One of online gamer demands is fast connection to the internet. The other things when using the wireless router for users sharing the internet in home, the quality of service for prioritizing the gamer device is also important. That’s what Netgear xr500 (aka Netgear nighthawk xr500) wireless gaming router provides to gamers in mind.
With bunch of new wifi 6 technology router products in the market today, which one is more profitable to buy this product or a new product based on wifi 6 router like Asus ax5400 with almost the same price?
Netgear Wireless Gaming Router
In addition of Netgear XR500, Netgear also released another Pro Gaming router product with a technical spec higher than the XR500, the Netgear XR700 Pro Gaming Router. We did not discuss in detail the XR700, for more details please follow the following link Netgear XR700 Nighthawk router. But it would be better if we know the comparison of the two Pro Gaming series products from this Netgear.
Netgear XR500 vs XR700
Physically, both are designed similarly with 4pcs external antenna, and the body is colored with a red strip on the xr700 series so that it looks more fashionable, while the xr500 is just plain dark without a separating color strip.
Have a look at table 1 below as reference what the difference between the two wireless gaming routers, and later see comparison between netgear xr500 and asus ax5400.
Wifi
Technically the two xr500 and xr700 products are very different. In terms of the wifi technology applied to each unit, you can see that Netgear xr500 is based on dual band wifi ac2600 while the xr700 is based on the ad7200 wireless tri-band technology with the addition of uncommon wireless ad 60GHz radio band. This wireless ad technology is likely left behind with the emerging of latest wireless ax technology like the one applied to asus ax5400 wifi gaming router.
Ethernet ports
Another difference is the number of Ethernet port; note that xr700 has 2x more gigabit LAN ports than xr500. And another advantage is the 10.0 Gigabit FSP LAN port that allows you to do huge data transfers very fast, especially for data backup and gaming and ultra HD video streaming. With FSP LAN port you may connect to NETGEAR SX10 gaming switch using a 10G SGP module for lower latency LAN game parties.
Processor
On the other hand is the performance of the processor embedded on each unit board, see that netgear xr700 is powered by quad core processor while netgear xr500 is only a dual core processor.
Table 1 Netgear XR500 vs XR700
| Pro Gaming Series model | Netgear XR500 | Netgear XR700 |
| Wifi technology | wireless AC2600 simultaneous dual band with Quad streams with MU-MIMO technology | Wireless AD7200 Quad Stream wave 2 wifi simultaneous tri-band technology |
| Wifi speeds | up to 800Mbps @2.4GHz-256QAM support up to 1733Mbps @5GHz 11ac | Up to 4600 @60GHz + 1733Mbps (5GHz) + 800(2.4GHz) Mbps |
| Processor | Dual core 1.7GHz processor with 256MB Flash and 512MB RAM | Quad core 1.7GHz Processor |
| Ethernet Port | Five (5) 10/100/1000 Mbps-(1 WAN & 4 LAN) Gigabit Ethernet ports | Seven (7) 10/100/1000 Mbps-(1 WAN & 6 LAN) Gigabit Ethernet ports 10Gigabit LAN SFP+ port |
| USB | 2x USB 3.0 | 2x USB 3.0 |
Of course, with these very noticeable differences Netgear xr700 can provide much better performance than xr500 only if it is paired with a device that meets compatible requirements to achieve optimum data transfer rate. However, if you cannot utilize the available @60GHz radio band (wireless ad standard), both wireless gaming routers technically not much different except the faster processor and more ports equipped on netgear rax700.
That’s what the difference between netgear xr500 and xr700, now we switch to discuss comparison between netgera nighthawk xr500 wireless gaming router and newer wifi 6-based router Asus ax5400 (aka asus rt-ax82u).
Netgear XR500 vs Asus AX5400
If the price difference between the product with wifi-5 technology (applied to netgear rax500) and wifi-6 technology (on the asus ax5400) is not much different, only about $20, it’s a good idea to consider a product with the latest technology. Is it just about price difference? Let’s see the specs and features difference between the two wireless gaming router products. You can use table 2 below as reference for comparison between the two products.
Wifi technology
If you think that your device at home today is still based on wireless 5th G, then there is no need to use a wifi router based on latest wifi 6 technology. You are wrong, most latest wifi technology products are definitely backward compatible with previous wifi-5 technology products. And your advantage is that your network is ready with wifi 6 products when your new connected devices are wifi 6-based technology.
Total aggregated bandwidth offered by netgear rax500 is up to 2600Mbps both bands, while with asus ax5400 (rt-ax82u) is up to 5400Mbps both bands. Supposed all your connected devices are wifi 5-based technology, the aggregated bandwidth is up to 4333Mbps.
MU-MIMO support
If you want to upgrade your desktop for optimal connection with wireless ax router, there are many wifi-6 adapters available in the market such as asus and archer ax3000 which both support 2×2 MU-MIMO. See also asus ax3000 pci-e adapters vs tp link archer ax3000 adapter.
If there are two of your desktops with pci-e slots that already use the above wifi-6 ax3000 adapters, your wireless ax router with 4×4 MU-MIMO can send 2 streams of data at once to your two desktop devices so that your network is faster, reduces network bottlenecks and latency networks.
Both netgear rax500 and asus ax5400 supports 4×4 MU-MIMO, however with asus rt-ax82u can deliver up to 2400Mbps to two desktops (with ax3000 2×2 MU-MIO adapters) simultaneously.
Regarding wifi technology, asus ax5400 rt-ax82u is worth to choose as opposed to netgear xr500. Asus ax5400 with $30 higher price is ready with the future emerging wifi technology.
Gaming features
Netgear xr500 comes with gaming dashboard to allow you view how your bandwidth is utilized across the network, which devices hogging the bandwidth, the ping utility etc.
With netgear xr500 you can control which gaming servers outside your geo to connect to reduce the response time and ping by managing geo filter. From your router admin you can add gaming devices and set servers within your set radius distance for example up to 1000km. The router also supports QoS to prioritize bandwidth allocation and device prioritizes for gaming.
With asus ax5400 you can easily use Mobile game mode by tapping on the router app. With Mobile Game Mode you can minimize lag and latency for smooth online mobile gaming.
The other thing you may also consider is that Asus rt-ax82u supports Aimesh technology. This feature allows the router to form whole home mesh wifi system with other Aimesh devices. It can work as router node or satellite node in aimesh system. Netgear xr500 doesn’t support such similar features, just stand alone and when you need more coverage you can add range extender devices.
Comparison table
Take a look more details the difference between the two products on the following comparison table.
Table 2 Netgear xr500 vs asus ax5400 gaming routers
| Wireless gaming router | Netgear Nighthawk xr500 | Asus ax5400 RT-AX82U |
| Wifi technology | wireless AC2600 simultaneous dual band with Quad streams and MU-MIMO technology | Simultaneous dual band Wifi 6 ax5400 supports 160MHz bandwidth and 1024-QAM |
| Signal rate | up to 800Mbps @2.4GHz-256QAM support up to 1733Mbps @5GHz 11ac Tx/Rx 4×4 (2.4GHz)+ 4×4 (5GHz), 4×4 11ac 80MHz + 2×2-160/80+80MHz | 802.11ac (1024QAM) : up to 4333 Mbps 802.11ax (2.4GHz) : up to 574 Mbps 2×2 802.11ax (5GHz) : up to 4804 Mbps 4×4 |
| Antennas | Four (4) high-performance external antennas with implicit and explicit beamforming | 4x external antennas |
| Processor | Dual core 1.5GHz processor with 256MB Flash and 512MB RAM | 1.5GHz Tri-core processor with 256 MB Flash and 512MB RAM |
| Ethernet Ports | Five (5) 10/100/1000 Mbps-(1 WAN & 4 LAN) Gigabit Ethernet ports | 1x Gigabit WAN port; 4x Gigabit LAN ports |
| USB ports | 2x USB 3.0 | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 |
| Security | WPA-PSK; WPA2-PSK; WPA/WPA2 enterprise, RADIUS Guest network each band | WPA3 / WPA2 -Personal, WPA-Personal, WPA-Enterprise , WPA2-Enterprise , WPS support UTF-8 SSID : Yes Guest Network : Yes, 3x SSID 2.4GHz; 3x SSID 5GHz |
| Others | DumaOS Gaming Software : Gaming software features: Geo-fencing, Application QoS, Congestion Control, Ping Heatmap, Ping Assist and more | AiMesh technology (aimesh router or node) Game boost / acceleration Works with Alexa Asus AiProtection Pro |
| Dimension and weight | 7.20 in x 11.22 in x 2.44 in (183 mm x 285 mm x 62 mm) Weight 1.58lb (719 grams) | 10.96 in x 7.26 in x 6.5 in (278 mm x 184 mm x 165 mm) Weight: 740 grams |
| Price | $199.99 | $219.99 |
With $30 more expensive you get wifi 6 router ax5400, the latest wifi technology and ready with future wifi technology. Asus ax5400 (rt-ax82u) is more worthy of being selected than netgear xr500. Click the link below for more details and shopping on Amazon.
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Make sure you use high speed cable modem for router connection. You may consider new DOCSIS 3.1 technology – Arris Surfboard SB8200 DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem – 10x faster than DOCSIS 3.0 cable technology. Or you may consider upgrade your aging wireless gateway by using Netgear Cax80 DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem router.
Or you may connect to latest wifi ax routers, see this link Asus vs Netgear wifi ax11000 wifi6 routers.