Difference between v3 and v4 of GS724T

[mcgroarty1]

What is the difference between the v3 and v4 of the GS724T switch?

Amazon has both, although the v4 is not available from as many sellers and has a higher price. I also found a page that warns v3 and v4 models cannot coexist on the same network, although this sounds highly unlikely.

My primary need is for a fanless switch that can network three NAS devices each with 4-channel 802.3ad LACP, a couple wifi access points, and connecting these upstream with another 802.3ad LACP capable switch. I'm not making use of the VLAN features.

[DaneA · Accepted solution]

Hi mcgroarty1,

A. The GS724Tv4 supports the following features below while the GS724Tv3 does not.

1. Dynamic VLAN Assignment 

2. Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3.az)

3. MLD (Multicast Listener Discovery) Snooping

4. DHCP snooping

5. Dynamic ARP Inspection

6. Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR)

7. Multiple Registration Protocol (MRP)

B. Other differences between GS724Tv4 and GS724Tv3:

1. The GS724Tv4 has a MAC Address database size of 16k while the GS724Tv3 has only 8k.

2. The GS724Tv4 supports IGMP Snooping v1/v2/v3 while the GS724Tv3 supports IGMP Snooping v1/v2 only.

3. The GS724Tv4 has a flash memory size of 32MB while the GS724Tv3 has 16MB.

4.  The GS724Tv4 has a 128 MB DDR2 SDRAM while the GS724Tv3 has 16 MB DDR. 

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[mcgroarty1]

Some resources:

v3: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/GS716TV2/GS716T-200_GS724T-300_DS_24Feb1218-5327.pdf

v4: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/datasheet/en/GS716Tv3-GS724Tv4-GS748Tv5.pdf

Unfortunately the documents are formatted very differently so it's difficult to do a side-by-side comparison. So far all I've found are iterative improvements. The v4 shaves a few watts off of power, quadruples the storage buffer per port from 512KB to 2MB, and has a slightly faster switching rate (48 vs 52Gbps). I don't spot any regressions or stand out new features.

[DaneA · Accepted solution]

Hi mcgroarty1,

A. The GS724Tv4 supports the following features below while the GS724Tv3 does not.

1. Dynamic VLAN Assignment 

2. Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3.az)

3. MLD (Multicast Listener Discovery) Snooping

4. DHCP snooping

5. Dynamic ARP Inspection

6. Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR)

7. Multiple Registration Protocol (MRP)

B. Other differences between GS724Tv4 and GS724Tv3:

1. The GS724Tv4 has a MAC Address database size of 16k while the GS724Tv3 has only 8k.

2. The GS724Tv4 supports IGMP Snooping v1/v2/v3 while the GS724Tv3 supports IGMP Snooping v1/v2 only.

3. The GS724Tv4 has a flash memory size of 32MB while the GS724Tv3 has 16MB.

4.  The GS724Tv4 has a 128 MB DDR2 SDRAM while the GS724Tv3 has 16 MB DDR. 

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[mcgroarty1]

Thank you. I ended up finding another seller who had the v4 at slightly less than the Amazon price for the v3. The additional memory and lower power consumption are worth enough to go out of my way for the newer model.

I assume there's nothing to the claim that the v3 and v4 cannot coexist on the same network? I saw that here:

https://support.biamp.com/Tesira/AVB/Identifying_Netgear_GS724T_switch_version

[DaneA]

Hi mcgroarty1,

I believe that the reason why the v3 and v4 cannot coexist in the same network is because of the features on the GS724Tv4 that is not present on the GS724Tv3.  A network administrator cannot maximize the full potential of the GS724Tv4 if there are switches present within the same network that lacks the features present in the GS724Tv4.  

However, if you will just configure simple VLANs or LAGs, then both the v3 and v4 of the GS724T can still coexist in the same network. 🙂 

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team