"Slow" Wi-Fi speeds on my new GT-AX6000 (w/ RMerlin) - Please help.

[uriel250]

Just set up and updated my ROG AX6000 router with RMerlin latest fw and performed a factory reset and set up from scratch.

I noticed my wireless speeds aren’t as fast as my previous router (Asus RT-AX86U). I feel I need to make some settings changes but I’m not quite sure.

Close range (2-3 feets) I get 600-650mbps compared to 800-850mbps with the AX86U.
Long range through some walls I get 300mbps, while AX86U gives 500mbps.
Both routers were set to channel 48.

Range is also a bit shorter than my previous AX86U.

What settings changes are recommended from the default settings for the ROG AX6000?

*Note - I live in EU, my previous AX86U was imported from US (FCC), and my current AX6000 I bought locally (CE). Maybe it has something to do with transmit power limits?

 

[drinkingbird]

Just set up and updated my ROG AX6000 router with RMerlin latest fw and performed a factory reset and set up from scratch.

I noticed my wireless speeds aren’t as fast as my previous router (Asus RT-AX86U). I feel I need to make some settings changes but I’m not quite sure.

Close range (2-3 feets) I get 600-650mbps compared to 800-850mbps with the AX86U.
Long range through some walls I get 300mbps, while AX86U gives 500mbps.
Both routers were set to channel 48.

Range is also a bit shorter than my previous AX86U.

What settings changes are recommended from the default settings for the ROG AX6000?

*Note - I live in EU, my previous AX86U was imported from US (FCC), and my current AX6000 I bought locally (CE). Maybe it has something to do with transmit power limits?

TX power shouldn't matter when that close to the router. Make sure you have MU-MIMO disabled as well as universal beamforming and airtime fairness disabled.

 

[uriel250]

TX power shouldn't matter when that close to the router. Make sure you have MU-MIMO disabled as well as universal beamforming and airtime fairness disabled.

YOU nailed it!
I just got 840mbps after disabling MU-MIMO and Universal beamforming - airtime fairness was already off.

Also my phone now recognize this connection as 2.4Gbps instead of 1.2Gbps as it was previously.

I always thought MU-MIMO was a good thing? Should I also disable it for the 2.4 band?
I also think those were enabled by default on the AX86U without issues so not sure how it affects the GT-AX6000.

Edit -
I re-enabled MU-MIMO and I even got better results of 920Mbps download which is just the same as wired connection.
So it must be universal beamforming that caused it.

Big thanks for the help!

 

[drinkingbird]

YOU nailed it!
I just got 840mbps after disabling MU-MIMO and Universal beamforming - airtime fairness was already off.

Also my phone now recognize this connection as 2.4Gbps instead of 1.2Gbps as it was previously.

I always thought MU-MIMO was a good thing? Should I also disable it for the 2.4 band?
I also think those were enabled by default on the AX86U without issues so not sure how it affects the GT-AX6000.

Edit -
I re-enabled MU-MIMO and I even got better results of 920Mbps download which is just the same as wired connection.
So it must be universal beamforming that caused it.

Big thanks for the help!

MU-MIMO is hit or miss. If you have a lot of devices, it can help, if not, it can hurt (or just not do anything, some chipsets implement it better than others). Though I don't know of a case where enabling it would get you better throughput on a single device, may have just been "margin of error" or the fact that it bounced the radio.

Universal beamforming is for 802.11N devices only and didn't even work that well with them (again, hit or miss, usually miss with the Broadcom chipsets). In some cases it could get you additional range, but at the expense of throughput, or decreased range to another device.

Realistically 840 and 920 are both plenty so wouldn't worry about it too much, if you have a couple bandwidth hungry devices now or in the future, having MU-MIMO enabled it may help. The AX implementation may be better than the AC one too.

On 2.4ghz, the only beamforming is universal, I don't know why there is a setting there for "explicit". Personally I have universal disabled on 2.4 but with the typical congestion of that band, there are some cases where it may help. You can try both and see. I guess with AX maybe it applies since AX can run over 2.4 (not sure if there is an explicit beamforming for 2.4 AX), but definitely not with AC since AC is 5ghz only. If you don't have any N devices (or they aren't ones that need a possible extra boost of range) then I'd disable universal on both and leave explicit (or AC/AX depending what your model calls it) enabled on both.

 

[uriel250]

MU-MIMO is hit or miss. If you have a lot of devices, it can help, if not, it can hurt (or just not do anything, some chipsets implement it better than others). Though I don't know of a case where enabling it would get you better throughput on a single device, may have just been "margin of error" or the fact that it bounced the radio.

Universal beamforming is for 802.11N devices only and didn't even work that well with them (again, hit or miss, usually miss with the Broadcom chipsets). In some cases it could get you additional range, but at the expense of throughput, or decreased range to another device.

Realistically 840 and 920 are both plenty so wouldn't worry about it too much, if you have a couple bandwidth hungry devices now or in the future, having MU-MIMO enabled it may help. The AX implementation may be better than the AC one too.

On 2.4ghz, the only beamforming is universal, I don't know why there is a setting there for "explicit". Personally I have universal disabled on 2.4 but with the typical congestion of that band, there are some cases where it may help. You can try both and see. I guess with AX maybe it applies since AX can run over 2.4 (not sure if there is an explicit beamforming for 2.4 AX), but definitely not with AC since AC is 5ghz only. If you don't have any N devices (or they aren't ones that need a possible extra boost of range) then I'd disable universal on both and leave explicit (or AC/AX depending what your model calls it) enabled on both.

Thank you!
Disabling Universal beamforming on 2.4 increased the speedtest from 80-90Mbps download to 200Mbps ...
Now I have to check how if it affects the range.