I’ve seen some people discuss the possible compatibility of wifi 7 cards. I was wondering if someone could just set the record straight on drop-in compatibility and where I can get one that I know will work, TIA!
Hello, I was looking for a Wifi 7 card compatible with AMD processors and it seems that this chipset Qualcomm’s QCNCM865 could be compatible.
The Intel chipset BE200 is not that for sure for now.
Here is a card on AliExpress :
Qualcomm WiFi 7-QCNCM865 WAP FI 7 BT Chlormodule, Bluetooth 5.3, Jusqu’à 5.8 Gbps avec 4K QAM,Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, Stérilisation 11ax - AliExpress
This chipset is on the TRX50 AERO D from Gigabyte motherboard
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That may or may not get fixed in a future agesa or chipset or whatever part is getting offended enough to crash update but as it is right now it very much doesn’t work XD.
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The Intel BE200 theoretically should work but seems to have some incompatibility with AMD CPUs. This might be able to be fixed with a BIOS update.
The upcoming RZ738 however I expect will probably work fine.
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I certainly hope so otherwise my 17$ investment has gone down the drain XD.
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It looks like it should work:
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I’ve yet to hear of anyone get the BE200 working successfully on an AMD platform, which isn’t great for the 16.
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I think I don’t want an AMD RZ738 (MediaTek MT7927) after all; I expect AMD will release an RZ800-series chip at some point that uses MediaTek’s new Filogic 360 chipset announced Nov 2023.
The old Filogic 380 in the RZ738 / MT7927 only supports dual Bluetooth 5.3. The Wi-Fi 7 is listed as dual-band dual-concurrent 2x2 + 2x2, whatever that means. If dual-concurrent just increases speed then I don’t really care. I want Wi-Fi 7 for its improvements in congested environment like my apartment.
The new Filogic 360 supports triple-band Wi-Fi 7 2x2, Bluetooth 5.4, LE Audio, and LC3. Seems to me that’s the latest and highest-end chip that would be what we’d all want. It’s quite confusing that lower number 360 = newer than higher number 380. This Digital Trends press article says devices incorporating the new chips should come out mid-2024. I really hope it also supports Bluetooth multi-stream audio and Auracast (broadcast audio), which should make Bluetooth headphones way nicer in video games with voice chat, switching between music and Teams/Zoom meetings, and even switching between phone+computer audio.
Here are all the MediaTek Filogic chipsets I could find:
| AMD name | MediaTek name | Chipset name | Wi-Fi | Bluetooth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | MT7921P/T | Filogic 320 | 6 | 5.0 |
| RZ608,RZ616 | MT7921,MT7922 | Filogic 330 | 6E | 5.2 |
| ? RZ8xx | — | Filogic 360 | 7 | 5.4 |
| RZ717,RZ738 | MT7925 ¹,MT7927 | Filogic 380 | 7 | 5.3 |
| — | — | Filogic 615 | 6 | — |
| — | MT7916 | Filogic 630 | 6E | — |
| — | MT7992 | ??? Filogic 660 | 7 | — |
| — | — | Filogic 830 | 6E | — |
| — | — | Filogic 860 | 7 | — |
| — | MT7995 / 6 / 7 | Filogic 680/880 ² | 7 | — |
¹ MT7925 uses Filogic 360 or Filogic 380, I found both stated in different places on internet. I believe it’s the older Filogic 380, not the 360. So weird. Found this wiki that was quite helpful, except it says MT7925 is Filogic 360 which I do not believe.
² Filogic 880 uses Filogic 680 per AnandTech.
In case you’re curious why I do not believe the MediaTek Filogic 380 supports IAL, it’s thanks to a friendly Redditor who found you can search Launch Studio - Listing Search for products supporting the features you care about. For example select “Advanced Search”, “Layers”, and “LC3” to filter to stuff supporting LC3. Add “IAL” to check for potential multi-stream and Auracast support. Filtering for both LC3 and IAL, and going back through September 2023, I can find no laptops from MediaTek supporting both LC3 and IAL. The RZ738 and so on pop up if you filter for just LC3, but not if you also filter for IAL. A number of laptops do come up, but those all use Intel chips:
- HP 14t-eu000 which comes with either Intel AX211 or BE200 chip
- A bunch of Lenovo, Samsung GalaxyBook, Panasonic Toughbook, Asus, Fujitsu Lifebook and other models which come with AX210 and other chips
Lastly, here’s a bunch of abbreviations I found; note only LC3 and IAL are layers available in the search above. According to the Bluetooth® Core Specification Version 5.4, multi-stream and broadcast audio are within the IAL layer, so I guess that makes sense.
- LC3 = Low Complexity Communications Codec, similar to aptX quality and latency but without all the vendor lock-in and licensing issues
- IAL / ISOAL = Isochronous Adaptation Layer, should enable listening to stereo sound and using Bluetooth mic at the same time – or even stereo audio and stereo mic, if you’re using earbuds or hearing aids
- CIS = Connected Isochronous Stream, for multi-stream bidirectional audio, an individual audio stream
- CIG = Connected Isochronous Group, for multi-stream bidirectional audio, for synchronizing CIS together
- BIS = Broadcast Isochronous Stream, like CIS but for Auracast / broadcast audio
- BIG = Broadcast Isochronous Group, like CIG but for Auracast / broadcast audio
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Edit: this is just sarcastic but thanks this is very good info!
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I don’t know if I’m to safe, but buy a communication product from Ali Express. Could be ending in buying fakes or compromised devices.
It’s just a crying shame that Intel seemingly kneecapped the BE200 on AMD systems.
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I reviewed the Bluetooth Launch Studio Listing Search again and found some new Broadcom cards.
The Broadcom BCM4390 in particular is promising. It supports Wi-Fi 7 + BT 5.4 LE Audio + LC3 + IAL. But the product page says it’s for mobile and tablet so there may never be an M.2 laptop version. It also only supports dual-band Wi-Fi 7 with 160MHz channel width, but that’s probably plenty of speed for me anyway.
The Broadcom BCM4383 also supports BT 5.4 LE Audio + LC3 + IAL, but is only Wi-Fi 6E. And finally the Broadcom BCM4398 supports faster quad-band Wi-Fi 7 with 320MHz channel width, but only BT 5.2 per their product page. That’s maybe OK since LE Audio debuted with 5.2. And their Bluetooth Launch Studio page actually says BT 5.4 with support for IAL – but no LC3 support. 
The MSI Herald-BE NCM865 currently seems to be the only standalone product currently commercially available with the Qualcomm chipset FastConnect 7800 / NCM865 / QCNCM865 / WCN7850. It is working for Framework Linux users per thread [GUIDE] Successful Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) on Framework 13 AMD with Qualcomm QCNCM865 and Arch Linux. It has dual-band 2x2 Wi-Fi 7 with 320 MHz channel width and BT 5.4, but it does not support LC3. The Bluetooth Launch Studio Listing Detail for Qualcomm D060636 does appear when you search and filter by IAL and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., but does not appear when you add the LC3 filter. Qualcomm already owns and licenses aptX, so I guess that’s a business move to try and keep LC3 from gaining adoption. But I wish they would stop that behavior and support both LC3 + aptX.
The MSI Herald-BE NCM865 … is working for Framework Linux users…
It depends on what you mean by “working”; yes it will connect to a network, and yes it will download as fast as it can, but try to upload anything significant (or just wait long enough doing normal things) and the card appears to crash, which requires a full reboot (sometimes twice) to fix.
If you absolutely must have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, then the MT7925 appears to work well, though download and upload speeds appear to be limited to around 200Mbit with the current drivers from my own testing.
If you’re wanting a stable card with the maximum throughput, my recommendation at this very moment would be to stick with the Intel AX210 card.
The old Filogic 380 in the RZ738 / MT7927 and RZ717 / MT7925 only support Bluetooth 5.3 from what I’ve read online, not 5.4. Are you seeing 5.4 with your physical hardware?
Also don’t forget about MT7927 which should have better performance than MT7925, when it can take advantage of the extra 320MHz channel width vs just 160MHz supported by the MT7925 and AX210.
Regardless, I agree there’s no great options currently.
I didn’t actually check Bluetooth connectivity, but I seem to remember from the Mediatek website that the MT7925 is supposed to have Bluetooth 5.4 while the MT7327 has Bluetooth 5.3. Not sure why that would be but I thought it was odd when I looked at it.
But yes the MT7927 is supposed to have 320Mhz just like the BE200 and the NCM865, however if the driver doesn’t support it or is just slow then it doesn’t really help anyway. The initial tests on an MT7927 when they actually appear are likely to be dismal like the MT7925.