RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U – Asus Router Comparison

If you’re reading this RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U comparison, you’ve probably already decided on an Asus AC router. Or perhaps you want to see how your router compares to its in-house rival.

Well, whatever the reason for you landing here, we’ll go through what these routers have in common. And we’ll also highlight the differences between the two…

Asus RT-AC87U button

Asus RT-AC87U

The AC87U router – the newer of the two. It of course has newer technology, including MU-MIMO. But is it worth forking out the extra cash?

>>>Full Asus RT-AC87U AC2400 Review<<<

Linksys E8350 Button

Asus RT-AC68U

The AC68U – Been around for a while, but it’s proven its worth by being a consistent top-seller, for what seems like an age. Lacks some of the features of the 87U, but that might not matter to some…

>>>Full Asus RT-AC68U AC1900 Review<<<

More Asus Routers

Router
Product
Prices
Type
Bottom Line
Links
Asus RT-AC88U AC3100
Asus RT-AC88U Main
Asus RT-AC88U Main
ACMU-MIMO router. Great for multiple clients
$$
Asus RT-AC3200
AC3.2Gbps Tri Band router from Asus
$$
Asus RT-AC68U AC1900
ACSimilar to the 66U, but has more grunt
$
Asus RT-AC66U
Asus RT-AC66U Main
Asus RT-AC66U Main
ACBeen around for a few years and still very popular
$
Asus RT-AC5300U
ACStill good for gaming
$$

RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U – The Common Features

.11ac
Shock! Horror! They are both AC routers! Wow, this really is news to you, isn’t it, lol.

When each router was released, they were top of the class at the time.

The RT-AC68U is an AC1900 router – with data rates of 1.3Gbps on the 5GHz and another 600Mbps on the old school 2.4GHz.

The RT-AC87U? Well this is an AC2400 router. 1.75Gbps on the 5GHz, and again, 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band.

Fast Processor
A dual core CPU is needed in the era of .11ac. There’s just so much for routers to do these days, it’s a necessity.

Again, we have dual cores in each. But this time, the newer RT-AC87U has the luxury of a second dual core CPU, which is used for the 5GHz Wi-Fi band processing alone.

2 USB Ports
Can’t have a router these days without at least one of them! It’s come to be the norm.

Both have a USB 3.0 & USB 2.0 port. Of course, the HD streamers among you will be using USB 3.0. In fact, you should all be using USB 3.0 for storage, especially given the speeds on offer from Wireless AC. And the HD & 4K streamers will need it.

You can of course use USB 2.0 if you so wish. If you don’t have a network printer and are using USB, you can centralize your printing by plugging it into either the 3.0 or 2.0 port.

Beamforming – AI Radar Style
AI Radar is an Asus AC-only feature that uses beamforming to improve reliability and coverage. It takes apart the concept of omni-directional (all areas at all times) coverage and instead narrows Wi-Fi towards the client as and when needed.

AI Cloud
You can grab files from your home network by using secure AI Cloud. Use an app or a web browser to get going.

Guest Networks
Have multiple guest networks, each with a different SSID (Wi-Fi network name).
Great for letting your visitors get onto the Internet, while making sure that they don’t get onto your network.

Asus RT-AC68U – Ageing Gracefully…

Asus RT-AC68U AC1900 Main - RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U
Asus RT-AC68U sales button - RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U

The RT-AC87U Has These Extra Features

MU-MIMO
MU-MIMO is the next generation MIMO. Where MIMO could only process one client at a time, MU-MIMO lets multiple users have the benefits of MU-MIMO at the same time.

MIMO is especially useful in environments where Wi-Fi flows bounce (reflect) off furniture and arrive out of sync with non–reflected flows. It takes the out-of-sync flows and merges them into on fluid flow, enhancing throughput.

4 Spatial Streams
4 spatial streams, rather than 3 that most routers use. That extra spatial stream increases throughput significantly.

Only a benefit, at time of writing, on devices that support 4×4. In due course, 4×4 antennas will be the norm.

Hardware NAT
Most routers use software NAT to translate traffic between your local network and the Internet.

The RT-AC87U uses hardware NAT, which takes the load off you CPU so it can get on with other things. This improves the performance of the router significantly.

Aggregate Ports
Bundle your ports together either on the WAN (to build resilience with dual ISP’s) or on the LAN (to increase throughput to a wired device or add a little resilience to that too!)

Asus RT-AC87U AC2400 – New & Full Of Energy!

Asus RT-AC87U - RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U
Asus RT-AC87U Buy Button - RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U

Do you agree/disagree? Why not comment below and let us know what you think…

The RT-AC87U vs RT-AC68U Is Done – Here’s Some More Asus Routers

Asus RT-AC3200 button Asus RT-AC66U button Asus RT-N66U Button Asus RT-N12 button


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One Comment - Write a Comment

  1. Hi,

    They both have hardware NAT.

    Gigabit Internet browsing with hardware NAT
    Equipped with powerful hardware NAT acceleration and built-in Gigabit Ethernet, the DSL-AC68U<<<<<< wireless modem router gives you full Gigabit LAN-to-WAN performance of more than 900 Mbps, which is over 4.5 times that of traditional software-based NAT Gigabit routers. This reduces the possibility of bottlenecks on fast internet connections.

    Reply

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