Routers have become the central piece of our home networks. Some might mistakenly think that any old
router will get the job done, but the router is a critical component in the modern home. Multiple devices and increasing bandwidth requirements are all pushing the router, network, and internet connection to their limits. When it comes to PC gaming, the router is frequently under heavy load as it tries to deliver bleeding edge performance. If you’ve spent some serious cash on a good gaming rig, you’ll want a router to match and deliver on the ‘total experience.’ A router needs to cope not only with current performance needs, but also the demands of 4K video, Twitch streaming, VR, and more. While every PC user needs a router, gamers have more specialized needs in this area.
While every PC user needs a router, gamers have more specialized needs in this area. Some gamers are of the opinion that all gaming should be done via a wired connection. That may be the ideal, but the fact is many of us do not want to be tethered to a network cable; here’s where the right networking hardware can make a real difference.
Just like your PC needs the right parts (mostly, that means a modern graphics card) to handle games, the same holds true for the router. There are many features on routers, such as the bandwidth (wired and wireless), potential for attached storage, security aspects, and more, but these are not specific to gaming needs.
The main feature that a gaming router needs to include is Quality of Service settings (QOS) . This helps prioritize gaming traffic over other content, ensuring smooth frame rates during game play. This helps when other people on the network are consuming bandwidth, such as streaming videos or downloading game files.
That might be enough for most people, but for others, a gaming router should look the part. You’ll find they frequently have glossy paint jobs that would look at home on a supercar, and angled exteriors that have their origins in stealth military aircraft design. They might look more than a bit out of place in an office environment.
With those criteria in mind, we set out to find the best gaming routers. We narrowed things down to some of the top picks and have gone hands on with four of the latest models. Also, be aware that while a decent router can provide service for several years, the market continues to change. Routers don’t go out of date as often as a traditional PC or GPU, but the router segment was far more static years ago; these days there’s a lot more emphasis on additional features and faster speeds.
As a general recommendation, if your router is sporting 802.11n or older wireless, it’s definitely time to see what modern router hardware can do to bring your network up to speed. And of course, don’t forget to get an appropriate wireless client adapter--there’s no sense running an 802.11ac router with support for four streams if you’re using a single client adapter that only supports one or two streams.
The best router
Excellent range and rock stable in testing Only router to get the fastest speeds on two of the four bandwidth tests Dual speedy 3.0 ports and full LED arrays for troubleshooting Single 5GHz wireless signal and no wall mounting options
The Netgear Nighthawk X4S is a middle tier attempt by Netgear at a gaming router. It has a body with chiseled angles and a charcoal gray metallic paint job. The styling makes sense considering the Nighthawk name, a reference to the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk fighter that dates back to the late 1980’s. The faceted shapes of this aircraft make it quite recognizable as one of the early military aircraft with a radar evading design, and this carries through to the styling of this router. Overall, it’s stylish, but in a more subdued way than competitors with metallic paint jobs.
The X4S measures 11.22 x 7.26 x 1.97 inches and weighs 1.85 lb, a sizeable but not massive router. It’s designed to lay flat, and for space challenged configurations there’s no option for a vertical configuration or hanging on a wall, so plan accordingly. Packed into this space is a 1.7GHz dual-core processor with 128MB of flash memory and 512MB of RAM. There are a standard five Ethernet ports (1 WAN, 4 LAN), which are all Gigafast (10/100/1000Mbps). Across the unit are multiple LEDs, providing troubleshooting info at a glance. A nice touch is that there’s also an on/off switch for the LEDs, which is useful if the Nighthawk resides in a bedroom or near a television.
Asus offers similar advice for antivirus software due to the protection TrendMicro’s enhanced security options provide via their ASUSWRT firmware, but run a virus scanner on your rig anyway and consider any router defenses additional, rather than primary, protection. Better safe than sorry.
Trading the extra wireless band for more wired LAN features is a welcome change of pace and sets the RT-AC3100 apart from the other routers here. ASUS leverages this further by providing port aggregation for super-speed LAN performance, a feature made actually useful due to all those extra Ethernet ports available on the AC88U. Devoting 4 Ethernet ports to aggregation for high speed server/workstation connections still leaves 4 ports open, and that’s not even touching wireless connectivity.
The router includes two USB 3.0 ports, and we appreciate that both are of the faster 3.0 variety while some other routers still use the older USB 2.0 standard for at least one of the ports. There’s also an eSATA port for an additional drive, although these ports remain uncommon.
The Nighthawk X4S has Wi-Fi performance rated as AC2600. This corresponds to a 2.4GHz speed of 800Mbps and a 5GHz speed of 1733Mbps. Of note is this is accomplished using a single 5GHz band, so despite a ‘lower’ overall rating than AC3200 and AC5300 routers, those use dual 5GHz networks to achieve the overall bandwidth (see below for additional details). The total bandwidth on this AC2600 router is less than an AC3200 solution, but AC2600 does offer faster speeds than AC3200 on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies.
The Nighthawk X4S does this with a 4x4 antenna design, with each antenna transmitting and receiving on both the frequencies. This potentially uses 40, 80 and even 160 MHz wide transmission to increase data transfer speeds. In our testing, the Nighthawk X4S had solid performance throughout, and was the only router to have the fastest speed on more than a single benchmark.
While 802.11ac gear has Beamforming technology baked into the spec (see below), this router has Beamforming+, which is a proprietary implementation that will only come into play when the Nighthawk X4S is used with a Netgear wireless adapter. The claim is that it will boost the speed, reliability, and range of the Wi-Fi connection. That’s nice in theory, but in practice it means that when you’re using the built-in Wi-Fi on your laptop, tablet, smartphone, Beamforming+ will not be an active feature. ‘Nuff said!
The X4S has a host of other features. MU-MIMO supports simultaneous streaming to multiple clients (think multiple Netflix streams at once), and ReadyShare USB allows the included USB ports to share a USB storage drive or a printer. The USB flash drive can then be configured to provide local network storage, using ReadyShare Vault to backup a PC to the flash drive via software, or ReadyCloud to have the storage accessible remotely across the internet.
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The best budget router
Four antennas and stable performance Affordable and has QoS Orange color, lack of USB ports, no LAN port lights Not the fastest performing in any category
Hey, we get it, not every gamer can drop over $200 on a router, and some need to stretch their dollars. For gaming on a budget, look no further than D-Link’s AC1900 Exo Router. The choice of AC1900 does put it on a slower speed tier than the other gear in this write-up, with 3x3 streams yielding a 2.4GHz speed of 600Mbps and 5GHz speed of 1300Mbps. For more moderate households, however, it’s more than sufficient. For wired connections, it has the usual five LAN ports, designating 1 WAN to connect to the modem, and four Gigabit LAN ports that support 10/100/1000Mbps.
The design of the DIR-879 has the look of a roofline, with four chunky antennas jutting upwards (although the antennas have limited range of adjustability). The antennas come preattached and are designed to go out to 115 degrees.The black plastic gets broken up by a glossy orange paint job that covers about two thirds of the top. While the shiny orange might be more at home on a Lamborghini, it is anything but subtle, and will more than likely stick out rather than complement most home decors. Still, we can credit D-Link for going with something other than a drab black plastic even in this price segment. The size is 7.9 x 9.5 x 3.5 inches, and the power brick supplies 18W.
The DIR-879 has several features that tick off the right boxes even at this lower price point. These include a 1GHz dual-core processor, and a claim of wider coverage with high power 1000mW amplifiers. There is support for a guest network that D-Link terms the Guest Zone. A proprietary implementation of beamforming gets designated as Advanced AC SmartBeam, but it requires a D-Link client adapter that supports this, such as the DWA-192. The router also features WPS, DLNA media server support, advanced QoS settings, as well as a VPN passthrough. There is also a power button, which is more convenient for resets and power downs than unplugging the router as many routers require.
There are two screws included and the router can be hung on a wall if desired--sure to please everyone who has longed for a bright orange piece of modern art. The router has a physical hardware toggle switch to configure it from router to extender mode. Security includes the usual WPA and WPA2 support. In addition, dual active firewall with NAT (Network Address Translation) and SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) keeps the network safe.
Setup can be done via one of two ways: the first is a web browser interface, and the second is via a smartphone app. Using the browser interface, there’s a wizard that provides the initial configuration depending on the internet connection that the browser interface detects. There's also a multitude of options including DMZ, port forwarding, and QoS settings. In this case, the QoS only allows for priority by the device and not by the application. This is less preferable for users with multiple devices as the gaming will not consistently get priority unless the settings are tweaked for each and every session.
In order to hit this lower price point, the DIR-879 had to cut some corners. The most glaring omission is leaving out the USB expansion ports. While most other routers north of $100 have at least a single USB port, the DIR-879 has none. If you have a network printer and network attached storage, this may not be an issue, but overall this lack of expansion is limiting. The other corner cut is the lack of multiple LEDs to indicate the status. A single light that glows either white or orange and is either steady or flashing provides connectivity information, but while status information is technically provided, keep the user's guide handy in order to interpret this as it is akin to trying to read tea leaves to know what is going on.
The SmartConnect feature on the DIR-879 combines both wireless bands into a single SSID. This does offer the advantage of simplified configuration and not having to choose the best frequency for each device. However, it is often preferable to have the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies available separately so each device can be manually set to the desired band. This was done in our case during testing so throughput could be quantified for each of the bands.
The web user interface has an automatic button to upgrade the firmware, which is supposed to locate the firmware for upload. This interface indicated that the latest firmware was already on the router, but when looking on D-Link’s website this was not the case. Thankfully this firmware can be downloaded directly from the manufacturer and then manually loaded onto the router, but it does mean users will want to periodically check the website for updates (unless this flaw is fixed). Which will hopefully happen, because who really has the time or inclination to periodically look for upgraded firmware?
Nitpicking aside, there is plenty to like here, and in use the DIR-879 was quite stable without any hiccups. With a fair retail pricing, this D-Link offering is our choice for a bargain gaming router, as long as you understand the compromises.
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Best high-end router
Unique styling and eight antennas for long range coverage Comprehensive interface and QoS settings Power brick blocks outlets on surge strips Single USB 3.0 port (other is USB 2.0) Large size and no wall mounting options
At the top end of routers for the Asus camp is their AC5300 model. We were more than curious to see what a router with a price close to four Franklinsbrings to the table, but to skip to the punchline it is an impressive piece of kit, even at this price. The Asus AC-5300 is an imposing piece of networking hardware with eight antennas arranged around a square block of a case with plastic mesh for ventilation. It has been likened to a spider as it has the black color with eight appendages going for it. [Ed: Spider, he is our hero !] Be aware that it does take up some serious space on the desk both horizontally and vertically and cannot be wall mounted.
The AC5300 designation results from the tri-bands of this router: 1000Mbps on the 2.4GHz frequency, and a pair of 5GHz bands, each good for 2167Mbps; these are the fastest speeds available on a consumer router currently. The RT-AC5300 requires 65W via a power brick that is awkward to plug into a surge strip as it blocks multiple outlets. This router has a 1.4GHz dual core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 128MB of flash memory, which gives it more than respectable credentials in the hardware department.
This Asus RT-AC5300 has plenty going for it beyond just the raw speed, including a firewall, beamforming, and MU-MIMO. Add to that four Gigabit LAN ports and two USB ports, although only one is the faster USB 3.0 while the other is USB 2.0. It almost goes without saying that it supports the usual features of parental controls, VPN, and printer server. It also has separate hardware buttons for WPS, and can toggle on/off both the LED lights and the Wi-Fi signal.
The real question becomes what does the top end Asus AC5300 do that its lower end brethren cannot? The Asus AC5300 certainly has some features to separate the men from the boys, and this includes support for Dual WAN. This is a feature for those that have the good fortune of having two sources of internet access, and this allows the router to use both simultaneously. Furthermore, it is user selectable to use both of them in an equal fashion to load balance, or to use one as the main, and the other as a backup. If that’s not enough, the user can plug a mobile broadband USB modem into the router’s USB port, and the router can use that for an internet connection.
The router also has AiCloud, which uses memory inserted into the USB port as local storage or an internet accessible FTP, including via a smartphone app. For the OCD among us, there is total granular control of every router setting, allowing you to fine tune your network. The Asus AC5300 can monitor traffic and provide the total gigabytes used in a month, with notifications if you’re getting close to a user specified data cap.
In typical overkill fashion, the Asus RT-AC5300 nails the QoS with their Adaptive QoS. The router can prioritize traffic by category--games, media streaming, web surfing, or it can be customized via a hierarchical system of six categories. To further prioritize gaming traffic, the router has integrated WTFast GPN, an exclusive gamer private network for route optimization of gaming packets; a lifetime subscription is included in the device. This service promises to lower your ping, but overall it has mixed reviews and variable results; still, for users that would like to try it, the included subscription has significant value. The stand alone Basic WTFast costs $5.99 a month.
In testing, the Asus AC 5300 proved totally stable and had the fastest speed on the 5GHz band at the further distance past a wall and floor. While the Asus AC5300 may not be for everyone with that high barrier to entry, for a discerning networking enthusiast, this router will not disappoint.
Read MoreWhat to look for in a router, and how we test
Wi-Fi standards
The first thing to look at when choosing a router is what Wi-Fi standard it uses. The current standard is 802.11ac, which was ratified in 2014 and supersedes 802.11n (a standard introduced in 2009). The two major advances of 802.11n were the introduction of simultaneous 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies from the same router, and MIMO (“multiple in, multiple out”), which divides the data stream between multiple antennas. Speeds on 802.11n top out at 450Mbps on both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz frequency on an N900 router. There was also beamforming (a technology to focus the transmission of the signal to direct it to the client) with 802.11n gear, but this was proprietary and required a client adapter that supports it from the same manufacturer of the router, meaning it was generally not used.
The newer 802.11ac routers also transmit on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The standards for 2.4GHz are essentially a carryover from 802.11n, except that up to four simultaneous spatial streams are supported, each carrying 150Mbps, for a total of 600Mbps. On the 5GHz side of things, 802.11ac bumps the speed per channel from 150Mbps to 433Mbps. It also supports MIMO for up to eight spatial streams, allowing for faster maximum speeds. Beamforming is part of the standard, so this technology is supported across different manufacturers of routers and clients.
Wi-Fi speeds
Within the 802.11ac standard, there are many speeds to choose from. They are based on the combined theoretical maximum speed of the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz frequencies, rounded as needed. For example, AC1200 has a 2.4GHz speed of 300Mbps and a 5GHz speed of 867Mbps, which sums to 1167 and gets rounded to AC1200. Here’s the list of currently ratings:
It should be noted that on the fastest standards, AC3200 and AC5300, this is based on total bandwidth sent across three connections: one 2.4GHz, and two 5GHz. A single client will not receive that much bandwidth, and while this is not a significant limitation, it does amount to a certain amount of manufacturer exaggeration. On an AC5300 router, for example, they state “deliver faster Wi-Fi speeds of up to 5332 Mpbs,” failing to note that it’s only in aggregate.
MU-MIMO
The latest so-called ‘Wave 2’ routers support MU-MIMO. This stands for multiple user, multiple input, multiple output. While 802.11n MIMO was limited to a single client, MU-MIMO can be used across four simultaneous clients. It takes advantage of the radio wave phenomenon of multipath propagation. By this process, data transmission becomes more efficient as less bandwidth is wasted, and simultaneous transmissions can occur multiple channels.
Beamforming
While beamforming debuted with the 802.11n standard, it was significantly limited by requiring the router and the client to be from the same manufacturer. With 802.11ac, beamforming is now part of the standard, providing compatibility between manufacturers.
This technology allows the router to focus the transmission of the data stream more directly to the client, rather than transmitting equally in all directions. This increases the signal strength to where it is needed, with less interference. While this is now a standard, there are still proprietary implementations of beamforming such as Netgear’s Beamforming+ or D-Link’s AC Smartbeam, which promise even faster speeds. However, these claims go largely untested.
Open source firmware
Like other computing gear, routers have firmware embedded into their flash memory. When a router becomes vulnerable to an attack, it’s up to the manufacturer to patch the firmware. This is one of the arguments to have a router from a major manufacturer so that there will be firmware updates down the road, as long as the router remains supported. When setting up most routers, they will check for the latest firmware and install it, providing the best and most secure experience.
Unfortunately, even the most reliable and zealous manufacturers of networking gear grow faint in the firmware department at some point. It’s not realistic for a manufacturer to continue devoting resources to older products that are long out of warranty support, and these are usually no longer being sold. But with homes and businesses continuing to use routers for many years, the potential to end up with network vulnerabilities on older hardware is a concern.
There are several open source firmware solutions that are produced and maintained by enthusiastic communities. These projects include DD-WRT, Tomato, and OpenWRT. While these open firmwares were traditionally loaded onto routers no longer supported to enable current security and additional features, times have changed. Some manufacturers, such as Buffalo with their AirStation Extreme AC1750, are manufacturing new routers, and their only firmware is of the open source variety. Some question whether this is a better approach, but an advantage is that the end user will likely have access to a more secure and up to date firmware for longer than what most manufacturers typically support.
Smartphone integration
Routers have settings that need to be configured, such as setting up a Guest Network, or changing the Wi-Fi password. Typically this is done via a web interface through a browser page on the computer. More convenient is a smartphone interface done via an Android or iOS app. These are free apps that are provided by the router manufacturer that can control many, but not all, of the router functions that can be done over a web interface. (These same apps can also be used on a tablet, naturally.)
The advantage is that the login and web address do not need to be remembered each time an adjustment is made. Examples of this include the Netgear Genie and Google’s OnHub. An additional benefit is that some of these apps can be used even when the smartphone is away from the router and not connected via Wi-Fi, which can be useful when there is an issue with the home network and you are elsewhere.
QoS
QoS stands for Quality of Service. This is a setting that allows the router to prioritize more important traffic over less critical data, allowing the available bandwidth to be utilized most effectively. In general, streaming media, such as high bandwidth HD or 4K video, and gaming require an uninterrupted flow flow of data to ensure an excellent experience. Higher performance routers feature QoS that can be toggled on as an overall setting. Even better, some routers allow for even more granular settings that allow certain websites to be specifically designated as priority. If you value low ping times in games and routinely have other PCs or devices using a lot of your internet bandwidth, QoS can be very beneficial.
Checking bandwidth and how we test
All the routers in this guide were tested firsthand using a variety of high bandwidth applications, including gaming, 4K video, file transfers, and general web surfing. The latest version of the router’s firmware was flashed onto the router at the onset of testing. All the client devices used were consistent throughout testing, running the latest drivers and software.
Wireless network speed is an important determinant of a router’s performance. This is tested with Netstress run on two computers simultaneously, and reported in Mbps. The throughput is tested both at a close 8’ (2.4m) distance with no intervening obstruction, and also at a 30’ (9.1m) distance with an obstructing floor and wall in the way, as well as some metal ductwork intervening.
At each location, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz performance is tested separately and reported. One computer connects wirelessly via an AC1200 USB adapter from Edimax (EW-7822UAC) that has a deployable antenna, and the second computer is connected via a wired connection consisting of a CAT 5e cable through a Gigabit (10/100/1000) port.
The QoS stability is also looked at with online gaming providing a continuous frame rate, and online HD video running on a second client simultaneously.
Performance results will vary from environment to environment. We made sure to test all routers in the same environment. So the key takeaway from the numbers should be their relative performance differences, and not the raw figures.
Competitors
We focused our testing on four of the more recently introduced routers on the market. There are many routers on the market, but the emphasis here was on gear from major manufacturers that promises strong gaming performance.
Looking at our benchmarking results, even with an AC1200 adapter, it becomes clear that there is variation in throughput depending on the router used, with the other variables constant. Therefore choosing the right router can make a difference in the performance. Faster adapters are forthcoming, and currently available choices such as the D-Link DWA-192 offers AC1900 via a USB interface, and Asus and TP-Link have AC1900 offerings via PCI-E boards. For the time being, few users have adapters faster than AC1200, with the integrated wireless in most notebooks still on older standards.
D-Link DIR-895L/R
D-Link’s top end router, the DIR 895L/R was also tested for this review, and it competes against the Asus AC 5300. The DIR 895L/R also features AC 5300 speeds, and in fact had the fastest speeds on the 2.4GHz band at the close distance. It also had attractive styling with a red metallic paint job, and good integration of the status LED’s. However, with a list price of $379, and a list price of $369 we expected more. Compared to the Asus AC 5300, the software interface was essentially the same as their less expensive DIR-879 model, except there were interfaces added for the USB ports, but it hardly offered the fuller feature set with total control over everything compared to its competitor. Therefore, the Asus AC5300 got our nod.
TP-Link Talon AD7200
Another interesting flagship router is the TP-Link Talon AD7200. This router is the first to feature support for the latest 802.11ad standard (see below for the details on this). While it offers a pathway forward for Wi-Fi to proceed in, there are so few clients that can take advantage of this currently, that it offers potential over usability at this time. For the time being, the $349 price tag is better spent elsewhere until there is more gear available.
TP-Link/Google OnHub
Speaking of TP-Link, their partnership with Google offers the OnHub Wireless Router (with a similar model from Asus also in partnership with Google). This router offers a very managed approach to a router, heavily controlled through an integrated “Google On” smartphone app. In addition, it is styled in an understated way to integrate into a variety of home decors. While this provides a little more hand holding than some other routers, the limitation of a single LAN port is too restrictive for us, and it is not targeted to gaming.
Starry Station
Another router to emerge onto the scene is the Starry Station. The standout feature is a 3.8” integrated color touchscreen that facilitates setup, as well as provides info on the health of the router and the network. While the triangular design may appeal to some, at $349, the AC1900 wireless speeds will lag behind other flagship routers that are AC 5300 at this price point. While the Starry Station offers a potential direction for router design, it is not targeted to gamers, and rather we suspect that we will not see the real potential until Starry’s broadband offeringwith millimeter wireless debuts.
D-Link DIR-890L/R
The D-Link AC3200 Ultra Wi-Fi Router (DIR-890L/R) is a higher tier router that is designed for gaming. At first glance, it looks like the fraternal twin of the D-Link AC5300 Ultra Wi-Fi Router (DIR-895L/R). Fraternal twins, by the way, are the ones that are not identical. With the red metallic paint job, a hexagonal shape, and antennas jutting up, it has a family resemblance, but upon a closer look, the differences start to become apparent. The DIR-890L/R has the software interface of D-Link’s other routers, which favors ease of use at the expense of more advanced controls which will likely frustrate more advanced users.
The first noticeable difference is this DIR 890L/R is an AC3200 model which has six antennas, and not the eight of the top banana DIR 895L/R which is an AC5300 model. However, the DIR-890L/R is still tri-band meaning that it sends out a 2.4 GHz band signal rated for 600 Mbps, and dual 5 GHz bands, each good for 1300 Mbps. If you do the math, that totals to a healthy 3200 Mbps of bandwidth. The antennas are re-positionable, and high gain. However, being at the bottom of the tri-band food chain means that a dual band AC2600 router will, at least on paper, have faster speeds on both of the bands. However, the total throughput is greater on the AC3200 model.
In use, the DIR-890L/R was a mixed bag. Unlike other D-Link routers, this one was able to upgrade the firmware without the manual upload workaround that has been found in other D-Link models. However, in speed and range testing, the DIR-890L/R was bested by other routers of a more recent vintage. It makes sense that this DIR-890L/R router was beat by the DIR-895 L/R which is D-Link's premier model, but it was a surprise that D-Link’s DIR-879—which is AC1900, less costly, and our affordable gaming router pick—ran circles around it as well. The DIR-890L/R, despite its multiple antennas, has range issues with it having some of the slowest speeds on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz far tests. Finally, an Android “Lollipop” smartphone, which connects to all the other routers tested without issue, had frequent disconnects to the DIR-890L/R, which cemented our recommendation to pass on the DIR 890L/R.
ASRock G10
We can give ASRock credit for trying something different in a crowded market segment. Instead of the horizontal design with the multiple antennas jutting north, ASRock went with a glossy black plastic, put a total of eight antennas internally and made the whole thing vertical to save space. There is also a curious addition of this H2R module that can function as a travel router, or as a wireless HDMI dongle for streaming services like MiraCast, and casting photos and documents.
Setup took a while via the router’s integrated software interface. The interface has the look of a GPU overclocking utility instead of what you'd expect from a networking software interface. Setup was painful because the router required a reboot to change any setting. Yes, any setting is accompanied by thumb twiddling for 90 seconds . At least the firmware was able to update automatically without a manual workaround.
On the other hand, the QoS setting, named Gaming Boost in ASRock’s implementation, allows the user to prioritize a device, but not the type of traffic. This limits the ability to put gaming traffic ahead of bandwidth sapping video traffic for example, making this a less elegant and robust approach to this important problem.
It’s not that the G10 is a bad router; the issue is that it is really just not a great one. The significantly slower speeds on both bands—and the slowest throughput we saw from any of our routers we tested—really curbed any enthusiasm we might have had. The price point does not help either. At $233, the ASRock G10 is only a little cheaper than the Netgear X4S, making the Netgear a clearly more solid choice. We'd also recommend saving some money and going with our budget choice. The D-Link DIR-879 Exo has fewer bells and whistles, but is far better at the core function of a router, namely throughput speed.
Future directions
Routers will continue to evolve, with new technology on the horizon. The successor to the current Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac is 802.11ad. This adds a third frequency, 60GHz, to the mix. This is a millimeter wireless frequency that will offer increased bandwidth with speeds measured in Gbps on a single channel, and plans to combine with MU-MIMO for up to 10 simultaneous channels that will truly bring us routers capable of “Warp speed.”
Another direction that routers are moving in is to have more available computing power, with the routers featuring dual core processors, with RAM and storage that would have fit in with a mainstream computer from some years ago. With this level of computing power on tap, routers such as the recently introduced Synology RT1900ac become possible that integrate more functionality including an app store and PC-less downloads.
As new routers come on the market, with new features and technologies, look for this guide to evolve.
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