RT-AC3200 vs RT-AC88u vs RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U

[littlepaws]

RT-AC3200 vs RT-AC88u RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U

Which would you buy on todays market?

Or other please say reason why.......

 

[RMerlin]

There's no real right answer to this, as these models all have different strengths and weakenesses, or will depend on your specific needs. AC3200 is only useful if you need to split many 5 GHz devices between two radios, AC88U price premium is only worth it if you need the faster CPU for high speed VPN, the AC68U is a nice balance of price and performance, and the AC87U can often be had at a discount, but can have 5 GHz compatibility issues on some networks.

 

[L&LD]

RMerlin is correct.

But, you're right to stay within Asus' lineup, imo.

If you buy routers a couple of times a decade, the latest is usually the best for the long(est) run (RT-AC88U).

 

[littlepaws]

The rt-88u looks good, would any lf these be a contender

NETGEAR Nighthawk X8 R8500

TP archer c3200

 

[System Error Message]

For an all in one situation i would strike out the ac-87u for poor internal bottlenecked design. As an AP it will do fine?

You should realise that firstly you have the speeds in this order.
AC68U
AC87U
AC3100/88U
AC3200
AC5300

as for CPU speeds:
AC68U
AC87U
AC3200
AC3100/88U/5300

 

[RMerlin]

The rt-88u looks good, would any lf these be a contender

NETGEAR Nighthawk X8 R8500

TP archer c3200

The Asus equivalent of the Nighthawk X8 R8500 would be the Asus RT-AC5300. Again, quite different needs from what the RT-AC88 would address.

You will have to specify what are you personal needs if looking for a purchase advice, as it's the primary critera that needs to be considered before you can start deciding on any model.

 

[TonyH]

The rt-88u looks good, would any lf these be a contender

NETGEAR Nighthawk X8 R8500

TP archer c3200

NG R8500 seems to have a serious problem for constant rebooting for whatever reason. Many complaints on NG user forum.

 

[sfx2000]

the AC68U is a nice balance of price and performance

It is probably the "good enough" choice - AC1900 class, strong 3rd party support, and a strong hivemind to ask questions...

Plus it still has good performance across the board - not bad for an older Wave 1 design - and respect from someone that doesn't have one

(the alt-choice wasn't mentioned, which is the RT-AC3100)

 

[scutzi128]

For an all in one situation i would strike out the ac-87u for poor internal bottlenecked design. As an AP it will do fine?

You should realise that firstly you have the speeds in this order.
AC68U
AC87U
AC3100/88U
AC3200
AC5300

as for CPU speeds:
AC68U
AC87U
AC3200
AC3100/88U/5300

I just picked up an AC87U the other day. Whats the bottleneck that you are referring to?

 

[sfx2000]

I just picked up an AC87U the other day. Whats the bottleneck that you are referring to?

It's a challenged design based on how the 5GHz radio (along with LAN1) interfaces into the primary Broadcom chipset that runs the 2.4GHz radios along with the WAN and LAN ports outside of LAN1.

The Bottleneck that @System Error Message refers to is that the Quantenna 5GHz Radio/Chipset, along with the associated Realtek 1GB chip - they are connected to the Broadcom SoC on a single gigabit RGMII connection - and this can be a problem depending on how many wireless clients are connected on 5GHz and whether LAN1 is connected and used for something else...

For some - the 87U works fine - for others - it's a ball of full of anger and hate - doesn't seem to be a middle ground.

 

[System Error Message]

Both the AC87U and AC88U have bottlenecks but the only bottleneck on the AC88U is the realtek switch connected via 1 RGMII link (basically internal 1Gb/s link) to the broadcom switch so the 4 extra ports could end up starving for bandwidth if 2 gigabit clients try to pull from a NAS with LACP on the broadcom switch itself.

The AC87U's bottleneck is much worse when used to its potential, the AC88U, no issue if you connect 100Mb/s on the extra 4 ports which many things still use (IP camers, raspbery pi, ...) but might have issue with multiple gigabit clients on the realtek switch. My main complaint is that they could've designed them better. The realtek switch on the AC88U has supports dual link RGMII and the broadcom SoC has plenty of RGMII interfaces.

 

[sfx2000]

the AC88U, no issue if you connect 100Mb/s on the extra 4 ports which many things still use (IP camers, raspbery pi, ...) but might have issue with multiple gigabit clients on the realtek switch. My main complaint is that they could've designed them better. The realtek switch on the AC88U has supports dual link RGMII and the broadcom SoC has plenty of RGMII interfaces.

The 88U is fairly balanced - it's not much different than just hooking up an unmanaged switch to a LAN port - and performance across the realtek ports is no better or worse than performance across the broadcom based ports. For most folks - it's not a bottleneck

One just has to look at the pricing and make that decision - RT-AC3100 plus a 5 port unmanaged switch vs. the RT-AC88U - and if folks need the extra port, and this is also dependent on market factors and pricing (in some markets, it's in favor of one solution, in others...) - my only concern with the 88U is that if the router goes down, everything goes down...

Knowing how those ports are mapped out, it can be useful to segregate traffic that is LAN only from traffic that is intended for the WAN side.

The 87U on the other hand - it's a fairly compromised and unbalanced design, in my opinion - the 2.4GHz and LAN2-4 - no issues here - LAN1 and the 5GHz radio is run from the Quantenna, which is then tied to a single RGMII 1Gbe port on the Broadcom SoC...

And the "lan teaming" was dependent on the QTN/Realtek LAN1 and the Broadcom LAN2 port - which combined with 5GHz radio demands - gah!

Have to admit though - as painful as the 87U is, Asus has stuck with it, issuing firmware updates from time to time - many other vendors have just walked away from the Quantenna experiment in the consumer market.

(not bashing Quantenna - in vertical applications - they have very good performance, see a lot of them used in Set Top boxes and Wireless video bridges, and there they are reliable and damn fast)

 

[pete y testing]

RT-AC3200 vs RT-AC88u RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U

just for reference OP here is some direct testing i did recently ( with all the same wl codes ), would have put them in a bar graph for you but im still testing the new batch of routers ( this time with all the same country codes )

cg 153 5 gig

25 meters ,write , read , rssi , sync

rt-ac68u 15.6, 13.4, -81, 175.5

rt-ac3200 8.7, 1.4, -79 , 117

rt-ac87u 12.3 , 16.1 ,-71 , 175.5

rt-ac88u 14.4 , 16.4 ,-75 , 175.5

rt-ac5300 19.9 , 19.4 -75 , 263



ch 44 5 gig

25 meters ,write , read , rssi , sync

rt-ac3200 7.8 , 11.2 , -77 ,87.5

rt-ac5300 9.6 , 15.6 , -70 , 87.5




ch 11 2.4 gig

25 meters ,write , read , rssi , sync

rt-ac68u 17.1 , 19.3 ,-65 , 216.5

rt-ac3200 12.3 , 13.6, -69 ,175.5

rt-ac87u 12.9 , 11.4 ,-59 , 195

rt-ac88u 22.1 , 23.5 , -60 , 243

rt-ac5300 25.7 , 25.5 , -61 ,364.5


as you can see at 25 meters through a few walls on 5 gig there isnt a great deal of difference ( with the exception of the 3200 and 87u ) coverage wise

on the 2.4 gig there is a noticeable difference in throughput at the same distance

this for me is the key as i have a lot of smart switches throughout the house and one is at that 25 meter distance and its only when i run ether the 88u or 5300 will it connect , even the 68u wont connect it


so as pretty much all of us know here the rt-ac68u does a good job and is what most should look at but if 2.4 gig coverage is also important you may want to look at the 88u / 3100 or 5300

now an recent review of the tp link archer c3150 also compares it well to the asus 88u / 3100 and is about $25 cheaper , doesnt have as good a gui or firmware but for coverage and throughput its up there as well

have not tested but would assume the linksys ea8500 / 9500 would also have about the same throughput

so as suggested strike the 87u and ac3200 as both dont have good results in the comparison

pete

 

[juisjuis]

Hi all.

I'm new writing in the forum, but I've been around playing with the RT-N66u since long ago. I'm pretty happy with it I I'm really attached to that "old lady", but I thing is time to part ways, or asking her to allow me to have a "new lady".

Basically I'm happy with the brand since the RT-N66u but now my home connection got upgraded to a 1Gbps/1Gbps connection (DHCP WAN). I see that I can get under 200mbps and the sirq in "top" command goes over the roof.

Now you are talking about which one to select... please allow me to ask you guys, which one would you select for this kind of connection. I have a media transceiver between the FTTH lines and the RT-N66u to convert 1000BaseFX to 1000BaseTX.

The Wireless for me is secondary, but I would like to have decent reception in 2.4 and 5Ghz networks... my house is not too big, so not a big deal on that side.

I'm usually playing around with entware and different services running in the router.

That is my user profile.

Which one do you recommend that will serve well with the big connection I recently installed???

Thanks in advance.

juisjuis

 

[pete y testing]

1Gbps/1Gbps

Which one do you recommend that will serve well with the big connection I recently installed???

the simple answer is none , as there are no domestic routers that will currently do those speeds over the wan - lan / lan - wan interface when all router features and qos are enabled

so if you want those speeds your going to have to look at a home gateway solution , eg build your own server / router

pete

 

[juisjuis]

the simple answer is none , as there are no domestic routers that will currently do those speeds over the wan - lan / lan - wan interface when all router features and qos are enabled

so if you want those speeds your going to have to look at a home gateway solution , eg build your own server / router

pete

Hi.
I tested with the router provided by the Telco and I could get "speedtest" >900/900 mbps. The router they provide is a Siligence manofactured one with a Marvell 88F6281 main CPU. I wanted to know if one of the Asus routers in discussion here would match the performance of the Telco router.

So seems to be like there is at least one home router that can match the speed 1Gbps/1Gbps.

Thanks for the answer.

Best regards.

juisjuis.

 

[L&LD]

juisjuis, any AC1900 class router can achieve those speeds (900/900Mbps) without any features or options turned on, enabled or in use.

The latest routers (RT-AC3100, RT-AC88U and RT-AC5300) are the best match for Gbps ISP speeds, imo.

With the latest wireless drivers, the latest RF designs and hardware and the most resources available (dual processors, 1.4GHz speeds, double the ram and double the nvram of previous generations) along with the latest sdk's used in their firmware, they are best suited to give an acceptable performance level now and in the future.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/sh...-go-with-the-rt-ac1900p-v3.34748/#post-281391


If you can be patient for a few more months, the BRT-AC828 offers true 2Gbps speeds along with other features that will truly be a worthwhile consideration for anyone with speeds of 500Mbps and above.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/new-asus-brt-ac828-wireless-ac2600-dual-wan-vpn-router.32839/

 

[sfx2000]

juisjuis, any AC1900 class router can achieve those speeds (900/900Mbps) without any features or options turned on, enabled or in use.

The latest routers (RT-AC3100, RT-AC88U and RT-AC5300) are the best match for Gbps ISP speeds, imo.

erm - no... 600-800Mbps - yes, but when dealing with symetric GIGe WAN connections, most, if not all routers do face challenges...

The AC88U/AC3100/AC5300 are largely just expanded AC-68U platforms - more CPU, more Radio, but they have not addressed the Networking issue... mostly because they're constrained to the same contexts and source code as 802.11G routers of which they are based on... so the router element itself becomes the bottleneck...

Gigabit WAN is turning out to be quite a challenge for most consumer Router/AP's, and even going into the enthusiast verticals - speed test is one thing, but real world is another...

With the latest wireless drivers, the latest RF designs and hardware and the most resources available (dual processors, 1.4GHz speeds, double the ram and double the nvram of previous generations) along with the latest sdk's used in their firmware, they are best suited to give an acceptable performance level now and in the future.

If you can be patient for a few more months, the BRT-AC828 offers true 2Gbps speeds along with other features that will truly be a worthwhile consideration for anyone with speeds of 500Mbps and above.

The "SDK's" that many refer to are based on source code that goes back to the WRT54G - and they've performed well up to this point - but looking forward, both on a performance and security perspective, there's a lot to do...

I'm not sure where Asus is with their BRT-AC268 - except that it's pretty much vendor claims at this point... not to say they cannot pull it off, but I suspect it's not AsusWRT as most folks know it...

 

[System Error Message]

i have a better solution, other. Skip the consumer line of wifi that are buggy and not as good and go for the best such as making your own wifi AP using a desktop and some PCIe wifi cards, or get ubiquiti/mikrotik APs or to go a step further, get one of those business class wifi APs that support cluster management and meshing with balancing between clients and APs.