Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750x improves online gaming

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Killer Engine utilizes one of the previously mentioned advantages of Wi-Fi 7, because it can establish to connections at the same time. Online gaming is a great example for this, because in addition to a stable connection, you also need a low latency for a good gaming experience. If you are playing a game and someone else starts to use the same same network or there is more load on the network, the latency can suffer as a result. The Killer Engine recognizes this (despite the same signal strength) and automatically switches to another frequency to ensure a low latency. Your gaming connection is not interrupted. The functionality is shown very well in the following demonstration video:

The feature Killer Doubleshot 2.0 can increase the performance of the network connection by using all network adapters simultaneously. This is particularly interesting for a gaming laptop, where there is usually a wired network connection in addition to a wireless module. In the case of the MSI Stealth, the Wi-Fi 7 connection can be combined with the Ethernet adapter (2.5 Gbps). High-priority applications are automatically allocated to the best available connection.

The new Wi-Fi 7 technology offers many advantages for users and it is a massive improvement over Wi-Fi 6E. If you have a corresponding Wi-Fi 7 router, the transfer rates can pretty much be doubled compared to Wi-Fi 6 and the possibility to use two connections simultaneously can improve your online experience significantly.

Higher transfer rates, lower latency and more stability – the combination of Wi-Fi 7 and the Intel Killer Engine provides an excellent gaming experience as well as more comfort in everyday situations.

The new Killer Wi-Fi 7 modules from Intel utilize the advantages of the new Wi-Fi technology very well and give users the opportunity to customize their online experience based on personal preferences. Killer’s Intelligence Center software provides a user-friendly software that gives recommendations based on your current network environment. All features are quickly accessible and once you activate a feature, the software automatically takes care of the priorization and the selection of the best available network. When you play online games, you do not have to worry anymore about other family members joining the network, but you can simply enjoy on the gaming experience instead.