Tuesday, January 3rd 2023

ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98: World's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router
ROG Rapture GT-BE98 is the world's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router. Leveraging the full potential of WiFi 7 with 320 MHz channel support in the 6 GHz band, it delivers up to 160% faster speeds than the previous generation. In addition, with 4K QAM modulation that can pack more data into transmissions, peak data rates are up to 20% higher, delivering incredible speeds of up to 25,000 Mbps. Furthermore, two additional revolutionary features, Multi-Link Operation and Multi-RU Puncturing, allow the GT-BE98 to deliver more efficient and reliable wireless connections.
Multi-link operation simultaneously transmits across different bands and channels to increase throughput to the device, lower the latency, and improve reliability. Multi-RU puncturing segments a wide channel bandwidth into smaller units, enabling puncturing to eliminate interference for the remaining bandwidth and increase efficiency. Gamers can enjoy up to 10X-faster data-transfer speeds for bandwidth-demanding tasks with one 10 Gbps WAN/LAN port and two 10 Gbps LAN ports. In addition, for gamers who live in larger homes, the exclusive ASUS RangeBoost Plus improves signal range and overall coverage. And, ROG-exclusive triple-level game acceleration offers fantastic gaming experiences.
Source:
ASUS
Multi-link operation simultaneously transmits across different bands and channels to increase throughput to the device, lower the latency, and improve reliability. Multi-RU puncturing segments a wide channel bandwidth into smaller units, enabling puncturing to eliminate interference for the remaining bandwidth and increase efficiency. Gamers can enjoy up to 10X-faster data-transfer speeds for bandwidth-demanding tasks with one 10 Gbps WAN/LAN port and two 10 Gbps LAN ports. In addition, for gamers who live in larger homes, the exclusive ASUS RangeBoost Plus improves signal range and overall coverage. And, ROG-exclusive triple-level game acceleration offers fantastic gaming experiences.
35 Comments on ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE98: World's first quad-band WiFi 7 gaming router
Typically, the bigger the better, but nowadays we have some clever designs for internal antennae that outperform many 'prongs' sticking out of the router. But given the target audience I'd say all is in order. Kudos on the choice of MT! It's spelled with 2 'K', though.
Be aware that although similar in appearance, routers and switches has totally different internal designs. You need to know very well what do you need in order to get the proper devices for it.
Some of my UPS-backed Tiks have more than 3 years of uptime. The only downtime was because of SW patching; otherwise they are doing gigabits per second 24/7 without hiccups. I'd like to see an ASUS or a TP-LINK doing this.
The ones that hop are generally going to be limited in range and speed relatively speaking... Most bottleneck around 500mbps and cannot handle 1gig ISP speeds for max coverage throughout a large home.
Specific units capable of 4x4 WL backhaul will innately offer more coverage at further distances than a single point unit as the connection speed is limited to the 4x4 radios rather than just a central unit + regular 2x2 client. Basic config is dedicated backhaul radio @ 4x4 then 2x2 + 2x2 for 5G and 2.4G connections. You can find high end 4x4+4x4+4x4 MESH unit, but the cost start to really push upward.
Bigger units (like this one) will generally provide EVEN better coverage if configured as a similar mesh setup with 4x4 MIMO WL backhaul. You can't beat physics. Physical antennas are superior to internal ones.
IE: Your cell phone is built for aesthetics, rather than max functionality.
Imagine doing this in mmWave bands, hundreds of miles away, just with some tiny antennae in your phone!
I guess my main argument is that most basic WIFI hardware or "high end units" favor physical antenna designs as a single point solution with similar 4x4 radios and connecting clients.
An internal design can beat cheap external/physical implementations with entry radios, low end amps, and or underrated power output etc... but I would argue against that on the "high end" spectrum, at least when it comes to ASUS hardware.
IE: Single XT12 may/will perform worse than even a lower end AX86S ($180 currently) as an example (distance). Plenty of factors to account for.
1. All antennae are physical per se, be it internal or external. Antennae arrays are also physical, although each and every individual element in them can be regarded as logical.
2. Mid-tier MT, ubi, Rukus (among others) with internal antennae can and will vastly outperform most (if not all) high-end ASUS units with external antennae.
Although antennae are just a small portion of the entire link budget equation. Here is the whole thing even though it's for a 5G cell in this example. It's absolutely the same for every RF gadget sans the names of the devices.
I've always been skeptical of the Mesh system kits, especially with the price. I've been leaning toward the Asus hardware as I can buy once, and then keep adding on as the budget allows, knowing that they're always coming out with new gear that will mesh with last years. I love the idea of the Synology switch(seperate Wifi networks) + NAS as well.
On the flip side QNAP and Ubiquiti seem to have some great values, and it'd be nice to have everything the same brand that plays nice. OCD would kill me to have Asus Router & access points, and a QNAP switch, and Synology NAS, Intel NICs, etc. So frozen in anxiety of a potential buyers remorse. (yet here we have been happy as pigs in shit w/ a $120 Walmart TP Link router for the last few years)