MP 1,1-5,1 94360CD on MacPro 5,1 and Monterey

[StormLord]

Hi,
I have installed a few years ago a wifi 94360CD on my Mac (4,1 ->5,1) and never paid attention of the connections speeds.
I have also bough pigtails to connect the internal antenna of the MP to the card and all including BT are working.
Today I tried to create a shared ethernet network via the WIFI card and connected to it a MacBook Pro 2020 and I realised that it connects with 802.11n protocol. I thought the 94360CD is a 802.11ac card and I expected to have ac speeds.....
Is there something I'm missing?
The MacBook connects to MP with 2.4gh and 802.11n, and its quite literally just a foot (30cm) away...

 

[tsialex]

I thought the 94360CD is a 802.11ac card and I expected to have ac speeds.....
Is there something I'm missing?

MacPro5,1 antennas were designed back in 2008 for 802.11a/b/n and work very poorly for 802.11ac.

Even a more modern MacPro, like late-2013 Mac Pro that supports 802.11ac natively works poorly when transmiting instead of receiving while 2019 Mac Pro works fine for both.

Get a USB-C->Ethernet adapter for your MacBook Pro, nothing will beat it performance wise.

 

[StormLord]

MacPro5,1 antennas were designed back in 2008 for 802.11a/b/n and work very poorly for 802.11ac.

Even a more modern MacPro, like late-2013 Mac Pro that supports 802.11ac natively works poorly when transmiting instead of receiving while 2019 Mac Pro works fine for both.

Get a USB-C->Ethernet adapter for your MacBook Pro, nothing will beat it performance wise.

my question is not about speed per se, its about protocol used for the transmission, the tower and the MacBook are less than 20cm (7 inch) apart, I would expect at least to handshake via the newer protocol no matter the speed.
If you thing the problem are the antenna, getting 3 newer antennas and mount them outside of the case do you believe that would change ?
I mean I understand if the antennas are calculated for 2.4ghz and not for 5ghz, but I think 802.11a is a 5ghz protocol, maybe I'm wrong about it?

 

[tsialex]

my question is not about speed per se, its about protocol used for the transmission, the tower and the MacBook are less than 20cm (7 inch) apart, I would expect at least to handshake via the newer protocol no matter the speed.
If you thing the problem are the antenna, getting 3 newer antennas and mount them outside of the case do you believe that would change ?

MacPro4,1/5,1 antennas are not adequate for 802.11ac, if you use external 802.11ac antennas you will greatly improve the connection, but will have to use one PCIe slot for that unless you install elsewhere.

Fenvi cards that use the same Apple BCM94360CD have good AC speeds and BT signal that works for several meters without problems.

 

[StormLord]

There is also another weird behaviour, the speed goes Up and DOWN on almost periodic session, could that be a problem in the hardware, maybe overheating so "throttling" the RF till temp comes down? I still haven't test it with another laptop to see if the problem comes from the Mac Pro card or Macbook card. I will maybe find some time to test that tonight and report back.