Router Specs, how much do they matter?

[truoc]

Per my title I've always wondered how much the specs on newer routers really matter in everyday usage. For example I own a few routers and was wondering if my Linksys WRT1200AC with a dual core CPU and 512mb ram is fundamentally faster than say my Ubiquiti EdgerouterX + Ubiquiti AP-AC Lite and if I'd even notice a difference? I guess I'm confused on if I'd really need a dual core processor in a router for light home use (some online gaming and streaming but only one person). Is it the same thing as a PC where the faster the CPU and more RAM the faster the computer or is it a bit different. Just have been curious about this lately and kind of feel it's more marketing than anything or am I totally wrong?

 

[RMerlin]

Depends what you intend to do with your router. If you only intend to share an Internet connection on your LAN with no USB sharing or VPN, then CPU and RAM matter very little - a single core 600 MHz RT-N66U is able to provide Gigabit throughput.

 

[truoc]

Depends what you intend to do with your router. If you only intend to share an Internet connection on your LAN with no USB sharing or VPN, then CPU and RAM matter very little - a single core 600 MHz RT-N66U is able to provide Gigabit throughput.

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured more RAM and more CPU were for things such as VPN, but wasn't exactly sure. How about with things such as smart queue when doing QOS? I do use smart queue on my EdgerouterX, but is it recommended to have a faster router CPU for this as well? I only run a 100mb connection so I'm unsure.

 

[umarmung]

CPU starts to matter once you start doing anything interesting outside of the default configuration or if you really do have very high bandwidth Internet connections.

QoS can be CPU heavy at the limit, but if you are only using it for low bandwidth applications like gaming, you almost certainly won't notice. The quality of the software, e.g. what type of QoS, how flexible and accessible, would be more important. The standard QoS advice from Ubiquiti applies:

• ERLite-3 and ERPoe-5: below 60 Mbps most likely will work, above 200 Mbps most likely will not work.
• ER-8: below 160 Mbps most likely will work, above 450 Mbps most likely will not work.
• ERPro-8: below 200 Mbps most likely will work, above 550 Mbps most likely will not work.
• ER-X and ER-X-SFP: below 100 Mbps most likely will work, above 250 Mbps most likely will not work.

The new Edgerouters like the ER-4 are more like "below 200 and above 500".

CPUs start to matter for: VPNs, large number of simultaneous connections (especially small packet sizes), extra services like file server/NAS, large number of firewall rules, etc.

A 700 MHz 3x3 router with good radios, or a 600 MHz wired router + couple of 2x2 APs will cover many consumer Internet needs.

Keep in mind that these machines are more or less mini-PCs dedicated to specific purposes, rather than general purpose machines. That means if you do not aggressively use those purposes, you won't notice any difference. It also means that the more you pay for a router, the better the comparison to a custom PC build since at higher price points you'll get much more bang for your buck - at this time, basically around $300+ is when it becomes more than silly to buy off-the-shelf consumer routers, unless you are someone who cares far more about convenience at any price point than anything else (but then you wouldn't be posting on a power user forum...).

Ultimately though, hardware reliability, receiving updates, especially security updates, and flexibility, tends to matter far more than all of the above put together. Good luck finding such a combination that fits your needs in consumer routers (the Ubiquiti's, Mikrotik, enterprise Cisco, Juniper, HP, Ruckus' and open source of the world don't count, even if they can be behind in consumer features).

 

[truoc]

CPU starts to matter once you start doing anything interesting outside of the default configuration or if you really do have very high bandwidth Internet connections.

QoS can be CPU heavy at the limit, but if you are only using it for low bandwidth applications like gaming, you almost certainly won't notice. The quality of the software, e.g. what type of QoS, how flexible and accessible, would be more important. The standard QoS advice from Ubiquiti applies:

• ERLite-3 and ERPoe-5: below 60 Mbps most likely will work, above 200 Mbps most likely will not work.
• ER-8: below 160 Mbps most likely will work, above 450 Mbps most likely will not work.
• ERPro-8: below 200 Mbps most likely will work, above 550 Mbps most likely will not work.
• ER-X and ER-X-SFP: below 100 Mbps most likely will work, above 250 Mbps most likely will not work.

The new Edgerouters like the ER-4 are more like "below 200 and above 500".

CPUs start to matter for: VPNs, large number of simultaneous connections (especially small packet sizes), extra services like file server/NAS, large number of firewall rules, etc.

A 700 MHz 3x3 router with good radios, or a 600 MHz wired router + couple of 2x2 APs will cover many consumer Internet needs.

Keep in mind that these machines are more or less mini-PCs dedicated to specific purposes, rather than general purpose machines. That means if you do not aggressively use those purposes, you won't notice any difference. It also means that the more you pay for a router, the better the comparison to a custom PC build since at higher price points you'll get much more bang for your buck - at this time, basically around $300+ is when it becomes more than silly to buy off-the-shelf consumer routers, unless you are someone who cares far more about convenience at any price point than anything else (but then you wouldn't be posting on a power user forum...).

Ultimately though, hardware reliability, receiving updates, especially security updates, and flexibility, tends to matter far more than all of the above put together. Good luck finding such a combination that fits your needs in consumer routers (the Ubiquiti's, Mikrotik, enterprise Cisco, Juniper, HP, Ruckus' of the world don't count, even if they can be behind in consumer features).

Wow! That was a very informative post and provides a better understanding for me. Thank you for that. I've read about bufferbloat being an issue for online gaming and that's why I have smartque QOS enabled to help with that. However, the more that I think about this I believe bufferbloat to be more of an issue when you have multiple devices streaming, gaming, etc at the same time or am I completely wrong about that too? If that is indeed the case then I might switch to something else altogether if I can get something that provides automatic security updates, etc. for peace of mind considering I don't do anything fancy such as VPN, torrenting, etc.

 

[RMerlin]

Thanks for the reply. I kind of figured more RAM and more CPU were for things such as VPN, but wasn't exactly sure. How about with things such as smart queue when doing QOS? I do use smart queue on my EdgerouterX, but is it recommended to have a faster router CPU for this as well? I only run a 100mb connection so I'm unsure.

Most of these home routers come with prehistoric kernels. Routers based on the latest Broadcom HND platform (such as the Asus RT-AC86U) are the rare exceptions, being based on kernel 4.1. For those modern knobs such as fq_codel or Cake you need a very recent kernel, and you need a manufacturer willing to implement it. So far, none of them do, closest would be to have something supporting either OpenWRT or Asuswrt-Merlin, or to stick with prosumer devices from the likes of Ubiquity.

At 100 Mbps, anything that's close to 100$ should be fast enough.

 

[System Error Message]

What really starts to matter is when you start using your router for other things like running torrents, proxy cache, file server, etc and this is where the specs start to matter. VPN and QoS are mainly CPU heavy but 128MB of ram will cover all that on a gigabit connection. So you can torrent to the max connection limit with 128MB of ram on a gigabit connection and still have plenty of ram left, its when you start running more features that you need more ram.

Most of these home routers come with prehistoric kernels. Routers based on the latest Broadcom HND platform (such as the Asus RT-AC86U) are the rare exceptions, being based on kernel 4.1. For those modern knobs such as fq_codel or Cake you need a very recent kernel, and you need a manufacturer willing to implement it. So far, none of them do, closest would be to have something supporting either OpenWRT or Asuswrt-Merlin, or to stick with prosumer devices from the likes of Ubiquity.

At 100 Mbps, anything that's close to 100$ should be fast enough.

i've tried tplink at 100Mb/s which costs around $50 on amazon. Even in software mode it pretty much can do 100Mb/s as even the old MIPS at 700Mhz wont have issues for that.

 

[RMerlin]

i've tried tplink at 100Mb/s which costs around $50 on amazon. Even in software mode it pretty much can do 100Mb/s as even the old MIPS at 700Mhz wont have issues for that.

The Asus RT-N16 had a 480 MHz CPU if I remember correctly, and in software mode it supported between 100 and 125 Mbps. So I'd say that's about what the floor would be for 100 Mbps throughput.

 

[sfx2000]

And for those who doubt how fast routers can be...

This one will take your fingertips off in less than 1 microsecond...

 

[truoc]

And for those who doubt how fast routers can be...

This one will take your fingertips off in less than 1 microsecond...

View attachment 12866

damn that's fast!