Stop being ASUS's unpaid Beta Testers! Wi-Fi 6 is the real King

[mrhai2344]

"I’m tired of seeing people throwing $800 - $1000 at Wi-Fi 7 or Wi-Fi 8 'AI' routers only to come here and cry about bugs. Let me educate you:

1. The 'AI' Scam: You guys saw the GT-BE96_AI and thought it’s the future? Look at the facts! The NPU is literally dead weight. You try to run a local LLM or even the native Frigate, and the CPU hits 100% because the drivers are a closed-source disaster. You paid for an NPU that does... NOTHING.
2. Stability vs. Hype: Wi-Fi 6 (and 6E) is mature technology. The Broadcom drivers are rock-solid, the firmware is refined, and the thermal management is predictable. My GT-AX11000 Pro sits at a cool 66°C without even needing an external fan. Can your Wi-Fi 7 furnace do that without crashing?
3. The 'Walled Garden' Trap: These new SoCs (like the Synaptics SL1680) are black boxes. No community support, no RMerlin magic (yet), and no compatibility with standard tools.

My Advice: Stop wasting money on 'bleeding-edge' tech that makes you a miserable human. Stick to high-end Wi-Fi 6. It’s faster than your internet plan anyway, it doesn't overheat, and it actually WORKS.

 

[Rabbit-Spec]

it seems we are both struggling with the exact same hardware limitations on this new platform.

 

[Poul Bak]

This is me copying a huge file WIRELESS to my nas with Wifi 7 + MLO (no PR BS, no technical nonsense, just a measurement):

I rest my case.

 

[Ripshod]

It seems those who struggled with a wifi7 router configuration are the first to paint all wifi7 router's and all configurations with the same poorly coloured brush.
Everything fine here too

 

[BrimoXD99]

"I’m tired of seeing people throwing $800 - $1000 at Wi-Fi 7 or Wi-Fi 8 'AI' routers only to come here and cry about bugs. Let me educate you:

1. The 'AI' Scam: You guys saw the GT-BE96_AI and thought it’s the future? Look at the facts! The NPU is literally dead weight. You try to run a local LLM or even the native Frigate, and the CPU hits 100% because the drivers are a closed-source disaster. You paid for an NPU that does... NOTHING.
2. Stability vs. Hype: Wi-Fi 6 (and 6E) is mature technology. The Broadcom drivers are rock-solid, the firmware is refined, and the thermal management is predictable. My GT-AX11000 Pro sits at a cool 66°C without even needing an external fan. Can your Wi-Fi 7 furnace do that without crashing?
3. The 'Walled Garden' Trap: These new SoCs (like the Synaptics SL1680) are black boxes. No community support, no RMerlin magic (yet), and no compatibility with standard tools.

My Advice: Stop wasting money on 'bleeding-edge' tech that makes you a miserable human. Stick to high-end Wi-Fi 6. It’s faster than your internet plan anyway, it doesn't overheat, and it actually WORKS.

If people would follow your advice and stay away from new things, new technologies, new features, etc... then we would still be riding horses and making a heat burning wood.

 

[machinist]

"I’m tired of seeing people throwing $800 - $1000 at Wi-Fi 7 or Wi-Fi 8 'AI' routers only to come here and cry about bugs. Let me educate you:

1. The 'AI' Scam: You guys saw the GT-BE96_AI and thought it’s the future? Look at the facts! The NPU is literally dead weight. You try to run a local LLM or even the native Frigate, and the CPU hits 100% because the drivers are a closed-source disaster. You paid for an NPU that does... NOTHING.
2. Stability vs. Hype: Wi-Fi 6 (and 6E) is mature technology. The Broadcom drivers are rock-solid, the firmware is refined, and the thermal management is predictable. My GT-AX11000 Pro sits at a cool 66°C without even needing an external fan. Can your Wi-Fi 7 furnace do that without crashing?
3. The 'Walled Garden' Trap: These new SoCs (like the Synaptics SL1680) are black boxes. No community support, no RMerlin magic (yet), and no compatibility with standard tools.

My Advice: Stop wasting money on 'bleeding-edge' tech that makes you a miserable human. Stick to high-end Wi-Fi 6. It’s faster than your internet plan anyway, it doesn't overheat, and it actually WORKS.

Strong third post

 

[Ripshod]

Strong third post

First post was pushing a script tested on a couple of wifi7 router's

 

[NightOwl3261]

Actually he makes very common sense arguments at wifi 6 rounters etc

 

[sfx2000]

"I’m tired of seeing people throwing $800 - $1000 at Wi-Fi 7 or Wi-Fi 8 'AI' routers only to come here and cry about bugs. Let me educate you:

SNIP

My Advice: Stop wasting money on 'bleeding-edge' tech that makes you a miserable human. Stick to high-end Wi-Fi 6. It’s faster than your internet plan anyway, it doesn't overheat, and it actually WORKS.

If folks want to spend that kind of money on a router/ap/gateway, it's their choice...

It's not for us to judge, eh?

sfx

 

[Tech9]

I also don't mind someone else paying and testing things for me.

 

[mrhai2344]

Wi-Fi 7 needs 2 to 3 more years to mature. Early adopters can experiment now, but for a stable experience, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E remain the best choices.

"Wi-Fi 7 is like a concept supercar: stunning on paper, but a headache to daily drive on today's roads. Stick with Wi-Fi 6/6E if you want a reliable 'daily driver'."

 

[mrhai2344]

If people would follow your advice and stay away from new things, new technologies, new features, etc... then we would still be riding horses and making a heat burning wood.

You talk about progress, but you’re confusing 'innovation' with 'incompetence.' These routers are marketed as 'god-tier' tech, yet they perform like trash in real-world scenarios. What’s the point of 'cutting-edge' hardware when the software is lagging miles behind and the dev team is too slow to fix basic bugs? Stop defending a company that treats its customers like beta testers who pay for the privilege of suffering.

 

[mrhai2344]

SNIP


If folks want to spend that kind of money on a router/ap/gateway, it's their choice...

It's not for us to judge, eh?

sfx

Saying 'it's their choice' is just a lazy way to ignore the systemic issues in the industry. This is a technical forum, not a lifestyle blog—our primary role here is to evaluate hardware performance and software integrity.

When people pay a premium for 'AI' routers that can't even utilize their own NPU for basic tasks like Frigate or LLMs, they aren't making an 'informed choice'; they are being misled by marketing hype. If we stop holding brands accountable for selling half-baked 'concepts' as finished products, we aren't being non-judgmental—we’re just becoming an unpaid marketing department for ASUS.

Warning others about being unpaid beta testers isn't about judging their wallet; it's about protecting the community from a race to the bottom

 

[mrhai2344]

This is me copying a huge file WIRELESS to my nas with Wifi 7 + MLO (no PR BS, no technical nonsense, just a measurement):

View attachment 70343
I rest my case.

Your screenshot proves exactly what the critics are saying. You've got a system bottleneck where your 240 MB/s transfer is limited by your drive, not your Wi-Fi—even Wi-Fi 10 wouldn't help here. You're stuck in 'Beta Tester' mode with an unoptimized Intel BE201, evidenced by that jagged, unstable graph. It’s a total waste of resources to run 802.11be only to see a measly 4.2 Mbps receive speed. You're paying a premium for a future that clearly isn't ready for prime time

 

[Ripshod]

Another one who makes my ignore list

 

[Tech9]

Stop defending a company that treats its customers like beta testers who pay for the privilege of suffering.

Okay... but in this specific case the company actually delivering Wi-Fi technologies to ASUS is Broadcom. False advertising starts there and just gets amplified by the device manufacturer(s). It was the same with every Wi-Fi generation. With Wi-Fi 6 Beamforming and MU-MIMO were widely advertised and not supported by many devices, both APs ans STAs, all the way until Wi-Fi 7 arrived. The same will happen to Wi-Fi 7. Whatever makes sense MLO and AFC won't be supported until Wi-Fi 8 arrives and then the cycle restarts.

 

[mrhai2344]

Okay... but in this specific case the company actually delivering Wi-Fi technologies to ASUS is Broadcom. False advertising starts there and just gets amplified by the device manufacturer(s). It was the same with every Wi-Fi generation. With Wi-Fi 6 Beamforming and MU-MIMO were widely advertised and not supported by many devices, both APs ans STAs, all the way until Wi-Fi 7 arrived. The same will happen to Wi-Fi 7. Whatever makes sense MLO and AFC won't be supported until Wi-Fi 8 arrives and then the cycle restarts.

The fact that this deception has become a 'cycle' doesn't make it acceptable—it makes it a systemic scam. You're basically asking us to be 'fine' with paying a premium for half-baked hardware just because Broadcom and ASUS have a history of over-promising. That’s a defeatist mindset that only serves the corporate bottom line.

If we keep normalizing these broken launches—like MU-MIMO on Wi-Fi 6 or the current MLO mess on Wi-Fi 7—we are literally subsidizing their incompetence. A $1,000 router is sold as a finished professional tool, not a 'kickstarter' project that might work by the time Wi-Fi 8 arrives.

And let's not blame it all on the Wi-Fi generation. Look at the NPU on the latest ASUS models: it’s literally dead weight because of closed-source drivers and zero ecosystem support. That’s not an 'industry cycle,' that’s a deliberate choice to sell a lie for profit. Stop making excuses for them

 

[Tech9]

makes it a systemic scam

Agree.

You're basically asking us to be 'fine' with paying a premium for half-baked hardware

No, your money and your decisions. I have purchased >10 new Wi-Fi 6 APs in last year or so and planning to skip entirely Wi-Fi 7 generation. I don't overpay for residential ISP lines (>Gigabit) and >800Mbps on Wi-Fi is plenty for any mobile client. All my high bandwidth low latency demanding clients are wired, Wi-Fi is convenience first technology. No issues whatsoever here, just watching the show.

 

[Tech9]

we are literally subsidizing their incompetence

My advice to everyone around is to vote with their wallets. I can't recommend any ASUS BE-class routers because they have broken firmware features since initial release (never fixed) and aggressive false advertising (more than others). The only way to oppose this behavior is to stop buying their products or return immediately products not working as advertised. Again, own money and own decisions. Some folks don't know anything better and just accept the "ASUS experience" the way it is. Most folks around SNB Forums purchase ASUS routers because or Asuswrt-Merlin firmware and Custom Scripts ecosystem - fact.

 

[Volt]

Great article on RTINGS.com, which seems relevant. (The Disappointing Truth About Wi-Fi 7 - The Dream Of Multi-Link Operation Isn't Yet Here)