I have an RT-AX86U on stock firmware with a symmetrical gigabit fiber connection and a 14'' MacBook Pro M1 Max.
The MacBook sits about 12' away from the router, unobstructed. macOS reports it is connected via 802.11ax at 1,200 Mbps:
Running various online speed tests, I see ~600Mbps symmetrical speeds via WiFi. Connecting the MacBook to an Ethernet dongle, I can get ~920Mbps.
I fully understand the limitations and overhead associated with wireless connections and I am not surprised by the lower speeds via WiFi.
However... I just copied 100GB+ of files from a PC on my LAN (connected via Ethernet) to my MacBook (still connected via WiFi) and it easily sustained transfer speeds of 950+ Mbps!
This result does not make sense to me. The MacBook and RT-AX86U can clearly talk to each other at 900+ Mbps wirelessly, and the internet connection and speed tests can provide those speeds as well, so where is the bottleneck?
If WiFi is not the bottleneck, what is? Can anyone help me understand what's going on?
The MacBook sits about 12' away from the router, unobstructed. macOS reports it is connected via 802.11ax at 1,200 Mbps:
Running various online speed tests, I see ~600Mbps symmetrical speeds via WiFi. Connecting the MacBook to an Ethernet dongle, I can get ~920Mbps.
I fully understand the limitations and overhead associated with wireless connections and I am not surprised by the lower speeds via WiFi.
However... I just copied 100GB+ of files from a PC on my LAN (connected via Ethernet) to my MacBook (still connected via WiFi) and it easily sustained transfer speeds of 950+ Mbps!
This result does not make sense to me. The MacBook and RT-AX86U can clearly talk to each other at 900+ Mbps wirelessly, and the internet connection and speed tests can provide those speeds as well, so where is the bottleneck?
If WiFi is not the bottleneck, what is? Can anyone help me understand what's going on?