Is that this premium WiFi 6E gaming router value your cash? Up to date: Jun 11, 2024 12:46 pm WePC is reader-supported. Whenever you purchase by means of hyperlinks on our website, we might earn an affiliate fee. Costs topic to alter. Study extra Desk of Contents Desk of Contents The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is one more very high-end gaming router from the Taiwanese tech large. The corporate is completely dominating the premium gaming market, with little or no competitors from different manufacturers, but they carry on placing them out, not that we’re complaining! Learn beneath for our look over the options of this machine, plus the outcomes of our efficiency testing. Professionals excessive bandwidth quad-band WiFi a number of excessive Gbps ethernet connections quick processor ASUS Ai mesh expertise characteristic wealthy software program Cons costly at full worth file switch speeds through WiFi are a bit underwhelming now not the most recent WiFi customary a giant, garish machine that takes up a variety of area 1x 2.4GHz (1,148 Mbps), 2x 5GHz (4,804 Mbps), 1x 6GHz (4,804 Mbps) 2GB DDR4 RAM + 256MB flash reminiscence 1x USB 2.0 Kind-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Kind-C General Design An open, empty product field displayed on a white floor in a room surrounded by colourful, blurred ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router packing containers. Black ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router in a glossy field with foam padding, that includes a outstanding emblem on the highest cowl beneath comfortable lighting. Unboxed ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 gaming router evaluate, with its packaging, cables, and instruction handbook on a white floor. Excessive-tech ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router with eight antennas on a white desk, surrounded by colourful gaming PC element packing containers. Excessive-performance ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router with a number of antennas and customizable RGB lighting on a desk, branded with the WEPC emblem. Shut-up evaluate of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router’s aspect panel exhibiting labels for “wps” and “led” indicators, with a blurred colourful background. Shut-up of an ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router with two 10ge (10 gigabit ethernet) ports seen, targeted on the connection sockets. Shut-up of the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router’s again panel displaying varied ports together with WAN, LAN, and a reset button, with a blurred background. Shut-up of the again panel on the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router exhibiting a dc-in port, energy button, and usb ports, flanked by purple led lights. Shut-up of a black ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router with illuminated particulars in opposition to a purple background. Shut-up of a high-performance ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router with a number of antennas, targeted on the illuminated emblem and vents, set in opposition to a soft-focus colourful background. Earlier Subsequent As is frequent amongst ASUS gaming routers launched during the last couple of years, the GT-AXE16000 has a spider-like look with eight antennas designed to maximise Wi-Fi protection. Half of the highest of the router is roofed by a reflective mirrored panel, which we should say attracts smudges extraordinarily simply, and displays the lights from the router and every other supply: this isn’t a delicate wanting machine the least bit, together with its dimension, which is big, making the place to conveniently place it a attainable problem. The router has quad-band frequencies: one 2.4GHz, two 5GHz, and one 6GHz (for these WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 gadgets that may utilise it), with a mixed most (theoretical) bandwidth of round 16,000Mbps (or 16Gbps), therefore the title GT-AXE16000. The WAN connection, which for the uninitiated hyperlinks to your exterior broadband connection, has a 2.5Gbps bandwidth, which implies that is the efficient peak web bandwidth you’ll be able to obtain, although that is nonetheless effectively above what most individuals in a lot of the world have entry to. Moreover the WAN port, you get six ethernet ports that can be utilized to arrange LAN connections: 4 of those have a 1Gbps bandwidth, whereas two go all the best way as much as 10Gbps – clearly effectively past the broadband WAN enter however probably helpful for knowledge transference for those who’re shifting some critically giant file sizes. Hyperlink aggregation can be supported for those who want to mix two of the 1Gbps cables collectively right into a single 2Gbps knowledge channel. Different options Like all latest high-end ASUS routers, the ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 comes with AiMesh expertise, that means you’ll be able to setup a mesh community between totally different ASUS routers which have this characteristic, with out them needing to be the identical mannequin such as you usually would with most different manufacturers. The router comes with the standard WiFi 6E options you’d count on like MU-MIMO knowledge streaming, WPA3 encryption, OFDMA, Goal Wake Time, a most 160MHz channel bandwidth, and 1,024 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). You additionally get gamer-focused QOS options designed to prioritize gaming bandwidth over every other customers of your community, making certain minimal efficiency drops. By way of the onboard software program, the cellular app you’ll be able to obtain to handle the router is definitely fairly intuitive and effectively designed – a refreshing change from say the ASUS Armoury Crate software program you discover on laptops. Inside the settings you’ll be able to configure your customary Wi-Fi, WAN, and LAN settings, plus arrange totally different net filters for various age teams inside the Household menu, edit basic safety choices, view the gadgets in your community and your typical diagnostic info, and extra. Pricing When it initially went on sale again in 2022, the GT-AXE1600 had an MSRP of $699.99, which was rightly thought of to be a really excessive asking worth by most reviewers on the time. The value has dropped to $599.99 since then and we’d nonetheless think about this a steep asking worth given 6E is now not the most recent WiFi customary (although nonetheless completely wonderful for the overwhelming majority off customers), nonetheless we’ve seen it on provide for $499.99 of late, and this can be a lot extra cheap for a premium gaming router. Efficiency The utmost bandwidth of our web is sadly not ample to check the capabilities of the router to succeed in the claimed most Mbps on the totally different frequency bandwidths (the max we are able to get is round 280Mbps). What we may do nonetheless is conduct a sign energy check at varied distances. In layman’s phrases, a weaker sign successfully means you’ll get pleasure from a decrease proportion of the bandwidth, and will provide you with a good indication of how far the efficient vary of the router will likely be on your wants. We additionally examined the learn and wire speeds of the router when doing file transfers. This could assist provide you with an concept of the efficient capacity of the router to maneuver recordsdata through the LAN connections. Sign energy check Sign energy is measured in dBm (decibel milliwatts). It’s not instantly intuitive how the measuring system works however -30 dBm is the proper end result for a sign at one finish of the dimensions, with across the -90 dBm mark usually signifying disconnection on the backside finish: the higher outcomes are these nearer to -30 dBm, although something across the -50 dBm to -67 dBm vary is taken into account good. As you’ll be able to see beneath the most effective outcomes have been these taken 10 toes away from the router, as you’d count on, with out a lot distinction between the totally different frequency bands. At 30 toes away (with no obstructions) and 60 toes away (with a single wall in the best way), the outcomes have been effectively inside the -50 dBm to -67 dBm window. At 90 toes away with two partitions between the machine and the router, we seen vital variations between the totally different frequency bands, with the two.4GHz band performing finest as is typical as a result of larger penetration of its frequency, the 5Ghz band simply barely getting by means of, and the 6GHz channel struggling to make a connection (it alternated between a really poor connection round 50% of the time and being fully disconnected for the opposite half). At these distances then (with this many partitions in the best way), you’ll be able to solely actually depend on the two.4GHz band. Distance2.4GHz5GHz6GHz10ft (clear line of sight)-41dBm-40dBm-44dBm30ft (clear line of sight)-54dBm-52dBm-56dBm60ft (1x blocking wall)-60dBm-59dBm-59dBm90ft (2x blocking partitions)-75dBm-87dBmcouldn’t join / -92dBm File switch check To check the utility of the GT-AXE1600 WiFi from a file sharing perspective, we related our testing laptop computer through WiFi (utilizing the 5GHz band) to the router after which related an SSD to the router through a USB-C 3.0 connection to the port on the router. We had the laptop computer positioned round 10 foot away. We then examined the bit fee when transferring an 18GB file (particularly a sport file from the Murderer’s Creed Valhalla folder) from the laptop computer to the SSD (the Write velocity), after which again once more (the Learn velocity). These aren’t the most effective outcomes we should say, and we have been hoping for an extra 10-15Mbps larger to maintain it according to the competitors (together with from ASUS’ personal Netgear RAXE500), nonetheless the optimistic is that you simply’ll get monstrously excessive speeds going ethernet to ethernet and utilizing the 2 10Gbps connections. Write testRead test49 Mbps46 Mbps Do you have to purchase the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE1600? For the typical gamer, even a aggressive gamer, shopping for the ROG Rapture GT-AXE1600 could be full overkill, given most of its options simply wouldn’t be used. While it’s undoubtedly quick, there are cheaper fashions on the market which have the two.5Gbps WAN socket to maximise the efficiency advantages of fibre optic broadband connections; we’d suggest the older Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 for those who don’t thoughts being restricted to WiFi 6. The place it comes into its personal is for those who’re planning on transferring giant recordsdata shortly between totally different computer systems in the identical LAN community, so you’ll be able to take full benefit of the 10Gbps ethernet ports together with the 1Gbps connections. Creatives working in the identical bodily area who want to transfer giant video recordsdata would discover this very helpful, you’ll have the ability to shift 8K footage round like nobody’s enterprise, and it may very well be used to set-up a community storage financial institution (a NAS for example). Alternatively for those who’re trying to arrange a LAN gaming community or another inventive server setup this may very well be the choose for you, though if that’s the case you could wish to go for a WiFi 7 router as a substitute; we’d at the very least wait till you see the value of this machine come down from the present $599.99 asking worth.
