AC68U - One of the CPU cores always hitting 100% when downloading

[IceTea]

Like it says on the title, core 1 at 100% usage when downloading.

Ran 'top' on the router, and the culprit is [ksoftirqd/0].

HW Acceleration is enabled. All the extra features are disabled(QoS, AI Protection, etc.)

Running the latest Merlin Firmware (386.3_2)
My WAN is PPPoE
LAN cable is CAT6

CPU Model BCM470x - Cortex A7 ARMv7 revision 0 - Rev. c0 (Cores: 2)
CPU Frequency 1000 MHz
CPU Load Average (1, 5, 15 mins) 0.12, 0.16, 0.19
CPU Temp ~60C

I have tried doing a Nuclear Reset as set out here https://www.snbforums.com/threads/major-issues-w-rt-ac86u.56342/page-4#post-495710

I don't even have any addons or amtm installed after the reset, but I still get the same behaviour.

Does anyone have any insight?

My main issue with this is that I got 1gbps fibre recently, and I seem to be bottlenecked at ~750mbps, whereas other people I know with the same router, gets about 920mbps... <Cries in first-word problems, even though I am in a third-word country>

 

[ColinTaylor]

Where are you downloading to and what protocol are you using?

 

[L&LD]

If you're not downloading to a USB attached drive, M&M time.

 

[IceTea]

Where are you downloading to and what protocol are you using?

To my desktop with speed test servers that support more than 1gbps, and with a latency of ~5ms. Protocol? Eh, LAN to my desktop, and ISP uses PPPoE.

 

[ColinTaylor]

From what I've read in these forums it appears to be a hardware limitation of the RT-AC68U when using PPoE connections. Link.

 

[IceTea]

If you're not downloading to a USB attached drive, M&M time.

Did that, still getting the same behaviour. After that, I followed your "Nuclear Reset" guide as well.

 

[L&LD]

Maybe the hardware is done?

 

[IceTea]

Maybe the hardware is done?

I hope not, Asus Routers are hella expensive in my country. Just the AX68U costs like $500

 

[L&LD]

I hope not too.