Rt-ac68u

[DaveMishSr]

Man can't wait to get this fat butt router.
Skipped the ac66u since i don't need ac, why get this? Finally a cpu upgrade!

I would love to see the price structure for this beast. With a new dual CPU architecture I would imagine it will be well north of $200. The RT-AC66U should come down in price once this thing is out in the mainstream and is plenty of router for the average individual. My two AC66U's were both open box specials and cost me $255 for both. I bet that will be close to the MSRP for the RT-AC68U.

 

[RMerlin]

Don't get caught up in the marketing hype.

I haven't seen significant performance improvements on other BCM4708-based routers so far.

The areas where this new CPU will be of benefit:

- People using the VPN server (either Asus's PPTP, or Tomato/A-M OpenVPN)
- People with a lot of clients sharing files over USB
- People who can't use HW acceleration because they use QoS. (lack of HW acceleration drops max WAN speed from 700+ Mbps to around 150 Mbps on an RT-N66U, about 240 Mbps on an RT-AC56U).

Note that the R6250 does not have both CPU cores enabled, so it's not a good test case.. No idea about the DLink/Linksys products.

I can see in the latest FW code I got from Asus last week that they are making efforts to specifically optimize the FW for taking advantage of the two CPU cores.

The faster CPU will not have a big impact on your actual wireless performance, but it will have a measurable effect for people heavily using a shared USB disk or using features that disables HW acceleration.

 

[deagle]

What about hardware acceleration for encryption?

 

[thiggins]

http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN/802.11-Wireless-LAN-Solutions/BCM4707-4708-4709

Don't think so. That's not its focus.

 

[jemz0r]

Note that the R6250 does not have both CPU cores enabled, so it's not a good test case..

Wooo.. this is interesting.
Do you a source for this information?

 

[RMerlin]

Wooo.. this is interesting.
Do you a source for this information?

The /proc/cpuinfo output from two different owners. And some inside info about the future availability of this feature.

 

[Gingernut]

Netgear specifically states on their site that the R6250 has a dual core cpu.

'The dual-core 800 MHz processor delivers high-performance connectivity'

Maybe the other core comes online under heavy load only?

 

[netmik3]

Is BIG.little a possibility?

 

[RMerlin]

Netgear specifically states on their site that the R6250 has a dual core cpu.

'The dual-core 800 MHz processor delivers high-performance connectivity'

Maybe the other core comes online under heavy load only?

No. It was deliberately disabled by them. I got confirmation of it from an inside source.

Same thing with the missing 128 MB of RAM - router should have 256 MB, but Netgear only enabled the first 128 MB.

 

[netmik3]

That's why netgear sucks and I moved to ASUS.

"Our router has a dual core cpu*"

*We use grade B cpus which have the second core disabled.

 

[RMerlin]

That's why netgear sucks and I moved to ASUS.

"Our router has a dual core cpu*"

*We use grade B cpus which have the second core disabled.

From what I understand, it's something that will be enabled in a future FW update (like with the missing 128 MB of RAM).

The product (R6250) feels rushed to the market to me, while Asus is taking their time with the AC56 and AC68 to release something that's actually finalized. That's the best way to build a long-term customer base IMHO.

 

[klas]

Did they say when it will be released?

 

[RMerlin]

Did they say when it will be released?

I don't know anything more, since this was all relayed to me by Netgear customers. You will have to contact them to ask them if they have any ETA, all my contact said was "in a future update".

 

[Константин]

I don't know anything more, since this was all relayed to me by Netgear customers. You will have to contact them to ask them if they have any ETA, all my contact said was "in a future update".

And what can you say about ETA for 68/56? August?

 

[RMerlin]

And what can you say about ETA for 68/56? August?

56 was aimed at late June or sometime in July. No idea about 68.

 

[wickedny5]

Sold my n66u, hoping the ac68u will provide better range and throughput in my wifi congested apartment complex.

 

[RMerlin]

Sold my n66u, hoping the ac68u will provide better range and throughput in my wifi congested apartment complex.

If your complex is suffering from an overcrowded wifi space, then no router is going to magically be able to deal with it, at least not on the 2.4 GHz band. You will have to go wired, powerline, or 5 GHz to work around the problem.

The RT-AC68U won't be out for months anyway.

 

[icemankent]

Geez, it is almost September.
WHEN is this router going to be released ?!

 

[RMerlin]

Geez, it is almost September.
WHEN is this router going to be released ?!

Same answer as last time: there is no target release date announced yet.

 

[Tsun]

Apparently RT-AC68U is going on sale next week in Singapore:
http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/feature-comex-2013-preview-let-bargain-hunting-begin

I hope US release will follow soon.