The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 gaming router was one of the first wireless units to ship with 802.11ax, also known as Wifi 6, making this a very powerful and future-proofed device.
Built for gamers, this certainly looks the part and packs in lots of customization options to make sure it's doing exactly what the owner needs. All those antennas mean great range capabilities while the performance is fast making it great for larger homes.
All that means this certainly isn't a cheap router. It's big on price and is literally big too, making this an option for gamers and power users that will benefit from all the features that help to justify the steep price. That's why it sits in our guide to the best wireless routers this year.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 review: Design, build and features
This beast of a router looks every bit as powerful and commanding as you'd expect it to perform. This is a large device at 9.4 x 9.4 x 2.8 inches and features a whopping eight screw-in antennas which can be angled and swiveled as needed.
While this does have soft rubber feet for grip there isn't a built-in way to easily mount this. But being accessible could be important if you want to take advantage of the four gigabit LAN ports or the dedicated 2.5Gbps Base T Ethernet connection. This is still new tech so expect to see more supported chips appear in devices as this becomes more standard for gamers that demand the ultimate performance.
At the rear are a pair of USB 3.0 ports allowing for high-speed data transfers directly. To the front are a row of LED indicator lights. There are also switches for power, Wifi transmissions, WPS, and the Boost feature, plus a recessed button to return to factory settings.
Powering the unit is Broadcom's BCM43684 chip which has quad-core capable of 1.8Ghz and is backed by 1GB of RAM and 256MB of space for firmware and settings. If you've got another 802.11ax capable device then this can theoretically get speeds of up to 10.8Gbps between them.
The software onboard allows gamers to register their favourite games to get a boosted performance. The Gamers Private Network works to lower latency and eliminate packet loss. A mesh network can be created with other Asus routers which is easily done with a two minute setup process.
Other software features include Quality of Service (QoS), security and parental controls. A useful time scheduling feature allows you to set limits on when users can login.
The Security Scan system searches for vulnerabilities with password strength and encryption use analyzed. It will block malicious websites but is designed as part of a larger defense with your own security software too.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 review: Performance
This is one very, very high performance router thanks to that Wifi 6 capability. As such you have 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels capable of a theoretical top speed of 10.8Gbps.
In reality we found, using standard 802.11ac, this was capable of up to 643Mbps at close range. But, unlike on most routers, this one actually improved performance when you got a little further away. At 100 feet this offered an impressive throughput of 733Mbps.
Push all the way out to 150 feet and this still outperforms the competition with 502Mbps. Metal walls can be more of an issue with speeds hitting 444Mbps when sent through a single wall.
But for ceilings and regular walls this delivered an impressive top speed of 807Mbps between floors.
Even when servicing lots of devices at the same time, with 4K video and more, this kept speeds high and didn't falter. In fact it barely ever got warm.
Setup was simple enough but if you do want to go into it deeper, for customization, there are lots of options. That includes limiting bandwidth for some devices, blacklisting, port forwarding and more.
The Network Diagnosis is a nice addition that will work to ensure you have the most optimal setup for your space, perfect if you're using one of the best laptops and constantly moving around.
Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 review: Price and warranty
This is an expensive router at around the $400 mark. You do get everything you could need in one system for that price, including future-proofing and enough range so you won't need to setup more in a mesh network.
Longer term, this runs at 13.4 watts when in use which should mean that over a year with 12 hours of use a day you're looking at a cost of about $15 per year.
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 comes with a one year limited warranty that covers you for any manufacturer faults.
Should you buy the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000?
If you want a gaming router with lots of power and future-proofing thanks to WiFi 6 and the 2.5Gbps Base T Ethernet port, then this is the unit for you. It's also ideal for anyone that likes lots of customization options and expects a decent level of security onboard the unit itself.
For anyone that doesn't want to spend a lot, doesn't need long range or high performance, then this is not the router to pick.
