Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750x improves online gaming

Higher speeds, more bandwidth and lower latencies – gamers can take advantage of the latest technology thanks to Intel’s new Killer Wi-Fi modules. We show the advantages of the new Wi-Fi 7 standard for your gaming experience with the Killer BE1750x module in combination with a Wi-Fi 7 router.

Wi-Fi 7 is arriving and gamers can already take advantage of the latest technology with Intel’s new Killer Wi-Fi modules. In addition to higher transfer rates and more bandwidth, Wi-Fi 7 also improves the latency significantly, which is important for things like remote play. There is also a more stable connection when there are additional devices in the same network. This also helps during video streaming, for example, while other devices play games or download content.

Overview Wi-Fi 7

Wi-Fi 7 is a comprehensive advancement of Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E. It shares some basic aspects with the older standards like the frequencies (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz & 6 GHz), but there are improvements in pretty much every other regard. While the introduction of the 6 GHz frequency with the Wi-Fi 6E standard did not result in an increase of the maximum transfer rates, the theoretical speeds of Wi-Fi 7 jump up to 5.8 Gbps. Two aspects contribute to the improved speeds: The channel bandwidth was doubled from 160 to 320 MHz and the data density increased from 1024 to 4096 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation), so every transferred symbol now consist of 12 instead of 10 bits.

Multi link operation (MLO) is another big advantage of the new Wi-Fi 7 standard. So far, devices could only connect to the router with via a single frequency, so t was either 2,4, 5, or 6 GHz. Thanks to Wi-Fi 7, there can be two connections simultaneously. If you move around in the house, for example, the frequency can be changed without interrupting the connection.

Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750x & Asus GT-BE98

For our testing, we used the laptop MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V, which is equipped with the Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750x (BE200NGW) module as well as the corresponding Killer Intelligence Center software. The Wi-Fi 7 router was the Asus Rapture GT-BE98, which is currently retailing for around 620 Euros online.

MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V

Asus Rupture GT-BE98

Our standardized Wi-Fi test we always use for our reviews shows a performance increase to 2.9-3.0 Gbps for receiving data and even ~3.9 Gbps for sending data. Compared to Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E with maximum transfer rates of 1.8-1.9 Gbps, this is a massive improvement.

Killer Intelligence Center

Intel’s new Killer Wi-Fi module comes with the Killer Intelligence Center software. In addition to an overview of all the available networks, the software gives recommendations to optimize the network settings or recommends faster networks that are available. There are also two presets Multimedia/Creative, which include a different priority order for apps. We want to take a closer look at some of the functions.

Killer Priorization Engine

As the name Killer Priorization Engine already suggests, this tool allows the priorization of certain apps. Online gaming has the highest priority by default to ensure smooth and stutter-free gaming when other apps like streaming or downloads run in the background. The order of the priority list can be configured freely and you can also set bandwidth limitations for each app individually.

Steam Remote Play, where a game is streamed from a host PC to another device in the same network, is a good example for the Priorization Engine. We chose the title Grand Theft Auto V and simultaneously executed multiple parallel downloads to stress our internet connection. As you can clearly see on the following two screenshots with the Steam latency tracker turned on, the streaming latency stays very consistent around 30 ms with the activated Priorization Engine despite downloads. As soon as we deactivate the Priorization Enginge, however, there are very high latency spikes (80-160 ms) on a regular basis and the gaming experience is noticeably worse.

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