Asus ROG is looking to win over the most demanding gamers with a new Wi-Fi router that has it all. We tested the ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 and we present it to you in detail in our complete test.
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is an all-in-one quad-band Wi-Fi router, packed with the latest fashionable technologies and aimed at a very demanding gaming clientele. There are, for example, two 10 Giga Ethernet ports as well as a quad-band Wi-Fi broadcast and logically Wi-Fi 6E compatible.
The GT-AXE16000 is an exceptional model and does not seem to do half measures with many ports, full functionality and a theoretical cumulative speed in Wi-Fi which reaches 16 Gb/s. So many characteristics that logically increase the bill which approaches 700 euros at the time of its release.
A massive replicator
If we are more used to testing Wi-Fi Mesh kits that try to be as discreet as possible in our interiors, this is not Asus’ bias with the GT-AXE16000. This new model impresses even before unboxing with its huge box that immediately sets the record straight.
Inside, the router slumbers wisely with its folded antennas which, once deployed, remind us of the good evenings in front of Stargate SG-1 and the fights once morest the replicators. The body of the router is particularly imposing and looks like a beveled cube on which the eight antennas are grafted.
Once these are unfolded, the set is even more imposing and will be difficult to integrate correctly into an interior. It is also impossible to hang it on the wall and it will therefore have to be placed on a piece of furniture. This imposing chassis nevertheless leaves room for the manufacturer to equip the GT-AXE16000 with numerous ports.
Indeed, there are no less than 7 Ethernet ports on the back of the device. Apart from the 4 gigabit ports that we usually find, we also benefit from a 2.5 Gb / s port and 2 10 Gb / s ports. Suffice to say that at this level, this new Asus router is ready for the future.
Apart from the purely network aspect, the Rapture GT-AXE16000 has two USB ports, one of which is 3.0. These will allow, for example, to use the router as a kind of NAS by connecting a hard drive or a USB key. Finally, we take advantage of two very discreet buttons on the left edge, one of which is dedicated to WPS and the other to various customizable functions in the router interface.
Not forgetting his DNA gaming, Asus ROG has equipped its router with an imposing RGB logo with an infinite mirror effect. Fortunately, it is possible to deactivate it to avoid turning your accommodation into a nightclub once the evening comes. Discreet indicator LEDs are also present on the front and allow you to know at a glance the status of the router and its connectivity.
On the power side, it will be necessary to do with the external block, which will at least have the advantage of not imposing too large a transformer at the electrical outlets. This power supply is also accompanied by a switch, near the USB ports, to electrically shut down the router.
If it is very similar to the GT-AXE11000, this 16000 model seems to us more “heavy”, in particular at the level of the antennas. These offer less freedom in their orientation, but they seem much more resistant. For the rest, we find a fairly similar device although the RGB lighting is more convincing here.
Getting started
Getting started with the router is very simple using the mobile application or the web interface. Simply plug in the device and connect the WAN port to your box or existing network. So, all you have to do is connect your smartphone or your computer to the Wi-Fi network or one of the LAN ports on the back.
The initial setup process is very straightforward and will get the Rapture GT-AXE16000 up and running quickly. The router will be able to adapt its configuration automatically according to the parameters and specificities of the network to which it is connected.
An ultra-complete router
The features offered by Asus routers are among the most complete on the market. The ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 is no exception and has a very complete administration interface. There are also menus that take up the graphic charter gaming of the brand.
The home page acts as a dashboard and displays the status of the router and its various components. In addition, there are also various graphs allowing you to know the current network load of the router as well as the evolution of the performance of the Internet connection over time.
At the level of the classic network settings, we can more or less do what we want with the router. If it can work without difficulty behind an operator box, such a device will logically call to take the place of the latter and will be particularly interesting for demanding users.
All the usual functions are present: NAT, DHCP, firewall as well as advanced port management with the possibility of link aggregation between the different interfaces. Thus, it is also possible to choose the port to use for the WAN link, to aggregate it with another or even to aggregate several LAN ports for the same device on your local network.
The Wi-Fi connectivity settings are also very complete with fine customization of the different bands which can also be separated into different SSIDs. But the Rapture GT-AXE16000 does not stop there and benefits from a whole host of other more or less interesting features.
The router is, for example, compatible with the AiMesh mesh network solution. It can thus be integrated into a wireless router network in a transparent way. Logically, there are also many options related to the gaming with the main objective of prioritizing the traffic of games and gaming machines while allowing the use of third-party services such as WTFast.
The router’s USB ports can also be used to further increase the range of functionality it offers. We can thus transform it into a NAS (or Time Machine) by connecting a hard drive to it, or even use a 4G key as a backup for the classic internet connection. The Asus OS also includes a download manager.
Asus has maintained its partnership with the Trend Micro solution to offer comprehensive filtering and security features. We will not go into the details of the possibilities of this solution that we had already discussed in our test of the ZenWiFi XD6 kit which we invite you to consult. Just keep in mind that in addition to being really complete, this solution is completely free.
Finally, let’s not forget the presence of compatibility with the Alexa voice assistant, which will then allow voice control of the router’s functionalities as well as a menu dedicated to the configuration of a VPN server. In short, and as indicated in the introduction to this part, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router is quite simply the most complete model passed through our hands when we write these lines.
Finally, although we have only discussed the web interface here, a number of options can be configured using the Asus Router mobile application. Such a device is primarily intended for experienced users, so we preferred to focus on the web interface that will actually be used by them.
Performances
We are not going to dwell excessively on the performance of the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router. On paper, it’s one of the best-performing consumer models around. It is also the brand’s first quad-band router with the possibility of using 2 different bands around 5 GHz. Concretely, this will be of real interest in the case of the use of a mesh network, in order to have a band dedicated to the backhaul link.
To test its performance, we first used an Intel AX210 network card compatible with Wi-Fi 6E in order to know the raw performance of the machine. The following measurements were taken with an Asus ZenBook laptop, Wi-Fi 6 compatible. As a reminder, Wi-Fi 6 and 6E offer similar theoretical speeds, only the use of the 6 GHz band differs at the Wi-Fi level. -Fi 6E. As the latter provides less range than the historical bands, the use of Wi-Fi 6 for measurements far from the router therefore has little impact on the results.
In optimal conditions, our test protocol allows us to obtain a download speed exceeding 1200 Mb/s. This is more than what a classic Ethernet port offers. In uploadperformance remains fairly average with a speed that struggles to exceed 500 Mb/s.
In Wi-Fi 6 (therefore on the 5 GHz band), the speed reaches a very correct value of 800 Mb/s in download and always a score in upload which tickles 500 Mb/s. Here we stay with fairly standard values if we compare these results to the various Wi-Fi 6 kits already tested in our columns.
By changing rooms, our laptop manages to maintain a download speed of around 600 Mb/s. This flow logically collapses when you go outside and the load-bearing walls block the way to 5 GHz waves. In these difficult conditions, the Rapture GT-AXE16000 nevertheless makes it possible to achieve a download speed exceeding 150 Mb/s.
In summary, this new Asus router does not revolutionize Wi-Fi speeds and provides the performance expected for this type of hardware, at least on a single machine. Its many antennas and the cumulative speed it is able to offer will especially make sense in real use, where several machines will communicate simultaneously. In our tests, it must logically be considered that the performance is intrinsically limited by the Wi-Fi card used, which is satisfied with a 2×2 MIMO.
Finally, and due to a lack of compatible hardware, it was not possible for us to test the performance of the 10 Giga ports. The power on board the router does not guarantee that they can be operated correctly. On the other hand, the various ports actually deliver a speed of 2.5 Gb/s that we were able to validate during our tests.
Price and availability of the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router
The Asus ROG GT-AXE16000 router is available at the recommended price of 700 euros.
