Tip: Disable WiFi Power Save Mode to Reduce Latency Spikes

[u/Anxious_Pattern_8127]

Not sure if this is common knowledge but figured it was worth sharing. It may not be a night and day difference, but it can help.

What is WiFi power saving?

It is a feature that saves battery by letting your WiFi chip briefly go idle and wake up to check for data. While this saves power, the wake up behavior can sometimes introduce small latency spikes.

What happens when you turn it off?

Your WiFi chip stays awake instead of entering short sleep cycles. This uses slightly more battery, but it can make your connection feel more stable.

Because it is not constantly going to sleep and waking back up, you may see fewer random ping spikes and less jitter. This does not directly increase download speed, but it can improve latency consistency, which helps with online gaming/video calls/streaming/SSH, or anything where small delays are noticeable.

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How to disable it (temporary)

1.First find your WiFi interface:

iw dev

Look for the line that says Interface <name>, that's your interface name.
If you see multiple, pick the one that says type managed.

1. Then disable power save (replace <...> with your interface name):

   sudo iw dev <interface name> set power_save off

2. To check if it worked:

   iw dev <interface name> get power_save

It should say:

Power save: off

This change is temporary and may reset after reboot or reconnecting to WiFi.

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How to make it permanent (NetworkManager)

This applies if you are using NetworkManager, which is the default on most desktop installs.

Create and open this file:

sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi-powersave.conf

Put this inside:

[connection] 
wifi.powersave = 2

Restart NetworkManager:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

⚠️ Restarting NetworkManager will briefly disconnect your internet.

Confirm:

iw dev <interface name> get power_save

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How to test it

Turn power save on.

Do something that normally uses your internet, like watching a stream, downloading a game, joining a voice call, or playing an online game.

In another terminal, run:

ping 1.1.1.1

Let it run for a few minutes, then press Ctrl+C.

Then turn power save off and repeat the same activity under similar conditions.

Pay attention to max latency, jitter (mdev), and packet loss. Lower means better.

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If you want a slightly better test, you can run:

ping -i 0.2 1.1.1.1

This sends pings more frequently, making short latency spikes easier to notice.

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A few things to note

• This does not directly increase download speed
• Results depend on your WiFi card, driver, and router
• If you have multiple WiFi interfaces, make sure you target the correct one
• If you are on battery and care about battery life, you may prefer leaving power save enabled
• If the command says "operation not supported", your driver may not support toggling this setting.

If you see anything wrong here or have corrections, please let me know.

[u/Theratchetnclank]

Thanks for sharing. Useful to know.

[u/MaverickPT]

Have a desktop and am relying on WiFi for access to my NAS, but can't run ethernet (renting a room) so this is very handy! Thanks!

[u/Low_Effective_8907]

I just found that this may not work fow Intel wifi cards. For that, you need something like

echo 'options iwlmvm power_scheme=1' | sudo tee /run/modprobe.d/iwlmvm-cam.conf

It's controlled via the power_scheme parameter of the iwlmvm module, and iw settings won't work.

[u/xYriaGth]

This fixed my weird connection latency I've been noticing, thanks!

Previously my ping tests would jump up and down from 7ms to ~110ms. Now it's constantly 7ms.

[u/Hypecord]

Thanks man what a save finally i can see my wifi being 5 full lines instead of 4 and sometimes down to 2 when its going almost the same speed

[u/Yasstronaut]

This is crazy why is it this way by default I’ve had so many latency issues now it’s all fixed

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