RT-AX88U 8-port gigabit - single interface or dual interface like AC88U?

[ruffruff]

Hi Everyone~

I just received my AX88U from my ISP and would like to find out more on the 8 LAN ports from the folks here. I have an AC88U as well and understand that (if I read correctly) it comprises of 2 switches (4 ports each, where 5-8 are sharing a single gigabit connection to the first internal switch (port 1-4). Is this the same with AX88U?

Reason for asking is that I have done quite a fair bit of wiring, currently 8 and with the intention to include 2 more (from my Synology NAS). If the 8-port design on AX88U is identical to AC88U, then I will need to consider having the lower bandwidth devices on ports 5-8. E.g. Port 1+2 to Synology NAS, Port 3 to Living room AC86U, Port 4 to Study room AC88U, Port 5 to Kids room AC86U, Port 6 - 7 to Smart TVs, Port 8 to 8 port switch which connects to 2 x IP Cam (100mbps link speed).

One other question, I have been having WAN speed issues on the Asus router (not AX88U specific but it is happening as well). I am on a 1gigabit fiber service but I can barely scratch 600mbs (on speedtest.net)
I have tried resetting to factory defaults and changing different routers around (I have 2 x AC86U, 1 x AC88U and 1 x AX88U | got to say these Asus routers are durable), but the results are somewhat similar. AX88U currently provides the highest speed among the 4 but still around the 600mbps region. All the tests were done via direct ethernet connection to the router.

One common behavior that I found in the speed tests is; it started with over 800mbps after factory reset and speed drastically reduced after AIMesh nodes were added (wired-backhaul). During the test, none of the factory settings was changed, only AIMesh nodes were added. I don't recall having this back in 2020, but since 2021's firmware releases, this seems to be occurring. Anyone else has the same experience?

 

[j.pdiddy]

Speedtest here only shows around 6-700 mbps on my gigabit internet, same AX88U router.

 

[ruffruff]

Speedtest here only shows around 6-700 mbps on my gigabit internet, same AX88U router.

Are you using AIMesh as well? The 6-700mbps speed is without AIMesh?

 

[j.pdiddy]

I happy with my router and it's overall performance etc. To comment at bit on your questions;
I'm not using AIMesh.
The "NEW and Improved Wifi v6" seems like "marketing" - as the speed, ping, reach, etc is exactly like before (not specific testet), but the icon on my mobile device now have this small cool-looking "6", so something is new (plus, maybe, a bit lower power usage...).
For the switch - that's a lot of new information for me; I've been using AC88U prior to this AX88U unit - but all LAN cables are just connected to ... whatever port; so if there is something here to get better speed on the LAN, I'm of course interested.