least power comsumpation wifi cards?

[thinkpadcollection]

Had utility monitoring wattage draw from battery, intel 6205 wifi is taking so much power, nearly doubled of what would be on least power use. Does there is another card intel 6300 that is least power usage? HMM shows 4 choices of regular wifi cards but there are 2 more but this is for WAN. If that WAN can be used as wifi only will give least power then that's great.

Please help?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[ajkula66]

HMM shows 4 choices of regular wifi cards but there are 2 more but this is for WAN. If that WAN can be used as wifi only will give least power then that's great.

Please help?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

WWAN is for cellular use only. You can't do wi-fi over it.

If you install a modded BIOS you'll open up the possibility of using non-approved wireless cards.

I'll refrain from suggesting a card since low power consumption was never a priority for me.

Good luck.

[Hans Gruber]

I won't refrain from giving advice. I have both the 6200 and 6300 Intel wifi cards. I really like the intel 6200 card. It lacks MIMO which the 6300 which does absolutely nothing in my opinion. It's a very cheap upgrade. Usually between $5-8. My advice is always based on $ cost averaging.

[ajkula66]

I really like the intel 6200 card.

Right, but the OP already has Intel 6205...so going to 6200 wouldn't be an upgrade. Regardless of cost.

[Hans Gruber]

I really like the intel 6200 card.

Right, but the OP already has Intel 6205...so going to 6200 wouldn't be an upgrade. Regardless of cost.

George, there is not a big difference between a 6200 and a 6205. Wifi hasn't really changed much spare for the new 802.11AC which is still in it's infancy. I don't really see a difference in wifi cards so long as they have dual band 2.4ghz and 5ghz which all do going back to the T500 and in some cases the T61.

[ajkula66]

George, there is not a big difference between a 6200 and a 6205.

My point exactly. I hate them both. With a passion.

Wifi hasn't really changed much spare for the new 802.11AC which is still in it's infancy.

Yes. And the diapers - at least the ones coming from Intel - smell nasty.

I don't really see a difference in wifi cards so long as they have dual band 2.4ghz and 5ghz which all do going back to the T500 and in some cases the T61.

I do. But to each their own.

[600X]

Intel 7265 should use almost no power. However, it is the crappiest WiFi card that I have ever owned and I would never recommend to spend any kind of currency on it. In fact, I wouldn't even take it if I got paid for it. It is however useful for slowing down your work progress and accelerating the process of getting grey hair.

[jayton4]

What utility is measuring this for you? I swapped the 6300 card into a few T series, and can test it out to see what it is drawing.

[hhhd1]

Most wireless cards do not use that much power, their size is so small without a heatsink, if they would use any significant power, they will produce too much heat,

I have seen USB flash memory becomes too hot too touch, even though they only have 2.5watts of power available to them, wifi cards must be using way way less than that.

Regarding stability AND performance, both Broadcom (non-budget) and Atheros lines are miles ahead of intel wireless hardware.

Some broadcom budget cards are as bad as intel.

[ajkula66]

Regarding stability AND performance, both Broadcom (non-budget) and Atheros lines are miles ahead of intel wireless hardware.

Yep.

If I were keeping the T420i that I'm typing on now, it would've eaten a modded BIOS and an Atheros card - possibly of the Killer variety - by now.

[thinkpadcollection]

Most wireless cards do not use that much power, their size is so small without a heatsink, if they would use any significant power, they will produce too much heat,

I have seen USB flash memory becomes too hot too touch, even though they only have 2.5watts of power available to them, wifi cards must be using way way less than that.

Regarding stability AND performance, both Broadcom (non-budget) and Atheros lines are miles ahead of intel wireless hardware.

Some broadcom budget cards are as bad as intel.

Do tell, on both high end broadcom and high end atheros to choose from, (2x2 and 3x3 types)?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[Hans Gruber]

wifi cards barely use any power. I think bluetooth uses more power. Perhaps he turned the gain up on his wifi which caused an increase in power draw. I usually reset the computer and pull the battery to test that it's not a bad boot. Hard resets usually fix all temporary problems.

[hhhd1]

Do tell, on both high end broadcom and high end atheros to choose from, (2x2 and 3x3 types)?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

I am not sure of any 3x3 cards, but the 2x2 broadcom imo is better than intel 6300, it have no DPC latency like intel's card

Broadcom BCM43228 BCM943228HMB (with bluetooth 4.0)
I get stable close to ~200mbps (22+ MB/s) With router Linksys E3000



For atheros, not tested myself, but it is very good:

KillerN-1202

Haven't tryed any AC hardware, but if I were to try i would try a broadcom or atheros cards.

[thinkpadcollection]

Using batteryinfoview. I was not aware that microsoft was checking for updates and that created huge power hog that runtime plumment from nice 3-5 hours to less than 2 hours. That usually on wireless or wired.

Is there a way to spin down hard drive while windows is alive while using it in some way?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[TonyJZX]

My two favorite cards are the Intel 5300/6300 3x3.

Good drivers, speeds from 270-450 on true 2x2 to 3x3 routers.

Wouldnt buy anything else. Would love to replace with a 3x3 11ac card but they dont exist for laptops.