WiFi speed on MacBook Pro 2018

[gigatoaster]

Hello there

Could anyone tell me what is the maximum WiFi speed they get on the MacBook Pro 2018 and which with MacOS?

 

[Tusskan]

650Mbps on router that broadcasts 2Gbps

 

[keysofanxiety]

On my housemate’s 2017 (which I think has the same card) he was getting about 550 wirelessly over Steam download, though faster over Speedtest IIRC.

It was on High Sierra at the time the photo was taken. 1.3Gbps router.

 

[gigatoaster]

Ah thanks.

I get much less, only 400 Mbps, while with Optic Fiber at 1 Gbps:

 

[mmomega]

Hello there

Could anyone tell me what is the maximum WiFi speed they get on the MacBook Pro 2018 and which with MacOS?

At home my speed is 400/20 and my MacBook gets 460/23 from the next room from the closets wifi access point. Probably 20-25' away through a wall.

At the office my speed is 500/500 and my MacBook gets between 490-520 and 490-520 and this is about 40-45' away from the closest wifi access point with a wall and some metal shelving in between.

Running on Mojave.

 

[stylinexpat]

Ah thanks.

I get much less, only 400 Mbps, while with Optic Fiber at 1 Gbps:

Superman speeds compared to those over at the Thinkpad X1 forums with Wi-Fi issues

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...1-Carbon-6th-Gen-slow-wifi/m-p/4349785#M96525

 

[Howard2k]

The 2018 has up to 1.3Gb/s wifi (802.11ac 3x3). My 2015 has the same. Just running a quick test I can see 727Mb/s (91MB/s) of real throughput with a 1.3Gb/s connection rate. It will drop off significantly though based on distance, other devices etc.

 

[leman]

Enough to fully saturate a a gigabit internet connection, assuming your router is up to the task. The MBP has a 3x3 WiFi module, where virtually every other laptop on the market uses a 2x2 config.

 

[Howard2k]

Enough to fully saturate a a gigabit internet connection, assuming your router is up to the task. The MBP has a 3x3 WiFi module, where virtually every other laptop on the market uses a 2x2 config.

Except the nTB 13” Pro. That’s 2x2 too. Along with the Air.

 

[roland.g]

Just bought an Eero Pro WiFi AC triband mesh system. Have a 2018 MBP. Was considering a Linksys or Orbi WiFi 6 AX system.

question is while my MBP, iPhone, and other connected devices like Apple TV’s will not be able to fully take advantage of WiFi 6 tech, will my network be faster with multiple devices using it simultaneously on a WiFi 6 system, given that it allows Multiple Streams or am I better off staying with the Eero WiFi 5 system. Currently I have an AirPort Extreme (aging tech) trying to push a 1 Gig Fiber connection and that is my bottleneck.

 

[satinsilverem2]

Every MacBook Pro since the 2011 models except the ntb has 3x3 wifi with either 450 on wifi 4 or 1300 on wifi 5 max speeds. That being said wifi is half duplex so you are only going to get around half of what it can theoretically can do.

 

[Howard2k]

Just bought an Eero Pro WiFi AC triband mesh system. Have a 2018 MBP. Was considering a Linksys or Orbi WiFi 6 AX system.

question is while my MBP, iPhone, and other connected devices like Apple TV’s will not be able to fully take advantage of WiFi 6 tech, will my network be faster with multiple devices using it simultaneously on a WiFi 6 system, given that it allows Multiple Streams or am I better off staying with the Eero WiFi 5 system. Currently I have an AirPort Extreme (aging tech) trying to push a 1 Gig Fiber connection and that is my bottleneck.

It may make a minor difference as you introduce wifi 6 devices. Otherwise no. New wifi 6 devices added to your network that are doing chatty but low bandwidth stuff will be able to talk simultaneously, which they can't really do now, thereby freeing up "air" even for 802.11ac clients doing heavy transfers. Additionally, those new clients will probably (depending on the specifics of any deployment) be able to do larger transfers faster too.

So yes, but you may not notice. But technically it should. Probably not worth upgrading for though unless you are upgrading your heavy bandwidth devices soon too.

You also need to consider the specifics of the deployment. 1x1 Wifi 6 will be slower than 3x3 Wifi 5. Again, there are assumptions I'm making about the router and channel space, but you can't assume wifi 6 is faster. It depends.

Every MacBook Pro since the 2011 models except the ntb has 3x3 wifi with either 450 on wifi 4 or 1300 on wifi 5 max speeds. That being said wifi is half duplex so you are only going to get around half of what it can theoretically can do.

The new 1.4Ghz is 2x2 too.

And half bandwidth as throughput assumes two devices. . Often times this problem is compounded with multiple wireless devices chatting amongst themselves, so even half the bandwidth available as throughput is a win. It may often be less. This can be somewhat mitigated by selective channel and frequency allocation of devices, and this practice is likely to provide better results than throwing money at a wifi 6 router in many circumstances I would think.

 

[Jtte]

Hello there

Could anyone tell me what is the maximum WiFi speed they get on the MacBook Pro 2018 and which with MacOS?

I have two clients with 15” 2018 MBPs running macOS Catalina. Both laptops only get 125 Mbps down with wifi even though other MacBook Airs and non-2018 MBPs in the exact same location get about 400 Mbps down.

I tested the heck out of it and deleted and re-added the wifi settibgs, etc, etc. etc.

One client has tip top of the line wifi — Ruckus AC with a Zone Controller (each AP is about $1,200 and hard wired and a $800 Zone Controller manages them). I examined the connections in depth on both the zone controller and by option-clicking the Macs’ wifi icon (confirmed 5GHz and connection to closest AP).

After seeing the tests with other Mac laptops getting much faster download speeds at the same location, one client replaced the 2018 MBP with the latest available MBP around Jan 2020. Its wifi gets the max possible (about 400 Mbps).

The other client has a new Amplifi HD Mesh system and even when right next to cube router, his 15” 2018 MBP only gets about 125 Mbps. He uses an Ethernet adapter to get 900 Mbps up/down.

There seems to be something wrong with wifi in some or all 15” MBP 2018 models. Older and new models in the exact same spot running the exact same macOS version get about 400 Mbps while 2018 15” MBP get about 125 Mbps.

This might not be apparent to most users of 15” 2018 MBP models who have internet service slower than 125 Mbps or who don’t notice performance problems with ~125 Mbps down, since that’s good enough for most services. But with more and more video conferencing and increasingly common internet connections faster than 125 Mbps, some users like mine have noticed.

 

[jokerz126]

I have two clients with 15” 2018 MBPs running macOS Catalina. Both laptops only get 125 Mbps down with wifi even though other MacBook Airs and non-2018 MBPs in the exact same location get about 400 Mbps down.

I tested the heck out of it and deleted and re-added the wifi settibgs, etc, etc. etc.

One client has tip top of the line wifi — Ruckus AC with a Zone Controller (each AP is about $1,200 and hard wired and a $800 Zone Controller manages them). I examined the connections in depth on both the zone controller and by option-clicking the Macs’ wifi icon (confirmed 5GHz and connection to closest AP).

After seeing the tests with other Mac laptops getting much faster download speeds at the same location, one client replaced the 2018 MBP with the latest available MBP around Jan 2020. Its wifi gets the max possible (about 400 Mbps).

The other client has a new Amplifi HD Mesh system and even when right next to cube router, his 15” 2018 MBP only gets about 125 Mbps. He uses an Ethernet adapter to get 900 Mbps up/down.

There seems to be something wrong with wifi in some or all 15” MBP 2018 models. Older and new models in the exact same spot running the exact same macOS version get about 400 Mbps while 2018 15” MBP get about 125 Mbps.

This might not be apparent to most users of 15” 2018 MBP models who have internet service slower than 125 Mbps or who don’t notice performance problems with ~125 Mbps down, since that’s good enough for most services. But with more and more video conferencing and increasingly common internet connections faster than 125 Mbps, some users like mine have noticed.

Hi! Did you ever come up with a solution to this? I have found the same thing...i definitely feel there is a hardware wifi issue...constant dropping...I’ve tried everything from clean install OS to all the wifi network removal tricks etc....very frustrating...