Macbook Air 802.11ac 5GHz Performance

EDIT: As this turned out to be an issue with OS X and not the MBA's hardware, I reposted here. Mods, please feel free to delete this thread.

Hi everyone,

I discovered this forum when I was originally considering buying a 2013 MBA, and ended up picking it up - 13/i5/8/256. I also picked up an Airport Extreme.

Let me begin by saying that this is not a troll thread like the other one. I would truly like to resolve this issue, and continue using the MBA and OS X.

I am seeing speeds of 10-12MB/s when transferring files from my Windows Server 2008 R2 server.

Originally, I thought my issue was the router, then I broke out my old laptop (5 year old Lenovo T400 w/Intel 5100 AGN card). Sitting right next to my MBA, it transfers at 18-20MB/s.

Then I rebooted the MBA in Windows 8 to test. I see 40-50MB/s.

Is this an issue with OS X and SMB, a driver issue, or is there some sort of power save/performance setting that’s on by default for wireless in OS X?

For the latter, I am imagining something like in Windows Power Options, Plan, Advanced, Wireless Adapter Settings.

Thanks in advance.

sk3tch said:

I frequently see 35MB/sec+ (minimum - because I don't want to be that guy that over reports) in Mac OS X with my Netgear R6300 AC router (http://www.netgear.com/R6300).

My network is a mix of Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Linux.

What are you using to see the throughput? I'm using the latest version of iStat Menus.

Click to expand...

I am using Resource Monitor on the Windows Server 2008 R2 system, and on the Windows clients, the number given by the file copy progress window to verify it.

I downloaded iStat and it reports a very steady 13.0-13.5MB/s.

The router is in the same room as the laptops.

Edit:

Plugged in the Thunderbolt Gigabit Adapter, and it's only giving me 45-55MB/s. My old Lenovo can max gigabit (97-99% utilization, 120-125MB/s). Rebooted into Windows 8 on the MBA and it was able to max gigabit.

I've eliminated the hardware from the equation. What's going on with OS X?