Very rarely does a piece of equipment completely transform my gaming experience quite as much as the GT-AX6000, this is partly down to the fact that I previously had no router set up in my gaming room and was relying on a single LAN port and WIFI extender to supply connectivity to all of my gaming devices. But, it's also down to the fact that the GT-AX6000 Router is an absolute powerhouse and is milking every last drop out of my piss poor internet connection.
Because, I live in Australia, and because the NBN SUCKS! My home internet speeds are awful, the maximum download speed that my particular line is capable of is a measly 50Mbps which in a household with numerous smart devices, TV’s gaming consoles and computers, it's fair to say things become a bit of a struggle from time to time especially when a download is involved. I'm lucky most of the time to be getting speeds of 5Mbps - 10Mbps due to the sheer amount of traffic there is within my household. This makes gaming online problematic. Quite often I suffer from intense lag or drop outs all together and it is extremely frustrating.
Well, since plugging the GT-AX6000 in about 3 weeks ago, I can categorically say that this is now a thing of the past. Of course this isn't solely down to the power of the GT-AX6000 and is also a reflection on the fact that I now have a dedicated router set up in my gaming room to isolate it from the rest of the network. But at the same time, it kinda is also down to the power of the GT-AX6000.
Let's be honest, the GT-AX6000 is HUGE. I mean in terms of overall volume, it probably comes in somewhere close to your normal router/modem size, however due to the nature of its design, it has a much bigger footprint than you might expect. It does give you the option to wall mount, which I'll probably end up doing, however it's still going to be pretty big and noticeable. It features 4 detachable antennas for optimal signal strength and the top features a large RGB ROG logo that I personally love. The rear of the unit houses numerous ports. There are 2.5Gbps LAN and WAN ports, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, a USB 3.0 port and a USB 2.0 port as well as the power input. The front of the unit has simply a WPS button and a LED button to cycle on the LED logo
Setup itself was super simple. Basically, once the 4 very impressive antennas are assembled and everything is plugged into its applicable port, it's a case of following the instruction in the ASUS Router app and away you go. So straight off the bat without changing any of the settings via the app or router setting page my speed went from a measly 19Mbps Download and a pathetic 3.05Mbps Upload with a latency of 388ms on my old connection, to a much more impressive 39.5Mbps Download and 18.8Mbps Upload with a latency of only 25ms. So straight away, a massive improvement but that's only the beginning. After a little tinkering and toggling on a few different settings such as Game Acceleration this speed was boosted even further to 49.15Mbps Download and 20.22Mbps Upload. Which when you consider I am only on a 50/25Mbps plan due to infrastructure limitations this is pretty damn good.
Now I don't claim to be any type of network or WIFI guru. In fact, my knowledge is very limited, so when The GT-AX6000 boasts features like easy port forwarding and Airmesh, it goes relatively over my head. However, knowing that my router can achieve these things I did a little digging and what a difference they make. Essentially, Port forwarding allows you to make your device more easily accessible to other devices routing the connection directly to your PC/console to achieve better connection speeds, lobby loading times and overall gameplay in certain games especially if you are the party host. I can confirm that I now seem to find lobbies way quicker than I did previously so if that's a big deal for you then definitely consider port forwarding as an option. Port forwarding does however come with risks so always do your own research and weigh up the pros and cons. Another cool feature is the in-built VPN which allows you to connect to various different game servers with minimal connection speed and in some cases will actually improve ping.
The app is probably one of the most useful features of the GT-AX6000 as it allows you to access and configure all these cool features, some we've mentioned already, some we have not. With a single click of a button I can choose to prioritise different types of connections depending on what I'm doing. For example, I can select gaming to boost the connection speed and quality for my games, Media streaming allows me to prioritise apps like Netflix and YouTube, File transferring allows me to boost the speeds for things like BitTorrent and Dropbox etc. Whether you're a gamer or not this comes in very handy, and is something I used quite a bit.
Through the mobile app I can also track and optimise any other devices connected to my router. For example I can see a complete list of every device connected at any given time and my PS5 for instance I can turn on the game boost function for improved connection, I can select certain devices and limit their bandwidth within the house if my gaming connection is not quite up to par. To be fair, I haven't actually had to do this with this router as my connection has been generally pretty awesome since the switch.
Overall, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 is excellent. The only downside I can see is the price tag as it is quite pricey, however if getting the absolute most you can out of your gaming, then the GT-AX6000 is perfect. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone that's not a gamer or that doesn't need the gaming specific features as there's other routers on the market that will do what you need for less. But if you're a gamer, and you want the quickest, most stable connections you've ever had then definitely look at this one.
