Whether you choose to invest in the most recent RTX 4090 GPU, a fully loaded Mac Studio, or even a Galaxy S22 Ultra, you’ll experience some diminishing returns on your investment. Even though these products are noticeably better than their less expensive counterparts, you have to wonder when you’ll be able to utilise their full potential. Generally speaking, we basically want to make sure we have enough headroom to completely eliminate any potential for a slowdown. In other words, we don’t want to wait around for technology to catch up.
In most cases, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 feels like it was built to be the quickest gaming router money can buy. Being the fastest has nothing wrong with it, but most people just don’t see the point of this halo product. Even a large family will have trouble overloading this router with numerous 4K downloads, streams, and browsing sessions.
To justify a 10Gb Ethernet port, you must be the kind of person who already has terabytes of data on your NAS, and it must be something more significant than a few anime MKVs. In spite of this, the ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is unquestionably one of the fastest and most powerful routers we have ever used. When you finally overcome sticker shock and open the box, there is so much to love about this router. The top of the router has a mirrored surface with the ROG logo in it that is RGB-lit in half and used for venting in the other half. This is undoubtedly one of the flashiest ROG LED light shows, but it instantly won me over and reminded me of the raw power this router has hidden beneath the surface.
Four gigabit ports, two 10Gbps Ethernet (GbE) ports, and a 2.5GbE WAN port are the first examples of this power. With one 2.4GHz band at 1148Mbps, two 5GHz bands at 4804Mbps each, and a 6GHz band at 4804Mbps, it boasts a quad-band Wi-Fi 6E wireless configuration. This router can easily manage numerous streaming connections at once and is configured to handle more bandwidth than the vast majority of homes can muster.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 review: Design
With dimensions of 7.6 by 13.9 by 13.9 inches (HWD), the GT-AXE16000 is unquestionably the largest consumer router to ever enter PC Labs. It is significantly smaller compared to the enormous TP-Link Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band Gaming Router. The Republic of Gamers logo is backlit on both the reflective panel on the top of the black plastic cabinet and the textured grill found on the ROG Strix GS-AX5400 and the ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 routers. The Asus Aura RGB lighting engine, which offers effects including breathing, waves, rainbows, gradients, and static lighting, is used in the logo. Additionally, the panel has LED activity indicators for the system power, all four radio bands, and the 10GbpsE, 2.5Gbps, and 1Gbps ports.
Eight non-removable adjustable antennas are used by the GT-AXE16000 to transmit over one 2.4GHz, two 5GHz, and one 6GHz radio band. Ports are numerous: You also get two 10Gbps LAN/WAN ports, a 2.5Gbps WAN port, a USB 2.0 port, and a USB 3.0 port in addition to the four 1Gbps LAN ports. Link aggregation is supported by the WAN and LAN ports alike. The router’s reset button, power jack, and power switch are all situated on the back of the device, along with all of its I/O ports. WPS and LED On/Off buttons are located on the router’s left side.
256MB of flash memory, 2GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 2GHz quad-core CPU all power the GT-AXE16000. Being a Wi-Fi 6E router, it can utilise the 6GHz radio band, which was recently made available for Wi-Fi networking. For improved throughput and decreased network congestion, the new band provides up to seven more 160MHz-wide channels. The GT-AXE16000 is rated for theoretical throughput of up to 16,000Mbps, with maximum data rates of 1,148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, 4,804Mbps on each of the 5GHz bands, and 4,804Mbps on the 6GHz band.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 review: Setup
Yes, the majority of gamers are very tech-savvy individuals who are perfectly capable of logging onto a wireless router’s web interface, performing the necessary setup, and making the necessary configuration modifications. In my “wireless setup video,” I cover almost everything you need to know if you’re new to configuring wireless routers.
If you don’t want to bother with manual setup, you can quickly and effortlessly set up the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 by downloading and installing the Asus Router app onto an Android or iOS device. The programme will ask you for the admin password and the network names and passwords for each of your three data bands even though the most of the setup is automatic. Typically, setup takes no longer than five minutes.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 review: Security
Built-in security features on the Asus GT-AXE16000 are powered by TrendMicro, a company that has been a provider of security solutions to the market since 1988. A router security evaluation is part of this security package and it helps find issues. Additionally, there is a “Malicious Site Blocking” tool to stop users from unintentionally visiting corrupt websites and a “Two Way IPS” intrusion prevention system. Infected devices can’t participate in a zombie or botnet assault because to another characteristic.
For each of these events, a log is also available, allowing you to monitor its effectiveness over time. The Asus GT-AXE16000 allows parents to set limits on the number of websites that can be visited as well as the amount of time spent by each device, in contrast to some routers that only have basic parental controls. Without taking down the entire network, the system is powerful enough to completely block devices.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 review: Performance
We performed our customary suite of network benchmarks on the Asus GT-AXE16000. With our wireless client, an Asus ROG laptop with an Intel AX201 wireless card, we first tested the wireless throughput. Since Wi-Fi 6 is not supported by this card, we are unable to test the 6 GHz throughput, which promises higher speeds and fewer interference.
Although not record-breaking, the throughput is still respectable for this router. The throughput on our 2.4 GHz close test, with the client positioned 5 feet away, was 123.6 Mbps. The speed significantly decreased to 72.2 Mbps when we moved to a higher floor of the router and extended the distance to 30 feet.
Strong results were also obtained in the 5 GHz band, with an even higher throughput rate than in the 2.4 GHz tests. Here, the close test yields a throughput of 914.1 Mbps, while the test at a distance of 30 feet reduced this to a still-rapid 509.7 Mbps. The Asus GT-AXE16000 was then subjected to our network congestion test, which evaluates the router’s QoS settings. We play the video game Overwatch at 1080p with the most recent patch installed for this test, and we record data like in-game latency and frames per second (FPS).
Then, ten 8K videos are added to the mix to mimic a congested network (chosen to saturate our 300 Mbps cable-based broadband connection). The QoS switch is then turned on, allowing the router to give gaming traffic priority. In order to assess how effectively a router can handle a network that is overloaded with video streaming traffic and gamers, we also report the frame rates that fell during the first 8K video. Although gaming typically utilises a little amount of bandwidth, it needs to be given high priority in order to prevent stutters and freezes. It is quite noticeable when gameplay drops below 30 frames per second and quickly becomes unplayable as it drops even lower.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 review: Price and availability
Since early summer 2022, the ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 has been a big $700 purchase. However, considering it features dual-10GbE ports and is priced similarly to other quad-band Wi-Fi 6E solutions, it represents a good bargain. Retailers like Amazon, Newegg, B&H, and Micro Center sell this router in the US.
Although ASUS utilised a lot of foam to hold the router firmly in place, the router was mostly packaged in cardboard. Out of the box, each of the eight antennas came with a single-use plastic sleeve. I would like to see Asus follow the example of certain companies like eero that have started utilizing more recyclable packaging. This is more landfill than I like to see in my packing. Environmental issues, however, have no effect on the router’s performance and won’t be taken into account when determining the review’s final score.
Final Words
It’s worth the cost to bring your network up to the highest performance level; in this case, the Asus GT-AXE16000 costs $699. Sadly, this places this product at the top of the high end of the consumer router market. On the one hand, this router provides reliable throughput, several security measures, performance on four bands, and fine-grained control over the majority of settings.
As a gaming router, we believe that the majority of users would anticipate more consistent performance and better QoS at a price this high. After all, we’ve observed that less expensive routers manage mixed network traffic better, and our performance issues during gaming haven’t materialized. Given the cost and performance concerns, we advise users to select a more established and reliable product for their network routing requirements.