The 4 Best Gaming Routers of 2024

$379 at B&H

Amplifi HD Gamer’s Version

Greatest gaming router design (Replace: Again-ordered)

Anybody who spends time gaming on-line is aware of {that a} good web connection is crucial to your expertise, and infrequently this consists of having the correct router. The fitting router permits for a secure connection to on-line sport servers and avoids lag, which is very necessary when enjoying on-line multiplayer video games. Whereas it is higher to have an Ethernet cable wired into your PC’s LAN ports, when you’ve got the most effective wi-fi routers you should not discover an excessive amount of of a distinction.

There are a ton of gaming routers available on the market that declare to spice up your gaming efficiency, however which of them are the very best gaming routers? To reply that query, I went on a private quest to seek out the quickest router to spice up my web connection. I’ve put collectively this purchaser’s information as a compilation of the whole lot I’ve discovered out to this point, beginning with the highest gaming routers you must take into account first in your hunt for the very best gaming router. I replace this information repeatedly.

Before you purchase any routers for gaming, I like to recommend you take a look at my newbie’s information to gaming lag to see methods you possibly can carry down your ping. It’s possible you’ll not want a brand new router in any respect, and in lots of instances, shifting your wi-fi router to a unique spot or adjusting the antennas of your present router may enhance your community and your on-line gaming efficiency. For those who’ve tried all that, and your gaming connection nonetheless wants an improve, you are studying the correct roundup.

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Greatest gaming routers

Asus RT-AX86U

Greatest gaming router general

First up is the primary gaming router I might suggest to most individuals, and a router I might suggest to only about anyone, fact be advised. It is the Asus RT-AX86U, and it replaces our earlier greatest gaming router choose… the Asus RT-AC86U.

We favored that earlier Asus router mannequin for its quick, regular speeds, its spectacular lineup of gamer-centric options and its robust end in our latency exams. Comparatively new (it got here out in 2020), the RT-AX86U gives all the identical, and it provides in help for Wi-Fi 6 for a listing worth of round $300. That is definitely not cheap, however flashier gaming routers can price $400 or extra.

What’s most spectacular in regards to the RT-AX86U is the way it handles latency. Every time I take a look at a router, I find yourself logging a minimum of 100 completely different pace take a look at outcomes, together with the ping time it takes for the router to ship a sign to a distant server and obtain a response. Most routers do fairly properly, save for the occasional spike. Latency spikes like these could be a killer once you’re on-line gaming — however thankfully, the RT-AX86U earned the bottom common ping time of any router I’ve ever examined, by no means spiking any larger than 25ms. That is an impressive end result.

It comes outfitted with a USB port, 4 LAN ports, 2.5Gbps and 1Gbps WAN, in addition to WPS.

Past managing lag, Asus additionally boasts a superb router app and net management interface for straightforward setup, together with useful options like a quality-of-service engine, a cellular increase mode for gaming in your cellphone and many different methods to optimize your connection for gaming expertise. Plus, the design is gamer-friendly with out being too over-the-top. If you’d like a gaming-minded wi-fi router improve however you are anxious about shopping for greater than you want, look no additional — that is the very best gaming router and it hits the candy spot.

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The D-Hyperlink DIR-867 was the very best gaming router for somebody in search of one thing cheap of those I examined for this roundup — and it carried out surprisingly properly, boasting the quickest common speeds on the two.4GHz band in each our lab-based high pace exams and our home-based real-world pace exams. It held its personal on the faster 5GHz band, too, beating out a number of wi-fi routers that price considerably extra. 

Die-hards will doubtless need extra options centered on their gaming expertise and efficiency, however the DIR-867 gaming router a minimum of features a high quality of service engine to allow you to prioritize gaming site visitors above different sorts of community site visitors. It is a fantastic gaming router for many — particularly in the event you do not wish to break the financial institution on one thing fancier.

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Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC2900

It does not supply the identical high speeds that you will get with Asus’ Wi-Fi 6-equipped GT-AX11000, however that did not cease the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC2900 dual-band router from outperforming it in my house all through a number of rounds of exams. The GT-AC2900 was one of many high finishers when it comes to common obtain speeds, latency and vary. It gives the identical wonderful suite of gaming options as different gaming routers from Asus, together with a customizable High quality of Service engine and game-and-platform-specific open NAT port-forwarding guidelines.

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Amplifi HD Gamer’s Version

Greatest gaming router design

(Replace: Again-ordered)

For those who’re in search of a router with gaming-minded key options and design, however you are additionally serious about multipoint mesh networking, then check out the Amplifi HD Gamer’s Version from Ubiquiti. It wasn’t a standout in our lab-based top-speed exams, however with plug-in vary extenders which can be about as simple to make use of because it will get, it excels at spreading a secure, speedy Wi-Fi sign from room to room. 

On high of that, the distinctive, engaging design does not take up an obnoxious quantity of house — and with a touchscreen on the entrance and LED lights across the base, you will really need it to take a seat out within the open, the place the mesh router performs higher. You will additionally respect the app’s easy-to-use options, together with a devoted low-latency mode that may show you how to tweak your connection and keep away from lag on a number of gadgets.

Priced at a excessive premium on Amazon and back-ordered elsewhere, it is an costly possibility for certain, however it’s not outrageous amongst different high-end mesh networks that embrace two range-extenders (for comparability, the Nest Wifi Professional mesh Wi-Fi system usually prices $400 for a three-piece setup, though you possibly can choose it up for a lot much less on sale).

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All of the routers we examined

Together with seeing how right now’s gaming routers stacked up towards each other, I wished to get a way of how they in contrast with the type of commonplace routers that you just may be tempted to improve from. On condition that just a few of those gaming routers use next-gen Wi-Fi 6 know-how, I made certain to check just a few different Wi-Fi 6 routers, too.

All advised, that left us with greater than a dozen routers to check. This is the total record:

• Zyxel Armor Z2 AC2600 (Replace: Presently Unavailable): $25
• TP-Hyperlink Archer A9 AC1900 (Replace: Presently Unavailable): $100
• D-Hyperlink EXO AC2600: $59
• D-Hyperlink DIR-867 AC1750: $68
• Linksys EA8300 AC2200: $139
• TP-Hyperlink Archer C3150: $99
• Asus RT-AC86U: $265
• Asus ROG Rapture GT-AC2900: $199
• TP-Hyperlink Archer AX6000: $200
• Netgear Nighthawk Professional Gaming XR500: $127
• Netgear Nighthawk AX12: $184
• Asus RT-AX86U: $289
• TP-Hyperlink Archer C5400X: $159
• Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000: $525

How we take a look at gaming routers

Testing routers is a difficult enterprise. Wi-Fi connections are finicky, with a lot of variables and key options that can have an effect on your speeds. We do our greatest to account for these variables in our exams, however some elements are past our management (and past your router’s management, too).

As an illustration, your private home’s particular web service supplier connection is sort of a pace restrict to your router. For those who’re paying for speeds of as much as, say, 50 megabits per second, then your router will not transmit information from the cloud any quicker than that. The common ISP obtain pace within the US is someplace round 100Mbps, whereas these residing in areas with entry to fiber connections may take pleasure in speeds of 200, 500 and even 1,000Mbps in the event that they’re actually fortunate.

That raises an apparent query: How do you take a look at the highest pace of a router like that TP-Hyperlink AX6000, which guarantees Wi-Fi 6 information switch charges properly above 1,000Mbps?

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Prime pace exams

Our method bypasses the ISP totally. As an alternative of utilizing a modem to tug information from the cloud, we pull information from a neighborhood server utilizing a wired connection. Our native server of selection is a MacBook Professional. We join it to the router utilizing a CAT 7 Ethernet cable to maintain interference as little as attainable, plus we use an adapter to connect with the MacBook’s Thunderbolt 3 port because it helps information switch speeds which can be a lot quick for our functions.

From there, we take a second laptop computer and connect with the router’s wi-fi community; then we clock the speeds as we obtain the information that the router is fetching from the MacBook by way of that wired connection. We run this take a look at a number of occasions on every router’s 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and at numerous distances. In the long run, we get a fantastic take a look at how shortly every router is ready to transmit information to a related gadget like your cellphone, gaming PC, gaming laptop computer or gaming console of selection.

Sure, you will see a lot quicker speeds in the event you join that gaming console on to the router by way of Ethernet cable. We examined these wired speeds too and did not see any noticeable distinction between any of the routers we measured. Every got here inside a megabit or two of 940Mbps, which is what you’d anticipate from a Gigabit Ethernet connection.

As for wi-fi speeds, the graph above exhibits the highest speeds for every router on each the two.4GHz band (blue) and the quicker 5GHz band (crimson) at distances of 5, 37.5 and 75 toes. 

This is what jumps out at me from these outcomes. First, it is simple to identify the three Wi-Fi 6 routers we examined up on the high — they clocked high speeds on the 5GHz band that had been a lot, a lot quicker than every other router we examined. Keep in mind that we’re operating these pace exams on a laptop computer that helps Wi-Fi 6. If we weren’t, these bars would doubtless be quite a bit shorter.

The quickest amongst them was the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX6000, which we measured a median pace of 1,523Mbps on the 5GHz band at a distance of 5 toes. After we elevated the space to 75 toes, the typical pace fell to 868Mbps, which remains to be a quicker pace than any of the Wi-Fi 5 routers we examined had been capable of attain in any respect, even up shut.

I ought to observe that these Wi-Fi 6 routers did not blow the competitors away on the two.4GHz band (once more, blue). The router with the quickest common speeds throughout all distances on the two.4GHz band was really the Netgear Nighthawk Professional Gaming XR500, which does not help Wi-Fi 6 in any respect. Proper behind it’s the D-Hyperlink DIR-867, which additionally holds the excellence of being the most cost effective router we examined for this roundup. That, coupled with the truth that it features a High quality of Service engine that may prioritize gaming site visitors, is what made it a straightforward worth choose on this subject.

That Netgear mannequin was additionally the quickest Wi-Fi 5 router on the 5GHz band, which tells us that it is a fairly succesful piece of {hardware}. In the meantime, our high general choose, the Asus RT-AC86U, was proper behind it with the second-fastest Wi-Fi 5 pace on the 5GHz band, though its pace dipped a bit at medium vary. The aforementioned DIR-867 and the Zyxel Armor Z2 every scored properly on this pace take a look at, too.

Actual-world speeds

Measuring high speeds in a managed take a look at surroundings provides us a transparent take a look at what these routers are technically able to, however you will not see speeds that quick in your house. Keep in mind, your router can solely pull information from the cloud as quick as your ISP pace permits and sign energy will range from house to house based mostly on the format and the quantity of obstructions in the way in which.

To account for this, we ran a second batch of exams. This time, I examined every router in my own residence, a smallish shotgun-style home of about 1,200 sq. toes the place I’ve AT&T fiber web speeds of as much as 300Mbps. I ran my pace exams on a Dell XPS 13 laptop computer that is just a few years previous and does not help Wi-Fi 6. The objective was to get take a look at the sorts of speeds most individuals would expertise in the event that they introduced one among these routers into their house.

To assemble my information, I ran an abundance of pace exams from 5 completely different areas in my house, starting from the lounge the place the router lives to a again rest room on the alternative finish of the home. All through all of my exams, I at all times stored a TV streaming dwell video from PlayStation Vue (RIP) to simulate regular family community site visitors in a managed vogue (and in addition so my very affected person roommate may a minimum of watch TV whereas politely staying off the Wi-Fi throughout my exams). 

After operating a number of pace exams from every of these areas, I averaged the whole lot collectively. ISP speeds can fluctuate all through the day, so to assist account for this as greatest as I may, I might run this complete course of once more with every router at a later time. Then, I might common that information with the primary batch of exams.

Fourteen routers, 5 areas in my house, three exams per location, two rounds of exams (at minimal). While you add within the extra exams I ran to double-check a end result or measure the influence of particular options, it quantities to roughly 1,000 pace exams and counting.

These averages proved telling. The highest finisher on the 5GHz band turned out to be the Netgear Nighthawk Professional Gaming XR500, which averaged greater than 250Mbps throughout all of my pace exams, together with ones at the back of my home the place the sign energy is often poor. The Amplifi HD Gamer’s Version, which makes use of plug-in mesh extenders to assist relay the sign round the home, was the runner-up. It was one of many worst performers after we measured high speeds, however until you’ve a blazing-fast web connection of 500Mbps or quicker, you will not discover that in any respect.

As for our high choose, the Asus RT-AX86U, it completed with an general common obtain pace of 218Mbps, which is a robust end and stronger nonetheless once you add within the distinctive lag efficiency.

In the meantime, it was the bargain-priced D-Hyperlink DIR-867 that, as soon as once more, led the way in which on the two.4GHz band. With a median pace of 85.9Mbps all through my place, it was the highest finisher, however I might observe that speeds dropped significantly at vary. In that again rest room I discussed, it averaged a obtain pace of 32.3Mbps, which is about 62% slower than the general common, and a much bigger drop-off than I noticed from nearly each different router I examined. That tells me that the DIR-867 would work greatest in small houses like mine. For something greater, you will need one thing with a greater vary.

Regardless of the whole lack of Wi-Fi 6 shopper gadgets in my house, the Wi-Fi 6-equipped TP-Hyperlink Archer AX6000 was one other standout in my exams, with robust common speeds on each the 5GHz and a pair of.4GHz bands and wonderful vary from room to room. It noticed the smallest dip in speeds in that again rest room on the two.4GHz band, and was a top-five finisher by that metric on the 5GHz band, too. 

I am unable to say the identical for the Netgear Nighthawk AX12 or the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, although. Regardless of excessive high speeds in our first spherical of exams on the lab, neither of these Wi-Fi 6 routers examined properly in my house. They had been the 2 backside finishers when it comes to common general obtain speeds on the 5GHz band. Each at the moment price round $400 — for my cash, the TP-Hyperlink Archer AX6000, which you’ll at the moment get for $180, is a significantly better improve choose for anybody who’s prepared to leap in with Wi-Fi 6. For those who simply need the gaming-centric options from the Asus ROG lineup, you’ve got received different choices that price much less, just like the GT-AC2900.

Latency

One final level: My glut of at-home pace exams allowed me to check out latency, too. As I mentioned earlier than, there’s solely a lot your router can do to carry lag down, particularly in the event you’re connecting to a busy server that is hundreds of miles away. Nonetheless, gaming router ought to assist reduce these occasional latency spikes that may be an actual killer once they hit your community at a crucial second throughout an internet match.

With that in thoughts, I made certain to run every of my dozens and dozens of pace exams connecting every router to the identical server positioned just a few hundred miles away and I logged the ping to that server every time. Most often, that ping would are available at round 15 milliseconds or so, however I additionally noticed loads of spikes that had been quite a bit larger than that.

The worst offender was the Linksys EA8300, which returned common latencies of 37.5ms on the two.4GHz band and 35.4ms on the 5GHz; lifeless final on each fronts. The TP-Hyperlink Archer A9 AC1900 struggled on the two.4GHz band, too, with a median latency of 34.8, though it did handle to perform a little higher on the 5GHz band, with a median ping just under 20ms.

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The most effective of the bunch? That’d be our high choose, the Asus RT-AX86U. Throughout 90 pace exams at my house, it did not see a single spike above 20ms, which is actually excellent.

One final level on latency. Most of those gaming routers and others like them will do issues like route your gaming site visitors to the closest attainable server or maintain you from becoming a member of public rooms with particularly laggy rivals. Options like these might help stop widespread latency pitfalls, however they will not do a lot of something on their very own to enhance your latency throughout the board.

What to look at for

We’ll you’ll want to proceed testing new gaming routers within the months forward, however past that, we began to see the very first routers that help Wi-Fi 6E on the finish of 2020. Routers like these will add entry to the newly opened 6GHz band, which they get to make use of as type of an extra-wide non-public freeway for Wi-Fi 6 site visitors. Asus was the primary to announce a Wi-Fi 6E router, and certain sufficient, it is a high-end gaming router. 

We’ll proceed testing what’s on the market, together with budget-priced routers, mesh routers and different high-end, next-gen trendy routers of observe. Count on common updates to this submit every time we take a look at new {hardware} that may be match for players and tell us within the feedback if there are any particular fashions or options you would like us to take a better take a look at.