This issue has been plaguing me for at least a month now, sometimes the speeds over Wi-Fi will come to a complete crawl and become unusable.
One moment you will get speeds like this, which are within the expected range given.
Then you will get speeds like this, which are not normal.
It's very noticeable when this happens because videos will buffer, websites will freeze and load forever, downloads will stop etc. The slowness is very random, sometimes it will persist for several minutes, other times it will last for maybe a few seconds.
I can confirm this is not an issue with my ISP or equipment, because if I use a wired connection, my phone, PS5 Pro or laptop, the speeds continue to function fine given the functionality of each respective device.
The above behaviour has been observed on two systems using Intel BE200 / Killer BE1750x Wi-Fi 7 NICs
The first system is a custom built gaming PC with the following specs:
- Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF
- MSI MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI with the latest 7E32v1AA0 BIOS
- G.Skill 48GB Trident Z5 CK RGB DDR5-8200 (F5-8200C4052G24GX2-TZ5CRK)
- Intel ARC B580 Limited Edition
- SanDisk WD_BLACK SN850X 2TB
- be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W
The second system is a Dell OptiPlex Micro Plus 7020 with the following specs.
- Intel Core i5-14500 with built-in Intel UDH Graphics 770
- 32GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM RAM
- 512GB Samsung PM9C1a SSD
The custom built PC is using an Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7 BE1750 and the Dell OptiPlex is using a regular Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 NIC.
Both machines are using the latest available firmware and latest Intel and Killer drivers available at the time, from the Intel website. I am not using the older & outdated drivers from the MSI or Dell website, as these are months out of date (but more on this later).
The Wi-Fi 7 router I'm using is the NETGEAR Nighthawk RS700, their current Wi-Fi 7 flagship and it's running the latest 1.0.9.16 firmware.
After extensive testing, I believe I have narrowed down the issue, when the BE200 or BE1750x is operating in 802.11be mode, the slowness can occur, however when operating in 802.11ax mode, I haven't had the slowness occur.
Speeds when in 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) mode
Speeds when in 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) mode
I've been running the Dell OptiPlex in 802.11ax mode for a few days now and haven't had the slowness occur once.
I believe something in the newer Intel/Killer Wi-Fi drivers is causing this occasional slowness, as this doesn't impact other Wi-Fi 7 devices in the household, like my phone or the PS5 Pro.
I also have a Lenovo laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V and it comes with Intel BE201 Wi-Fi 7 NIC, though the drivers on this laptop are from February 2025, the latest Lenovo offer via their Lenovo Vantage app and I haven't bothered manually installing the newer Intel drivers. The laptop with the BE201 and older drivers hasn't experienced the reduced speeds once, though the OS version for all machines is the same (Windows 11 25H2 26200.7462)
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