RT-AX56U vs RT-AX58U vs RT-AX3000

[K-2SO]

I've got the external amplifier screenshot from the FCC filing

Where did you get the other picture from? Engineering sample difference perhaps?
RT-AX58U and RT-AX3000 have exactly the same FCC ID - MSQ-RTAXJ300. Can't be different hardware.

 

[K-2SO]

Deciding between

Found another one for you with the same FCC ID:
ASUS TUF-AX3000 (TUF Gaming AX3000). In case you are TUF Gamer. If not so TUF, RT-AX3000 should be good.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Found another one for you with the same FCC ID:
ASUS TUF-AX3000 (TUF Gaming AX3000). In case you are TUF Gamer. If not so TUF, RT-AX3000 should be good.

I believe at the moment the TUF model is only available in China.

 

[K-2SO]

I believe at the moment the TUF model is only available in China.

TUF Gamers know no borders. GUI in Chinese is not an issue, if you are TUF enough.

 

[lucluke]

Where did you get the other picture from? Engineering sample difference perhaps?
RT-AX58U and RT-AX3000 have exactly the same FCC ID - MSQ-RTAXJ300. Can't be different hardware.

The one without external amplifier from here https://www.mbreviews.com/asus-rt-ax58u-review/#hardware :

The Asus RT-AX58U and the RT-AX3000 are not identical hardware-wise and the difference can be seen on the PCB, where the latter has a couple of Skyworks front-end modules for the 2.4GHz wireless chipset

PDF with photos with external amplifier is from FCC filing:
https://fcc.io/MSQ/-RTAXJ300

See
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-AX58U
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-AX3000
vs
http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/ASUS_TUF-AX3000

Additional chips
2.4GHz WLAN Front-End Module;Skyworks;SKY853331-11;;2;
5GHz High-Power WLAN Front-End Module;Skyworks;SKY85743;;4;

 

[K-2SO]

The one without external amplifier from here https://www.mbreviews.com/asus-rt-ax58u-review/ :

Many review sites receive products for review from manufacturers. I don't know what exactly version of this router was sent to this site. Could be pre-FCC hardware. What we know now after FCC certification is that 4 router models share the same hardware and FCC ID. It's up to you to decide which one to purchase.

 

[RMerlin]

You're right, updating I'm guessing built-in amplifiers are not as efficient as external ones?

No idea. Pretty sure that manufacturers try their best to reach the highest level of RF emission allowed by regulatory bodies. It doesn't take anything special to be able to output up to 250 mW for example.

This would explain multiple reports of poor 2.4 GHz performance of RT-AX58U?

Quite frankly, I've seen complain about 2.4 GHz performance for every single new Asus router over the years. There's always someone coming in to complain that "this router has worse 2.4 GHz wifi than my previous router". The 2.4 GHz band is so overcrowded, I bet that most of the time the "issue" is from people failing to properly configure their router. Using an Auto channel on the 2.4 GHz band often end up on an oddball channel like 2 or 5, causing you to interfere with half of the entire 2.4 GHz band. Also people getting newer routers with new advanced settings enabled by default, causing compatibility issues with cheap IoT junk. Disabling Airtime Fairness, Beamforming and MU-MIMO resolves the majority of these problems. Also setting a fixed channel, and limiting channel width to 20 MHz.

Typically if a client only supports 2.4 GHz, chances are this is either a really cheap or a really old wifi module, and is highly likely to have issues with newer features offered by modern routers.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

Yes 2.4 Ghz is old news and it sucks. Next !!

 

[GHammer]

Yes 2.4 Ghz is old news and it sucks. Next !!

Unless you come up with a different way to talk with your IoT devices, it may be old news, but it's the only thing we have.

 

[CriticJay]

@RAH-66 no RMerlin firmware, no dice! No second USB port? No worries.

I guess that means it's probably using an Intel chip right?

 

[whitey019]

Is the RT-AX58U a 2x2 or a 4x4 5Ghz router. If the latter, has anyone confirmed 4 atream link rate. Also, if the latter why does Asus say its only 2x2?

 

[L&LD]

@whitey019 RMerlin has confirmed this already. It's complicated.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/r...n-for-ac-only-client.63717/page-2#post-580548

Read the whole thread for more info.

 

[RAH-66]

Is the RT-AX58U a 2x2 or a 4x4 5Ghz router.

Router 160Mhz 2x2 client 160Mhz and router 160Mhz 2x4 client 80Mhz

 

[RAH-66]

This is incorrect. The RT-AX58U and RT-AX3000 support 2 streams in 2.4 GHz and 4 streams in 5 GHz. 5 GHz supports up to 160 MHz channel bandwidth. 2.4 GHz supports up to 40 MHz.

this is nonsense, if there were 4 streams whith 160Mhz then the speed would be 4800Mb/s

 

[thiggins]

this is nonsense, if there were 4 streams whith 160Mhz then the speed would be 4800Mb/s

I agree and deleted my post.
Have you confirmed that only two streams are supported if the router is set to 160 MHz bandwidth? I know Qualcomm-based hardware needs to do this. But Broadcom can support the same # of streams with 80 or 160 MHz B/W.

Looks like I need to confer with Merlin and my ASUS contact. You sometimes get different stories from different people.

I guess the most I can say at this point is that the RT-AX58U hardware has 4, 5 GHz and 2, 2.4 GHz RF chains. It could be that ASUS is limiting TX capabilities on 5 GHz.

 

[RAH-66]

Have you confirmed that only two streams are supported if the router is set to 160 MHz bandwidth? I know Qualcomm-based hardware needs to do this. But Broadcom can support the same # of streams with 80 or 160 MHz B/W.

rt-ax58 works with Intel AX200 / Asus PCE-AX3000 2x2 160Mhz or for example simultaneously with two iPhone 11, whose module is AX 2x2 80Mhz

 

[hyno111]

Many review sites receive products for review from manufacturers. I don't know what exactly version of this router was sent to this site. Could be pre-FCC hardware. What we know now after FCC certification is that 4 router models share the same hardware and FCC ID. It's up to you to decide which one to purchase.

Based on online pictures, The FCC have "EPA" board with front-end module. In theory every AX-58U/AX3000/AX82U with FCC certification should come with an EPA version board with front-end module.
But some AX58U reviews online have shown a variant without FCC certification, and one of them included a picture without front-end module and the board version is "IPA". The factory firmware version 384.7560 suggests it's probably not a pre-FCC version.
So, there might be more regional variants for this router besides the TUF-AX3000.

 

[K-2SO]

In theory every AX-58U/AX3000/AX82U with FCC certification should come with an EPA version board with front-end module.

This is what I expect from the same FCC ID device.
No matter what it is AX58U is a good low-cost alternative to AX88U. Not too many AX routers with Marlin support.

 

[JHZR2]

Asus RT-AX58U and the RT-AX3000 use dedicated 5GHz chip (same as in higher end models) bcm43684.

https://www.broadcom.com/products/wireless/wireless-lan-infrastructure/bcm43684

They’re both based on bcm6750

https://www.broadcom.com/products/wireless/wireless-lan-infrastructure/bcm6750

Asus RT-AX56U uses bcm6755 for everything
https://www.broadcom.com/products/wireless/wireless-lan-infrastructure/bcm6755

So, is there any good way to objectively assess the differences between these?

Not knowing any better, I’d say that the two systems on a chip are from the same family, intended for the same class of hardware, and if anything, the processor in the AX-58 is weaker than the processor in the AX-56.

I own an AX-56 for personal use. I’m looking to set up a mesh system in a block-construction house that has some WiFi reception challenges. While the AX-58 uses the 160Mhz band, it seems that the AX-56 may have better processing capability.

Am I missing something? For example, since these are system on a chip designs, does the AX-58 offload some functions to dedicated other chips, netting better overall performance (since it is rated for higher throughout) with fewer main processing cores?

Thanks!

 

[jsz]

So, is there any good way to objectively assess the differences between these?

Not knowing any better, I’d say that the two systems on a chip are from the same family, intended for the same class of hardware, and if anything, the processor in the AX-58 is weaker than the processor in the AX-56.

I own an AX-56 for personal use. I’m looking to set up a mesh system in a block-construction house that has some WiFi reception challenges. While the AX-58 uses the 160Mhz band, it seems that the AX-56 may have better processing capability.

Am I missing something? For example, since these are system on a chip designs, does the AX-58 offload some functions to dedicated other chips, netting better overall performance (since it is rated for higher throughout) with fewer main processing cores?

Thanks!

The 56U has a "better" SoC but it likely doesn't matter in terms of overall processing and device capacity. 58U uses a cut down version.. which is a "triple core" paired with a higher end BCM43684 Radio. This apparently has a 1.5ghz internal CPU-processing core itself from what I've gathered from other marketing sources.

So both of these units technically offer the same amount of "cores" albeit different functionality. The CPU cores on the 56u SoC may have some dedicated functionality for radios for example which would make the marketing advantage kinda... well useless.

The add on BCM43684 (5Ghz here) is what has 160mhz channel capability versus The SoCs limited 80mhz frequency. The 58u seems to be the better version regardless of lacking 1 cpu core on the main SoC... which again, may not actually be "real" cores. Same goes for 58U if they're counting a radio processor functionality (2.4g)

via https://www.mbreviews.com/asus-rt-ax58u-review/ :


2.4GHz in RT-AX58U is non amplified (poor performance).

Update (thanks RMerlin!):
2.4GHz in RT-AX58U is using built-in amplifiers BCM6750, probably not as efficient as external ones used in RT-AX3000 and RT-AX56U, which would explain multiple reports of poor 2.4 GHz performance of RT-AX58U.

RT-AX3000 and RT-AX56U also have built-in amplifiers for 2.4 GHz, but are using the external ones (Skyworks highly integrated front-end modules). Attached photos of amplified RT-AX3000 and non amplified RT-AX58U.

https://xenforo.com/community/help/bb-codes/

RT-AX3000 is exactly the same as the 58U. They have the same 2.4g performance outside of unit to unit variances.

I think the naming scheme contributes to where the units are built. In USA, 58U is made for Best buy and built in Taiwan currently. AX3000 is built in Vietnam if you order it from newegg, B&H, etc..... The 58u's in Europe are made in china.

TUF gaming AX3000 is different and offers external 2.4g amplifers as well as other changes such as re-enforced RJ45 jacks. These are so far currently only built in China unless America gets one... in which case, I assume this is will be built in Taiwan or Vietnam to avoid tarrifs.