless drivers utilizing the chip differently? Perhaps the Netgear firmware featuring newer, improved and better drivers than what you've get with the DIR-825?



After a fast comparison I have these impressions of the different brands so far:

Atheros seems to be the safest choice when it comes to building my own router, as their chips seems to be supported by almost everything, no matter if it is DD-WRT, some sort of Linux distro, FreeDSB.. You should be fine with Atheros?

It also seems like Atheros is the most popular choice in routers these days, why that is I don't really know, might be something to do with costs, or the fact that they are easier to use because of universal nature of their drivers?

I notice that even D-Link, which seemed to mostly use Ralink in the DIR-655 days also uses Atheros with their newer models?


When it comes to raw performance it's very hard for me to say anything, as I already mentioned we have the DIR-825 and WNDR3700 spotting the same Atheros radios (AR9220 for 5GHz) and they seems to behave quite different considering the 8-10mbps lower download speeds measured with and without 40Hz active on 5GHz band?


One things for sure, Atheros have lots of different chips out in the wild, where as Broadcom and Ralink have just a few different options to choose between, Atheros have a jungle of possibilities making it very hard to figure out what's supposedly the best 5GHz chip to go for, so far it seems to be AR9106 (third gen 3x3 MIMO) and AR9220 (fourth gen 2x2 MIMO) that seems like the best bet?


Broadcom on the other hand seems to have only a single 5GHz solution, and that is their BCM2055, it can't really get any simpler than that now can it?

I don't really know how old this chip is compared to the Atheros AR9106 and their newer AR9220, but what does age really matter? You take a five year old chip over a brand new one if it provides you with better performance, is as simple as that.

It's a bit more difficult to judge how well this Broadcom does, as there aren't that many routers using it. We have the WRT320N and that's pretty much it?

I've got great experience with the 5GHz / 40Hz of the WRT320N though, so that's promising and the charts put it on the top when it comes to 5GHz / 40Hz performance as well?


Ralink on the other hand seems to not be quite as popular as it used to be, as D-Link seem to have dropped Ralink in their newest line-up (besides the DIR-685) and it also seems like Ralink is the worst bet when it comes to drivers compatibility it just seems to be the worst bet out of brands?



Intel has always been my favourite, I have never really had any issues with their top of the line WiFi solutions, the only downer is that there seems to be a total lack of "non-windows" drivers? So I guess Intel Centrino 6300 in a router solution simply wouldn't work that well, if it would work at all?



Bottom line is that there seems to be rather small differences between the different brands latest top of the line wireless chips? They're hard to compare, but both Broadcom and Atheros seems to do very well and have somewhat identical performance with their BCM2055, AR9106 and AR9220 chips? Ralink is hard to tell as I have yet to see any routers with 5GHz Ralink?


Intel which have been my all time favourite in wireless clients I've never seen in any kind of router hardware, so no clues on how that would work.


EDIT:

I now see that there are several routers spotting the Atheros AR9220, in fact WNDR3700, DIR-825, Apple Airport Extreme and WRT400N seems to be using it?

That makes it the most common of the 5GHz chips, but again it's funny how we see 40mbps (5GHz / 40Hz download) on the WNDR3700 and just 33mbps on the WRT400N? And 41mbps on the Apple Airport Extreme (5GHz / 40Hz upload) and just 30mbps on the WRT400N?

 

[thiggins]

You'll go crazy trying to pick a "best" chipset. Performance isn't just about the chipset, but as much about the firmware and drivers that support it.

Atheros has good open source support when used on the client side. But I can't speak for AP. Broadcom has long been supported by alternate router distros. But they have not been very aggressive at producing new N chipsets.

Ralink gets a lot of design wins when cost is the primary consideration. That's why you see them in lower cost routers and clones of the "Big Three"'s products.

Intel doesn't participate in the AP market at all, just client side.

 

[RamGuy]

Does it exist some sort of solution allowing for Mini-PCI wireless adapters to be used in PCI-Express slots? Adapter of some sort?

I've seen Mini-PCI to PCI, and Mini-PCIe to PCI-Express, but no Mini-PCI to PCI-Express?

 

[Aluminum]

my ramblings on the subject

Does it exist some sort of solution allowing for Mini-PCI wireless adapters to be used in PCI-Express slots? Adapter of some sort?

I've seen Mini-PCI to PCI, and Mini-PCIe to PCI-Express, but no Mini-PCI to PCI-Express?

PCI is fundamentally a parallel bus, PCI-express is serial. Despite the common names and usages you won't be finding converters between them. (that would require a bridge chip, not worth the trouble)

Mini-PCI is just that, a shrunken version of the desktop PCI slot. (I won't bother going into 3.3V versus 5V, PCI-X etc because we won't care in the wifi adapter world) Desktop converters are not too hard to find.

The current "minicard" is the signal lines of a PCI-express x1 slot combined with the signal lines of a usb 2.0 port. To further complicate the lack of good naming practices this slot comes in full and half sized variants. Add on top of this MANY laptops will only bother to route either the pci-e or usb lines on particular slots. I found an obscure converter out of taiwan for desktops, works great and was made for wireless uses unlike the others.

None of these slots were ever aimed at users, it was to standardize embedded/laptop components for OEMs. Be prepared to "measure twice, cut once" if you get my drift.

What's the best performing Atheros wireless chip?

A loaded question but pretty easy to answer in terms of buying today:

For a modern laptop with a minicard slot, IMO you are looking for a 9280, a 2x2 dual band N on a single chip. Keep in mind that 9281, 9285 etc != 9280

You can find tons of 5008 minicards (apple airport and generic) which the -3NX variant of is a 3x3 dual band chipset. It works well, but it is an older design that drains the battery faster and we've yet to get any 3x3 APs to take advantage.

If you still have a mini-pci laptop or are dealing with some OEM appliances/homebuilt AP stuff then you can find a mini-PCI (not express) 5006 card, there are some great ones out there including many high power types meant for non-client use.

The 9003 family should show up this year in 3x3 APs, whether or not we get cheap 3x3 dual band minicards (given docs so far, I'd guess 9380 or 9390) in the same timeframe is another question.

This post while obscure is probably the best simple snippet of info I've seen on recent ath chipsets, and sort of from the horses mouth.

 

[RamGuy]

There are lots, and then I mean LOTS of very nice Intel based Mini-ITX solutions out there, and some I can get really cheap right from the suppliers here in Norway as well, only problem though is the fact that there is none featuring PCI / Mini-PCI, and as I don't managed to find any PCIe to Mini-PCI solutions (I guess it's not possible considering PCI = Parallel / PCIe = Serial) every Intel based Mini-ITX solutions seems to limit myself to Mini-PCIe wireless cards.


Reason why I want Mini-PCI capabilities instead of Mini-PCIe, which I have on lots of Atom, LGA775 and LGA1156 Mini-ITX boards is the all the available radios for Mini-PCI.


With Mini-PCI we have high power radios like these:

- Ubiquiti SR71-A
- Ubiquiti SR71-15 (for some reason their homepage lists this as a AR9160 card, but the re-seller claims it to be AR9220?)
- Ubiquiti SR71-12
- Mikrotik R52HN
- Mikrotik R52N
- Compex iWAVEPORT WLM-200-N5 11AN


Atheros based cards, all whom should provide me with excellent performance and range?


When it comes to Mini-PCIe I just find this:
- Ubiquiti SR71-E


But perhaps the Mini-PCIe card will do just as well as it's mini-pci siblings? Considering the specifications doesn't seem that much different? The AR9280 is supposed to be identical to AR9220 (besides the PCIe interface, right?) in both performance and overall specification, doesn't it?


I've always found Mini-PCI cards more attractive to use in routers, as there are more to chose between and their more commonly used within access points and routers, but I guess that's about to change and their PCIe siblings is just as good as the Mini-PCI radios?