Asus XT9 vs XT12

[tcp]

How do XT9 vs XT12 compare in wifi performance.

Having looked around , although the XT12 are the newest models and have 2.5gb ports, more antenas and faster performnce with wifi 6 but I wonder whether there is much of a difference in real life wifi performance.?.

 

[L&LD]

Old hardware/RF design. Old SDKs. Will be put out to pasture sooner than any newer models (most likely).

WiFi tech doesn't stay still. It is constantly evolving.

So should your network (all of it) if you want to have a chance of being secure, performant, and connect reliably and dependably.

 

[Tech9]

I wonder whether there is much of a difference in real life wifi performance

There is a chance they both will give you similar amount of headaches in wireless backhaul configuration.

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

I don't know the XT9, but I do have XT12's. Both as a router and an as an AP.

The performance of the XT12 is NOT better than my old RT-AX88U with around 30 wifi clients. I haven't been able to notice and measure any difference. Maybe there would be a difference if I had more wifi clients connected to the router, but that never happens here.

The only notable difference as far as I can see is probably better performance under heavy load and the 2.5 GBps WAN and LAN ports. Which will be interesting once I get a 2 GBps WAN connection

 

[Uoppi]

I don't know the XT9, but I do have XT12's. Both as a router and an as an AP.

The performance of the XT12 is NOT better than my old RT-AX88U with around 30 wifi clients. I haven't been able to notice and measure any difference. Maybe there would be a difference if I had more wifi clients connected to the router, but that never happens here.

The only notable difference as far as I can see is probably better performance under heavy load and the 2.5 GBps WAN and LAN ports. Which will be interesting once I get a 2 GBps WAN connection

By performance, do you also mean similar wifi range?

I have the RT-AX88U (non-Pro) as the main router but I would need just a bit more range. So I was thinking about getting the XT12, but I'm only going by assumptions based on its antenna setup.

The other bonus with the XT12 would be a dedicated 5GHz for wireless backhaul, but I'm not so sure about the real world benefits it would bring.

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

I got the XT12s at a sale. I expected to get both better range and performance and to be able to retire my two old APs in hard-to-reach corners of my house.

The range is very similar - probably due to almost exactly the the same output power. The XT12 gives me 25 dBm (300 mW) as opposed to the AX88U that gave 23 dBm (200 mW). This has been measured with the tool analiti.

The performance is slightly better, but definitely not worth the price.

I also still have to keep my two old APs. The XT12s doesn't reach those corners of my house (at least not well enough) so I have kept my 2 old APs there (an AX58U and an AC87U).

If I had known, I would have kept my AX88U router for another year or two.

My APs are connected to the router with 10 Gbps ethernet, so there is no need for wireless backhaul.

 

[Uoppi]

I got the XT12s at a sale. I expected to get both better range and performance and to be able to retire my two old APs in hard-to-reach corners of my house.

The range is very similar - probably due to almost exactly the the same output power. The XT12 gives me 25 dBm (300 mW) as opposed to the AX88U that gave 23 dBm (200 mW). This has been measured with the tool analiti.

The performance is slightly better, but definitely not worth the price.

I also still have to keep my two old APs. The XT12s doesn't reach those corners of my house (at least not well enough) so I have kept my 2 old APs there (an AX58U and an AC87U).

If I had known, I would have kept my AX88U router for another year or two.

My APs are connected to the router with 10 Gbps ethernet, so there is no need for wireless backhaul.

Thanks for the info!

I'm also thinking, as I will need to be using wireless backhaul, a pair of XT12s (I've seen a nice deal) would enable me to dedicate the UNII-4 part of the 5GHz just for the backhaul.

But what happens if I want to add my existing RT-AX88U as a second node (we have a 3-storey house, so it would be helpful)? Can I assign extra nodes using the "regular" 5GHz, while simultaneously utilizing the UNII-4 portion just for the XT12 node? I'm a bit confused whether this could be done.

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

You can use the AX88U as an AP or as a node in a mesh system.

Just beware that the channels from 132 and up ARE NOT AVAILABLE in the current FW in EU. It has been allowed for use since 2019, but for some reason ASUS has decided NOT TO MAKE THEM AVAILABLE here.

This was a major disappointment for me. ASUS as has NO intention to re-certify the XT12 Pro's for EU. I have discussed this with both ASUS and the supplier I got the XT12s from. They should be available in other locations (ie outside EU).

 

[glens]

Can I assign extra nodes using the "regular" 5GHz, while simultaneously utilizing the UNII-4 portion just for the XT12 node?

Assuming you actually have UNII-4 capability in your locale, if using that as the backhaul, your third router, which cannot use those uppermost channels, should connect fine, but only @ 80MHz bandwidth using the channels it can. This is, similarly, at least, what happens here, with the router broadcasting 160-wide into UNII-4 and the client (Intel AX200) doing great on the bottom 80 (all it can know / use). Having made no adjustments to anything on either end of the association. (Other than, obviously, keeping the control channel itself out of UNII-4)

The place I see possible misadventure is that the mesh controller is controlling 2.4, 5-1, and 5-2 radios, and of the three, that third router only has 2.4. Its "5" is just 5. The question then would be: "Does the controller adopt a node's '5' for control purposes, and if so, how? As if it were the 5-1 or the 5-2?"

 

[Ola Malmstrom]

Correct glens, didn't consider that. If you use the 5GHz band on the AX88U as backhaul, you will not be able to use it for other clients.

Personally, I prefer ethernet cables between router and APs / nodes.

 

[glens]

Even if you wire the backhaul, it's still a discrepancy between what the controlling unit has vs. the mesh node's single 5GHz radio. Not sure how or how well that really works.

 

[mazafra]

Hi all! Wanted to up this thread with a different topic. I’m considering buying one of these 2 models.

I have 1Gb WAN at the moment and I’m upgrading my LAN to 2.5Gbps (unmanaged switch included) mostly for PC-NAS content consumption. Consequently I’d like to also leverage my 2.5G LAN as wired backhaul (in case I’d buy the 2-pack)

I’m sure I can achieve this kind of setup with XT12 because of the two 2.5G ports, but will I with XT9?

Is there any real advantage by buying the XT12?

PS: I live in a one-floor apartment around 100 m2 with Ethernet wires built-in in most rooms.