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I recently purchased an M2 MacBook Pro and the first thing I noticed was that my WI-FI transfer rate consistently alternates between 1200 Mbps and 286 Mbps. This happens every 30 - 90 seconds. No other transfer rates are reported. It's always 1200 or 286.

I also have a 2019 Intel MBP and a 2017 Intel iMac on the network and neither exhibit this behavior. Their speeds fluctuate, but the difference is minimal (usually from 1170 Mbps to 1300 Mbps).

My router is an Orbi RBR850 Wi-Fi 6 with 2 satellites. Nothing has changed in the router's settings. I know the M2 has a slower max wifi speed (1200 Mbps for the M2 and 1300 Mbps for the 2019 Intel) but otherwise, I'm not sure what's causing the fluctuation in speed. The satellite the Macs are connected to is within 6 feet of the desk.

How would I begin to troubleshoot this and when looking in the Mac's log, what type of entries should I filter on?

I'm also noticing the M2 is reporting noise around 25%. The Intel Macs, which share the same desk, report 7% noise.

Apple Wireless Diagnostics does not report any problems, nor does the Apple Hardware Test find an issue at boot up.

Reported Tx Rates

Giacomo1968
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Anthony
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    You shouldn’t depend on “built it” tools like that one OpenWRT. Use something like iperf3 to give you accurate measurements – Allan May 14 '23 at 01:39
  • Thanks, but I'm confident that I'm not having any issues with my network. I've got 2 Gbps service and never experience connectivity issues. I'm curious why the M2's built-in utilities are reporting the differences while the Intel macs are not and whether or not the M2 is logging anything when reporting the changes. Can you offer any insight or suggestions as to why the numbers are being reported this way? – Anthony May 14 '23 at 04:14
  • Is this happening in other devices connected to the same WiFi network? – Thinkr May 14 '23 at 07:55
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    Each tool has a way to calculate a metric. It could be a spot measurement or an average over a period of time. I recommend iperf3 because you’ll get a set number of spot measurements of both send and receive of a known file size and the averages of both over a known time period. From there we can see what’s actually happening with your data x-fer rate. Plus we start internally then move externally to rule out latency with ISPs along the way. – Allan May 14 '23 at 13:08
  • @Thinkr No, only the M2 reports the fluctuations. – Anthony May 14 '23 at 17:28
  • So the problem comes from the Mac – Thinkr May 14 '23 at 17:28
  • @Allan I'm installing iperf3 and will run some tests... – Anthony May 14 '23 at 17:29
  • Remember to install it on two computers; two laptops ideally. This way you test with one wired to the router and across “satellites”. You’ll get a much clearer picture of network speeds across your network. – Allan May 14 '23 at 17:33
  • Well, nothing out of the ordinary using iperf3. I've got the M2 acting as the server and I'm using a Mac Mini that is downstairs and connected to the router via ethernet as the client. I'm getting consistent speeds in the 650 - 850 Mbits range. Similar speeds occur when I switch them. I understand Tx rate to be the theoretical speed which the router can send so for some reason, the M2 or the router is misreporting. It doesn't seem to affect network throughput. – Anthony May 14 '23 at 18:40
  • Ok. So what you’re seeing is consistency between nodes when you remove the router from the equation. There could be latency issues your router is dealing with, DNS issues, any number of things. Iperf3 is available as a package on OpenWRT so you’d want to test there as well as iperf’s public servers – Allan May 14 '23 at 21:12
  • I have exactly the same issue, different router. 1200 -> 286 nothing else, M1 14" Silicon. Irritating. – chiggsy May 15 '23 at 07:11

1 Answers1

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I believe this is an artifact of power saving an idle connection. I've seen this behavior too, but if I actively use the connection, such as using iPerf3, or OpenSpeedTest, the rates go back up and stay up throughout the test.

Giacomo1968
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Mr. Man
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