Asus AX82U vs AX92U vs AX68U

[blade12]

Hello,

I'm looking to upgrade my AC68U. I have a 200Mbps connection. I'm hoping for a wifi6 router for future-proofing and spend around $200. I plan on (hopefully) using Wireguard with whichever router I get.

I looked at many wifi6 routers and now leaning towards keeping to Asus. I primarily focused on Netgear RAX50, which has no dd-wrt support (official Netgear firmware doesn't support vpn), and the GliNet Flint, which unfortunately uses a very old OpenWRT base version. Beyond that, my options are limited for around $200 budget. I'm back to Asus, which is in the process of integrating Wireguard support for AX routers.

That journey brings me to the AX92u, AX82u, and AX68u. I have an idea of which router I'm leaning towards but want to see what others think in case I overlooked something. Note: I'm not concerned whether I use Asuswrt-Merlin or official Asuswrt. If it is supported by Merlin, great. If not, Asuswrt is perfectly fine for my usage.

Almost all of my devices are wifi (except 1 computer). And 1000 sq ft home / 2 stories. The AC68u currently does a good job for all the devices. Thanks!

 

[Tech9]

Your router is RT-AX68U - cheaper, ARMv8 CPU with AES + Asuswrt-Merlin, ~200Mbps on OpenVPN capable

RT-AX92U - a weird not very popular "3-band" model with 1x AX + 1x AC 5GHz radios, no Asuswrt-Merlin at the moment
RT-AX82U - gaming version of RT-AX58U with alien shape and RGB lights, supported by @GNUton with Asuswrt-Merlin fork, weaker CPU with no AES

 

[blade12]

Your router is RT-AX68U - cheaper, ARMv8 CPU with AES + Asuswrt-Merlin, ~200Mbps on OpenVPN capable

RT-AX92U - a weird not very popular "3-band" model with 1x AX + 1x AC 5GHz radios, no Asuswrt-Merlin at the moment
RT-AX82U - gaming version of RT-AX58U with alien shape and RGB lights, supported by @GNUton with Asuswrt-Merlin fork, weaker CPU with no AES

Thanks once again! I'm probably getting a bit annoying to you at this point haha

Couple questions:
1) Is there much benefit of the 4x4 MU-MIMO on the ax82u vs 3x3 on the ax68u? Especially since a lot of newer devices, such as phones support 4x4.

2) The ax82u supports 160MHz channel bandwidth vs 80mhz on the ax68u. Correct me if I'm wrong but I assumed it does not make any difference since I'm limited by 200Mbps connection.

3) Finally, the ax82 has 1.5 ghz tri-processor, while ax68u has 1.8 ghz dual-processor. Wireguard does not limit itself to a single core (unlike openvpn) so that has me wondering if an extra core, even at lower clock, matters in my usage. 200Mbit connection limitation would once again be the bottleneck.

 

[leerees]

Thanks once again! I'm probably getting a bit annoying to you at this point haha

Couple questions:
1) Is there much benefit of the 4x4 MU-MIMO on the ax82u vs 3x3 on the ax68u? Especially since a lot of newer devices, such as phones support 4x4.

2) The ax82u supports 160MHz channel bandwidth vs 80mhz on the ax68u. Correct me if I'm wrong but I assumed it does not make any difference since I'm limited by 200Mbps connection.

3) Finally, the ax82 has 1.5 ghz tri-processor, while ax68u has 1.8 ghz dual-processor. Wireguard does not limit itself to a single core (unlike openvpn) so that has me wondering if an extra core, even at lower clock, matters in my usage. 200Mbit connection limitation would once again be the bottleneck.

Get the AX92u if you want to cover a large area. It has a dual core 1.8ghz. The latency is extremely low <2ms on AC and <1ms on AX. It can also offer 4x4 160mhz channels.

 

[Tech9]

Couple questions:

1) MU-MIMO and MIMO are different things. MU-MIMO has no significant real use advantages on a home network. Most clients are 2-stream MIMO, including phones. No prone has 4-stream radio. 3x3 and 4x4 routers will work the same way or you.

2) 160MHz requires DFS channels and client support. May or may not work in your place. if it works - to compatible clients only. For Wi-Fi stability I do not recommend using 160MHz wide channel. Detected radar will disrupt your Wi-Fi when using DFS.

3) Triple-core 1.5GHz ARMv7 type cores. Dual-core ARMv8 1.8GHz with AES is a better/faster CPU. Routing is single core, AX68U is faster. VPN on AX68U will be much faster with hardware AES support. Don't buy AX92U - expensive for no reason, no Asuswrt-Merlin.

 

[blade12]

---

1) MU-MIMO and MIMO are different things. MU-MIMO has no significant real use advantages on a home network. Most clients are 2-stream MIMO, including phones. No prone has 4-stream radio. 3x3 and 4x4 routers will work the same way or you.

2) 160MHz requires DFS channels and client support. May or may not work in your place. if it works - to compatible clients only. For Wi-Fi stability I do not recommend using 160MHz wide channel. Detected radar will disrupt your Wi-Fi when using DFS.

3) Triple-core 1.5GHz ARMv7 type cores. Dual-core ARMv8 1.8GHz with AES is a better/faster CPU. Routing is single core, AX68U is faster. VPN on AX68U will be much faster with hardware AES support. Don't buy AX92U - expensive for no reason, no Asuswrt-Merlin.

That answers everything. Alright, ax68u it is! Thanks!

 

[Piggie]

Hello,

I'm looking to upgrade my AC68U. I have a 200Mbps connection. I'm hoping for a wifi6 router for future-proofing and spend around $200. I plan on (hopefully) using Wireguard with whichever router I get.

I looked at many wifi6 routers and now leaning towards keeping to Asus. I primarily focused on Netgear RAX50, which has no dd-wrt support (official Netgear firmware doesn't support vpn), and the GliNet Flint, which unfortunately uses a very old OpenWRT base version. Beyond that, my options are limited for around $200 budget. I'm back to Asus, which is in the process of integrating Wireguard support for AX routers.

That journey brings me to the AX92u, AX82u, and AX68u. I have an idea of which router I'm leaning towards but want to see what others think in case I overlooked something. Note: I'm not concerned whether I use Asuswrt-Merlin or official Asuswrt. If it is supported by Merlin, great. If not, Asuswrt is perfectly fine for my usage.

Almost all of my devices are wifi (except 1 computer). And 1000 sq ft home / 2 stories. The AC68u currently does a good job for all the devices. Thanks!

Bottom line - if you don't have many clients or if you don't need more than 1 node, then AX68u would be fine. It's a good buy for the money.

I had both the AX68u and the AX92u. I had the AX68u before switching to the AX92u. The AX68u is nice but in my experience the AX92u is better. The two biggest issue for me was the number of clients the router can handle and consistent connectivity. During peak hours I will have more than 70 clients on the network. The AX92u has no problems handling all my clients. Rarely do clients get dropped. During peak hours, the AX68u would consistently drop clients. The AX68u was fine during non-peak hours (less than 30 clients). The second big issue was switching between nodes while walking around the building. Generally, the AX92u doesn't drop call when it switches between nodes. The AX68u would drop calls when switching between nodes. Finally, in terms of looks, the AX92u looks good. You don't have to fold up the antennas. I leave them down and it works great. The problem with leaving the antennas down is that dumb people think it's a coaster and put their drinks on it!!!! The AX68u like most other modern routers looks like an insect.

If you don't have a lot of clients or need consistent call quality when switching between nodes, either are great. In terms of performance, I have 1gbps internet service and AX92u can stream at 900-920 mbps on WiFi6 (at router or node). The AX68u tops out around 700-750 mbps (at router and node). (Both can stream at 940mbps hard wired). The range on the AX92u is a little better -- not significant. They both support parental control, open VPN, QOS, etc. The AX92u did have one terrible firmware update. It pretty much broke everything but subsequent firmware upgrade fixed it. After one firmware updated, the Ax68u throttled down bandwidth when parental control and QOS were on. That happened near the end of my ownership of AX68u but I would hope that got fixed. One issue with AX92u is it's a niche product. There's been talk that it may be discontinued.

I believe one of the favorite routers on the forum is AX86u. It generally sells for around $250 but has been on sale for as little as $225. I believe the AX68u is around $165 (sale can be found for $150 or less), AX92u is $200 (sale can be found for $180 or less). You can find a lot of thread on the AX86u in the forum. So I won't bore you with the details.

 

[blade12]

Bottom line - if you don't have many clients or if you don't need more than 1 node, then AX68u would be fine. It's a good buy for the money.

I had both the AX68u and the AX92u. I had the AX68u before switching to the AX92u. The AX68u is nice but in my experience the AX92u is better. The two biggest issue for me was the number of clients the router can handle and consistent connectivity. During peak hours I will have more than 70 clients on the network. The AX92u has no problems handling all my clients. Rarely do clients get dropped. During peak hours, the AX68u would consistently drop clients. The AX68u was fine during non-peak hours (less than 30 clients). The second big issue was switching between nodes while walking around the building. Generally, the AX92u doesn't drop call when it switches between nodes. The AX68u would drop calls when switching between nodes. Finally, in terms of looks, the AX92u looks good. You don't have to fold up the antennas. I leave them down and it works great. The problem with leaving the antennas down is that dumb people think it's a coaster and put their drinks on it!!!! The AX68u like most other modern routers looks like an insect.

If you don't have a lot of clients or need consistent call quality when switching between nodes, either are great. In terms of performance, I have 1gbps internet service and AX92u can stream at 900-920 mbps on WiFi6 (at router or node). The AX68u tops out around 700-750 mbps (at router and node). (Both can stream at 940mbps hard wired). The range on the AX92u is a little better -- not significant. They both support parental control, open VPN, QOS, etc. The AX92u did have one terrible firmware update. It pretty much broke everything but subsequent firmware upgrade fixed it. After one firmware updated, the Ax68u throttled down bandwidth when parental control and QOS were on. That happened near the end of my ownership of AX68u but I would hope that got fixed. One issue with AX92u is it's a niche product. There's been talk that it may be discontinued.

I believe one of the favorite routers on the forum is AX86u. It generally sells for around $250 but has been on sale for as little as $225. I believe the AX68u is around $165 (sale can be found for $150 or less), AX92u is $200 (sale can be found for $180 or less). You can find a lot of thread on the AX86u in the forum. So I won't bore you with the details.

I ordered the AX68u but not received it yet. I won't open it right away once I get it either.. Still hoping to find a sale on ax86u or something

I tried hard to find a AX86u but couldn't find it for under $280 USD unfortunately. Difficult to justify $280. If I could find it new for 225, I would jump on it lol.

 

[Piggie]

I ordered the AX68u but not received it yet. I won't open it right away once I get it either.. Still hoping to find a sale on ax86u or something

I tried hard to find a AX86u but couldn't find it for under $280 USD unfortunately. Difficult to justify $280. If I could find it new for 225, I would jump on it lol.

I'f you have a Microcenter near you, they have the ax86u for $250. It was recently on sale for $225. Also you can get 15% off network products if you recycle an old router. If you can find the Ax86u on sale at Best Buy, the 15% stacks on sale prices.

 

[leerees]

I ordered the AX68u but not received it yet. I won't open it right away once I get it either.. Still hoping to find a sale on ax86u or something

I tried hard to find a AX86u but couldn't find it for under $280 USD unfortunately. Difficult to justify $280. If I could find it new for 225, I would jump on it lol.

I wouldn't order something just because it's popular here. The reason the AX86u is a favourite is because it supports Merlin.

The AX92u has lower latency compared to the AX86u for WiFi. This may be of interest if you are a gamer as the difference will be noticable. The AX92u also has WTFast for games which can improve latency even further.

AX92u's are good for covering large areas and will cope really well with lots of high bandwidth users without succumbing to bufferbloat. They will handle torrents without effecting the ping of other users.

The AX band is extremely strong as it's meant to be used as a backhaul. Of course, most people just open it up and allow it to be used with clients as it can connect at 2.5gbps - 3gbps.

 

[Piggie]

I ordered the AX68u but not received it yet. I won't open it right away once I get it either.. Still hoping to find a sale on ax86u or something

I tried hard to find a AX86u but couldn't find it for under $280 USD unfortunately. Difficult to justify $280. If I could find it new for 225, I would jump on it lol.

Amazon has AX86u on sale for $250 right now (1/15/22 noon PST). Best Buy should match Amazon's price and if you have an old network adapter, you can trade it under BestBuy recycle plan for 15% off (in store only). So the net price should be less than $220. I left links for both items for you.

Amazon.com: ASUS AX5700 WiFi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX86U) - Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Internet Router, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, 2.5G Port, Gaming & Streaming, AiMesh Compatible, Included Lifetime Internet Security : Everything Else.

Networking Recycle and Save (bestbuy.com)

 

[blade12]

Amazon has AX86u on sale for $250 right now (1/15/22 noon PST). Best Buy should match Amazon's price and if you have an old network adapter, you can trade it under BestBuy recycle plan for 15% off (in store only). So the net price should be less than $220. I left links for both items for you.

Amazon.com: ASUS AX5700 WiFi 6 Gaming Router (RT-AX86U) - Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Internet Router, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, 2.5G Port, Gaming & Streaming, AiMesh Compatible, Included Lifetime Internet Security : Everything Else.

Networking Recycle and Save (bestbuy.com)

I just ordered it after price match. Scratch off the AX68u! Thanks!

Instead of opting for 15% off by bringing in networking device (I don't have another old router I could find - definitely not giving away my AC68u for only $38), I instead saw on slickdeals that you can use Chase freedom and get 10% back from bestbuy (you must activate it in your account page). I opted for that for $240 total with 7% sales tax included. It might be possible for someone to stack the 2 to potentially bring it down to $205 total. It would be even less if your state has no sales tax.

 

[disjt]

Given your 200Mbps connection, the ax86u with QoS sounds like a good choice. Your wireless connection may no longer be your connection bottleneck, so QoS becomes essential to prevent latency spikes if somebody starts downloading something.

 

[blade12]

Given your 200Mbps connection, the ax86u with QoS sounds like a good choice. Your wireless connection may no longer be your connection bottleneck, so QoS becomes essential to prevent latency spikes if somebody starts downloading something.

I'm not a fan of QoS tbh. I used to have it on years ago then realized it was slowing down traffic. It's meant to solve bottlenecks, but it was doing the exact opposite. It's possible I didn't set it up properly, but I decided to just turn it off altogether & save the headaches it was giving.

I might also turn off AIProtection and replace it with Diversion/Skynet, but I'm not there yet. Maybe after I'm finished setting up the AX86u. I feel if I'm going to use a router-based VPN for security, it doesn't make sense to have TrendMicro sharing whatever data it does. It defeats the purpose of the vpn.

 

[disjt]

If you go Merlin, you can go with Cake QoS. I've heard good things about it and the AX86U should be able to handle the 200Mbps. There's also Flex QoS. Just keep that in mind if your WAN speed ever becomes the bottleneck.

 

[maxbraketorque]

That's a lot of effort to try to save $80. The AX86U is much more of a powerhouse than an AX68U, but unless you are doing something that needs the power, e.g., running QOS or using the router VPN features, it has no value over the AX68U.

 

[MarioX]

AX86U is $249.99 at Amazon. Delivery is a month out. I chatted with Best Buy and they price matched and delivered in two days.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BJHS3X7/?tag=snbforums-20