We purchased the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Router (Check latest price on Amazon) so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review.
The Asus ROG Rapture AX11000 is an eight-antenna, tri-band Wi-Fi 6 router with a large footprint. It’s marketed as a gaming router, and it does have some cool features for gamers, but hardware like this is also ideal for large homes with a lot of devices, streaming media, working, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
For a five-day trial by fire, I unplugged my trusty Eero and replaced it with a ROG Rapture AX11000. I tested wired and wireless speeds, overall performance at various ranges, and how well it works in general use while being bombarded on all sides by various devices. I also crammed in as much gaming as I could around the edges, all to find out if the ROG Rapture AX11000 is worth the money and the amount of space it takes up in your home.
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Design: Don’t drop it on your foot
The Asus ROG Rapture AX11000 is a monster of a computer. With the antennas pointing straight out, it weighs nearly 4 pounds and has a wingspan nearly as long as my arm. The overall shape of the body is roughly square, but it is twisted and turned as if the designers were allergic to right angles. The ROG emblem pulses like an ominous heartbeat on top, set into a grille that bears a passing resemblance to alien hieroglyphics.
The ROG Rapture AX11000 looks like a crown roast with its squat body and eight two-tone antennas, or an alien spider if turned upside down. It’s anything but plain, so good luck finding a space big enough to fit it in that won’t make it stand out.
The ROG Rapture AX11000 has two antenna screw connectors on each side. The ports are all on the back, and there are a slew of tiny indicator LEDs on the front. There’s no built-in wall mount, and if you do decide to mount this beast, make sure you drill straight into the studs. You don’t want to step on this router, especially if you aren’t wearing steel-toed boots.
Setup Process: Endless antennas and a painless wizard
When you unpack the ROG Rapture AX11000, you’ll find a set of eight antennas that have been wrapped to prevent damage during shipping. With a router like this, there’s really no way around it, but it’s still worth noting that unwrapping each antenna and then screwing each antenna onto the router takes some time. The screw attachments were a little loose even back then, resulting in floppy antennas after a few days.
The setup process is fairly standard once all of the antennas are connected. To get the ROG Rapture AX11000 to connect to the internet, I had to reboot my modem, which isn’t unusual. When a router doesn’t require a reboot, it’s convenient and saves time, but it only adds a few minutes to the overall process.
I was able to start the setup wizard after rebooting the router and loading the web portal, which guided me through the entire process. In a matter of minutes, I had all three wireless networks set up and ready to go.
In a matter of minutes, I had all three wireless networks set up and ready to go.
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Connectivity: AX11000 and a 2.5G Base Ethernet connection
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 router is a tri-band AX11000 router, meaning it can handle speeds of up to 1148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 4804Mbps on each of the two 5GHz bands. Actual per-device speeds will be much lower, but this is clearly a router designed to deliver speed to a large number of devices at the same time.
This router is also MU-MIMO compatible, which means it can send multiple streams to multiple devices at the same time. It can connect to four devices per band at the same time without having to wait in line to send or receive data from the router. It also has beamforming, which aids in the range’s ability to maintain solid, fast connections.
In terms of physical connectivity, the ROG Rapture AX11000 falls short for a device in this price range and of such colossal proportions. One Ethernet port is provided for connecting your modem, four gigabit ports are provided for connecting your gaming computer and consoles, and a single 2.5G fast wired connection is provided. If you buy a Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Router, be on the lookout for gaming hardware that supports this type of connection because this port is forward-looking.
The Asus ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Router has two USB 3.1 ports for network storage in addition to the Ethernet ports. Devices connected to these ports have extremely fast file transfer speeds, making this an excellent choice for a network-attached storage system.
Network Performance: Blazing fast, optimized for gaming, and great at long range
I put the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 through its paces on a 1Gbps Mediacom cable internet connection, both wired and wireless. I measured a top download speed of 383Mbps when connected via wired Ethernet cable. That’s down from the 627Mbps I got from my Eero at the same time, but that’s easily explained by the ROG Rapture AX11000’s QoS settings, as it’s heavily optimized for gaming traffic.
For my wireless testing, I first used the Ookla Speed Test app on my mobile device in close proximity to the router to check the download speed. That gave me a speed reading of 587Mbps down and 65Mbps up, which was the best I could get at the time. My Eero, on the other hand, reached a top speed of 542Mbps at the same time.
I was impressed by the built-in gamer-centric quality of service (QoS) features on the rare occasions when I was able to claw back some free time for gaming.
Next, I hid my phone behind a closed door about 10 feet away. This resulted in a slightly lower speed of 467Mbps. I then measured top download speeds of 395Mbps and upload speeds of 64Mbps on a very strong connection at 50 feet, with a few walls, furniture, and appliances in the way.
I took my smartphone down to my garage and placed it about 100 feet from the router in a direct line, with a lot of interference, including metal, in the way. Also, I was able to get a top download speed of 54Mbps at that extended range, which is plenty of speed for streaming and gaming, though I wouldn’t play a competitive game like Valorant or Fortnite under those conditions.
Beyond the numbers, the ROG Rapture AX11000 performed nearly flawlessly during my five days with it. It never failed to provide what was needed, even when multiple devices were hitting it from all sides for high-bandwidth streams.
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It never failed to provide what was needed, even when multiple devices were hitting it from all sides for high-bandwidth streams.
I was impressed by the built-in gamer-centric quality of service (QoS) features on the few occasions I was able to claw back some free time for gaming, though I wasn’t impressed by the handful of games they chose to feature for their performance boost feature. Since the router’s initial release, they’ve added a few more, but all of my favorites are still missing.
Software: Web interface with security and QoS options
The web interface on the ROG Rapture AX11000 is fairly self-explanatory and simple to use. It also emphasizes the aforementioned gamer-centric QoS features. The first thing you see when you open the web interface is a large internet status icon, a network traffic map, and ping speed and deviation information.
As soon as you start scrolling, you’ll see the Gamers Private Network feature, which I mentioned briefly in the previous section. This feature allows you to choose a game from a small list and connect to a WTFast-managed private network that is optimized for that game.
The web interface offers a variety of other QoS and parental settings in addition to the gamer-centric QoS features that prioritize your gaming traffic over everything else. You can, for example, alter the QoS settings to prioritize different types of traffic under different conditions and prevent your children from accessing the internet when they should be studying or sleeping.
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Trend Micro’s web interface also gives you access to some useful security features. It’s not the most comprehensive built-in router security suite I’ve seen, but it can block malicious websites at the router level.
This router is powerful enough to cover even large homes, but it’s also mesh-ready, with a web interface that lets you plug in a compatible router as an access point. Is there a dead spot in your house? Choose from a handful of AiMesh-compatible routers, and the ROG Rapture’s web interface will have you up and running in a matter of minutes.
Price: You’re paying for performance
This router is pricey, with an MSRP of $450 and a street price typically closer to $400. There are definitely more affordable options out there if you don’t need the range, speed, Wi-Fi 6, tri-band functionality, or gamer-centric QoS features. However, that’s a long list of features, and the ROG Rapture AX11000 is well worth the money. It currently performs admirably as a gaming router and a general-purpose router, and the addition of Wi-Fi 6 ensures that it will continue to do so in the future.
Asus ROG Rapture AX11000 vs. Netgear RAX200
The Netgear Nighthawk AX12 RAX200 (see on Amazon) costs even more than the already expensive ROG Rapture AX11000, with an MSRP of $599. It has an aesthetic advantage over the Rapture because its eight antennas are hidden inside sleek wings, but the two routers are identical in terms of all other specifications and features. They’re both AX11000 tri-band routers with Wi-Fi 6 support.
Finally, I have to give the ROG Rapture AX11000 the upper hand. It has very similar specifications and capabilities to the Nighthawk RAX200, but it also has some features that the Nighthawk RAX200 doesn’t, such as parental controls and a built-in security suite. Even if you aren’t a hardcore gamer, the ROG Rapture AX11000 is the better choice, but the game-focused QoS features tip the scales in your favor if you are.
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The Final Word
The ROG Rapture AX11000 won’t let you down if you do a lot of gaming or have a lot of data-hungry devices connected to your wireless network on a daily basis. This tri-band router’s second 5GHz network helps free up bandwidth for mission-critical situations, the range and overall performance are excellent, and Wi-Fi 6 is an absolute must-have if you’re buying a router in this price range.
