Max speed of wifi card

[redhawk87]

I have a mid-2015 5k iMac. I also have gigabit internet. When I sit my iMac right next to the router, I get 500-550 Mbps at best with wifi. With Ethernet I get 850-950. The wifi router is brand new (802.11ac) and has 3 bands. The 5G band is rated at 2166mbps and the one I connected to. This leads me to believe that my imac's wireless card is not beefy enough to handle the gigabit speed.

So, my question... I have been having trouble finding the specs on the wireless card online to see what the max speed is of it. Does anyone know? And can I replace this easily?

 

[dictoresno]

You probably won't get much higher than that. I doubt you will see gigabit speed or close to them with an off the shelf configuration.

 

[steve62388]

Double check your router specs. The advertised speed router manufacturers quote almost always includes the total bandwidth of all bands, it's possible your maximum rate to one client is 1.3Gbps.

Also check whether you're connecting with 40 or 80Mhz. iMacs do adhere to good neighbour WiFi rules. If there is another network within range on conflicting channels it will step down speed, the solution is to try to find a free channel. I had this problem, here are some notes about it https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/why-is-my-wifi-link-speed-so-slow.1818369/#post-20348857

 

[bernuli]

If your iMac's normal hangout is right next to the router, I would use ethernet and turn off wifi on iMac completely. It is more reliable, efficient and faster.

 

[cynics]

What router do you have?

Isn't the AC of a Mac max 1300mbs?

I typically have a similar connection speed as you, currently 585mbs. Although I've seen as high as 700. Taking overhead into account thats about what I'd expect from wifi AC.

Do you have other devices on your network capable of utilizing higher speeds then that? My NAS is connected to my router and 585megabits per seconds exceeds its read write so I'm not too concerned with it personally.