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MU-MIMO support in early 2015 13" MBP?

K

keaide

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2010
190
4
Does the13" MacBook Pro (early 2015) support MU-MIMO? I am looking for a new WiFi router right now and I am wondering if I should take a cheaper older model or a new one with MU-MIMO (basically it's Netgear R7000 vs. R7800).
I will upgrade to new iPhone & iPad later this year, which hopefully will support this, but I am not sure about the MBP.
I also have an older 2010 iMac, which is quite outdated by now (no AC WiFi of course) but it still does a fine job for it's intended purpose. It might only get replaced in two years or so if there's no hardware failure before.
Thanks.
 
Nope... no Apple product currently has MU-MIMO.

I think you are on the right track there with your choice. At this point MU-MIMO is a bit of a pipe dream and the sweet spot for routers is the AC1900 class like the R7000 you are looking at. The Asus RT-AC68U is also a good choice in that class.
 
Weaselboy said:
Nope... no Apple product currently has MU-MIMO.

I think you are on the right track there with your choice. At this point MU-MIMO is a bit of a pipe dream and the sweet spot for routers is the AC1900 class like the R7000 you are looking at. The Asus RT-AC68U is also a good choice in that class.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot.
The R7000 it is then. I also know the Asus model (a friend of mine has it) and it seems to be a decent contender but I am somehow sold on the R7000 (for no specific reason if that makes any sense...).
 
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keaide said:
Thanks a lot.
The R7000 it is then. I also know the Asus model (a friend of mine has it) and it seems to be a decent contender but I am somehow sold on the R7000 (for no specific reason if that makes any sense...).
Click to expand...
I have the Asus RT-AC68U and I agree it is about a toss up. I like the Asus for the Merlin custom firmware. But I don't think you can go wrong with either one.
 
RedTomato said:
Wrong. iDevices from the 6S onwards have MU-MIMO.

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-6s/specs/

Sorry for the thread necromancy but this thread was near the top of google when I was searching for info on Apple MU-MIMO.
Click to expand...

You are mistaken. The 6S has SU (single user) MIMO and not MU (multi-user) MIMO. The link you provided says nothing about MU-MIMO.

See here and read this PDF (page 17).

No current Apple client device has MU-MIMO.
 
Some benchmarks I've seen suggest that MU-MIMO routers offer significant performance advantages even without MU-MIMO clients. I have a Synology RT2600ac and the WiFi performance is equivalent to wired ethernet on my gigabit internet connection.
 
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leman said:
Some benchmarks I've seen suggest that MU-MIMO routers offer significant performance advantages even without MU-MIMO clients. I have a Synology RT2600ac and the WiFi performance is equivalent to wired ethernet on my gigabit internet connection.
Click to expand...
I've seen some of the same thing on SmallNetBuilder reviews. You think it is just better wireless and chip designs in general rather than the MU-MIMO. Logically, I'm thinking MU-MIMO in the router itself would not help since the client can't take advantage of it.

There was a good test on SNB showing newer 802.11ac routers (even without MU-MIMO) resulted in much better speeds even on older 802.1n client devices.

How do you like that router? The reviews have been pretty good.
 
OP wrote:
"I am looking for a new WiFi router right now and I am wondering if I should take a cheaper older model or a new one with MU-MIMO (basically it's Netgear R7000 vs. R7800)."

Before you buy a single, "standalone" router, take a few weeks and do some investigating into the new "mesh" router systems. They're especially nice for homes with a lot of square footage or "difficult-to-cover" spots.

These are clearly "the future" insofar as home networking goes.

There are numerous systems out there now, such as:
- Linsys Velop
- Netgear Orbi
- google wifi
- Ubiquiti "Amplifi"
- eero
... and others.

Read amazon reviews and Q&A's regarding the ones that interest you...
 
Weaselboy said:
I've seen some of the same thing on SmallNetBuilder reviews. You think it is just better wireless and chip designs in general rather than the MU-MIMO. Logically, I'm thinking MU-MIMO in the router itself would not help since the client can't take advantage of it.
Click to expand...

You are probably right.

Weaselboy said:
How do you like that router? The reviews have been pretty good.
Click to expand...

Well, its not really a router, its a small server with built-in router functionality. The thing is certainly a beast and rather polished. Extremely powerful systems like that are often impossible to setup and maintain, but Synology did very good job with their OS. What I really like is the seamless switches from 5Ghz to 2.4Ghz as you move around. I have a VPN server running on that thing, which allows me to log in to my home network from everywhere (and essentially gives me my own VPN for when I'm on the go).

Still, the complexity of the software is high enough so that issues happen. I had some problems with DHCP lease from my provider, the router would occasionally refuse the connection, forcing me to call the guys at the network center and asking them to reset my channel. But latest updates seem to have fixed it. Lets wait and see.

I also got a Synology Disk station and I'm less happy with that one... Weird mounting issues and now RAID1 volume has crashed after a software update — all the data is still there and readable, HDDs are checking out fine, but support says its not recoverable. Go figure. I thought that btrfs and RAID1 were supposed to prevent exactly this kind of thing.
 
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Weaselboy said:
I still have not seen anything about any upcoming client devices with MU-MIMO coming from Apple. Not even a rumor.
Click to expand...
I've read reviews and articles claiming that the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X, as well as the 2017 MacBook Pro support MU-MIMO. I can't claim any direct knowledge myself, and don't know for any certainty that it's true, but the info is out there, like this:

"Both the iPhones and the Galaxy devices use dual-band 802.11ac with MU-MIMO and Bluetooth 5 transceivers. It's a wash."
 
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