mt76x0u station client low performance (25.12.2)

[acoul]

ID 148f:761a Ralink Technology, Corp. MT7610U ("Archer T2U" 2.4G+5G WLAN Adapter

under OpenWrt 25.12.2, r32802-f505120278 Dave's Guitar scores get very low performance compared to a Void Linux musl-C system on the exact same setup

under OpenWrt 25.12.2 the download speed goes up-to 5Mbit

compared to 41Mbit under Void Linux

I use CESNET speedtest for the tests. the average result out of three times for each setup.

I followed the very detailed & informative morrownr guide: install or upgrade firmware for Mediatek

under the /lib/firmware/mediatek/ I removed the soft-link: mt7610u.bin --> mt7610e.bin

and downloaded mt7610u.bin without any noticeable performance change

this is the OpenWRT driver details:

[   10.023047] mt76x0u 1-1.2:1.0: ASIC revision: 76100002 MAC revision: 76502000
[   11.007052] mt76x0u 1-1.2:1.0: EEPROM ver:02 fae:01
[   11.035764] usbcore: registered new interface driver mt76x0u
[   23.057872] mt76x0u 1-1.2:1.0 phy2-sta0: entered allmulticast mode
[   25.581228] mt76x0u 1-1.2:1.0 phy2-sta0: left allmulticast mode
[   25.657607] mt76x0u 1-1.2:1.0 phy2-sta0: entered allmulticast mode

and the Void Linux same driver details:

[ 8449.288935] mt76x0u 3-3:1.0: ASIC revision: 76100002 MAC revision: 76502000
[ 8450.293758] mt76x0u 3-3:1.0: EEPROM ver:02 fae:01
[ 8450.357798] mt76x0u 3-3:1.0 wlp0s20f0u3: renamed from wlan0

OpenWRT hwinfo

phy2-sta0 ESSID: "dream_world_5G"
         Access Point: 0e:7f:e8:0c:06:7b
         Mode: Client  Channel: 104 (5.520 GHz)  HT Mode: VHT80
         Center Channel 1: 106 2: unknown
         Tx-Power: 20 dBm  Link Quality: 35/70
         Signal: -75 dBm  Noise: -100 dBm
         Bit Rate: 117.0 MBit/s
         Encryption: none
         Type: nl80211  HW Mode(s): 802.11ac/n
         Hardware: nl80211 [Generic MAC80211]
         TX power offset: none
         Channel offset: none
         Supports VAPs: yes  PHY name: phy2

on the exact same OpenWRT setup, plugin-in a AC600 Realtek RTL8811AU, the performance jumps up-to 50Mbit

phy2-sta0 ESSID: "dream_world_5G"
         Access Point: 36:11:34:ea:3f:76
         Mode: Client  Channel: 104 (5.520 GHz)  HT Mode: VHT80
         Center Channel 1: 106 2: unknown
         Tx-Power: 26 dBm  Link Quality: 39/70
         Signal: -71 dBm  Noise: -100 dBm
         Bit Rate: 117.0 MBit/s
         Encryption: none
         Type: nl80211  HW Mode(s): 802.11ac/n
         Hardware: nl80211 [Generic MAC80211]
         TX power offset: none
         Channel offset: none
         Supports VAPs: no  PHY name: phy2

in this case, RTL8811AU offers almost 6db better sensitivity and also provides 6dm more TX power

the above exact differences stand on Void Linux too for the MT7610U & RTL8811AU adapters

MT7610U:

wlp0s20f0u3u2  IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"Tdream_world_5G"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.52 GHz  Access Point: 5C:4D:BF:ww:xy:zz   
          Bit Rate=234 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=35/70  Signal level=-75 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:1  Invalid misc:77   Missed beacon:0

RTL8811AU:

wlp0s20f0u3u2  IEEE 802.11  ESSID:"dream_world_5G"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.52 GHz  Access Point: 5C:4D:BF:ww:xy:zz
          Bit Rate=263.3 Mb/s   Tx-Power=26 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=40/70  Signal level=-70 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:6  Invalid misc:4   Missed beacon:0

although the MT7610U & RTL8811AU differences are consistent between Void Linux & OpenWRT, the performance is not

MT7610U gets 5Mbit on OpenWRT & 40Mbit on Void Linux & that's a bummer

more details about the testing setup here: Quest for stable, performative USB wifi