RT-AC3100 vs RT-AC68U

[maxbraketorque]

A great deal on an RT-AC3100 came up last week, so I grabbed one. Since tons of people are having issues with the radios apparently burning up, I purchased a laptop cooler (Cooler Master CM NotePal X-Lite II (R9-NBC-XL2K-GP, $22 shipped on Amazon Prime). I like the Cooler Master coolers because unlike many of the other brands out there, this laptop cooler blows air up out the top and towards the laptop (or router in this case). Its a great looking cooler and is the perfect physical size for the RT-AC3100. The airflow rate is not as high as I expected compared to a large one I'm using for an HP laptop that cooks itself without it, but radio temperatures are around 50C, and CPU temperature is around 62C, so the fan seems to be working well.

My setup is pretty basic. I have all the AI stuff, QOS, and Smart Connect disabled. I have some port forwarding rules set up, and I tweaked the wifi band advanced settings a bit, but that's it.

I spent the better part of the weekend tinkering with speed tests and Smart Connect. I tried hard to make Smart Connect work, but ultimately, I gave up. Speed test comparisons were no problem, and for that, the RT-AC3100 (A6) soundly beat my RT-AC68U (B1) both in near field and far field tests with my 2016 Macbook Pro (N/AC 3x3). AC link rates and measured up/down speeds both near (within 15 ft AC) and far (50+ feet N, 2.4 GHz) from the router were double or nearly double. I found that if I gave the 5 GHz band its own SSID and gave it preference over the 2.4 GHz band in my MBP wireless settings, my MBP would stay connected to AC in the long range tests, and in those cases, speeds were quadruple compared to what my RT-AC68U would do in those locations on N, 2.4 GHz. This is quite different than what I expected would happen based on the router ranker tests. I was guessing a slight benefit or null benefit for the RT-AC3100.

Overall networking responsiveness feels improved with the RT-AC3100 as well even in areas of the house with strong signal strength.

Bottomline is that as long as the router OS remains stable and doesn't cook a radio, I'll be quite happy with it.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Well there is no question the 3100 is a better router then the 68 just look at the hardware. I bought my 3100 in NOV 2015 and it has smoked my old 68 in every way. I have also never had the radios burn out and have never used a fan even in the heat of the summer when my AC was off.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Now that I have some time with it, I totally agree that the 3100 smokes the 68U, but opinions on SNB forums are definitely mixed.

 

[doczenith1]

I only found the 3100 to be marginally better than my 68U but that was a year ago. Perhaps newer firmware has woken up the 3100. Once I figure out why my brand new Pixel 2 XL stutters during speedtests (my old Moto X3 handily beats it) I plan on doing a similar comparison between my 68U and 1 day old 86U.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/side-by-side-68u-vs-3100.35994/#post-293166

 

[maxbraketorque]

I only found the 3100 to be marginally better than my 68U but that was a year ago. Perhaps newer firmware has woken up the 3100. Once I figure out why my brand new Pixel 2 XL stutters during speedtests (my old Moto X3 handily beats it) I plan on doing a similar comparison between my 68U and 1 day old 86U.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/side-by-side-68u-vs-3100.35994/#post-293166

ok, now I remember reading your thread when you posted it a year ago and thinking that I shouldn't bother purchasing an AC3100/AC88U. Seems that I totally forgot about it. lol. It looks to me that we were fairly comparable in our testing thoroughness, but I did focus on using wired<->wifi file transfers from/to my Macmini for my initial tests. I used a folder containing ~1200 files with a total size of about 700 MB, and I also used a single large ~600 MB file. Transfers were performed via SMB3. However, later I did perform additional tests using Ookla Speedtest from my Galaxy Note 8 to obtain more info on far field performance where I knew the wifi signal would be the rate-limiting flow of data. Those results confirmed my wired<->wifi observations that the AC3100 was at least 2x faster.

For the wifi settings, I left universal beamforming enabled, but it shouldn't matter much, and it only would have mattered for the far field tests where I was comparing 2.4 GHz N performance. Other changes from the stock settings were to disable MU-MIMO, and to disable Tx bursting. Neither should make any difference in performance, but I wanted them disabled since I had no intent to utilize either capability.

One thing I did learn in this testing is that 802.11AC range can be quite good with the AC3100. At the furthest end of my main floor where the signal is weakest (-70 to -76 dBm), both 2.4 GHz N and 5 GHz AC had similar signal strength values, but link rates and and especially transfer speeds were up to 2x better on 5 GHz AC.

Perhaps one difference for our tests could be the density of other wifi networks. The housing density around my house is fairly low. I can't see any of my neighbors 5 GHz networks from anywhere in my house, and the strongest 2.4 GHz network is below -84 dBm.

 

[doczenith1]

When I did the test last year I couldn't "see" any other 5 ghz networks. I'm in your typical 1/3 acre lot subdivision. Now there is one other 5 ghz network sharing the 80 mhz wide channel that I am using. Wifi Radar shows the other 5 ghz network at -81 dBm. The time of my testing in winter also stinks as I would like to do a test at the fringe of my coverage but don't feel like spending hours out in the cold. I'll have to utilize the truck again I also plan on using the DSLReports speedtest as I find it more consistent.

Thought I had the Pixel figured out for a second. Put on airplane mode and turned on just wifi and it hit 503 down and 741 up on the speedtest app. Tried the same thing a day later and no dice.

 

[maxbraketorque]

Neighbor network density sounds about the same as mine.