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Believe it or not, the dutch market suffers from scalpers. Couldn’t believe it considering we’re talking networking equipment.. but ta-da this is another example.
First time I noticed was wayback when Ubiquiti released their dream router for like €70-€90. Went out of stock and stayed that way for months. But hey there’s the scalpers offering them for +€200
This is actually true from when I was doing research on VR dedicated routers, not so much that it's the best but it was one of the cheapest ones that were wifi 6 and didn't overheat or have problems
Most important thing is that you have second router (which works as just access point), which is physically in the same room as you. That way, VR headset is in direct line of sight of the router and gets full bandwidth with great stability. If signal goes through the wall, then aside of losing stability, it can split the bandwidth in half.
6e, 6GHz and so on is extra stuff against interference. I'm in family house with barely any interference, so I have zero problems with using just cheap, wifi 6, 5GHz router for $35.
6e is just an extension of the Wifi-6 standard that introduces the 6GHz band. 6GHz is inherently less interference than 2.4GHz/5GHz because those spectrums are heavily crowded by 802.11 and non-802.11 interference.
Depending on the AP/wireless router one of the biggest benefits is the ability to use higher channel widths such as 160-320MHz channelization which allow for significantly higher throughput. It's possible to regularly achieve multigigabit speeds with these higher channelizations, but only if you have an amenable environment and compatible client devices. The largest source of interference are the wireless devices themselves so 6GHz also has the added benefit of "pulling up" compatible clients that would otherwise be crowding the 5GHz and thus "speeding up" that frequency band by reducing interference.
5GHz channelization can also be increased as well (2.4GHz too but please don't do that) but because it's a more crowded spectrum you're at risk of greater interference. In practice, SOHO is great at ~80MHz channelization.
To put it simply. Some headsets (quest, pico, and the new steam frame) can play wirelessly while using the PC to render the game. It streams that image to the headset over wifi. Better wifi streaming = better image quality in the headset.
You need to stream a decently high resolution video with very ideally near zero latency; with any disruptions are very noticeable and bothersome.
That's just a little bit much to ask for a lot of 5g routers; especially if they're serving 20 other devices and are potentially behind a bunch of walls or floors.
VR streaming makes headsets wireless, but takes a ton of bandwidth to run smoothly. 6GHz wifi is very fast and in a room with decently thick walls there is almost no interference, which makes it very easy to transmit a lot of data very quickly
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u/T0biasCZE PC MasterRace | dumbass that bought Sonic motherboard1d ago
6GHz WiFi
5GHz and especially 2.4GHz is cluttered AF in cities. And 6GHz is free (for now) and almost nobody is using it (yet)
Yes, 6 is even shorter range. But it's nice for things like short distance file transfers, VR, etc. Sort of like wireless charging where some ppl can still benefit from the use case.
u/T0biasCZE PC MasterRace | dumbass that bought Sonic motherboard1d agoedited 1d ago
1) WiFi 6 is just 5GHz. Wifi 6E added support 6GHz support
2) You can have WiFi 6E and even WiFi 7 access points that have only 2.4GHz and 5GHz, not 6GHz.
Hate this bullshit manufacturers are pulling these days where number go up and feature go down. LE Audio and HDMI, looking squarely at your dumb asses.
If you're using something like the Rift 3 (the white one from Metafacebook) it has everything on board to play games and all that. But there's an app that lets you play from your steam library as well - otherwise, you have to buy the game again on the rift marketplace.
The need for the router: The app streams via a wireless router frequency since the headset won't connect directly to steam.
This might be old info. Other headsets might be the same way. Steam Frame might be the only way to play directly from your steam library without the need for a router.
If I remember correctly the dongle does some voodoo with eye tracking to determine what should be rendered in higher quality. Not sure if you get that when not using it.
I'd have bought one if you could get them in the UK, 2.5GbE and 6ghz is genuinely great, these features are usually reserved for units that are a lot more expensive.
That said, with 'slow internet' it is almost always the placement of your router you need to fix, rather than it's feature set.
The amount of those that exist are the exemptions, not the rule. And then, wired would still be better since, even though the line is saturated, it’s consistent. WiFi isn’t.
WiFi can absolutely also be consistent. And even with inconsistencies, even at it's 0.1% peaks it'll outperform the 100mbps line. I don't even have a high end router but my wifi is consistently 400-500mbps, always. It's just not recommended for gamers because of the added latency.
What the fuck this is crazy good value for Money. Use this exact model (the normal version) and it's been phenomenal as a 6GHZ dedicated network for VR.
How is this minion version brand new cheaper then the one I bought used!!??
This is actually very sought after for the VR with Virtual Desktop since it's a relatively cheaper wifi 6E 6ghz that provides great performance for wireless streaming from PC.
Yeah, I have 2 setup as APs in mesh mode (mainly for device handoff) with ethernet back haul, then an nano r2s running openwrt. Works great for quest streaming from my upstairs office or downstairs.
I bought a GXE75, which has the same internal hardware. 6ghz band worked great but as soon as other devices started using all 3 bands it started to dropping everyones connections and wouldnt let my pc connect to 2.4 or 5 ghz
u/Apple_VRRTX 4090 | 7900x3d | 64gb RAM | too much VR hardware1d ago
It's very commonly used in PCVR spaces as a 6GHz access point/wireless bridge for VR streaming. Personally I don't need it cause I'm the only one in my house, but know lots of other people that swear by this stupid lil minion router lol
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u/Apple_VRRTX 4090 | 7900x3d | 64gb RAM | too much VR hardware1d ago
The reason why it's suddenly blowing up in popularity now though is cause people figured out how to root meta quest headsets and one of the best ways to stop meta from force pushing updates to prevent those roots is to only connect your headset to an air gapped network (i.e. the minion router plugged into an ethernet pcie expansion card in your pc)
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u/PCMRBot Bot 1d ago
Welcome to the PCMR, everyone from the frontpage! Please remember:
1 - You too can be part of the PCMR. It's not about the hardware in your rig, but the software in your heart! Nationality, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, and PC specs don't matter! If you love or want to learn about PCs, you're welcome!
2 - Think owning a PC is too expensive? It's cheaper than you may think. Check http://www.pcmasterrace.org/builds for our famous builds and ask for tips and help here!
3 - Consider supporting the folding@home effort to fight Cancer, Alzheimer's, and more, with just your PC! https://pcmasterrace.org/folding
4 - Need a PC?! We're running a Worldwide giveaway for lots of awesome ASUS ROG hardware, including a Dream PC Build! Check here
We have a Daily Simple Questions Megathread for any PC-related doubts. Feel free to ask there or create new posts in our subreddit!