Hello everybody, I plan on getting the 15'' rMBP when Haswell come out, because I don't need one right know. I have a couple of questions about it and 802.11ac. First of all what do you the odds are of 802.11ac being implemented into the Haswell macbook. Second of all what kind of improvements will 802.11ac bring to it, i.e. range, security? My last question is if my current internet connection is 20 mbs/s Road Runner, will 802.11ac increase my speed, or will it have no effect on our internet speed.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
802.11ac
- Thread starter dantheman5398
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
802.11ac will help range and signal stability, but the big improvement will bit lan performance with it's gigabit capabilities, as it is, almost no internet connection on earth can saturate 802.11n, but regardless you'll need a base station that supports ac as well, with other devices also connected with ac or ethernet to see any improvement
802.11ac will bring improvements both in speed and range.
It theoretically goes up to 1.3Gbps, but in practise you'll get closer to 300-350 Mbps based on current 802.11ac routers, which is still pretty good considering the latest AirPort Extreme (dual-band 802.11n) usually goes more around 150Mbps.
Of course this will have no effect on your speed close to the router if your internet connection doesn't max your 802.11n connection already. It may however improve your speeds at further distance, since speed is dependent on distance. It will also improve local Wi-Fi transfer speed so it may make something like a wireless NAS more appealing. With the low storage size of SSD (for its price), that's of course a more elegant solution than dealing with clunky external drives and a laptop.
Chances that the Haswell MacBooks will have it are pretty high IMO. Apple were really early to adopt 802.11n (Early 2007) while it was still in draft form, like ac is right now. Of course that would mean they'd have to update AirPort routers, and I bet they'd also update the Apple TV at the same time.
Apple Insider did an article a little while ago on why they think Apple will adopt 802.11ac early: http://appleinsider.com/articles/12...adopt_80211ac_5g_gigabit_wifi_this_year_.html
To answer your orignal interrogation, I think 802.11ac would only be really important to you if you plan on doing frequent local transfers over Wi-Fi (Wireless NAS, Time Capsule, AirDrop) or if your current 802.11n router doesn't allow you to reach your full internet connection speed everywhere in your house already. Use speedtest.net at various spots in your house to know this.
Otherwise there's no reason to make a big deal out of it.
It theoretically goes up to 1.3Gbps, but in practise you'll get closer to 300-350 Mbps based on current 802.11ac routers, which is still pretty good considering the latest AirPort Extreme (dual-band 802.11n) usually goes more around 150Mbps.
Of course this will have no effect on your speed close to the router if your internet connection doesn't max your 802.11n connection already. It may however improve your speeds at further distance, since speed is dependent on distance. It will also improve local Wi-Fi transfer speed so it may make something like a wireless NAS more appealing. With the low storage size of SSD (for its price), that's of course a more elegant solution than dealing with clunky external drives and a laptop.
Chances that the Haswell MacBooks will have it are pretty high IMO. Apple were really early to adopt 802.11n (Early 2007) while it was still in draft form, like ac is right now. Of course that would mean they'd have to update AirPort routers, and I bet they'd also update the Apple TV at the same time.
Apple Insider did an article a little while ago on why they think Apple will adopt 802.11ac early: http://appleinsider.com/articles/12...adopt_80211ac_5g_gigabit_wifi_this_year_.html
To answer your orignal interrogation, I think 802.11ac would only be really important to you if you plan on doing frequent local transfers over Wi-Fi (Wireless NAS, Time Capsule, AirDrop) or if your current 802.11n router doesn't allow you to reach your full internet connection speed everywhere in your house already. Use speedtest.net at various spots in your house to know this.
Otherwise there's no reason to make a big deal out of it.
Last edited:
All 802.11ac will bring is range improvements. You won't see the rest due to the bottleneck your ISP provides.
Transferring files from one computer to the other on the same network is the main advantage of having faster Wi-Fi, most people do not own an internet connection that can take advantage or 802.11g, let alone n or ac.
How many devices you know currently use 802.11ac? None. This "feature" doesn't count until we have a widespread adoption. Somethign that will happen slowly over time. 802.11n was different as Apple pushed the draft version of it in full force; this time, they have been eerily quiet.
Of course it doesn't matter at this point and time, that's not the point I was trying to make.
I was simply trying to say, as you were too, that the only true advantage of ac over n or g is it's intra-network throughput, not actual internet speeds which aren't limited by the wireless protocol in most places as of right now.
Yes, ok, obviously makes sense. But if you are planning on buying a rMBP and keeping it for 5 years, do you think I will eventually benefit?
Getting about 400Mbps using 2 Asus RT-AC66U routers (1 in media bridge mode) in a large house where previously wireless N on the airport extreme could not even reach.
Very happy can stream 3D Bluray.ISO files from my NAS to media players without a hitch which was just not capable of with N.
True... well, in the end, the result is the same. Don't expect 802.11ac in Macs until the 3rd revision of this generation of Retinas.