Basic question about bandwidth distribution on WiFi

[shampain]

Hi,
I have a pretty basic question regarding how a WiFi network distributes the bandwidth, but couldn't find the answer on Google etc.

To be fair I don't exactly know how to word the question in general terms, so I give an example:

I know practical application is different than what maximum speeds etc. "advertise", but for the sake of simplicity, let's ignore all that and other factors:
- assuming I have 1 Gigabit/s of internet speed available
- also assuming my 2,4Ghz is able to send 500Mbit/s
If I have two devices accessing the 2.4Ghz band of the router, would the maximum speed delivered across both devices be
1) the maximum speed of the 2.4Ghz band (500Mbit/s which is "split" between those devices)
or 2) the 1 Gigabit/s line?
In other words, is WiFi "speed" shared between devices or would the 2.4Ghz in this hypothetical example be able to send 500Mbit/s to one device and 500Mbit/s to another?

(edit: reworded question for clarity)

[Philip]

If both clients use Wi-Fi, they will split the Wi-Fi max speed (500 Mbps). In addition, the quoted router max Wi-Fi speed includes both downstream and upstream traffic, plus protocol overhead, so it will likely reach 80% of its' rated max speed.

If one of the clients is using Ethernet, then you can reach more than the 500 Mbps combined, and closer to the 1 Gbps total max theoretical internet speed that is available to you.

Still, keep in mind that those speeds are only useful for large file transfers. Streaming HD video content, which is one of the more bandwidth intensive tasks, rarely uses more than 10 Mbps.

I hope this helps

[shampain]

Yeah I know, that's why I clarified that it is just a hypothetical example to not overcomplicate it with other factors.

Thank you for the answer. So now I know that if I were to download large files on one PC and "hijack" all the bandwidth on the 2.4Ghz line, the other PC using the same WiFi would suffer? If I were to connect it to the 5Ghz band, that problem would not occur, since there still is enough bandwidth left on that band, right?

[Philip]

Maybe.. You'd have to test, as it dependa on the Wifi generation (some routers are better at bandwidth sharing, beamforming some have faster hardware, etc.). In general, newer routers should be better at distributing the bandwidth between clients, and QoS settings may help in mitigating the effects too.