I am using a 15" and a 13" MacBook Pro with these profiles:
They're both connected to the same wifi network and they're at the same distance from the router.
Problem is that the 15" has a slower network. Sometimes youtube videos buffer. And generally feels less snappy. And as can be seen from the image above – and the speed tests on the right -, the network has these "moments" where it drops all of a sudden on the 15" (you can see the drops in the top orange graph), whereas it remains very stable on the 13".
The only major difference I was able to find between the two is that one uses DFS and the other doesn't (as pointed by the arrow).
Would anybody know why I'm getting lower speeds on the 15" and is there a way that I can also make it connect using DFS?
Note that my iPhone also seems to work with stable speed tests and no "drops".
EDIT What I've noticed is really a problem with these so called "drops". The network sort of stalls in the speed test run on the 15". Here's a few randomized speed tests on the 15":
What I want to highlight here is not the speed but the "flat lines". When I see the speed-test run in real time I can really notice the number stalling – as it's waiting for something, and then all of a sudden dropping.
On other devices I really don't notice these kind of stalls; sure there are sometimes slower speeds but the graph is drawn fluidly and I don't notice so called "flat lines".
Here's a few test runs from another well-functioning device (an iPhone) showing how "the stalling" never seems to occur (there are no flat lines followed by sudden drops):
As a last resort I also uninstalled a VPN but that didn't make a difference (the graph above was drawn after uninstalling the VPN software).
EDIT 2 Note that also if I plug the 15" to the router directly using ethernet, the "stalling" doesn't happen anymore and I get fluid speed tests.
EDIT 3 The slow 15" is a work laptop. I just realized there might be something installed that could cause this network stalling. I have uninstalled all software relating VPN or antivirus so I'm not sure what it could be. Thing is when I plug in ethernet I don't see these stalls so my feeling has more to do with something relating the wifi configuration.
Best Answer
As with all mysteries such as these, it is best to narrow the tree of possibilities with a sort of binary search, as it were.
Here are some starting point (and if you're lucky, ending point) tests to eliminate whole branches from the tree:
Test a wired connection. You've already done this test ✅, so now we know:
Boot your Mac in safe mode. Run the speed tests again. If the problem is gone, follow the steps under If the issue doesn't continue in safe mode at the provided link. If it is NOT gone, I would hold off on OS reinstall recommended by If the issue continues in safe mode fo now, trying the things below first.
Test it on an entirely different WiFi network. This might narrow it down to your router or how your Mac connects to that router via WiFi. If it turns out to be this, report back and we can go from here.
Test whether the flatlining is system wide when it occurs. First open a browser window open with a quickly loading web page already loaded. Run a speed test. When it flatlines and while it is flatlined, refresh the webpage. Does the webpage refresh stall too? It would be best if your speed test is not running in the same process as your web page test. If it is browser based, use a different speed test that isn't, or use different browsers (e.g. Safari and Firefox). Alternatively, use something other than a web page to see if the speedtest stall is a system-wide stall.
Test using a different browser, or a non-browser-based speed test.
I can come up with more but let's start with these.