What is dual core ?

[Lethasniper007]

Just purchased the Rt-ac664u and I don't see anything saying dual core does this router support that? What is dual core and what's it good for will I notice a diff with it or not. We do a lot of gaming in my house hold most of the time there are 2 consoles online

 

[microchip]

Never heard of dual core or quad core CPUs? This is no different. The AC66U has only a single core CPU running at 600MHz. I doubt it will have much effect on your gaming experience

 

[Lethasniper007]

Just did some research on dual core routers and it says better for online gaming less lag better performance then a router without dual core

 

[L&LD]

Just did some research on dual core routers and it says better for online gaming less lag better performance then a router without dual core

Of course it does; marketing.

 

[huotg01]

Just purchased the Rt-ac664u and I don't see anything saying dual core does this router support that? What is dual core and what's it good for will I notice a diff with it or not. We do a lot of gaming in my house hold most of the time there are 2 consoles online

If your router is doing just ...routing, you should have no problem with this single core. If you start using your router as a NAS, with a USB disk attached to it, as a torrent downloader, as a VPN actor, and you are at the same time playing games, then you could need the dual core.

 

[Hexabion]

..so N66U is a dual-core mipsel, and AC66U is single core arm?

 

[microchip]

..so N66U is a dual-core mipsel, and AC66U is single core arm?

No, single core MIPS

 

[huotg01]

If your router is doing just ...routing, you should have no problem with this single core. If you start using your router as a NAS, with a USB disk attached to it, as a torrent downloader, as a VPN actor, and you are at the same time playing games, then you could need the dual core.

What I had in mind was a ac56U, or a AC68U.

 

[System Error Message]

it doesnt matter how many cores your router has, what matters is how fast can they route your game packets and in performing QoS. You arent missing much for dual core routers as they have to give up a lot of NAT performance just for QoS.

My router has 36 cores running at 1.2Ghz per core

 

[L&LD]

it doesnt matter how many cores your router has, what matters is how fast can they route your game packets and in performing QoS. You arent missing much for dual core routers as they have to give up a lot of NAT performance just for QoS.

My router has 36 cores running at 1.2Ghz per core

Of course it matters how many cores a router has. How fast it is at routing is directly related to the number and performance of those cores.

Any current router with less than two cores is not a current router in my view. And yes, you do miss a lot if you skip a dual core router today. Even if not gaming, per se.

 

[Lethasniper007]

So if I'm gaming I should use a dual core router. Which Asus should I buy? What about the night hawk it's a dual core ?

 

[huotg01]

So if I'm gaming I should use a dual core router. Which Asus should I buy? What about the night hawk it's a dual core ?

As said L&LD, of course it matters how many cores a router has.

That said, why do you (or did you) change your router ? As long as your actual router is not a bottleneck in one of your activities, there is no reason to change it.

But if you have to change it, and want to keep it for at least one year, you should buy a dual core, and if you go for wireless speed, a router with the ac standard. That could be the ac56u, if the space to cover is not that big, the ac68u for a large home.

 

[Lethasniper007]

What's wrong with the asus rt-ac66u compare to ac56u and the ac68u which out of the three for gaming

 

[L&LD]

Nothing wrong with the RT-AC66U, except it is based on the same hardware as the RT-N66U and is also a generation 1 AC class router, that frankly is ancient today.

For the small price difference to the latest gen Asus routers, the RT-AC66U is not worth considering, imo.

 

[huotg01]

What's wrong with the asus rt-ac66u compare to ac56u and the ac68u which out of the three for gaming

I understand that you now have the ac66u., and I suppose that everything is working well, and you are satisfied. My advice? Keep it until it no longer delivers the level of service that you expect from your router. If nothing change in the way you use your router, you could be very happy with it for another year, maybe more. At first I thought that you were changing your router.

 

[Shonk]

Dont talk through your butt it has a BCM4360 for AC the same as the AC68U
Asus are just being lazy and not using the latest sdk for it

Nothing wrong with the RT-AC66U, except it is based on the same hardware as the RT-N66U and is also a generation 1 AC class router, that frankly is ancient today.

For the small price difference to the latest gen Asus routers, the RT-AC66U is not worth considering, imo.

 

[L&LD]

Dont talk through your butt it has a BCM4360 for AC the same as the AC68U
Asus are just being lazy and not using the latest sdk for it

The radio is not the only thing that defines a platform, nor is it the most important component either.

Both the 'N66 and the 'AC66 are based on the same cpu, the Broadcom BCM4706 (single core).

While the RT-AC56U and RT-AC68U both feature a Broadcom BCM4708A (dual core) processor and the RT-87U featuring an embedded Synopsys ARC 700 32 bit RISC processor in addition to the main Broadcom BCM4709A cpu.

Asus can't magically enable old and out of date platforms to work with the latest sdk's just because you feel they should. The hardware has to be able to actually run it too.


http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...32120-inside-story-asus-rt-ac56u-and-rt-ac68u

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...less-ac2400-gigabit-router-first-look?start=1

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...al-band-wireless-n900-gigabit-router-reviewed

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...1900-first-look-netgear-r7000-a-asus-rt-ac68u

 

[Shonk]

the sdk is simply for the drivers for the radio and such

so what if it has a 600mhz mips cpu that has nothing to do with using an old sdk

by that reasoning people on a pc
running a broadcom wifi card on a single core cpu
should be stuck on old drivers in comparison to multi cpu user's

the cpu has nothing at all to do with the sdk/driver version

the duel core cpu is only needed for higher level quos/vpn and such
the mips cpu is quite capable of saturating the BCM4360
with little cpu use

the only gains on the ac68u over the ac66u
are a faster cpu for qos/vpn and turbo qam on 2.4ghz
which is next to useless as broadcom 2.4ghz is cheaks

 

[RMerlin]

the cpu has nothing at all to do with the sdk/driver version

Actually, it does.

The RT-AC68U is what Broadcom calls a "Northstar platform". It's based on an ARM architecture instead of MIPS, and it's also dual-core while the previous MIPS platform was single core. Broadcom provides a different SDK for Northstar, which uses a newer kernel. That new SDK wasn't designed for the previous platform, and most likely aren't officially support by Broadcom either.

A similar issue is currently occurring with SDK7. Asus had planned to upgrade their ARM routers to SDK7, however this has been delayed for months because SDK7 isn't compatible with the BCM4630 at this time. Broadcom were supposed to fix it, but so far it's not the case yet. So at this time, SDK7 is only compatible with the Xtream platform, altho it _should_ eventually be made compatible with the 4630 as well. When that will happen is up to Broadcom, not Asus.

An SDK isn't just the wireless driver - it also includes the kernel, the build environment, system-specific components such as the nvram manipulation library, etc...

Bottom line, Broadcom develops and supports SDK versions for specific platforms. Upgrading older platforms with newer SDKs isn't always under Asus's control.

 

[Shonk]

I realise that its not always at asus's end
but even if it's at broadcom's feet its upto asus to push broadcom
for working dfc/tpc and such

The point i was trying to make though is that this quote is guff

"is also a generation 1 AC class router, that frankly is ancient today"

The AC chipset is exactly the same on both router's

who the lazy party is im sure you have a far better idea than me
be it asus or broadcom

the situation with the ac66 though is a bit of a joke in europe
stuck on only 4 5ghz channels with no dfs or tpc, beam forming

when the hardware clearly supports it

now if thats down to asus being too lazy to update to the latest sdk
or broadcom failing to port everything to the latest kernel i have no idea