Replacing AC86U with AX86S or U? Do I need additional RAM of U?

[sambosoul]

Hello everyone,

I've been using the AC86U for three years now and have been happy with it - although my first device died after a couple of month with a faulty 5GHz radio but the replacement has been stable since.

However, over the last three years, my living situation has changed significantly. I live in a condominium and I am surrounded by wireless networks - I am counting 30+ SSIDs. I am keen to jump to WiFi6 as the AC86U struggles to cover my entire apartment (75sqm). I am hoping that WiFi6 will improve coverage as I have the required client devices existing.
I live in a hot country and my apartment heats up to 30 degrees celsius when I am away and the air conditions are switched off. The AC86U runs constantly at 90-93 degrees Celsius and I heard that the AX86S/U has a better heat management.

I have ~ 15 WiFi clients permanently connected, it's a mix of 2.4GHz and 5GHz devices with the majority running on 5GHz. I have one active OpenVPN client connection active for my AppleTV in order to access streaming services. I want to move away from OpenVPN towards Wireguard client connection once there is a stable firmware version available.

I am aware of the differences between the AX86U and AX86S and the only question mark is on the need for the greater RAM in the AX86U. Right now I am consuming 393MB/512MB of my AC86U therefore leaving 119MB unallocated. The current uptime is 13 hours (there was a little power glitch last night lol).

My ISP bandwidth is 500/500

Based on these information I guess the AX86S would meet my requirements, however, I wonder if the 1GB RAM on the AX86U is more 'future-proof'? What do you guys think?

 

[Yota]

WiFi6 still uses the existing channels, so it will still be affected by your environment.

Attach a or two small cooling fans to your router, this will help keep the router cool.

RT-AX86S is more like AC86U for upgraded radios, RT-AX86U will be a better choice if you have enough budget.

Running Wireguard on a router won't be a good option in the short term in my opinion, as routers can't hardware accelerate it, which means more CPU consumption, more heat, so the AX86U's multi-core is better for Wireguard .

For Asuswrt, hardware acceleration Wireguard may not be seen anytime soon, so OpenVPN is still the most CPU-efficient option.

 

[Tech9]

What do you guys think?

If you are happy with AC86U performance, AX86S is all you need. It's the closest AC86U replacement + AX radios.