I just built a new gaming PC and the Wi-Fi speed on it is awful. The Wi-Fi icon shows strong signal, so I assumed signal wasn’t the issue. I already updated Windows, installed the motherboard Wi-Fi driver, rebooted the router, reset network settings, flushed DNS, and checked Task Manager. Nothing obvious is using bandwidth.
Could this be a bad Wi-Fi card, or is there something obvious I’m missing?
First dumb question: are the external antennas actually screwed in? Not being sarcastic. A lot of motherboard Wi-Fi works horribly without the antennas, even if Windows still shows “connected”. Also don’t leave the antenna puck behind the PC case under the desk. That metal box can absolutely hurt the signal. Put the antennas up on the desk, away from the back of the case, and test again.
Since this is Wi-Fi and not Ethernet, I’d check the actual radio situation before blaming the motherboard.
Run NetSpot and check the band, SNR/SIR, channel congestion, and signal quality — not just the Wi‑Fi bars.
Also check Device Manager.
Network adapters → your Wi-Fi adapter → Properties → Advanced.
Look for things like preferred band, roaming aggressiveness, power saving mode, channel width, and 802.11 mode. I’d set preferred band to 5 GHz or 6 GHz if your router supports it.
And install the Wi-Fi driver from the motherboard vendor or the actual Wi-Fi chip vendor. Windows Update drivers are sometimes “good enough to connect” but not good enough for performance.
I checked, and the channel I was using was indeed quite congested. I switched my computer to 6 GHz, and so far, things are noticeably better.
I’ll still have to use Ethernet eventually, but at least now I know the motherboard isn’t broken.