Wi is Fi: Understanding Wi-Fi 4/5/6/6E/7/8 (802.11 n/AC/ax/be/bn)
A deeply detailed reference guide cuts through router marketing to reveal that client device MIMO limits, channel width, and physical distance matter far more than Wi-Fi generation.
What Matters
- Virtually all routers of the same Wi-Fi generation deliver the same max PHY speed to a 2×2 MIMO client—the real differentiator is at-range performance.
- Wi-Fi 6 2×2 client on 80 MHz channel maxes out near 1,201 Mbps PHY / ~1,000 Mbps real throughput when adjacent to the AP.
- 160 MHz channels push real throughput to 1.5–1.95 Gbps; the demo used Intel AX210 client to TP-Link AX80 on channel 114.
- Upgrading generation alone barely moves PHY speed—at identical distance and channel width, Wi-Fi 6/7 is only ~19% faster than Wi-Fi 4 at the same MCS.
- Speed gains since 2002 come from wider channels, more MIMO streams, and higher QAM (4096-QAM in Wi-Fi 7), not symbol-rate increases.
- QAM coverage zones shrink exponentially with distance; 1024-QAM is active only ~0.7% of max free-space range vs. 16.7% for QPSK 1/2.
- [HN: @Neywiny] Wi-Fi generation naming inverts RF convention: EHT (Extremely High) precedes UHR (Ultra High), opposite of RF ordering.
