How is a gaming router different from a regular one and what are its advantages?
What is a gaming router and what does it eat with?
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| A gaming router will not make you a more high-class player, but it will help save your nerves when playing actively online. |
Sorry, but for starters, a little captaincy, in order to be on the same wavelength in the future. So, a router aka a router, aka a modem, aka that thing with light bulbs in the corridor is a device that receives Internet traffic provided by the provider using a cable, and then distributes it to a laptop, smartphone, TV and any other gadget. In most cases, it does this over the air using Wi-Fi.
This is where the problems begin - the number of connected devices may exceed the norm, which will cause the quality and speed of the connection to drop. Someone can turn on the torrent at full capacity, pulling most of the channel to themselves. Well, do not forget about the coverage area and walls, which weaken the signal. All these factors can negatively affect the gaming experience - the connection can be lost at the most crucial moment of the raid on the boss, and high ping will not allow you to play online shooters normally.
Many of these issues have been addressed by dual banding, the introduction of MU-MIMO and Beamforming technologies, and the gradual evolution of mesh networks and Wi-Fi 6. features that are not available to most home routers. Ideally, a specialized gaming modem should provide a flawless wireless connection, have a wide bandwidth and a large number of free LAN ports, and it definitely needs long-range antennas that will not save in front of a couple of walls. Well, it is desirable to have a simpler setup so that any casual user with minimal network administration skills can handle it.
What is the advantage of a gaming router?
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| Most PC gamers prefer the good old cable connection, but in recent years this has begun to change. |
Modern gaming routers allow you to fully utilize the entire bandwidth of a gigabit connection. This device requires a powerful processor, a pack of long-range antennas and a powerful radio unit. Or several radio blocks. For example, in the MSI RadiX AXE6600, for transmitting a Wi-Fi signal, there are immediately 3 radio units with support for Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and separate antennas. Each of them is tuned and optimized for a specific frequency range (2.4Hz, 5Hz and 6Hz), and the total throughput of the device reaches 6600 Mbps.
Quality of Service (QoS) is a prioritization function that allows the router to independently determine which device in which queue to send more data packets. QoS is supported by most home routers, but this feature has been made more flexible and game-oriented in gaming models. For example, in the top MSI Radix models, separate chips are responsible for this, which can be taught to lower the rank of conditional Netflix or reduce the speed of the torrent when you play CS: GO or Titanfall 2. traffic will be divided between the rest of the connected gadgets. QoS not only improves connection stability, but also reduces delays in data transfer.
Gaming routers greatly simplify the process of creating a local network so that an offline party does not quickly turn into a knife fight. As a rule, the simplification of life goes on all fronts, from firmware to the number of ports and functionality. For example, many Asus gaming routers support the extremely useful OpenNAT feature for gaming consoles, which allows users to create multiple profiles for specific games and connect directly to the network through a firewall. Forwarding can be set up in just 2 clicks with a minimum of fuss. Another useful thing for organizing a local area is the function of combining several LAN ports into one virtual port with increased bandwidth and the ability to reserve a separate channel. In Asus routers, this thing is called Link Aggregation.
Typically, gaming routers use more powerful processors and more RAM, which makes them easier to handle all the features of the latest versions of the Wi-Fi standard, including MU-MIMO, OFDMA and other useful wireless technologies. Equally important is the high-quality cooling of all this goodness - the same MSI and Asus regularly boast that they use developments for cooling systems from their gaming laptops in routers. Quality improvement also often affects LAN and WAN ports, as well as built-in security protocols. In most cases, such devices are designed to operate under conditions of extreme network load.
In addition to all that has been said, most profile solutions for gamers are complemented by complex firmware with many secondary, but at the same time very useful functions. This could be the Gear Accelerator feature, which is essentially a QoS analog that is easier to set up. Or technology to optimize game traffic during streaming. Plus, many routers for gamers have a whole command center with hundreds of different options instead of the usual firmware.
We will consider all these gaming features in more detail using the example of the popular and at the same time inexpensive gaming router Asus TUF Gaming AX3000 of the second generation.
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Asus is the powerhouse of the Wi-Fi gaming equipment market. In the last six months alone, they have released the flamboyant ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 EVA Edition, and the $500 flagship ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000. Realizing that not every gamer has such a budget for buying a router, Asus has simultaneously developed a line of TUF gaming routers, where one of the most interesting options is the second generation of the TUF Gaming AX3000 model. It's a little over $100 model that supports Wi-Fi 6, knows how to work with mesh networks, and knows most of the tricks of the more expensive ROG Strix routers.
The model belongs to the AX3000 class devices, provides support for the Wi-Fi 6 standard, Link Aggregation Ethernet ports and can work in Asus AiMesh seamless networks. For a wired connection, there is a WAN port with a bandwidth of 2.5 Gb / s and four gigabit LAN ports, one of which supports the game traffic prioritization mode. Also on the rear panel there is one USB connector, which can be useful for creating a network storage or connecting an LTE modem). The brain of the Asus TUF Gaming AX3000 V2 is played by a quad-core Broadcom BCM6756 processor. In the frequency range of 2.4 GHz, the device provides a theoretical throughput of up to 574 Mbps, and at a frequency of 5 GHz - up to 2402 Mbps.
Now what is its advantage over the conditional Asus RT-AX53U, which also belongs to the initial class? Bend your fingers. The router supports Link Aggregation Ethernet ports. The Game Accelerator feature acts as a simpler alternative for QoS prioritization. Mobile Gaming Mode provides acceleration of gaming traffic from mobile devices. The OpenNAT function sewn into the command center allows you to set up a local network with friends in just 3 clicks. Well, the firmware of the router with a clear and user-friendly interface has many options for setting up the network.
Things to Consider Before Buying a Gaming Router
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| The TP-Link Archer GX90 was one of the first gaming-grade Wi-Fi 6 routers. |
Before choosing such a device, you need to consider several main factors:
The total area of the premises for which the router will be used.
According to various sources, stable online gaming requires a stable speed from 150 to 300 Mbps, so the ideal tariff plan is 1 Gbps+. Moreover, literally all modern routers for gamers are equipped with a WAN port with a bandwidth of at least one gigabit.
Next, you need to roughly understand how many gadgets on average will be connected via cable, and how many via air. It is better to take LAN ports with a margin in case one of your friends drops by with a gaming laptop or console.
Additionally, you need to clarify which Wi-Fi standard is used in most of your gadgets. Now the Wi-Fi 6 standard is relevant, however, most home appliances rely on the previous version of the Wi-Fi 5 protocol. Considering that Wi-Fi 6 technology is backward compatible with previous versions of the protocol, and its cost is gradually decreasing, a Wi-Fi 6 router will be a safe bet and investment for the future.
Conclusion
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| Gaming routers have many advantages, but not all gamers really need such a device. |
As you can see, gaming routers have many advantages over conventional routers, which make it easier to set up a local wired and wireless network and optimally distribute traffic between connected devices. At the same time, they won't make you a better player or increase your FPS. Rather, these are devices from the “bought and no problems” category for people who actively play on different platforms, whether it be PC, consoles from Sony and Microsoft, portable Nintendo Switch, smartphone or GeForce NOW cloud service.
Due to the high cost of Wi-Fi technology for gamers, we would recommend that you first consider the pros and cons. For example, if you like to play FIFA or Mortal Kombat 11 for an hour after work, then any modern home-level router will cope with the task. For online shooters in the style of Call Of Duty, a regular cable connection of 100 MB / s is enough. Well, fans of single-player games should not worry at all, it is better to invest this money in a video card, SSD drive or an additional bar of RAM.
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