Review New In the Charts: ASUS RT-AX58U

[thiggins]

ASUS' RT-AX58U AX3000 Dual Band WiFi 6 Router has been tested and added to SmallNetBuilder's Wi-Fi Router Charts. Also known as the RT-AX3000 and RT-AX82U, its Broadcom-based design is spec'd for two streams on 2.4 and 5 GHz. However, since the 5 GHz radio is Broadcom's BCM43684 four stream an/ac/ax radio, it appears it support four-stream receive under the hood.

The router didn't do that well in our throughput vs. attenuation tests, however, due to sustained throughput dips on both bands' downlink tests that were observed on multiple test runs. Check the Wi-Fi Router Charts for more details.

 

[RMerlin]

I've always wondered... I've seen a few of your charts that showed a performance dip at a certain attenuation level, followed by an increase at a few dB later. It's pretty significant in this particular case, in the 12-16 dB range. What would explain the fact that it's not linear as intuitively I would expect it to be, and that it can actually go up and down like that? Bad output level tuning in the calibration tables used by the router?

 

[L&LD]

The graph pretty much clearly shows the reasons why I, 1) sold the RT-AX58U, and 2) feel the need to test at 'normal' distances (as 3 to 5 meters) rather than within the same room from pretty much any router newer than the RT-AC68U.

 

[thiggins]

@RMerlin I suspect it is errors in the rate adaptation algorithm.

 

[JHZR2]

Is there a basic explanation of what these charts mean physicallly?

 

[thiggins]

Is there a basic explanation of what these charts mean physicallly

You can use the throughput vs. attenuation plots to get a basic idea of relative performance.

In the plot below, the X axis can be thought of as distance and the Y axis as throughput/speed. The ASUS is likely to provide more usable signal over distance then the NETGEAR because it maintains higher throughput as signal level drops (attenuation increases).

Actual distance or area covered depends on many factors, most notably walls and other obstructions.

This article provides a good explanation of free-space, i.e. no obstacles loss.

 

[Dell Ray]

I'm keeping my AX58U regardless as I have had too many issues with Netgear routers over the years. I avoid them, Lynksys, and TP Link, not to be confused with D-Link, at all cost. I don't do anything intensive anyway and it has all the features I want for a simple home wifi/network setup and didn't cost me a fortune. And I've had good experience with Asus routers and other products in the past. I'm a Dell customer for years, my last 4 laptops and the last gaming desktop I had were Dells but after this newest laptop and the customer service over the course of this past 18 months, I'm looking at an Asus for my next laptop.,

 

[digits n bits]

Don’t hold your breath expecting anything different from ASUS. They’re about as bad as anyone I’ve ever dealt with regarding warranty claims. Atrocious comes to mind.

 

[Dell Ray]

Don’t hold your breath expecting anything different from ASUS. They’re about as bad as anyone I’ve ever dealt with regarding warranty claims. Atrocious comes to mind.

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that most of us are on our own anyway so I finally gathered up the courage to open up a laptop myself. I bought this newest Dell about a year and a half ago and when I got it set up for what I needed it to do for me as far as work goes, I decided to open up the previous one to see what makes them tick and do some upgrades. It wasn't nearly as bad as I was thinking it would be and now I find it pretty simple. I've been learning how to do what I need with operating systems and software, home networking and built a few desktops and tons of upgrades mostly for my own needs but I also help friends and family out when I can. I went through a period where I was obsessed with fighting malware, working with various cleaning and protection methods and made a pretty thorough process that I could give to people on a disk or usb drive and so long as they could read and follow some simple instructions and could figure out how to boot their pc from whichever media source they wanted, could follow a few prompts to update the apps and just watch and click when prompted to get rid of most of the common crapware as of about 7 years ago when things were crazy. Since Windows Defender has actually become something that at least somewhat works and all the other contenders have stepped up their programs, things seem to have calmed down and settled into whatever it is now, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue anymore as long as you have something decent and keep your stuff updated so I don't really spend much time on that anymore unless one of my devices starts acting up, but it usually turns out to be nothing. I just figure it's "normal" for glitches and strange behavior nowadays. After all these things are still made by humans so they]re going to be just as buggy as we are no matter what people expect machines to be. So now that I'm confident working on laptops innards I don't really need them or their useless warranties anymore. I just figure they're going to goof up sooner or later so I just buy the cheapest upgradeable one I can find and go from there. I have been looking into that aspect of it and Asus seems to be at the top of that game.

 

[Sky]

(A)fter this newest laptop and the customer service over the course of this past 18 months, I'm looking at an Asus for my next laptop.,

The COVID period since Fall 2020 is anomalous. Judging any company strictly by that measure should be looked at as invalid unless it is a start-up that began life during the still-ongoing COVID period.

That said, I too am a long-standing Dell desktop/laptop customer and have also been a customer of IBM, Xerox, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, HP, Compaq, Asus, Acer, eMachines, Toshiba, et al, self-made custom, and large-scale installations of custom-made systems during my VAR-VAD days. As a consumer I have not found any of them to be superb, but Dell has been the best during warranty. *All* of the others pushed us into DIY very early after the sale.

After warranty, you really need to go DIY or buy replacement.

Other components, like routers, switches, etc., are a whole different ballgame.

Sky