Upgrading laptops with CNVio WiFi adapters (eg Intel AC 9560) to newer Intel WiFi 6 (AX200) WiFi 6e (AX210) WiFi 7 (BE200) cards

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 hours ago, Brian64 said:

I recently purchased the Asus F512JA Vivo 15 budget laptop, it comes with the Intel AC 9462 M.2 2230 CNVio-1 (E-key) wifi card, now my laptop specs include the gen.10 i3 processor running Windows 10 so it's kind of strange they added this mildly slow wifi card that has a max speed of 433Mbps. My internet plan is 1.2Gbps so I decided to upgrade the card, here are the results of the upgrade.

 

Intel AC 9560

 

This card was immediately recognized and I used the latest intel drivers for this card, testing reached peaks of 1.7Gbps and steady 1.2Gbps speeds with one problem, after hours of use the wifi card mysteriously disappears and no matter what I tried network reset, reboot, re-install drivers, delete driver in device manager could not bring this card back to life, only a removal of the card and a reboot then reinstall of the card would reactivate the 9560, very strange.  Also I tried shutting off all power saving settings under windows that shut off the wifi, didn't work.

 

   I am considering the intel 9260 wifi card but at this point I could use some advice on potential upgrades.  I realize its most likely the CNVio that is affecting my choices and that the intel processor is doing all the hard work while the card is nothing more than a transmitter.

 

What are my options, am I stuck in CNVio-1 hell?    Any help is appreciated

If its a real 10th gen it should be CNVIo 2 and so the AX201 should work but AFAIK both AMD and Intel do weird stuff with laptop CPUs where they will use older tech and call it newer gen.

Do you know specifically what CPU it is as we can look it up on Intels website to see if its CNVIo 1 or 2?

I'm actually still waiting on someone from the UK to show up wanting an AX201 so I can get rid of the one I have.

[Brian64]

1 hour ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

If its a real 10th gen it should be CNVIo 2 and so the AX201 should work but AFAIK both AMD and Intel do weird stuff with laptop CPUs where they will use older tech and call it newer gen.

Do you know specifically what CPU it is as we can look it up on Intels website to see if its CNVIo 1 or 2?

I'm actually still waiting on someone from the UK to show up wanting an AX201 so I can get rid of the one I have.

It is the Intel Core i3-1005G1

[Alex Atkin UK]

15 hours ago, Brian64 said:

It is the Intel Core i3-1005G1

Well this is annoying, Intel ARK doesn't mention CNVIo at all though it does seem to be a genuine 10th gen so logically it should be CNVIo 2.

 

I do see laptops with that CPU with the Intel AX201 WiFi adapter though so in theory at least it should work and be the best you can get for it unless it supports PCIe too.

It might, as we've seen on this thread, but honestly unless you specifically need WiFi 6e the AX201 should be fine.  WiFi 6 with 2x2 MIMO on a 160Mhz channel assuming there's not too much interference and you're in the same room as the router, can reach up to around 940Mbit.  Just don't expect it to do that all the time, I've seen mine drop to 500Mbit throughput on a bad day.

[Brian64]

2 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Well this is annoying, Intel ARK doesn't mention CNVIo at all though it does seem to be a genuine 10th gen so logically it should be CNVIo 2.

 

I do see laptops with that CPU with the Intel AX201 WiFi adapter though so in theory at least it should work and be the best you can get for it unless it supports PCIe too.

It might, as we've seen on this thread, but honestly unless you specifically need WiFi 6e the AX201 should be fine.  WiFi 6 with 2x2 MIMO on a 160Mhz channel assuming there's not too much interference and you're in the same room as the router, can reach up to around 940Mbit.  Just don't expect it to do that all the time, I've seen mine drop to 500Mbit throughput on a bad day.

The stock wifi card is a AC 9462 when I looked up the specs on that card it clearly shows it's a CNVio-1 wifi card.  I think I will try the ax210 and see what happens, I can always send it back to Amazon with my prime membership and if that don't work try the ax201 as the final and last hope to upgrade this budget model.

  Strange that the replacement I tried first, the AC 9560 intel wifi card was not stable and would suddenly disappear being a CNVio-1 card it basically met the specs of the OEM that came with my laptop, the speed was awesome 1.2 - 1.7Gbps.

 

PS..  Actually the ax211 might be a better alternative, check out this intel document on CNVio it shows the 201 & 211 as a CNVio alternative.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026155/wireless.html

 

But Wait.. This document shows the ax211 is a CNVio-2 card and from what I understand 1 & 2 and not interchangeable so the ax201 might be my only choice.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=204836,204837

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026155/wireless.html

[Brian64]

Intel really dropped the ball on CNVio 1 & 2 this forum post is telling me that if your hardware includes a intel gen. 10 processor it can use a CNVio-2 wifi card.. this is getting frustrating to say the least, so then my Asus F512JA laptop can be upgraded to a ax210, well I will try it and keep all those interested in the results updated as soon as I can test it.

 

https://community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/CNVio-VS-CNVio2-documentation/m-p/731493

[Alex Atkin UK]

9 hours ago, Brian64 said:

Intel really dropped the ball on CNVio 1 & 2 this forum post is telling me that if your hardware includes a intel gen. 10 processor it can use a CNVio-2 wifi card.. this is getting frustrating to say the least, so then my Asus F512JA laptop can be upgraded to a ax210, well I will try it and keep all those interested in the results updated as soon as I can test it.

 

https://community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/CNVio-VS-CNVio2-documentation/m-p/731493

Its more than you can't use a CNVIo 2 card in a CNVIo 1 slot, as the CPU doesn't have the hardware to support it.

Seeing as your laptop has 10th gen but came with a CNVIo 1 card, clearly it IS backwards compatible allowing CNVIo 1 in a CNVIo 2 socket.

For reference, CNVIo 1 is WiFi 5, CNVIo 2 is WiFi 6.  It kinda makes sense it would support 6e too as that is identical to 6 but with support for 6Ghz, which I would expect to be implemented on the card itself not the CPU - its all the WiFi protocol stuff that is in the CPU.

 

10 hours ago, Brian64 said:

Actually the ax211 might be a better alternative, check out this intel document on CNVio it shows the 201 & 211 as a CNVio alternative.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026155/wireless.html

 

But Wait.. This document shows the ax211 is a CNVio-2 card and from what I understand 1 & 2 and not interchangeable so the ax201 might be my only choice.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=204836,204837

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000026155/wireless.html

Yes the AX211 is the CNVIo 2 version of the AX210.  I didn't recommend it as I'm not sure how available it is, but if you want WiFi 6e support then sure.  The AX201 is also CNVIo 2, which is what caused this thread in the first place.

[Brian64]

On 4/7/2022 at 7:00 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

Its more than you can't use a CNVIo 2 card in a CNVIo 1 slot, as the CPU doesn't have the hardware to support it.

Seeing as your laptop has 10th gen but came with a CNVIo 1 card, clearly it IS backwards compatible allowing CNVIo 1 in a CNVIo 2 socket.

For reference, CNVIo 1 is WiFi 5, CNVIo 2 is WiFi 6.  It kinda makes sense it would support 6e too as that is identical to 6 but with support for 6Ghz, which I would expect to be implemented on the card itself not the CPU - its all the WiFi protocol stuff that is in the CPU.

 

Yes the AX211 is the CNVIo 2 version of the AX210.  I didn't recommend it as I'm not sure how available it is, but if you want WiFi 6e support then sure.  The AX201 is also CNVIo 2, which is what caused this thread in the first place.

AX211NGW on order should take 30 days from China, will let all interested know the outcome.

[Alex Atkin UK]

34 minutes ago, Brian64 said:

AX211NGW on order should take 30 days from China, will let all interested know the outcome.

Fingers crossed.

[Jarsky]

Question for the wifi card gurus.

 

I have a new i5 11th gen laptop, that i've added memory and upgraded the nvme on. But im still underwhelmed with the Wifi. It's currently using a Mediatek MT7921.

So being 11th gen I should be able to use an AX211 on it just fine?

I have noticed when looking at listings for them there are 2 different keyed cards pictured. My Mediatek is an A+E...But when looking at different AX211's some are E key, and some are A+E key...can I use either? 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, Jarsky said:

Question for the wifi card gurus.

 

I have a new i5 11th gen laptop, that i've added memory and upgraded the nvme on. But im still underwhelmed with the Wifi. It's currently using a Mediatek MT7921.

So being 11th gen I should be able to use an AX211 on it just fine?

I have noticed when looking at listings for them there are 2 different keyed cards pictured. My Mediatek is an A+E...But when looking at different AX211's some are E key, and some are A+E key...can I use either? 

 

Not necessarily, the socket will be CNVIo, PCIe or both.  As it has a Mediatek we know its at least PCIe so the AX210 would be safer.

However there is another consideration, the manufacturer, some lock down what cards you can use.  If its ASUS for example, the AX210 should work fine, Lenovo is hit and miss, HP AFAIK always lock theirs down.

[rom_arch1]

Installed "Killer WiFi 6E AX1675x (AX210)" in the MSI GE 75 Raider 8SG laptop (i7 8750 h). Previously, there was a Killer 1550i (AC9560) CNVi 1 card. It worked immediately and without problems. You can add the laptop brand directly to the list from the header. I think it will work with all varieties of the MSI GE75 eighth series.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

17 hours ago, rom_arch1 said:

Installed "Killer WiFi 6E AX1675x (AX210)" in the MSI GE 75 Raider 8SG laptop (i7 8750 h). Previously, there was a Killer 1550i (AC9560) CNVi 1 card. It worked immediately and without problems. You can add the laptop brand directly to the list from the header. I think it will work with all varieties of the MSI GE75 eighth series.

 

Added to the first post, thanks.

[Jarsky]

On 4/10/2022 at 7:15 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

Not necessarily, the socket will be CNVIo, PCIe or both.  As it has a Mediatek we know its at least PCIe so the AX210 would be safer.

However there is another consideration, the manufacturer, some lock down what cards you can use.  If its ASUS for example, the AX210 should work fine, Lenovo is hit and miss, HP AFAIK always lock theirs down.

 

I tried this out anyway, but yeah it doesnt work. 

ASUS Vivobook 15 K513 (11th Gen) isnt compatible with CNVIo (Windows can see it, install the driver, but error code 10).

I've emailed Asus to see if there is any plans on a BIOS update to unlock this.

So will go with an AX210 in the mean time. 

 

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

Just now, Jarsky said:

 

I tried this out anyway, but yeah it doesnt work. 

ASUS Vivobook 15 K513 (11th Gen) isnt compatible with CNVIo (Windows can see it, install the driver, but error code 10).

I've emailed Asus to see if there is any plans on a BIOS update to unlock this.

So will go with an AX210 in the mean time. 

 

 

If the AX210 works then there is no reason to replace it IMO, CNVIo just makes it cheaper for manufacturers by half the WiFi hardware being already in the CPU so the actual card costs less.  The AX211 and AX210 should be functionally identical.

Honestly I believe its just a con by Intel to tie manufacturers to their own WiFi cards by making it "slightly" cheaper.  Sensible manufacturers wont fall for it as having full PCIe means they have a bigger range of cards to choose from, some which no doubt are even cheaper still and they probably already have a huge stock bought in bulk that they can also use on AMD models.

[Nogib]

Fighting with this mess myself so here goes

 

So I have a simple Lenovo 10th gen Comet Lake laptop and needed 6E on it specifically for some 6GHz testing.  Running Win11 btw.
Came with 9560NGW.  Lenovo parts site for it shows the both that 9560 as well as the AX201.
Since it allegedly supports the AX201 I didn't see any reason why it wouldn't support the AX211 as the only difference between the two is 6 vs 6E.
Bought the AX211 and just installed it but neither wifi nor bluetooth parts of it will start (Code 10 on both)
In fact even had to manually point to the wifi driver as it wasn't being properly detected (hardware id shows as ven 8086 dev 02f0 subsys 00948086)

 

However the Lenovo parts site does also show the Realtek RTL8822CE which is just a PCIe (non CNVio) part which now has me wondering if the slot in the laptop does support both protocols meaning the AX210 might work instead?  Not sure where to go at the moment as I don't wanna throw a lot of money on a test platform.  Just frustrated as everything pointed to the AX211 should just work on this and I'm not sure if it is a random incompatibility I'm running into, a potential whitelist issue, or what.

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 6/14/2022 at 7:25 PM, Nogib said:

Fighting with this mess myself so here goes

 

So I have a simple Lenovo 10th gen Comet Lake laptop and needed 6E on it specifically for some 6GHz testing.  Running Win11 btw.
Came with 9560NGW.  Lenovo parts site for it shows the both that 9560 as well as the AX201.
Since it allegedly supports the AX201 I didn't see any reason why it wouldn't support the AX211 as the only difference between the two is 6 vs 6E.
Bought the AX211 and just installed it but neither wifi nor bluetooth parts of it will start (Code 10 on both)
In fact even had to manually point to the wifi driver as it wasn't being properly detected (hardware id shows as ven 8086 dev 02f0 subsys 00948086)

 

However the Lenovo parts site does also show the Realtek RTL8822CE which is just a PCIe (non CNVio) part which now has me wondering if the slot in the laptop does support both protocols meaning the AX210 might work instead?  Not sure where to go at the moment as I don't wanna throw a lot of money on a test platform.  Just frustrated as everything pointed to the AX211 should just work on this and I'm not sure if it is a random incompatibility I'm running into, a potential whitelist issue, or what.

Wikipedia has been updated with this little detail which would explain it:
 

Quote

CNVio2 was introduced on desktop platform with Comet Lake and on mobile platform with Ice Lake.

CNVio2 is not backward compatible with CNVio. A computer with a CNVio slot cannot accept a CNVio2 card and a CNVio2 slot will not support a CNVio card.

So basically if your PC comes with a CNVIo1 card you can be sure it ONLY supports CNVIo1, if it comes with CNVIo2 it only supports CNVIo2.  The only wildcard is if it supports PCIe or not.

[sedme]

I can confirm that the Dell Inspiron 7786 2-in-1 works with PCIe network cards. Not surprising, since the 7586 was already confirmed, but good to confirm this too. It came with an AC9560, but when mine broke, I replaced it with an AX210, and it works perfectly fine. Just a word of warning: Don't break the antenna connectors. Now I have to mess with replacing surface mount components, and I'm not looking forward to that.

[John Silver]

Greetings from Ukraine!

and thank you all for this thread with useful information.

 

I also want to share my experiences.

I have an ASUS VivoBook S15 S533EA laptop, it came with a CNVio1 AC-9462 module

i tried also upgrade to AX201(CNVio2) but the result was strange, 1733Mbps upload connection was normal and 56Mbps download was very low,

Manipulations with drivers, another access point... didn't work. I was surprised, because I could have expected the opposite.

 

Ok moving on, I still want an improvement :)

 

Installed AC-9560, it worked really great, I got the claimed speeds, 0 problems.

But even after that, I still couldn't sleep properly, so I buy the AX210 for testing

 

Hooray! it works, I also get the characteristics declared by the module, I don't notice any problems.

PCIe work fine on this notebook.

Thanks again everyone for this thread.

Peaceful sky.

[Alex Atkin UK]

8 hours ago, John Silver said:

I have an ASUS VivoBook S15 S533EA laptop, it came with a CNVio1 AC-9462 module

i tried also upgrade to AX201(CNVio2) but the result was strange, 1733Mbps upload connection was normal and 56Mbps download was very low,

That's really strange, you'd think the AX201 would perform as good or better than the AX210 as the only real difference is some of its functionality is in the CPU which you'd think would be more efficient.

 

This is doubly puzzling as my personal experience is its usually upload that falls short not download.  Definitely worth noting this odd behaviour, thanks for posting about it.

[SideChannel]

Not a ton of data points here on desktop boards, so wanted to add that the AX210 seems to work great in a Gigabyte B360N GSM (with M.2 slot advertised as CNVi 1 on the board; at the time, there was also a B360N WIFI variant sold with the 9560 preinstalled). Wifi and BT perform very well in both Win11 and Mint.

 

We have a negative result in this thread for the MSI B360i (same chipset), and in another here for the Gigabyte B360 HD3, so this was a pleasant surprise. I almost skipped directly to ordering a 9560 but figured this was worth a try first.

[Alex Atkin UK]

27 minutes ago, SideChannel said:

Not a ton of data points here on desktop boards, so wanted to add that the AX210 seems to work great in a Gigabyte B360N GSM (with M.2 slot advertised as CNVi 1 on the board; at the time, there was also a B360N WIFI variant sold with the 9560 preinstalled). Wifi and BT perform very well in both Win11 and Mint.

 

We have a negative result in this thread for the MSI B360i (same chipset), and in another here for the Gigabyte B360 HD3, so this was a pleasant surprise. I almost skipped directly to ordering a 9560 but figured this was worth a try first.

Yes, it annoys me how many motherboards are advertised as having CNVi slots with no mention if they also support PCIe.

 

Laptops is bad enough but historically been all over the place with how well they explain upgradeability, but motherboards its just plain stupid as they're all about adding your own components.

[stephen0814]

I have a MSI GS65-9SE laptop, it came with a killer 1550i (AC9560) preinstalled. Replaced the killer 1550i (AC9560) with the AX210 after it broke. AX210 seems to run fine from the get-go, bluetooth works as well. 

[SideChannel]

On 9/20/2022 at 11:11 PM, SideChannel said:

Not a ton of data points here on desktop boards, so wanted to add that the AX210 seems to work great in a Gigabyte B360N GSM (with M.2 slot advertised as CNVi 1 on the board; at the time, there was also a B360N WIFI variant sold with the 9560 preinstalled). Wifi and BT perform very well in both Win11 and Mint.

For completeness... also tried an AX411 on this same B360N GSM. System doesn't even power on if the card is in the slot. If I can trick it into booting with the card present (by keeping the case open and popping it in the slot right after powering up), still not recognized as anything Wifi or BT-related present in either Windows or Linux.

 

This is no surprise since CNVi 2 card + CNVi 1 slot = consistent no go in this thread, but I guess I just couldn't resist the curiosity after the unexpected PCIe success 

[usuarinho]

On 7/25/2019 at 12:12 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

MSI GS65-9SE

My laptop MSI GS65-9SE came with a Intel Killer 1550i (AC9560) preinstalled.

I bought Intel AX210NGW card (003 new version) and I confirm that WiFi and Bluetooth work perfectly on my MSI GS65 STEALTH 9SE (GS65-9SE) laptop.

I bought this WiFi card in AliExpress (https://es.aliexpress.com/item/4000144144831.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.217c39d3r0GvEY&gatewayAdapt=glo2eng)

[Rickyant]

Hello,
ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 UX580GE laptop comes with a pre-installed Intel AC9560.

I installed the Intel AX210NGW card and I confirm that WiFi and Bluetooth work perfectly, much higher performance: 623Mbps download and 105Mbps upload now, 299Mbps download and 101Mbps upload before.
You can add it to the list,
thanks for your help.