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MacBook Pro 14 Slow WiFi

Y

yustas

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 11, 2009
495
404
Hello,

The Wifi speed on my new MacBook Pro 14 is significantly lower vs. my 2018, Intel MacBook Air.
On the Air I get about 500 Mbps up/down, on the Pro I don't even get half of that.
I have a fiber connection, I tested it several times from the exact same location.

Is this normal for the new MacBooks?

Thanks.
 
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hold the option key and click on the wifi icon at the top right of the screen. What's your TX rate?
 
40? Wow.

With these units being so new I haven't heard of any wide spread wifi issue (but I'm not exactly following the new MacBooks). I'd say it could be a router issue, but your Air connects at decent speeds. I'd power cycle your router and see what you get after that. Also do you have another router you can try to connect to? If other routers are giving you the same speed then it could be a hardware issue. The Apple store also has Wi-Fi, but I'm not sure what the max speed you can get there.
 
On the Pro, RSSI: -40 dBN
Channel: 36 (5 GHz, 80 MHz)
Noise: -89 dBN
PHY Mode: 802.11ac
MCS Index: 1
NSS: 1

Tx rate changes, right now it shows 390, but it doesn't go as high as on the Air to over 800.

On the Air, RSSI: -45
Channel: 112 (5 GHz, 80 MHz)
Noise: -88
PHY Mode: 802.11 ac
MCS Index: 9
NSS: 2
 
killawat said:
Also do you have another router you can try to connect to?
Click to expand...
I have heard that the Pro needs WiFi 6 router to perform at top speed, but it seems the difference should not be this big. I've ordered EERO 6 to see if it makes a difference vs. my current older EERO.

On the Pro, Tx Rate doesn't seem stable, it jumps around a lot. Right now I just saw it drop to 20 and then go back up to 175. On the Air, it stays around 800. Both laptops are right next to each other.
 
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My 14” had the same issue. I did a restart and have not had a problem since; the Wi-Fi speed went back to normal (what my router maxed out at).
 
cababah said:
My 14” had the same issue. I did a restart and have not had a problem since; the Wi-Fi speed went back to normal (what my router maxed out at).
Click to expand...
Did you restart the Pro or the router? I have restarted the laptop several times. No difference.
 
The Speedtest on the pro is 103.79 down and 29.48 Up. On the Air, it's almost 500 up/down.
 
On my 14" MBP I get 866 TX rate. Try forcing the 149 - 161 channel band on the router, has higher transmit power (at least in N. America)
 
Right next to each other?
Just curious -- Is there any change to reported speed on your MBpro, if you turn off the wifi card in your 2018 MBAir (or shut off the Air completely)?
 
DeltaMac said:
Right next to each other?
Just curious -- Is there any change to reported speed on your MBpro, if you turn off the wifi card in your 2018 MBAir (or shut off the Air completely)?
Click to expand...
I turned off the Air. There're no other wifi devices in the room. The Tx Rate jumped briefly to 390, then to 170, now it says 260, it's really jumpy, now 28, then 117. The speed test now is: 85.86 down, 120.25 up. It doesn't seem to make sense...
 
How far are you from the wifi router?
Any improvement, either in speed, or stability, if you move the MBPro closer to the router, or maybe at a different angle with respect to the router?
 
DeltaMac said:
How far are you from the wifi router?
Any improvement, either in speed, or stability, if you move the MBPro closer to the router, or maybe at a different angle with respect to the router?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty close, 8 F to be exact. I tried putting the Pro right next to the router, about the same results, 138.12 Down, 54.44 Up. Tx Rate is still jumpy, it went to 21, then to 120, then back down to 20, then to 58.
 
I would try a new router at this point and if that doesn’t work, I would contact Apple support and maybe look into getting a replacement because that’s not okay.
 
By any chance do you have an Apple Watch? I used to have this problem where when I use my Apple Watch 1st gen to unlock my MacBook Pro, the wifi speed will go down to under 50, it's fine now after I upgraded to Apple Watch SE, but at the time, I had to disable Apple Watch unlock apps and Mac feature.
 
From exactly the same location, my iPhone 13 Pro Max gets 450 Down and 523 Up.
 
Hello guys, Im having troubles just with wifi icon in top bar section. Even Im connected to wifi, it shows searching icon of wifi (but im still browsing as usual). My stats like this:
1638381967148.png
 
I have the same problem with my 14 inch MacBook Pro Base Model. All other Apple devices gets 400-500 up/down. After a restart of my MBP I get those similar speeds for about 24 hours, after that the speeds drop to about 100 up/down until I reboot the MBP, then I get fast speeds again. I shouldn’t have to reboot my MBP every 24 hours when every other Apple device is working fine (iPhones and iPads). I have tried to change settings in my UniFi setup. Rebooted all my UniFi devices and I had great speeds on the MBP for about a week and now the speeds are slow again. I don’t think it is my network since everything else works fine. Maybe this is an OS bug? I have AT&T Fiber 1 GB connection btw.
 
maxsquared said:
Does your router not support 5G 40 mhz? Better, 80 mhz?
Click to expand...
Im not sure since its my dorm wifi network, Im sure that top speed on ethernet in this dorm is 100Mbps so I cant really test it out on faster connection. On speedtest.net (over wifi) im getting apporx 70Mbps, whis is normal
 
I've heard that the issue might be a bug in Monterey, so I upgraded the Air to see if it makes a difference.
No difference, still the same, great performance.

But I kept checking the Tx Rate on the Pro and out of the blue (I haven't made any changes to it), the TX Rate went to 866 and seems to be staying there consistently. The speed test on the Pro has improved but it still does not get the Air numbers.

I have Sonic fiber, the current speed on the Pro is 222.90 Down and 546.77 Up, Tx Rate is 866. The Air gets almost 500 Up/Down in comparison.

I'm going to test EERO 6 today to see if it makes a difference, will report back the results.
 
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