It takes a platform: Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ Provides Connectivity for 10th Generation Platforms

Author: Ryan Shrout, Chief Performance Strategist at Intel

As we head into the holiday season, many of us are looking to find a new PC that will carry us through 2020–2021, or even longer. When making a decision about your primary computing device that will last several years, or making recommendations for friends and family, it’s critical that you address as many future needs as possible.

Most consumers tend to think about things like compute capability, graphics performance, memory capacity, battery life, and screen size, all of which are important. But what we often don’t think enough about is how this device will be connecting to the rest of the world: through Wi-Fi.

Of particular interest to me was the recent Microsoft Surface launch, that featured competing solutions powered by Intel Core processors, AMD Ryzen, and even Qualcomm CPUs. What got seemingly little attention in reviews was the importance of Wi-Fi 6. Testing and evaluating wireless connectivity is a complicated task and can require specialized hardware or software to accomplish in a lab setting.

At Intel, I asked our labs to evaluate the real-world Wi-Fi performance of the different Surface devices released this fall as I was genuinely curious what results we would see. Here are a couple of comparisons of recently announced Surface devices, looking at maximum throughput capability.

Surface Laptop 3 with AMD Ryzen vs Surface Laptop 3 with Intel Core

*See below for configuration details

Comparing the Surface Laptop 3 with the Intel Core i5 platform (both Core i5 and Core i7 13” and 15” models have Wi-Fi 6) against a model with AMD Ryzen, Intel Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ with 160 MHz channels offers more than 2x faster usable download and upload speeds and more than 2.6x peak theoretical throughput.

Surface Pro X with Qualcomm SQ1 vs Surface Pro 7 with Intel Core

*See below for configuration details

The Surface Pro 7 with Intel 10th Generation Core and Wi-Fi 6 integration leads the Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro X with ~3x faster download and upload speeds and nearly 3.5x the maximum theoretical Wi-Fi connectivity speeds.

This download and upload testing was completed with 30GB file transfers using the WinSCP application from a host PC with a 10GigE network connection to a Wi-Fi 6 enabled router. For maximum peak throughput we used the iPerf networking tool and measured average throughput over a 300 second period.

These are not insignificant differences in wireless performance, and as you think about a laptop that you will be using for the next 1–3 years, getting one with Wi-Fi 6 should be at the top of your list.

The technology of Wi-Fi 6 is radically different than previous generations and is the biggest shift to Wi-Fi in more than a decade. Wi-Fi 6 changes network traffic from a contention-based, random, best effort to a more robust router-managed solution that provides increases in reliability and efficiency. Updating your home to a router with Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ capability is necessary to maximize these benefits.

Even at base specifications, Wi-Fi 6 provides nearly 40% faster speeds, up to 75% lower latency, and support for up to 4X more devices vs. Wi-Fi 5.

On top of that, Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 Gig+ solutions for PCs and routers support 160 MHz channels, enabling Gigabit Wi-Fi speeds nearly 3x faster vs. standard Wi-Fi 5, which is what you see above.

And as we move into the world of 5G connectivity, the need for Wi-Fi 6 will increase as it can provide reliable, high-speed, low-latency, and greater capacity capabilities that are required to deliver services in the 5G ecosystem.

Legal Notice

Performance results are based on testing as of November 20, 2019 and may not reflect all publicly available security updates. No product or component can be absolutely secure.

AMD vs Intel wireless testing: Surface Laptop 3 with Intel Core i5 with Wi-Fi 6 AX201, driver 21.40.1.3; Surface Laptop 3 with AMD Ryzen 7 with Wi-Fi 5 QCA61x4a, driver 12.0.0.916; NightHawk Access Point (AP) model RAX120 firmware 1.0.0.84 in AX mode with 5GHz band and 160 MHz bandwidth, channel 48; Inside Faraday enclosure minimal WiFi interference and Over-the-Air RF inside enclosure; separation of 1 meter between DUT to AP; WinSCP (version 5.15.5) for File Download; Drag and drop from left remote directory to right local directory 10 video files for a total of 30 Gbytes; iPerf3 (version 3.1.3) for Maximum Network Throughput Speed; 300 seconds for each run, 5 runs and then select median run average throughput. (Note: iPerf host server utilizing Ubuntu Linux and iPerf version 3.7.)

Qualcomm vs Intel wireless testing: Surface Pro 7 with Intel Core i7 with Wi-Fi 6 AX201, driver 21.40.1.3; Surface Pro X with SQ1/8cx with Wi-Fi 5, driver 1.0.770.0; NightHawk Access Point (AP) model RAX120 firmware 1.0.0.84 in AX mode with 5GHz band and 160 MHz bandwidth, channel 48; Inside Faraday enclosure minimal WiFi interference and Over-the-Air RF inside enclosure; separation of 1 meter between DUT to AP; WinSCP (version 5.15.5) for File Download; Drag and drop from left remote directory to right local directory 10 video files for a total of 30 Gbytes; iPerf3 (version 3.1.3) for Maximum Network Throughput Speed; 300 seconds for each run, 5 runs and then select median run average throughput. (Note: for Surface Pro X, iPerf3 does not run. Instead measured with iPerf2 2.0.5. iPerf host server utilizing Ubuntu Linux and iPerf version 3.7.)

Intel® Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) products support optional 160 MHz channels, enabling the fastest possible theoretical maximum speeds (2402 Mbps) for typical 2x2 802.11 AX PC Wi-Fi products. Premium Intel® Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) products enable 2–4X faster maximum theoretical speeds compared standard 2x2 (1201 Mbps) or 1x1 (600 Mbps) 802.11 AX PC Wi-Fi products, which only support the mandatory requirement of 80 MHz channels.

Wi-Fi 6: Biggest PC Connectivity Update, footnote 3. 4X Capacity/Scalability: This claim is based on a comparison of overall network capacity for similarly sized 802.11 ax vs. 802.11 ac networks. The IEEE 802.11–14/0165r1 802.11 AX specification amendment defines standardized modifications to both the IEEE 802.11 physical layers (PHY) and the IEEE 802.11 Medium Access Control layer (MAC) that enable at least one mode of operation capable of supporting at least four times improvement in the average throughput per station (measured at the MAC data service access point) in a dense deployment scenario, while maintaining or improving the power efficiency per station. For additional details visit: https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/14/11-14-0165-01-0hew-802-11-hew-sg-proposed-par.docx

Wi-Fi 6: Biggest PC Connectivity Update, footnote 4. 2.75% Latency reduction: is based on Intel simulation data (79%) of 802.11ax with and without OFDMA using 9 clients. Average latency without OFDM is 36ms, with OFDMA average latency is reduced to 7.6ms. Latency improvement requires that the 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) router and all clients support OFDMA.

Wi-Fi 6: Biggest PC Connectivity Update, footnote 5. About 40% faster: ~40% claim based on maximum theoretical data rates for dual spatial stream Wi-Fi 6 of 1201Mbps verses dual spatial stream 802.11ac (80MHz) of 867Mbps which yields a 39% improvement. Intel internal Wi-Fi 6 testing shows an even greater improvement when testing at 3M distance with Wi-Fi 6 (80MHz) average throughput of 907Mbps verses 802.11ac (80MHz) average throughput of 541 for an improvement of 68%. Wi-Fi 6 improvements requires use of similarly configured Wi-Fi 6 network routers.

Notices & Disclaimers

Software and workloads used in performance tests may have been optimized for performance only on Intel microprocessors.

Performance tests, such as SYSmark and MobileMark, are measured using specific computer systems, components, software, operations and functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products.

Performance results are based on testing as of dates shown in configurations and may not reflect all publicly available ​updates. No product or component can be absolutely secure.

Your costs and results may vary. Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation.

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