RT-AC 1900P at Best buy

[Lola]

Nice investigative work! Thanks

Thanks SoCalReviews, that's really interesting, but I'll wait till one of the guys here reviews it. With ASUS one doesn't always know what exactly is going on ! CPU speed is great in a computer but routers seem to be more dependent on an engineer putting the package together correctly. Someone will jump on this to review very quick I would think.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Thanks SoCalReviews, that's really interesting, but I'll wait till one of the guys here reviews it. With ASUS one doesn't always know what exactly is going on ! CPU speed is great in a computer but routers seem to be more dependent on an engineer putting the package together correctly. Someone will jump on this to review very quick I would think.

It's likely almost the exact same hardware and engineering as the older 68 model router inside but with the new version of processor. In the long run this will probably lower the manufacturing costs for Asus since they purchase parts in bulk and use a BCM 1.4Ghz dual core processor in the 88 and 5300 models.

 

[doczenith1]

And here comes a flood of used RT-AC68U's for sale

 

[hacked_up]

Nice investigative work! Thanks

No problem


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[sm00thpapa]

1.4Ghz processor! I want one too.
I'm willing to wait for the price drop.


I'm also hoping we see an Asus BCM quad core product out this fall.

Don't get me hyped about Quad Core processor's. I will be checking Best Buy daily for the 1900P. I'm sure it will drop to $169.99 some time like they did with the 68P.


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[RMerlin]

Don't get me hyped about Quad Core processor's. I will be checking Best Buy daily for the 1900P. I'm sure it will drop to $169.99 some time like they did with the 68P.

The most interesting part of the BCM4908 will be the move to ARMv8, and the inclusion of hardware-accelerated crypto. If OpenSSL can leverage it, it will bring a healthy performance boost to OpenVPN, on top of the clock increase to 1.8 GHz.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Don't get me hyped about Quad Core processor's. I will be checking Best Buy daily for the 1900P. I'm sure it will drop to $169.99 some time like they did with the 68P.


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I won't get you hyped about quad core processors. I'll let Merlin do that...

 

[RMerlin]

I won't get you hyped about quad core processors. I'll let Merlin do that...

The extra cores will be of little use until Broadcom can fix their broken design, and not have most of their low level code run only on a single core.

 

[sfx2000]

The extra cores will be of little use until Broadcom can fix their broken design, and not have most of their low level code run only on a single core.

Broadcom is kind of between a rock and a hard place here - the SDK is "example" code of how one can build a router/AP using their chipsets, and many vendors use it straight out of the box, and build their stuff on top of it... so making major changes there puts a lot of pain on the OEM's that build off the SDK. It doesn't help that they include a couple of big binary closed source blob's...

 

[kvic]

The extra cores will be of little use until Broadcom can fix their broken design, and not have most of their low level code run only on a single core.

Sfx might be right on this one. The codes are out there and anyone can make optimization if not to every aspect (as some are closed source but most are vanilla linux). Maybe vendors like Asus share a bigger responsibility..

 

[sfx2000]

Sfx might be right on this one. The codes are out there and anyone can make optimization if not to every aspect (as some are closed source but most are vanilla linux). Maybe vendors like Asus share a bigger responsibility..

The Broadcom SDK kernel is a bit on the older side, but it's very tightly optimized - and that, along with the blobs, is likely holding them back a bit - and of course, as I mentioned earlier, the OEM dependencies... I've done a board bringup with another WRT variant, and it does need more resources than what the SDK needs, but performance wise, the SDK is still pretty good...

 

[RMerlin]

Broadcom is kind of between a rock and a hard place here - the SDK is "example" code of how one can build a router/AP using their chipsets, and many vendors use it straight out of the box, and build their stuff on top of it... so making major changes there puts a lot of pain on the OEM's that build off the SDK. It doesn't help that they include a couple of big binary closed source blob's...

I was mostly referring to their drivers, which only uses a single core, and quickly loads that core to 100% through sirq.

Their USB sub-system also seem subpar, almost as if it was relying entirely on the CPU rather than DMA or other optimized data transfer methods.

The rest of the firmware can be finetuned. Asus has done it, I've also done it myself. Assigning affinity to specific cores for specific processes. I spread the five OpenVPN clients amongst the two cores, for instance, so client1 and client2 run on separate cores.

 

[sfx2000]

I was mostly referring to their drivers, which only uses a single core, and quickly loads that core to 100% through sirq.

Their USB sub-system also seem subpar, almost as if it was relying entirely on the CPU rather than DMA or other optimized data transfer methods.

The SDK is showing it's age and heritage - remember, this was first built on a single core, and things like USB have been glued on after the fact. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it is over due for a redesign - for performance as well as security (which we've discussed in the past).

But until that happens, everyone is kind of stuck, as the OEM's continue to pile on more code on top of a foundation that is starting to crumble a bit. That's why I say a rock and a hard spot...

This has happened in other places as well - good example is the modem code for a major CDMA/LTE/UMTS vendor with their real-time exec, which eventually did force a rewrite...

 

[kvic]

I was mostly referring to their drivers, which only uses a single core, and quickly loads that core to 100% through sirq.

People can steer interrupts to different cores without Broadcom's help. It might help on throughput. It might not. Depends if interrupt processing is a bottleneck in the system. From a RT-AC56U user perspective, I can assert it's not.

Their USB sub-system also seem subpar, almost as if it was relying entirely on the CPU rather than DMA or other optimized data transfer methods.

I don't have storage attached (other than a ENtware stick). If performance is bad, most likely the current 32bit Broadcom SoC lack hardware to process efficiently. On their new 64bit ARMv8 SoC, they do taut superb usb performance for mass storage. So seems they might have fix it. lol.

 

[Darcy]

Is the Asus 3100 worth the extra $80 over this router?

 

[sfx2000]

Is the Asus 3100 worth the extra $80 over this router?

Hard call to make - the AC1900 class is still the best value at the moment - but the RT-AC68 series is pretty much similar...

The RT-AC3100 - could be a solid device for the next 18-24 months perhaps - probably a better decision than the 88u/5300, as it's a simpler device in the first place.

 

[SoCalReviews]

Hard call to make - the AC1900 class is still the best value at the moment - but the RT-AC68 series is pretty much similar...

The RT-AC3100 - could be a solid device for the next 18-24 months perhaps - probably a better decision than the 88u/5300, as it's a simpler device in the first place.

I agree. I like this one. If it's a BB exclusive I won't be surprised if it flies off the shelves.

 

[sm00thpapa]

AC1900 routers have been out now for roughly 3 years and at the top of their game. But I wouldn't pay $199.99 for an AC1900 router at this time IMO.


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[SoCalReviews]

Is the Asus 3100 worth the extra $80 over this router?

If you don't have 4 x 4 and/or MU-MIMO clients and don't want to use the WTFast application service then you have to ask yourself whether 512MB vs. 256MB RAM is worth the difference. (oh... and do me a favor and please don't tell L&LD I said that... thanks).

 

[Darcy]

If you don't have 4 x 4 and/or MU-MIMO clients and don't want to use the WTFast application service then you have to ask yourself whether 512MB vs. 256MB RAM is worth the difference. (oh... and do me a favor and please don't tell L&LD I said that... thanks).

I saw that lengthy discussion today about RAM..LMAO