RT-AC86U or RT-AX88U if buying now?

[sanke1]

了I have been returned the ax88u, and I am not sure what router I should buy since the ax router is so buggy. I have two ac68u in Aimesh. Something the ax88u Wi-Fi performance is worse than ac68u.

I upgraded from RT-AC68U and it was an incredible upgrade. I am getting range and speed in my house where previous RT-AC68U had zero signal. I also like the fact that RT-AX88U reboots super quickly in almost 30 secs.

 

[ankhazam]

Ax88u works great for me!
Upgraded from AC87U

 

[jc_hwz]

Ax88u works great for me!
Upgraded from AC87U

Do you have any experience on Wi-Fi speed drop

 

[sanke1]

Do you have any experience on Wi-Fi speed drop

There is zero wifi issue on firmware 3.0.0.4.384_6436. You just have to wait few days for Asus to release updated firmware or use latest Merlin firmware which is 384.15 alpha from Jan 15th 2020 from here

 

[jc_hwz]

There is zero wifi issue on firmware 3.0.0.4.384_6436. You just have to wait few days for Asus to release updated firmware or use latest Merlin firmware which is 384.15 alpha from Jan 15th 2020 from here

I try 6436, but I still get the Wi-Fi issue. For example, my Samsung TV didn't get connection after couple hours, but it didn't happen in ac68u.

 

[ankhazam]

Running latest 384.15 alpha based on 7756... Running 40MHz@2.4G and 160MHz@5G...
Got about 20 clients...

• 10xN@2.4G,
• 9xAC@5G
• and 1xAX@5G...

No drops... everything works fine with WPA1/2/3 and PMF...

Maybe you have some Professional settings wrong? When I have initially set my AX88U almost half of my clients couldn't connect but with the settings below everything works great:

BR,
Ank

 

[tallytr]

I was very close to getting the AX88U, right now using the AC86U but since we only have one AX client (iphone 11) and to be honest, AC speeds are plenty I struggled to see the benefit for me...at this time...
Wired internet speeds are Gigabit so no issue here with my ISP supply speeds...
Not using USB, only using one LAN port to connect to our home network (multiple switches....)
More than OK with AC86U 2.4GHz coverage, 5GHz is great.
So I will wait another year for sure. Probably the RT-AX86U when its out and the firmware is at least as good as the current firmware for the AC86U...and that took 2 years?

 

[MarkyPancake]

My 2017 manufactured AC86U is still going strong, but am keeping an eye on the AX88U development and prices. The problem right now, likely due to COVID-19 and people regularly at home more than ever before, is router demand is high, so prices are pretty much RRP.

 

[jsz]

Its a matter of price to performance between these two. AC86U is kind of the "price king" for all sorts of router features including VPN speed with merlin firmware.

The AX88U has faster internal Broadcom SoCs for the radios that apparently run at 1.5 ghz according to arris marketing but I'm not sure if this has a significant difference over the last generation 800mhz variants in the AC wave 2 chips. I would assume this helps with speed and responsive of the WIFI radio all around.

The main CPU is quite similar on both. Its a dual core vs quad core variant of a 1.8ghz 64 bit A53 ARM design.

Ram is also doubled on the AX88U, but I'm not sure if that will make a difference. I just noticed my specific GT-AC2900 (AC86U Reband) is pushing 400mb use with everything I have enabled..so that should help with newer SW down the road if stuff starts really using RAM.

AX86U might be a better option but its yet to be priced officially in western markets. Should be anywhere from $280-300 based on features and i'd be shocked if ASUS prices it closer to the 88u for the sake of a 2.5g port advantage (88u has more ethernet to compensate).

CPU, Ram, 5G radio are identical to 88U. Only real difference is a newer 3x3 AX design vs the 88U's 4x4 radio for 2.4ghz.

Looks like a $170-200 vs $280-300 price difference at that point which isn't that bad considering the upgrades I guess.

Main Cpu: 2c>4c
Ram: 512mb>1024mb
Radio SoC speed (4x4 5g): 800mhz>1.5ghz
1gb >2.5gb port for file transfer/WAN, should have higher VPN performance.

Pretty much doubles capability on everything, but it comes down to if you "need it" really. I personally do not like the idea of spending over $200 on a router thats typically dated in 4-5 years time.

 

[Stuey3D]

Its a matter of price to performance between these two. AC86U is kind of the "price king" for all sorts of router features including VPN speed with merlin firmware.

The AX88U has faster internal Broadcom SoCs for the radios that apparently run at 1.5 ghz according to arris marketing but I'm not sure if this has a significant difference over the last generation 800mhz variants in the AC wave 2 chips. I would assume this helps with speed and responsive of the WIFI radio all around.

The main CPU is quite similar on both. Its a dual core vs quad core variant of a 1.8ghz 64 bit A53 ARM design.

Ram is also doubled on the AX88U, but I'm not sure if that will make a difference. I just noticed my specific GT-AC2900 (AC86U Reband) is pushing 400mb use with everything I have enabled..so that should help with newer SW down the road if stuff starts really using RAM.

AX86U might be a better option but its yet to be priced officially in western markets. Should be anywhere from $280-300 based on features and i'd be shocked if ASUS prices it closer to the 88u for the sake of a 2.5g port advantage (88u has more ethernet to compensate).

CPU, Ram, 5G radio are identical to 88U. Only real difference is a newer 3x3 AX design vs the 88U's 4x4 radio for 2.4ghz.

Looks like a $170-200 vs $280-300 price difference at that point which isn't that bad considering the upgrades I guess.

Main Cpu: 2c>4c
Ram: 512mb>1024mb
Radio SoC speed (4x4 5g): 800mhz>1.5ghz
1gb >2.5gb port for file transfer/WAN, should have higher VPN performance.

Pretty much doubles capability on everything, but it comes down to if you "need it" really. I personally do not like the idea of spending over $200 on a router thats typically dated in 4-5 years time.

To be honest I’m not sure how the RAM is used on these things. On my 68U which only has 256MB of RAM it used to hover around 100Mb free, and I’ve now got a 86U with 512MB of RAM and pretty much the exact same config as the 68U except that I am now using AIMesh and it too also hovers around 100MB free.

It seems to be the case that if it has the RAM it will use it regardless, kinda like macOS in the last few years. The thing I’ve noticed about the 86U over the 68U is that the processor is used significantly less which makes sense as its far more powerful and as such the QOS I have set up seems to respond almost instantly.

 

[jsz]

To be honest I’m not sure how the RAM is used on these things. On my 68U which only has 256MB of RAM it used to hover around 100Mb free, and I’ve now got a 86U with 512MB of RAM and pretty much the exact same config as the 68U except that I am now using AIMesh and it too also hovers around 100MB free.

It seems to be the case that if it has the RAM it will use it regardless, kinda like macOS in the last few years. The thing I’ve noticed about the 86U over the 68U is that the processor is used significantly less which makes sense as its far more powerful and as such the QOS I have set up seems to respond almost instantly.

Not sure. I hover at around 400mb use~

As for CPU use, the 86U has much more powerful Radio SoC's with built in A7 processor cores. Main CPU load is reflective of this. The newer AX radios apparently almost double the speed of the 86U's Radio SoC's

 

[K-2SO]

To be honest I’m not sure how the RAM is used on these things. On my 68U which only has 256MB of RAM it used to hover around 100Mb free, and I’ve now got a 86U with 512MB of RAM and pretty much the exact same config as the 68U except that I am now using AIMesh and it too also hovers around 100MB free.

Those two routers use different hardware and run different software. The GUI is the same.