NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Nighthawk R7800 vs R8500
I originally had a R7000. I loved it, but wanted a little more firepower. I had some BestBuy giftcards laying around, enough for the R8500 which I purchased. But, I have the option to exchange the ...
In my option the R8500 is just a slightly beefed up R8000 and not worth the price difference. If you are mostly concerned with “futureproofing” yourself, the Qualcomm-based R7800 is your best bet. Why do I say that?
When looking at MU-MIMO, Broadcom (hardware in R8500) is playing catchup big time. Qualcomm Networking (R7800 hardware) put in 7 years of research with their MU-MIMO product portfolio, plus 4 years of that 7 was hardware prototype development and testing before any of their MU-MIMO products got to market.
There is beta firmware for the R8500 going around. I have not tested it myself with MU-MIMO devices, but I have heard from those that have it and it far from fully baked, but barely “half baked” when it comes to MU-MIMO.
For now, it you have 4 or more non-MU-MIMO (SU-MIMO) devices connecting to the 5GHz radio at once, the R8500 (or R8000) make more sense with the two 5GH radios to balance the traffic.
Another factor you might want to consider is power usage. The Broadcom platform routers use much more power than the Qualcomm alternatives/equivalents. Qualcomm just has better power management.
Check at smallnetbuilder router ranker. One is called tri-bander but it is dual band with 5GHz band split in two. One is dual band because 5GHz band is not split in two. R7800 has good MU-MIMO specs. and newer. No brainer for me choosing R7800.
Yeah. I ended up returning the R8500 and purchasing the R7800.
Doing some wifi tests at close range with a 2x2 intel 7260 laptop chip (at 866mbps connection speed) on the R7800, I was able to pull files off my server at about 600 MBPS. My R7000 I was only able to get about 400 MBPS. And I think the antenna is broked in my laptop too. Could have probably done better on the R7800. R8500 was about the same.
Also, I can max out cable speed (around 68 mbps) on my back patio on both 5 GHz and 2.4.
I am probably saving a couple bucks a month on power consumption, on top of the ~$130ish I was getting back for the exchange. The R8500 tests/benchmarks showed 22 watts on idle, which is nuts... Not sure what the R7800 is, but probably around half the wattage.
Looks like Broadcom has some catching up to do on multiple fronts. They're kinda reminding me of AMD right now, chips running hotter and slower. Fortunately, AMD chips are cheaper though, unlike broadcom is still getting away with charging an arm and a leg.
Thank you all for your help in my decision!