is usb wifi adapter good for gaming

[storm05]

building a new pc a wondering if a usb wifi adapter is as good as an intel network card for playing online multiplayer games like call of duty warzone 2.0 and csgo?

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, storm05 said:

building a new pc a wondering if a usb wifi adapter is as good as an intel network card for playing online multiplayer games like call of duty warzone 2.0 and csgo?

My stance is USB WiFi adapters are crap and should not be used unless its the only option. 

[PopsicleHustler]

Absolutely not. I've heard about USB cards being trash, and still managed to experience it myself. 

 

Moved into my new house, I used USB stick for my wifi before I got ethernet cables setup around the rooms. This was borderline useless. Signal was perfect on my phone, yet the stick was barely catching it. As the result ping was atrocious. So if you're looking to play competitive games over wifi, get a decent PCI-E card

[avidgamer121]

17 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

My stance is USB WiFi adapters are crap and should not be used unless its the only option. 

yeah i agree i got one couple of months ago which was really slow like not even half speed of my 100mbps connection even thought it was usb 3 and dual band

[mononymous]

If your motherboard doesn't support an internal WiFi card. I would at least go for a PCIe Wifi Card like this.

The difference between the two below is whether you can relocate your antenna so that it can have better reception.

Also price difference between a Wifi 5/6 and a 6E is negligible. 

Although the USB adapter is cheaper, you can't upgrade it to faster standards in the future. 

 

Although I do use a USB WiFi adapter, I only use it for troubleshooting. For example when I have issues with my router or internet connection and I want to check where the problem lies. I would rather use USB tethering to my mobile device than use the WiFi dongle. Since it is a stable 30~40ms of additional latency.  

 

Fenvi AX210 Wifi 6E PCIe card, $36.99, Amazon US

 

Fenvi AX210 WiFi 6E PCIe card, $44.99 Amazon US

[mononymous]

43 minutes ago, Caroline said:

You don't want the words wifi and gaming together in a sentence.

Depends what kind of games and how "competitive" they are. If trucking a cable along the wall / drilling the wall is not an option for OP, there is always powerline / MOCA.

 

In my parents' house, I use a powerline connection from TP-link with a 1Gbps connection. When I was studying overseas, because the wifi was flakey I asked the landlord and installed my own powerline connection. 

 

TQ: How does Powerline Ethernet Work?

 

LTT: MOCA setup

 

[Chiyawa]

Short answer: No, with an asterisk.

Long answer: Wi-Fi is a complicated matter. Done right and you should have no issue, saving you the hassle of dragging the Ethernet cable from your switch or router to your PC and you can just connect from anywhere. But, to achieve this is far more difficult. Also, that doesn't include if there's problem between your device, as sometimes, your PC might refuse to connect.

 

Wi-Fi is pretty much way convenient if your signal is good, but ideally you should not have any obstruction between your wireless access point and your antenna. If your PC is located in your bedroom and your switch is at your living room, You might get a good coverage, but if there are too many interference of the signal such as signal reflected by wall, you'll have a hard time troubleshooting your Wi-Fi because there can be errors communicating (checksum error, data drop).

 

However, we all can't judge because we don't know your environment. So unfortunately, you have to check and see if your connection is stable enough. And even if it is stable, whether your ping is good or bad will be another factor. For my case:

 

I use my mobile phone hotspot, so my PC is connected to it using Wi-Fi. My phone is very close to my PC, so the Wi-Fi signal I get is very good. I play Genshin Impact, and since I'm in Malaysia, I play using Asia Server. My ping is about 174ms average. My house is landed property and usually there are not many devices in my area (including my neighbour) using Wi-Fi, so there are virtually no signal congestion or Wi-Fi devices fighting for bandwidths. But, when I visit at my sister's house in her condominium, I always get signal drop even my PC is just a few feet from her wireless access point. When I check, there are about 60 Wi-Fi enabled devices in range and about 14 SSID detected. So, there are a lot of interference and my connection is not stable, even using Wi-Fi AC or Wi-Fi AX, same result happens.

[ewitte]

21 hours ago, storm05 said:

building a new pc a wondering if a usb wifi adapter is as good as an intel network card for playing online multiplayer games like call of duty warzone 2.0 and csgo?

Anything wireless no matter how good is going to have more latency than wired with the potential for interference.

[Alex Atkin UK]

On 1/30/2023 at 12:41 AM, mononymous said:

If your motherboard doesn't support an internal WiFi card. I would at least go for a PCIe Wifi Card like this.

The difference between the two below is whether you can relocate your antenna so that it can have better reception.

Also price difference between a Wifi 5/6 and a 6E is negligible. 

Although the USB adapter is cheaper, you can't upgrade it to faster standards in the future. 

 

Although I do use a USB WiFi adapter, I only use it for troubleshooting. For example when I have issues with my router or internet connection and I want to check where the problem lies. I would rather use USB tethering to my mobile device than use the WiFi dongle. Since it is a stable 30~40ms of additional latency.  

 

Fenvi AX210 Wifi 6E PCIe card, $36.99, Amazon US

 

Fenvi AX210 WiFi 6E PCIe card, $44.99 Amazon US

Ideally the second one for best reception.

[storm05]

https://www.proshop.no/Nettverksadapter/Intel-Wi-Fi-6-Gig-Desktop-Kit/2862053?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=searchengine&gclid=CjwKCAiAuOieBhAIEiwAgjCvcjU3DX4_6lbWEBOrxa1TuCBL4iKZoMMnTdRV7_I-8-77syTBCkCDFRoCv6gQAvD_BwE

 

does this work good to since i dont have en extra pci-e slot for anothe rcard 

[mononymous]

2 hours ago, storm05 said:

https://www.proshop.no/Nettverksadapter/Intel-Wi-Fi-6-Gig-Desktop-Kit/2862053?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=searchengine&gclid=CjwKCAiAuOieBhAIEiwAgjCvcjU3DX4_6lbWEBOrxa1TuCBL4iKZoMMnTdRV7_I-8-77syTBCkCDFRoCv6gQAvD_BwE

 

does this work good to since i dont have en extra pci-e slot for anothe rcard 

What's your motherboard? Does it have a m.2 wifi slot? Double check your motherboard compatibility whether it supports the card (ax200).

[Vishera]

I am using an ASUS PCE-AC88 which is a beast, no complaints here i am very happy with it.

[storm05]

2 hours ago, mononymous said:

What's your motherboard? Does it have a m.2 wifi slot? Double check your motherboard compatibility whether it supports the card (ax200).

 

[mononymous]

@storm05

That's one funky looking motherboard

 

20: NGFFE1 (M.2 2230) E-Key WLAN Slot

That's the slot for the WiFi card

Option:
ASUS M.2 CNVI WIFI CARD/INTEL AX201, 566 Kr, Proshop.nl

Rationale

Spoiler

From other similar motherboards like

https://www.ricardo.ch/fr/a/acer-nitro-barebone-1190566516/

 

 

I assume what you have is an Acer Nitro N50 from the 2019 model year. 

Having some trouble finding a compatibility page for that desktop

but I'm 80+% sure that what you need is an AX2x1 type card.

So you can choose AX201 (WiFi 6) or AX211 (WiFi 6E).

 

The one you found is a good deal considering the local market prices. 

One suggestion is use the antenna and bracket from the kit, buy a AX 2x1 card, 

and sell the card that came with the kit.