For those who want their network to be on the cutting edge of wireless standards, the Asus Wi-Fi 6E Gaming Router, also known as the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, is worth checking out. Part of the Republic of Gamers line, it looks like a high-end gaming device, with lots of antennas, stylized corners and lights.
Wi-Fi 6E is a recent development in wireless standards and will not follow soon after Wi-Fi 6. All upgrades over Wi-Fi 6 can be viewed here. But for those who want the CliffsNotes version, this latest wireless standard adds an extra 6GHz frequency with less interference, offers lower latency and offers a total of seven 160MHz ultra-wide channels to improve data transfer.
Keep in mind, though, that Wi-Fi 6E compatible clients are quite limited and we had to run our tests with a Wi-Fi 6 card. So it may take some time before you can take full advantage of the advanced capabilities of this router. On the other hand, future-proofing a purchase can often be a good strategy, especially with high-end hardware. If you lose $549 on a router like the GT-AXE11000, you don’t want it to be obsolete in a month or a year.
Design
As is quite typical for a high-end router, the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 goes with a horizontal design, with eight large and positionable antennas. This router has some visually interesting angles on the corners, which gives it a modern look without looking over the top. We also appreciate that it has a physical on/off switch for easy resets. Weighing in at 10.4 x 10.4 x 2.9 in (26.4 x 26.4 x 7.4 cm) and weighing in at 3.94 lbs (1.79 kg), it is certainly a large router. And it is decorated with the ROG logo on the top with RGB LEDs for lighting.
We also appreciate that the illuminated logo can be turned off for use in the bedroom or TV room. A dedicated power switch, recessed reset button, and a pair of USB 3.2 ports round out the package.
Specifications of the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 WiFi 6E
Aside from USB, the GT-AXE11000 has an assortment of ports that offer a number of options not found in lesser routers. For starters, there are four Gigabit LAN ports and one Gigabit WAN port. Then this router takes it one step further with a 2.5G WAN/LAN port, which adds some flexibility and is designed to give ‘top priority’ data sent over this port. There is also an option to run Link Aggregation to use both the Gigabit WAN port and the flexible LAN/WAN port as an additional Gigabit port for higher bandwidth WAN. The hardware specs for this router include a 64-bit, 1.8GHz quad-core CPU, 256MB of flash storage, and 1GB of RAM.
The GT-AXE11000 is a tri-band router, although with Wi-Fi 6E things are slightly different from previous tri-band routers, which typically have a single 2.4GHz frequency and dual 5GHz frequencies. The GT-AXE11000 has a 2.4 GHz frequency for up to 1148 Mbps of throughput, a 5 GHz frequency for 4804 Mbps and a 6 GHz frequency for an additional 4804 Mbps. Add them all together and with the usual rounding that occurs with the total throughput of networks, we arrive at the nice round number of 11,000 Mbps of total throughputI
Installing the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 WiFi 6E
The GT-AXE11000’s setup was typical, and we applaud the fact that Asus lets you use a browser (which we prefer) if you don’t want to use a smartphone app. As the installation progresses, there is an option to choose a Wi-Fi password and a router password. Along the way, the firmware is also upgraded to the latest – an important step to get all the recent bug fixes and security patches. Although we experienced later in testing, the latest firmware is not always the way to the best performance. More on that later.
Functions
A nice feature of this router is the dedicated Hardware Boost key, which can be set in the software to one of four functions: turn the LEDs on and off, activate Game Boost, control the RGB lighting or select the router channels automatically.
The GT-AXE11000 includes the excellent Asus QoS, which we also found in their other routers. There is a choice of settings, including a custom one for complete control. Allows you to prioritize game traffic for the best experience.
In addition, the GT-AXE11000 has three additional priority levels for game traffic. The first is a dedicated gaming port to connect the gaming PC to, and acceleration that recognizes ROG devices. The second is Game Packet Prioritization via Game Boost. The third tier is OutFox, the Gamer’s Private Network (GPN), which only comes with a 90-day subscription, and appears to be a replacement for WTFast that was included in previous Asus gaming routers.
Security of the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 WiFi 6E
The GT-AXE11000 includes network-level security, powered by Trend Micro, and a subscription is included. It has several functions: Router Security Assessment, Malicious Site Blocking, Two-Way Intrusion Prevention System and blocking infected devices. This is useful for keeping the entire network free of malicious software, rather than relying solely on anti-malware software on your computer.
Performance of the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 WiFi 6E
| 2.4GHz close up | 2.4GHz version | 5GHz close by | 5 GHz version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 386.3Mbps | 212.9Mbps | 1401.2Mbps | 1142.5 Mbps |
Testing a Wi-Fi 6E router is challenging when there are such limited Wi-Fi 6E clients. Our tests were conducted with an Intel AX201 wireless card with the 22.40.0.7 driver. While it supports Wi-Fi 6, it does not support Wi-Fi 6E, although there is an updated chip, the AX210, which supports this latest standard.
In our testing, even limited to just the Wi-Fi 6 portion, this router still impressed us the most; we have our highest throughput scores to date. The 5GHz near-test was blazingly fast at 1401.2Mbps and still 1142.5Mbps at 10m, showing that even without the latest and standard, the router impresses with Wi-Fi 6 devices.
| Test configuration | QoS | FRAPS gem | Max | 8K Dropped Frames | Pingplotter spikes | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethernet | new ones | 125.5 | 156 | N/A | 0 | 232 |
| Ethernet + 10 8k videos | new ones | 121.4 | 141 | 58.70% | 1 | 79 |
| Ethernet + 10 8k videos | Yes | 117.8 | 131 | 22.60% | 0 | 80 |
| 5GHz | new ones | 124 | 152 | N/A | 0 | 58 |
| 5GHz + 10 8k videos | new ones | 126.4 | 150 | 32.60% | 0 | 82 |
| 5GHz + 10 8k videos | Yes | 87.4 | 126 | 45.90% | 2 | 142 |
| 2.4GHz | new ones | 125.7 | 150 | N/A | 0 | 161 |
| 2.4GHz + 10 8k videos | new ones | 102.1 | 136 | 32.40% | 4 | 106 |
| 2.4GHz + 10 8k videos | Yes | 50.7 | 76 | 33.30% | 5 | 130 |
Despite the insanely fast throughput, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 WiFi 6E didn’t deliver a great performance in our network congestion tests. It started well enough with our laptop plugged into the dedicated game port, although we can’t explain our game’s higher latency score overwatch without any background videos running. Still, the FPS were solid and with just the game we played, we got a 125.5 FPS. We also only got a single PingPlotter spike across the three wired tests, with the ten 8K background videos streamed and the QoS turned off, so not unexpected. The firmware used was the latest version 3.0.0.4.386.42489 which debuted last month.
However, the QoS setting has been disappointing every time it was turned on and tested. This was curious because we haven’t encountered this on any other Asus router, which generally has excellent performance in testing network congestion. However, the QoS in all three connections tested (wired, 2.4GHz, 5GHz) dropped the FPS to the lowest we saw. In other words, the user can leave the QoS better off with the latest firmware.
| Test configuration | QoS | FRAPS gem | Max | 8K Dropped Frames | Pingplotter spikes | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5GHz | new ones | 125.9 | 149 | N/A | 0 | 247 |
| 5GHz + 10 8k videos | new ones | 115.4 | 134 | 25.10% | 0 | 316 |
| 5GHz + 10 8k videos | Yes | 125.2 | 144 | 15.90% | 13 | 419 |
We were surprised with such poor QoS performance as this brand performs fairly consistently well in our congestion tests. To investigate this further, we found the only older version of firmware available for the AXE11000, version 3.0.0.4.386.42026, and manually reverted the router to this version. With the older firmware, the latency values all increased, but in the other tests we saw a significant improvement. This included better FPS, as now with the QoS enabled, we saw an almost identical FPS score with the background videos saturating our network’s bandwidth.
In addition, the reduced frame rate was also lower with this firmware, both with the QoS on and off. We conclude from our testing that at the time of writing, users who have an issue with the current firmware should try their router again with the original firmware, although hopefully Asus will fix the issue soon in a future update to improve both the better latency of the newer firmware, with the better performance on congested networks we saw when working with the older firmware.
Prices and conclusion
All the bells and whistles of Asus have a price. Yes, we now have consumer routers that can compete in price with a new mainstream laptop, as this ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 has a listed price of $549 on the Asus site. And it’s actually priced higher than most of the other places we could find it in stock.
The ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 shows that arriving early on a new standard, in this case Wi-Fi 6E, is not without its teething problems. We applaud the really fast WiFi throughput, ease of installation, integrated security, OutFox support and the flexibility in the wired ports that link aggregation provides.
Some serious drawbacks, however, are the high price, poor QoS performance in our tests with the latest firmware, the large size of the router, and the current lack of Wi-Fi 6E clients. Rolling back to the previous firmware improved performance on most fronts and introduced more latency. And having to run older firmware isn’t ideal anyway, as security vulnerabilities and other issues are often fixed with updates.
Early users of high-end hardware like this often blaze a trail, and we’re looking forward to the faster speeds and less interference that Wi-Fi 6E brings once the prices for this new gear come down. So if you’re willing to pay for advanced networking equipment, both in terms of money and flaky firmware, the ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 is worth considering. It delivered some of the fastest throughput we’ve seen from a router to date. But most people should probably look elsewhere or wait for more Wi-Fi 6E devices to come into their homes before jumping into the world of the 6E router. Perhaps by then Asus will also have fixed the firmware issues we encountered when testing the Rapture GT-AXE11000.