The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 EVA Version is an addition to the Republic of Players (ROG) Evangelion Venture. This enterprise gives a number of gaming-focused merchandise, together with motherboards, graphics playing cards, screens and PC equipment corresponding to mice and headsets with a cohesive color-based theme. Oh, and don’t overlook the T-shirt (opens in new tab) to deliver all of it collectively. The merchandise have a purple and inexperienced colour theme that attracts inspiration from the well-known mecha, EVA-1, from the favored Evangelion anime collection that debuted within the mid-90s.
Design
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 EVA Version is a horizontal router with 4 positionable antennas. It has ports alongside the bottom and vibrant, inexperienced LEDs adorning the antennas. Total, this can be a mid-range 802.11ax router by way of its specs and bodily dimension.
For these complaining about generic, drab router design, that is about as far reverse that as you may get. Whether or not that is really mesmerizing, compelling and exhilarating in all probability is determined by how a lot of a fan you might be of the Evangelion anime. From our perspective, with colours that look extra at house within the Joker’s Lair from Batman, we doubt it is going to slot in with most house decors.
Moreover, the phrases “Evangelion Check Sort 01” emblazoned throughout the highest made us marvel if this was a prototype at first, however that is the completed product. About one of the best we are able to say in regards to the design of this router is that “Magnificence is within the eye of the beholder.” Until you’re a die-hard fan of the collection, we doubt it is going to have a considerably wider enchantment. Though the corporate does promote a non-anime themed model of the Rapture GT-AX6000 (opens in new tab) with a relatively tame black and pink colour scheme.
Specs
Polarizing aesthetics apart, there’s a respectable assortment of ports for connecting to this router. You get 4 Gigabit LAN ports, one LAN 2.5 Gigabit port, and one WAN 2.5 Gigabit port. There are additionally a pair of USB ports (one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.2).
{Hardware}-wise, the specs on this router are stable, corresponding to the two.0 GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and 256 MB of flash. There are bodily buttons for energy, WPS, and reset, and an LED management button. All of this runs on the ASUSWRT working system used throughout the Asus router lineup.
We will summarize the wi-fi specs of this router as stable however not distinctive. It’s a dual-band 802.11ax router with a single 2.4 GHz band that helps as much as 1148 Mbps and a single 5 GHz frequency that helps as much as 4804 Mbps. Whereas this may be greater than enough for a lot of customers, it hardly makes it a standout given accessible tri- and quad-band routers, and it additionally lacks the newest 6 GHz frequency from the Wi-Fi 6 customary.
This GT-AX6000 EVA Version does assist a variety of the newest wi-fi requirements, together with MU-MIMO, Beamforming, 20/40/80/160 MHz bandwidth, 1024-QAM excessive knowledge fee and OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division A number of Entry). It additionally helps Adaptive QoS to prioritize site visitors, helps a number of visitor networks (most 2.4GHz x3, 5GHz x3), and like many Asus routers, it may be used as part of an AiMesh community.
Setup
Organising this router is pretty easy. It may be achieved through a smartphone app or our methodology of selection, a browser. As soon as the suitable connections are made between the router, broadband modem, and the pc, simply open the browser and you will be taken to the setup module. The router firmware is mechanically up to date, and primary settings such because the wi-fi password are configured. Total, this course of took solely about 10 minutes.
With the router operating, bandwidth will be monitored in real-time, on each the add, and individually on the obtain. Moreover, the Community Ping will be quantitated, together with the standard of the connection through Ping Deviation, with a median over time.
Prioritization of gaming site visitors is achieved through a wide range of settings. This contains “Triple Degree Acceleration,” with the primary degree being a devoted gaming port and ROG First, the second degree is “Recreation Enhance” for sport packet prioritization, and the third degree is WTFast to handle the sport’s server reference to 1 hour of gaming time included day by day and a subscription accessible past that. Moreover, there are a number of QoS settings, together with adaptive QoS to permit for granular management of site visitors, with the power to prioritize gaming, media streaming or net browsing site visitors.
Safety
This router fosters a safe community atmosphere, together with compliance with the newest wi-fi community encryption requirements, corresponding to WPA, WPA2, WPA3-Private, WPA/WPA2-Enterprise. There may be additionally router-level assist for a VPN with compliance for a lot of requirements to guard your complete community. Lastly, AiProtection from TrendMicro gives malicious web site blocking, a router safety evaluation, a two-way intrusion safety system (IPS) to guard from spam and DDOS assaults, and “Contaminated Machine Prevention and Blocking” to guard from botnets and zombie assaults. We admire that the latter is included with out a further subscription. Nonetheless, we would like if it was on by default and didn’t require extra setup steps that novices could not pursue.
This router additionally has Parental Controls to maintain youngsters on the community secure, together with time scheduling to restrict community time, and “Net apps and filters” to dam classes of internet sites, corresponding to prompt messaging and grownup websites.
Efficiency
| 2.4 GHz close to | 2.4 GHz far | 5 GHz close to | 5 GHz far | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth (Mbps) | 119 | 42 | 862 | 440 |
We put our ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 by our customary throughput checks, utilizing the NetPerf software program, with an Intel Wi-Fi 6 consumer. Total, the efficiency is fairly good, with respectable efficiency on the two.4 GHz frequency, with throughput of 119 Mbps at 6 ft from the router, which dropped to 42 Mbps when the consumer is moved about 30 ft away and on a better flooring. The outcomes are considerably sooner on the 5 GHz frequency, with the close to check registering 862 Mbps, dropping to a good 440 Mbps when moved to the 30 ft place on the upper flooring.
Subsequent, we put this router by our congestion testing, designed to simulate gaming on a congested community, with a sport performed concurrently with a number of video streams. For this check, we load our 300 Mbps cable broadband reference to ten 8K movies, together with operating the sport with out the extra community site visitors as a baseline. Total, we might say that the outcomes on the newest firmware are blended.
Let’s begin with the wired checks, which usually carry out higher because the connection is extra secure, and better high quality in comparison with wi-fi. Right here we are able to see that the Ethernet check with none background site visitors yields 127.8 FPS when enjoying Overwatch on our Asus ROG gaming laptop computer, with no PingPlotter spikes, a low latency, for a baseline, “gold customary,” end result. On the wired connection, as we add within the ten movies for community congestion, FPS drops to a barely playable 26.1 FPS with 13 PingPlotter spikes. Then, turning on the QoS with a precedence for gaming brings the FPS again to 84.3 with 3 PingPlotter spikes, which is way improved however not fairly again to the baseline. Additionally of observe, the dropped body fee of the movies, which elevated to 46.5% with the QoS off, dropped to twenty-eight.4% with QoS again on, even with gaming prioritized.
Whereas the wired result’s respectable, the wi-fi checks are much less spectacular. The 5 GHz check with no background movies begins robust sufficient with an FPS fee of 128.6, which is similar to the wired efficiency. Including within the community congestion drops the FPS right down to a painful 22.2 with the QoS off. Turning it again on solely elevated it by a small diploma at 26.8 FPS.
The two.4 GHz testing outcomes have been very comparable. With none community congestion, we get an analogous results of 123.6 FPS in our Overwatch sport, which is constant as 5 GHz and Ethernet usually carry out slightly higher than 2.4 GHz. Nonetheless, as we add within the congestion, we see the FPS drop to a dismal 6.8 FPS with QoS off, which solely will increase to 14.5 FPS when QoS is turned again on, which is a lower than satisfying enchancment.
Total, whereas the wired result’s advantageous, the wi-fi outcomes on each 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz are disappointing as soon as this router provides video streaming congestion. Community congestion apart, the router carried out stably with a wide range of Home windows laptops, a Chromebook, an iPhone 11, and a number of Android telephones from a number of producers all having a secure connection to the Wi-Fi, even from outdoors the home. Lastly, video streaming efficiency was robust and secure as effectively.
Pricing and Backside Line
This Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 EVA Version is a little bit of a dichotomy. On the one hand, excessive factors embody the engaging interface with granular management of settings, the stable throughput, the included safety, and the gaming efficiency with out community congestion. The low factors embody the weak efficiency on our wi-fi community congestion testing and no assist for Wi-Fi 6E as this router is dual-band solely. Lastly, the colour scheme is polarizing, however followers of Evangelion with different matching equipment might want such a router.
The purpose of being a dual-band router or Wi-Fi 6-only are actually forgivable at a cheaper price level; nevertheless, this router prices $449. This places it into the higher vary of router costs, and missing these options makes much less sense. For a greater worth, we suggest the Asus ROG Rapture WiFi 6 AX Gaming Router (GT-AX6000) at a present worth of $349. It’s basically hardware-wise the an identical product, minus the purple colour and the inexperienced LEDs, making it a greater worth.
