Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) vs ASUS RT-AX88U PRO AX6000

[dokey1907]

Hello,

I was looking to understand what do you all this think of the below is a better option for the next 5 years. I live in an apartment, have a NAS and do not plan on creating a mesh network anytime soon.

I have narrowed myself down to ASUS RT-AX88U PRO AX6000 or Gl.iNet Flint 2 (GL-MT6000). Looking at the specs:

RT-AX88U PRO vs GL-MT6000
CPU: 2.0 GHz quad-core (which?) vs MediaTek Quad-core, @2.0GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM vs DDR4 1GB
Antennas: 2.4GHz 4x4, 5GHz 4x4 vs 4 x 2.4GHz + 5GHz two-in-one (? umm what does this mean) Wi-Fi Antennas
Ethernet Ports: 1 x WAN (2.5G), 1 x LAN (2.5G), 4 x LAN vs 1 x WAN (2.5G), 1 x WAN/LAN (2.5G), 4 x LAN

Please let me know your thoughts on this. I could not find the make of the CPU on Asus router and I didnt understand what 5GHz 2 in 1 antenna mean for GL-MT6000.

If you have some other router recommendation, I am all ears. I am looking for < $250, the best in the current market with 2.5G Ethernet ports and hopefully Wifi 6 or 6E support. Avoiding TP Link because I do not like the idea of subscription and recent privacy issues.

Thanks for any response or for your thoughts!

Did you decide? I personally would like to get the Asus ax6000 but the footprint even given the specs it's so big to hide without being noticed

 

[sp.others]

Did you decide? I personally would like to get the Asus ax6000 but the footprint even given the specs it's so big to hide without being noticed

I ended up with Asus. I have had exactly one issue in the couple of months. The Wifi just stopped working and I had to restart. I was worried about the footprint too but it was just very slightly larger than my age old TP link, so it was not really an issue at my home.

 

[rodja123]

I am very intrigued by the flint 2.

Any significant Wi-Fi range/performance differences between the two?

Did you find any data points on this?


I think the CPU performance (and so openvpn/wireguard) should not be different between the AX88U pro and the flint 2. Both are quad core A53 @ 2ghz.

 

[farisrk]

I am debating between these 2 as well. I am interested in extending my wifi coverage to a part of the house with low signal. With Asus I can get a lower model router and use as an access point. How would it work with the MT6000? Can I purchase any access point and hook it up to the router? Would an Omada or Ubiquiti work fine with this router?

 

[Tech9]

Would an Omada or Ubiquiti work fine with this router?

Yes, but if you like Omada or UniFi better go for complete Omada or UniFi system.

 

[Jbennett360]

Curiosity got the better of me the other day and I opted to buying a Flint 2 for £122.

Arrived yesterday and set it up this morning. So far, so good. It exceeds the Asus AX86S that i was currently running.

Signal strength is stronger than on the AX86S
Throughput is better (219/189 on the Asus vs 401/203 on the Flint 2 - Laptop in the same position)
Feels snappier and quicker to do things in the admin area.

So far so good. I'm Impressed. It also means that i can drop the RP-AX58 Extender that i was running upstairs (Everything seems to be able to connect to 5Ghz fine, failing that full strength 2.4Ghz is available)

Will keep an eye on this but, looks like it'll be staying put.

 

[Jbennett360]

Well. I think i've started to see problems on the flint

Devices on the 2.4Ghz network, speeds just seem to randomly drop off and almost stop altogether (2mbps) on speed tests. Disconnect and reconnect the device usually seems to do the trick. Not ideal though.

 

[dave14305]

Devices on the 2.4Ghz network, speeds just seem to randomly drop off and almost stop altogether (2mbps) on speed tests. Disconnect and reconnect the device usually seems to do the trick.

Which firmware? Stock GL.Inet, OpenWrt, or pesa1234 community build? You would be best off with the pesa 4.4.x community build. I saw unexpected slowdowns on OpenWrt 24.10 when other devices would leave the network (e.g. my wife and her iPhone left the house to go shopping). Restarting WiFi brought things back to normal. Never encountered that on a pesa build.

MT6000 custom build with LuCi and some optimization - kernel 6.6.x

Dear. I would like to share with you my custom build with kernel 6.6.x Difference with standard openWRT version: RSS and Jumbo packet iBF settings & QAM-256 VHT on 2g activable in Luci LuCi app advanced to set-up: WED setting and ATF HW-ATF is on LuCi EDCCA setting...

forum.openwrt.org

 

[sfx2000]

You would be best off with the pesa 4.4.x community build. I saw unexpected slowdowns on OpenWrt 24.10 when other devices would leave the network (e.g. my wife and her iPhone left the house to go shopping). Restarting WiFi brought things back to normal. Never encountered that on a pesa build.

Pesa is off the range for the filogic builds...

 

[Jbennett360]

Which firmware? Stock GL.Inet, OpenWrt, or pesa1234 community build? You would be best off with the pesa 4.4.x community build. I saw unexpected slowdowns on OpenWrt 24.10 when other devices would leave the network (e.g. my wife and her iPhone left the house to go shopping). Restarting WiFi brought things back to normal. Never encountered that on a pesa build.

MT6000 custom build with LuCi and some optimization - kernel 6.6.x

Dear. I would like to share with you my custom build with kernel 6.6.x Difference with standard openWRT version: RSS and Jumbo packet iBF settings & QAM-256 VHT on 2g activable in Luci LuCi app advanced to set-up: WED setting and ATF HW-ATF is on LuCi EDCCA setting...

forum.openwrt.org

Stock 4.7.0

Do the pesa builds have the UI of the stock builds?

Edit: Galaxy S23 works fine if I leave and return to the network. Nokia G60 5G basically dies. (16mbps)

 

[Jbennett360]

Which firmware? Stock GL.Inet, OpenWrt, or pesa1234 community build? You would be best off with the pesa 4.4.x community build. I saw unexpected slowdowns on OpenWrt 24.10 when other devices would leave the network (e.g. my wife and her iPhone left the house to go shopping). Restarting WiFi brought things back to normal. Never encountered that on a pesa build.

MT6000 custom build with LuCi and some optimization - kernel 6.6.x

Dear. I would like to share with you my custom build with kernel 6.6.x Difference with standard openWRT version: RSS and Jumbo packet iBF settings & QAM-256 VHT on 2g activable in Luci LuCi app advanced to set-up: WED setting and ATF HW-ATF is on LuCi EDCCA setting...

forum.openwrt.org

This seems to be fixed on 4.7.4 BETA build.

Edit: Scrap that, still goes weird. There's a test build kicking about on their forum which supposedly fixes it, and it's that which will be released in the next 15 days or so

 

[sfx2000]

This seems to be fixed on 4.7.4 BETA build.

Edit: Scrap that, still goes weird. There's a test build kicking about on their forum which supposedly fixes it, and it's that which will be released in the next 15 days or so

Again - note this is the Pesa community release...

Here's the community support thread...

MT6000 custom build with LuCi and some optimization - kernel 6.6.x

Dear. I would like to share with you my custom build with kernel 6.6.x Difference with standard openWRT version: RSS and Jumbo packet iBF settings & QAM-256 VHT on 2g activable in Luci LuCi app advanced to set-up: WED setting and ATF HW-ATF is on LuCi EDCCA setting...

forum.openwrt.org

For the moment - on MT6000, I would go with the 24.10 stable release first, as everything there is aligned, including the SW library.

 

[dave14305]

Again - note this is the Pesa community release...

He’s talking about the GL.inet beta 4.7.4:

GL.iNet download center

dl.gl-inet.com

 

[Jbennett360]

He’s talking about the GL.inet beta 4.7.4:

GL.iNet download center

dl.gl-inet.com

Yep. New BETA from GL.inet in the next week or so with fixes for WiFI issues

 

[Jbennett360]

Well.

Mines going back. For no reason whatsoever it started giving me WiFi issues today. Connected with no Internet, or slow speeds - I'm talking less than 10Mbps.

Factory reset it, tried various firmware's, still nothing.

Would love to keep the device but the 'Iffy' bits and reliability of FW just means I can't trust it.

Back to the AX86s

The one thing i was impressed with on the flint was the coverage. Signal strength was great, a lot better than the AX86s.

Do we know what the coverage/signal is like on the AX86u Pro and the AX88u Pro? Are they similar to that of the AX86s, or can we expect better, along the lines of the Flint 2?

 

[Tech9]

Signal strength was great, a lot better than the AX86s.

If I read correctly FCC reports GL-MT6000 actually has lower max Tx power at amplifiers (26dBm, 400mW) than RT-AX86U/S (close to 30dBm, 998mW). GL.iNet product has higher directional antenna array gain (9dBi) compared to Asus (6dBi). Perhaps other differences in RF design between the two contribute to what we see as "range". GL-MT6000 is a newer product with perhaps better radios.

 

[Jbennett360]

If I read correctly FCC reports GL-MT6000 actually has lower max Tx power at amplifiers (26dBm, 400mW) than RT-AX86U/S (close to 30dBm, 998mW). GL.iNet product has higher directional antenna array gain (9dBi) compared to Asus (6dBi). Perhaps other differences in RF design between the two contribute to what we see as "range". GL-MT6000 is a newer product with perhaps better radios.

Hmm. It was definitely better. 4 external antennas vs 3 maybe? Like you say, possibly better radios/chipset?

 

[Tech9]

The whole RF design is different and there is no direct comparison. My Ubiquiti U6 Mesh access points at max power 26dBm or 400mW also have similar or better range than RT-AX86U at close to 1000mW. I don't run them this way though, it was just an experiment. In general above 400mW single AP only increases noise levels and created highly asymmetric Rx/Tx links to connected clients. This is not better Wi-Fi, but home routers as All-In-One devices work this way by design.

 

[sfx2000]

If I read correctly FCC reports GL-MT6000 actually has lower max Tx power at amplifiers (26dBm, 400mW) than RT-AX86U/S (close to 30dBm, 998mW). GL.iNet product has higher directional antenna array gain (9dBi) compared to Asus (6dBi). Perhaps other differences in RF design between the two contribute to what we see as "range". GL-MT6000 is a newer product with perhaps better radios.

Radio is what it is - 26 dBm isn't going to be that much of a thing, considering that client characteristics (Tx/Rx) are more important...

So MT6000 is in the same ballpark as every other AIO/BHR device out there...

Asus TUF-AX6000* and MT6000 share a common platform - MT6000 has more RAM/flash (1GB DDR3/8GB eMMC) so it's a bit more friendly for developers.

* this device might be sold over different models depending on market...

Both Asus and GL-Inet firmware - both are well behind what we see on OpenWRT/Master as Mediatek firmware and MTK/FOSS driver updates have improved performance overall...

The wifi on the MediaTek Filogic platform is getting better - the routing side is solid...