Asus axe11000 wifi download problem

[sucka]

Hello,
i have an axe11000 and i have a wifi problem, i have tested the problem using a windows laptop with an ax211 card and with 2 macbook pro one with m1 and one with m2, and with an iphone 12 pro max.
I have tested the following firmware versions:

Asus stock:
3.0.0.4.388.21224
3.0.0.4.388.20499
3.0.0.4.386.49675
3.0.0.4.386.47875

Asus Merlin:
388.2 alpha 1
388.1

Tested everything from stock config to different combinations of everything from smart connect, beamforming, mu-mimo and all settings from professional tab off or on and all channels and all 3 wifi frequencies 2.4, 5 and 6ghz.
I have a gigabyte download and upload internet connection and on lan everything is working perfectly.

Now that i have wrote what is the testing specs, the problem is, i have very low speed for download only, even uploads are not stellar but downloads rarely get to even 100mbps, it wasn't like that about 3 months ago when i have bought the router coming from an ax11000 and did the setup and tests.
The weird thing is on speedtest latency increases allot, and as the latency increases, the speed decreases, maybe it starts with a couple of hundred mbps and quickly descends, on speedtest.net on mobile i can even gen to about 1500 download latency but still around 40-60mbps download only.

The only setting that did some difference was disabling smart connect because when testing with the ax211 and disabling smart connect even though i have tested with it on or off and i was either on 5 or 6ghz, but with it off, it tries to stay to at least 100mbps and stays a little longer at higher speeds, with it on, quickly descends to sub 100.

Cpu usage is very low and nothing weird is happening on the router side, even the log doesen't seem to have anything weird in it, on lan i get @920-937mbps download and upload every time.

The problem is so weird only a video i think can show how weird it is, a test from 2 meters away on my macbook pro with m2 cpu.

Do you think it may be a hardware fault or is anyone else experiencing something similar?
trying to find out more before i send it to repair, maybe it is something that is known, maybe a software bug that i triggered somehow, i discovered it today and clean installed all those firmware versions and tried every combination possible, but maybe something slipped and i don't know about.

P.S. tried with all firmwares stock config, just after exiting the wizard, and in the same place with the same devices the ax11000 is working ok.

 

[L&LD]

What do you consider a clean install? Are you using a never-before-used SSID too (to eliminate other devices during your testing)? Are you restoring saved backup config files after flashing the firmware you wanted to test with?

Note that even with a properly and fully reset router, toggling some/many settings in the GUI is not the same as not touching those settings at all in the first place. Many times, after toggling settings back and forth, only a full reset will get the router back to a good/known state again.

If you do a full reset, perform a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP, and use a new/unique SSID (for testing purposes), and you're getting the same low speeds, it points to the M2 MacBook Pro, to me.

 

[sucka]

Yes, tried new ssid too, actually this test was only with that specific device connected, the macbook pro with m2 for the recording, and like i said, i have done even separately the tests for every band in part, as it could of been something interfering.
And clean install mean flashing new firmware and then factory reset without restoring, setting up as new every time, as i know that, that is why it took me all day to test all combinations, as my first thought was just that the latest firmware has problems.

Well every device i have tested have similar results, so client device is excluded from having a problem, luckily i have many devices at access and yes even my intel ax211 network card has the same results. And i have tested with even more devices actually but not on every firmware, only those 4 devices were tested on all firmwares clean, and everything works ok if i put my ax11000 back in place of the axe11000.

And the only notable difference between devices is that the iphone has almost 2 times bigger latency figures during the speed test for download, always done to the same server, as that is my isp and that one on lan has the specified values, meaning max hardware capability on a gigabit connection.
If i do a ping to something else from the same device, the ping goes similarly crazy during the speed test.

So the bug manifests itself as hugely increased latency during high bandwidth load, even though the cpu of the router barely moves, as well as lan behaves as expected.

 

[L&LD]

I would be returning that AXE router today then.