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Forum Discussion
RAX80 vs R9000 vs Whatever
Hi!
I recently upgraded my internet to Gigabit and my R7000 just isn't up to the job.
I've been looking at the RAX80 (AX6000) and the R9000 (X10). They are the same price. I'm struggling to make a decision. It seems like the AX80 is newer and might be more future proof, but the X10 seems to have more features. I chatted with Netgear support and they just sent me to the "Compare these products link", not info otherwise. Quite a few people suggested the R78000, but if I'm going tp spend $200, I'd rather spend a little more and get something that isn't three years old. Is the AX8 the spirital successor to the X10?
Here are the things that are important to me:
- Wired speeds. I'd like to get as close to Gigabit speeds as possible
- Future proofing. If I'm going to spend $400 on a router I want it to still be relevant in a couple of years
- Features. The X10's Plex server and fiber connection sound interesting, but not sure I'll ever use them.
- Range Extender. I have a fairly large house and would like an accompanying range extender (I have an EX7000 now).
- As silly as it sounds, the AX80 looks better
14 Replies
I would choose the R7800. I have a 1 Gbps down and 50 Mbps up ISP service using a R7800. Using Speedtest.net to the local ISP at 6:00 am, I get 920 Mbps down using wired Ethernet and 650 Mbps down on 5 GHz, 80 MHz Channel, 10 ft line-of-sight to R7800 with an iPhone 8 and a Dell XPS13 (2017). While there are some firmware bugs (Netgear has a very checkered record of Q&A as to their firmware updates the last few years in my opinion), the router is very stable on firmware v 1.0.2.52 and v 1.0.2.62 (most recent). I have a two-story, frame-brick house, and 5GHz Wi-Fi coverage is excellent in all parts of the house. At the worst location in the house, I get 170 Mbps down on 5 GHz.
There is only one client device for 802.11ax currently shipping, the Samsung Galazy S10. While most new versions of Wi-Fi have also resulted in better performance for legacy devices, I would wait for the "wave 2" devices that will show up in 18 months or so. By that time there will also be client devices that can take advantage of 802.11ax's features. The 802.11ax standard is still in draft and will not be formally approved until later this year at the earliest. For the most part, however, these draft devices have worked out pretty well looking back at the history of the Wi-Fi generations. Finally, the target market for 802.11ax is large venues with many devices like large classrooms and football stadiums. I would let the four NFL stadiums that are upgrading this year to 802.11ax work the bugs out :-)
The EX8000 range extender looks like a good match for the R7800. There is a review on SmallNetBuilder.com of this combination. I have had good luck with Moca 2.0 bonded devices to get 1 Gbps Ethernet between downstairs and upstairs in my house using the cable TV infrastructure in the house.
I personally think the R7800 is a better choice than the R9000 for most people. Both devices have the same Qualcomm 2.4 and 5 GHz radio chips.
+1 for the R7800. This one has pretty stable firmware and very minor issues. I speak from personal experience and from others people experience with it. It also has one of the best wifi range out there. This doesn't mean it will cover everything but you can't get better from NG at the moment
- I have both RAX80 & R9000 after bring the RAX80 online it was worse the the R9000 but I wanted to give it the RAX80 a chance and it has leveled out but the R9000 is better for latency. I have as many as 45 device on my network so as you can imagine I struggle everyday even with 1 gig Down and 50m up. I have never tried the are 7800 so I can't really judge it I will be moving to the new RAX200 on August 15th when it comes out I will give it a review in about 2 weeks.
Zman112233 wrote:
I recently upgraded my internet to Gigabit and my R7000 just isn't up to the job.
Out of interest, what does that mean?
What features are missing? What is going too slow?
Your wishlist doesn't contain much where I'd expect to see a big difference, especially the bits that you don't expect to use.
I'm with the recommendations for the R7800, but I have also used an R7000P. For many purposes, you aren't going to see huge differences. You may even lose some of the things that Netgear added, such as support for Disney Circle, Armor or something else that comes with Netgear's customised firmware.
Zman112233 wrote:
- As silly as it sounds, the AX80 looks better
There's no accounting for taste, but that is as good a way as any of choosing. But for new stuff like the RAX80 it is worth waiting for Netgear to iron out the bugs. The R7800 is now well established, but even that has it issues from time to time. Do you use Pi-hole, for example?
michaelkenward The R7000 just doesn't seem to have the hardward to run Gigabit speeds, especially when features are turned on.
If factory reset my max wired throughput is 600Mbps. If I disable QoS, traffic meter, UPnP, etc. my max throughput is 300Mbps. Once I enable MAC access control it drops down to 250Mbps. I even contacted Netgear and they said that the R7000 really isn't meant to handle true Gigabit. They said R7800 would be the bare minimum to get what I needed.
After reading some reviews on the RAX80 it seems like it's not ready for primetime and most reviews didn't recommend it. The R9000 is only about $150 more than the R7800 and most of the reviews I read put it anywhere from 13-20% faster than the R7800. Not saying that difference is a game changer, but in the grand scheme of things, spending $150 extra on something I use every single day isn't a big deal.
Hopefully that helped answer some of your questions.
Zman112233 wrote:
michaelkenward The R7000 just doesn't seem to have the hardward to run Gigabit speeds, especially when features are turned on.
At Gigabit speeds, QoS is going to slow down any device. It isn't needed at those speeds, and just gets in the way. Some say that anything over 300 Mbps can live without QoS.
Serious gamers prefer something like the DumaOS, which is the firmware on the XR500, a router that is actually modelled on the hardware of the R7800, but with a healthy price mark up for something that is as ugly as sin.
Most "features" will eat some processing power, but the R7800 should handle that more easily than an R7000.
The R9000 is only about $150 more than the R7800 and most of the reviews I read put it anywhere from 13-20% faster than the R7800. Not saying that difference is a game changer, but in the grand scheme of things, spending $150 extra on something I use every single day isn't a big deal.What does "faster" mean? I take measurements like that with a trainload of salt. Real world experience is what I go by.
From what I read here, most people using an R7800 seem to get near the maximum out of Gb internet. As to wifi speeds, that is down the clients as much as the sources.
But I'm sure that a few go-fast stripes on the side won't go amiss.
- Hello, I just bought 3 routers, all paired up with xfinity 1000mbps and the mb8600 modem. The x6 tri band, x10 with 60 ghz and ax8 wifi 6. First off the ax8 was way slower all across the board then the x6, I'll definitelybe returning this one. Now the x10 to the x6 were very similar, however I dont have any devices that support the 60ghz so it wasn't useful for me and it costs more. I love the 2 - 5ghz band that the x6 gives you so I will most definitely stay with this one. At any given time I have 17 to 21 devices connected. I did the test with the same devices, an HP omen laptop and Note10+. One thing that i did upgrade and used for all devices was i bought a cat6 cable to connect the router to the modem to replace the cat5e they give you in the router box, and for me this really helped. Highly recommend doing this, just go get a 3' cable for $7.
Ping on all 3 was about the same, between 13 and 20ms. Upload speeds on all 3 were about the same, between 32-42mbps.
Download speed on the AX8 was AT LEAST 200mbps slower than the x6 or x10.
So currently i am connected to the X6 router with the MB8600 modem with the xfinity 1000mbps. I'll get download speeds on my note 10+ in the middle of the day between 450-650mbps. Connected with ethernet on my laptop I get about 920-954 (was the highest i was able to get).
All I can say is if this X6 ever burns up, I'll buy another one. I have coverage all over my house, everyone is connected and no lag, and the 2nd 5ghz band really helps, A LOT!!!
Do yourself a favor and save some money get the X6!
P.s. it was all tested on speedtest.netThe 2nd 5Ghz band will NOT increase coverage, only throughput across the 5Ghz spectrum, sounds nice on paper but the R7800 trumps the X6 in range and overall performance even with dozens of clients thanks to a superior Qualcomm chipset, plus Broadcom chipsets like the one in the X6 haave issues with advertised extras like MU which causes performance loss rather than gain unlike on Qualcomm routers. Ive had had tthe R8000, R8500 and the R7800 so this is from experience as well. Realistically even with dozens of clients connected only a handful will be actively using a lot of bandwidth so for the average home user even power user tthe R7800 is still a better unit there are enough reviews out there, I have not seen a single one shows either the x6 or x8 ac routers beating the R7800 in 5Ghz performance at close or far ranges.
In my testing the RAX80 was definately better than the older x6 or x8 even as an ac router I get around 1120 Mbps Down and ~480 Mbps Up when doing LAN transfers to router's USB port with my Samsung T5 SSD, and around 960 Mbps Up/Down in transfers to my NAS, all tests were on WiFi (My Dell Inspiron 7577 with an Intel AX200 internal adapter, previously 9260ac both supporting HT160).
Also know that the current AX routers don't support all AX features as they are draft routers, so wait till 2nd gen AX routers and hopefully prices will be more sane by then as well.
