Netgear RAX200

[Internet Man]

Another upcoming model after the RAX40's surprise appearance? Probably Netgear's first AX11000 device. Whether that's dual-band with 160MHz and 8x8:8 that the RAX120 failed to achieve or a tri-band 4x4:4 design remains to be seen.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_RAX200_(Nighthawk_AX20)

 

[avtella]

Another upcoming model after the RAX40's surprise appearance? Probably Netgear's first AX11000 device. Whether that's dual-band with 160MHz and 8x8:8 that the RAX120 failed to achieve or a tri-band 4x4:4 design remains to be seen.

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_RAX200_(Nighthawk_AX20)

Reading the Amazon information it seems to be basically an anollogue to the Asus AX11000 as it’s the same Broadcom chipset, so basically an AX8/AX88U with an extra 5Ghz band plus 2.5 Gb Eth.

https://www.netgear.com/support/download/

Amazon listing for RAX200, look at comparison chart half way down:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PNR2VMD/?tag=snbforums-20
The RAX200 is listed as a triband AX12 in the chart next to the RAX120, might be a typo should probably be AX20.

Might be like the AC routers again where the R7800 had a better WiFi chipset compared to the Broadcom based R7000/R8500. This time the QCA based RAX120 might be the new R7800 with the AX8/AX20 being analogous to the R7000/R8500.

 

[thiggins]

Product announced.
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/netgear-announces-tri-band-ax-rax200-router.55657/

 

[Peter_M]

I'm a little confuse regarding the spec of the RAX200 and RAX120. The latter has a 5GB connector and a 2.2 GHz 4 core processor. Do they use the same processor? Why on the top model, the RAX200 can't we have a 5 GB connector?

Any explanation will be welcome, but I guess we will have to wait...

 

[Peter_M]

I just discovered that the RAX200 does have the Multi-gig feature and not the RAX120.

Still very confusing.

 

[Peter_M]

RAX120

RAX200

 

[thiggins]

I just discovered that the RAX200 does have the Multi-gig feature and not the RAX120.

Still very confusing.

Sorry. I was not following your question correctly. It is confusing.

Part of the problem is the way NETGEAR is using "Multi-Gig". They use it to refer both to the single multi-speed port AND the ability to aggregate pairs of 1 Gbps ports.

The RAX120 and RAX200 both have the ability to aggregate 1 Gbps ports on the LAN and WAN.

The RAX120, which is based on a Qualcomm platform has a single 1/2.5/5 Gbps port. The RAX200, which is based on Broadcom, has a single 1/2.5 Gbps port. Why the difference? Most likely due to differences in internal bus capacity.

 

[Peter_M]

Sorry. I was not following your question correctly.
The RAX120 and RAX200 both have the ability to aggregate 1 Gbps ports on the LAN and WAN.

The RAX120, which is based on a Qualcomm platform has a single 1/2.5/5 Gbps LAN port. The RAX200, which is based on Broadcom, has a single 1/2.5 Gbps port.

Ok, it makes more sense. And what about the processor, have you any details?

 

[avtella]

Ok, it makes more sense. And what about the processor, have you any details?

The RAX200 is essentially an RAX80 with an extra 5Ghz band and a 2.5 GBPs port. They share the same (Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 @ 1.8 Ghz) CPU plus an 800 MHz packet co-processor . These two are Broadcom chipset based routers .

The RAX120 is a Qualcomm based unit. The main CPU (also a Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 @ 2.2 GHz) is faster by about 22% but I doubt you’d notice the difference. It also has an additional 1.7 GHz Dual Core for packet proccesing, ie deep packet inspection, QoS and so on.

 

[Peter_M]

The RAX200 is essentially an RAX80 with an extra 5Ghz band and a 2.5 GBPs port. They share the same (Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 @ 1.8 Ghz) CPU plus an 800 MHz packet co-processor . These two are Broadcom chipset based routers .

The RAX120 is a Qualcomm based unit. The main CPU (also a Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 @ 2.2 GHz) is faster by about 22% but I doubt you’d notice the difference. It also has an additional 1.7 GHz Dual Core for packet proccesing, ie deep packet inspection, QoS and so on.

Thank you. Very interesting, very detailed.

 

[dylanmitchell]

Like the RAX120 specs how is Qualcomm vs Broadcam chipset?

Asus AX88U has theBroadcom BCM49408, quad core Arm chip t 1.8 GHz, 1 GB of RAM and 256 MB of flash. Has 802.11ax support, 4x4 MIMO and 160MHz channels.

And all the RAX look like the batwing add a few stickers and you've got the best looking router in town!

 

[Synomenon]

Just discovered these two routers. My NAS is an older QNAP TS-453mini. I have multiple Galaxy S10+ units in the home and will have iPhone 11 models later this year.

I'm guessing the RAX200 would be better for my use?

 

[thiggins]

Just discovered these two routers. My NAS is an older QNAP TS-453mini. I have multiple Galaxy S10+ units in the home and will have iPhone 11 models later this year.

I'm guessing the RAX200 would be better for my use?

Better than what? Two key features of AX that are supposed to improve bandwidth use, OFDMA and MU-MIMO are not yet enabled in any shipping consumer routers. When it is enabled, AX MU-MIMO will be downlink only. Uplink will not be supported until Release 2 of the AX spec.

It is going to take awhile for OFDMA to be tuned to optimize bandwidth use efficiency.

I recommend waiting until all advertised AX features are actually supported before you pay big $ for an AX router.

What in particular is attractive about the RAX200 vs. the other AX routers available?

 

[Synomenon]

Better than the AX120.

I'll wait until release 2 of the AX spec. then.

 

[avtella]

It’s basically just an RAX80 with an extra 5Ghz band and 2.5 Gbps eth port. The RAX120 is actually the better one in my opinion, slightly faster CPU, 5Gbps eth port and a better WiFi chipset, storage performance is also better assuming they manage fix the slow Samba read issue for USB storage, because right now reads are relatively slow compared to writes which are great.

But as thiggins mentioned now is not a great time to get an AX router. Things like BSS coloring and Uplink MU MiMo and I believe even Target Wake Time aren’t available on AX current models from any company.

 

[pege63]

All is just a smoke screan for the poor enduser as always.

 

[Aqualung]

Not sure what "Release 2 of the AX spec." refers to, I'm afraid. Would that be the next iteration of the AX standard? Or was that a reference to the finished standard? (Btw, has 802.11ax been finished yet?)

 

[thiggins]

Not sure what "Release 2 of the AX spec." refers to, I'm afraid. Would that be the next iteration of the AX standard? Or was that a reference to the finished standard? (Btw, has 802.11ax been finished yet?)

That means the release after they finish the first one that is still currently in draft form.

The 11ax working group started work on Draft 6.0 in November. Estimated spec release timeline was pushed to Nov 2020 a few months ago.

 

[FarmerBob]

Members of the IEEE committee developing the new wireless LAN standard now expect the final 802.11ax release date won't arrive until mid- to late-2020. Here's what has to happen first. Many networking pros are eagerly awaiting the new high-efficiency wireless standard, which promises to radically change the Wi-Fi game. – Apr 1, 2019

https://searchnetworking.techtarget...x-release-date-Heres-what-has-to-happen-first

 

[Synomenon]

So at this point, has Netgear enabled OFDMA on the RAX120 or RAX200?