homepage/posts/2026/10/15/qcncm865-mt7927-comparison/index.org

#+OPTIONS: html-postamble:nil
#+title: QCNCM865 vs MT7927 Comparison
#+date: <2026-10-15 Thu>
#+author: Tom Alexander
#+email:
#+language: en
#+select_tags: export
#+exclude_tags: noexport

For most of the Framework AMD 7040's life, the only choice for a full-featured Wifi-7 card on Linux was the Qualcomm QCNCM865. The [[https://frame.work/products/amd-rz717-wi-fi-7][Mediatek 7925 in the RZ717]] lacks support for 320MHz channel width, and the Intel BE200 was not an option since that card prevented AMD machines from booting.

With the release of Linux 7.2, we finally have a second choice for full-featured Wifi-7 cards: the MT7927.

I purchased both cards and tested them in my Framework 13 AMD 7040 laptop to see how they compare. This isn't a scientific test; I live in an apartment in a dense city without a faraday cage, so I am unable to control all variables. Regardless, I did my best to make the tests fair and I hope this data helps others in picking their wifi cards.

* AI Disclaimer

# TODO: Add support to natter for a specific AI disclaimer tag that could be rendered below the article title
# TODO: Add support for "page:" links similar to "post:" links in natter.
This article is at AI level: None. [[https://fizz.buzz/post_ai_levels][Click here to see what this means and why this matters]].

* Conclusion

# TODO: Write comparison.

* Comparison

** Speed

For this test, I ran an =iperf3= server on my router to measure the speed between my laptop and my router. The speed did not go out to the public internet and is not impacted by my home ISP. I ran 4 tests.

*** Upload from laptop to router over tcp
[[./files/graphs/tcp_upload.svg]]
*** Download from router to laptop over tcp
[[./files/graphs/tcp_download.svg]]
*** Upload from laptop to router over udp
[[./files/graphs/udp_upload.svg]]
*** Download from router to laptop over udp
[[./files/graphs/udp_download.svg]]

** Latency

For this test, I ran =ping= to my router for 10 minutes to measure the latency.

While both cards spent most of their time below 10ms, the QCNCM865 had some pings that went higher to 30ms and even over 100ms.

[[./files/graphs/latency.svg]]

I also averaged their latency across the entire test, which shows the MT7927 as the clear winner. That being said, it is important to note we're only talking about a difference of ~4ms which should be imperceptible to humans.

[[./files/graphs/average_latency.svg]]

** Power Consumption

For the power consumption tests, all readings are the *full* power usage of my laptop. The readings do not reflect the power consumption of the wifi card alone. There are many variables that go into a full system's power consumption (for example, which SSD and RAM you have installed and the brightness of your screen), so you shouldn't consider the absolute values here. Instead, you should look at the differences in power consumption between the two cards.

*** Idle
For this test, I let the laptop sit idle for 10 minutes and I measured the battery level before and after the test to calculate the power consumption.
*** Sleep(ish)
The Framework 13 AMD 7040 laptop only supports s2idle (colloquially called "modern standby") which some critics argue is "not real sleep" (referring to ACPI S3). Regardless of your opinions on s2idle, for the rest of this article I will be referring to s2idle as "sleep".

For this test, I put the laptop to sleep for 10 minutes and measured the battery level before and after to calculate the power consumption.

*** Active
For this test, I kept the wifi card active for 10 minutes by continuously sending pings to my router with src_bash[:exports code]{ping -f -i 0.002 172.16.0.1}. This specific invocation requires TODO's version of =ping=. I measured the battery level before and after the test to calculate the power consumption.

** Signal Strength

For the signal strength test, I ran src_bash[:exports code]{iw dev wlan0 link} every second for 10 minutes and parsed out the reported signal strength.

# TODO: Analyze freq and add explanation.

[[./files/graphs/singal_strength.svg]]

** Interface Information

# TODO: Is there anything interesting to report here?

* Test Setup

My test setup consisted of a Framework 13 AMD 7040 laptop with each of the wifi cards, connecting to a [[https://techspecs.ui.com/unifi/wifi/u7-pro][Ubiquiti UniFi U7 Pro]].

I tested each card in two different locations:
1. About 6 feet from the access point with a clear line-of-sight.
2. In another room, going through 1 interior wall.


# TODO: Add floorplan?


And I ran each test with both power saving on and power saving off.

To run the tests, I built a bootable live USB that kicks off my scripts, saves the results to disk, and then shuts down the laptop. So the laptop was left undisturbed and unused during each run of the test. For full transparency, you can access my test script here. The code was not meant to be clean/portable/reusable/good. I only only releasing it for full transparency into the process. I will not be releasing the full output because even seemingly innocuous things like a list of BSSIDs can pinpoint the location of my home.

I started each test at 70% battery at left it unplugged for the full duration of the test (to support power consumption readings).
# TODO: Add a link to the test script code.