News: ASUS PCE-AXE59BT WiFi6 6E AX5400 PCI-E Adapter (mt7922 chipset) (PCIe)

[morrownr]

For discussion:

I happened to notice the ASUS PCE-AXE59BT today on Amazon (the listing appears to be one week old):

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-PCE-AXE59BT-magnetized-Supporting-Bluetooth/dp/B0C388Z522

I was looking for a PCIe card that uses the mt7922 chipset, at least partly, to get an idea of the capability as we may see a usb version of the mt7922 chipset released at some point.

What I think I know:

The mt7922 is basically the same as the mt7921k or mt7921au chipsets in that it is tri-band BUT it has 160 MHz channel width capability. I know the 160 MHz channel width applies to the 6 GHz band but I am not certain if it applies to the 5 GHz band. I just happen to have a router that supports 160 Mhz channel width in the 5 GHz band. It would be interesting to see wifi smoking 1 Gbps ethernet!

FYI: I went to the ASUS support site and downloaded the Win 10/11 driver just to open it up to see who made the driver and indeed the driver is from Mediatek and supports the mt7922. It supports wifi and bt.

One of the differences between usb adapters and cards is that bluetooth support is always part of the package with the cards. You usually have to connect to a cable to your motherboard because the bt support requires a usb2 connection. BT on usb adapters is problematic due to the interference caused by usb3 cables and connections which emit radio interference in the same freq that bt uses. That is why none of the adapters we are seeing with the mt7921au chipset have bt turned on. The chipset supports bt but if it is turned on, the wifi would need to be limited to usb2 and we don't want that. If you don't think I am correct, go check multi-function adapters over the last 10 years or so and see. An example: rtl8822bu. The wifi in adapters that use that chipset is limited to usb2. It's cousin, the rtl8812bu does not support bt and runs at usb3 speeds. It is what it is and my point here is that if you have a desktop systems or other system that can support adapters like the one in the topic, you can have wifi at high speed and bt without any problems because wifi is not using usb3. USB adapter users are better off getting single-functions wifi and bt adapters. That is, get a single-function usb wifi adapter and a separate single-function usb bt adapter.

Yes, Intel beat Mediatek to the market with a 160 MHz chipset but Intel drivers are problematic witth AP mode in the 5 GHz band whereas the Mediatek drivers do not seem to have the same problem.

Speaking of drivers: The information that I think is correct is that the mt7922 uses the same driver as the mt7921. For usb, it is the mt7921u driver. For cards, it is the mt7921e driver. Support for the mt7922 went into kernel 5.16 if memory serves me correctly. Be aware that the mt7921 and mt7922 use different firmware files for both wifi and bt. You can check the menu item about firmware on the Main Menu here as it is already updated for the mt7922.

Unless I am missing something, this card should be plug and play in the current distros that are being released such as Ubuntu 23.04.

Disclaimer: I think the above is correct but I don't have the card and have seen no reports from Linux uses that do have mt7922 based cards.

If you have any information, please let us know. I might even consider starting a new list for PCIe and m.2 cards. Remember, this site is not about listing everything, it is about listing the best available so don't expect a long list. Also, if someone wants to maintain the list, let me know.

@morrownr