If you're a gamer, it seems like every new piece of tech on the PC market is trying to capture
your attention, from graphics cards with ever so slightly higher boost clocks to headset stands
tricked out with RGB lighting. Ugh, so cool. But one of the latest things you might want to actually
pay attention to is Wi-Fi 6, also known as 802.11ax, which our friends at Intel asked us to talk about
today. Now, we've already done a video explaining Wi-Fi 6 more generally, which you can check out
right up there, but today we're going to specifically talk about how it can benefit gamers who don't
want to be tethered down by an Ethernet connection, figuratively and literally. Speed is one of the
most obvious improvements of Wi-Fi 6 over previous generations of Wi-Fi. The theoretical max bandwidth
of a typical 2x2 connection is 2.4 gigabits per second, which is about three times as fast as
the previous generation. However, real-world speeds won't be that high. Somewhere around
1.5 gigabits per second might be more realistic, and of course you're going to be limited by
however fast your internet connection is anyway unless you're playing on a wireless LAN. But
the real benefit for gamers isn't just the extra speed to download large games, but also how Wi-Fi
6 handles having multiple devices on the same network at once, as well as improvements to
latency and responsiveness. It's like Wi-Fi took caffeine pills. You see, Wi-Fi 6 supports an updated
version of a feature called MooMemo. And no, it's not a Pokemon. Although it may not seem like it,
a router without MooMemo can only communicate with one device at a time, meaning all the other
devices on your network have to wait their turn. And while it isn't exactly a long wait, it can
still make a difference, especially if that device's parents didn't teach it to be patient.
MooMemo gets rid of this bottleneck by allowing your router to communicate with multiple devices
at once. And with Wi-Fi 6, up to eight devices on a network can take advantage of this capability,
up from the four devices supported by Wave 2 versions of Wi-Fi 5. And it's cousin, Wi-Fi 555.
And because Wi-Fi 6 will support upstream and downstream data transfer simultaneously on all
eight devices, laggy game behavior caused by your PC having to wait for a slice of upstream time
should be reduced. Especially if someone else on your network is engaged in some kind of
bandwidth-heavy activity, like uploading every video they've taken of their cat,
because there aren't enough cat videos on the internet. Karen!
Another helpful feature is called OFDMA. And although that's a mouthful, the way it works
is actually really cool and totally legal. Do you know how your Wi-Fi network lives on a single
channel? Well, what ODFMA does is instead of just using the whole channel to talk to just one device,
it divvies up the channel into smaller sub-channels so that data can be transferred to multiple
devices at one time. The way the channels are chopped up depends on the needs of each device.
So if you're gaming, pieces of data that need to be sent to or from your PC quickly to prevent
lagginess can be prioritized over another user whose workload isn't as latency-dependent
such as a large file download. So the bottom line for gamers is fewer dropped frames and more
reliable connections that will keep you from lagging out or getting fragged if you're not
playing over a wired connection. And with cloud-based gaming services like PlayStation Now and Google
Stadia on the rise, having a connection you can count on will become even more important
if you're planning to game without an expensive rig or console. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi 6 will likely
require you to buy new devices, both a router and a wireless adapter or motherboard that support the
new protocol. However, if you're tired of tripping over Ethernet cables when you have to run to the
bathroom while you queue for a match, the extra cost might just be worth it. Well, that's about
it. Thanks for watching guys, like the video, dislike the video, whatever floats your boat.
Check out our other videos and comment below with video suggestions if that's also what floats your
boat. More than one thing can float, someone's boat.