Testing ntttcp as an iperf3 alternative in Windows 11 (and Linux)
ntttcp (Windows NT Test TCP) is a network benchmarking utility similar to iperf3 that works in both Windows and Linux written and recommended by Microsoft over iperf3, so we’ll test the alternative in this mini review.
iperf3 is a utility of choice for our reviews of single board computers and mini PCs running either Windows or Linux, but we’ve noticed that while Ethernet (up to 2.5GbE) usually performs just as well in Windows and Linux, WiFi is generally much faster in Ubuntu 22.04 than in Windows 11. So when XDA developers noticed a post by Microsoft saying iperf3 should not be used on Windows 11, it caught my attention.
We can disqualify ctsTraffic immediately here at CNX Software since our tests typically involve a mix of Linux and Windows machines. Microsoft compared iperf3 to ntttcp utilities with high-speed network interfaces (10 GbE+), and the latter reports much higher performance. I only have hardware with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6, but I still wanted to test it, especially to check WiFi. So I decided to give ntttcp a try following the instructions on Microsoft Learn. It ended up being a challenge as those would not work on my system, and it took me a while to find the right parameters…
The Khadas Mind Premium was selected as it’s the only spare Windows system with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 that I own and have already reviewed. You’ll notice the network tests in Windows 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 using iperf3 reveal much lower performance in the Microsoft OS as summarized in the table below.
