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If you’re a PC-gaming enthusiast, you know about speed. Gaming rigs are good only if they’re tricked out with the latest and fastest CPUs, lots of memory, the quickest solid state drive (SSD), and, of course, the best graphics cards. But while that combination will definitely give you a fast machine, online gaming performance can still be hampered if it’s connected to a crowded network with an internet connection controlled by an overburdened or old-fashioned wireless router. Plus, home networks are more taxed than ever, now that so many folks are working from home. So if game performance is important to you, it’s well worth your time to take a close look at optimizing your network.
Start with what’s connected. A whole family’s worth of gear can mean oodles of phones, tablets, TVs, streaming video/music devices, and smart home gear all connecting to—and hammering—the beleaguered household router. (It’s not an exaggeration that some households will have dozens of devices.) Any online gamers in the house must compete for that router’s bandwidth with not only everyone else but also all those smart devices. And that can lead to unpredictable, often subpar, performance.
Now, on a basic level, many routers, even those we classify as budget routers, offer Quality of Service (QoS) settings that let you give priority to devices or applications that require lots of bandwidth. But not many of them offer the gamer-centric settings and optimizations that you get with a dedicated gaming router. If network lag is messing with your game, read on to find out which gaming routers we recommend. After the list of top picks, we’ll go into more detail about how to choose the one that best suits your household, your play style, and your budget.
The Best Wireless Router Deals This Week*
*Deals are selected by our commerce team
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
TP-Link Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band Gaming Router
Best Overall Gaming Router
Why We Picked It
The Archer AX11000 earned high marks and an Editors’ Choice award for its awesome performance, gamer-friendly dashboard, and generous selection of I/O ports including eight 1GbE LAN ports, a 2.5GbE WAN port, and a couple of USB ports. It’s a big tri-band Wi-Fi 6 router with a big price tag, but it’s packed with features and uses top-shelf hardware to keep you in the game, making it one of the best all-around gaming routers available.
Who It’s For
If your current router can’t keep pace with your fast and furious online gaming activities, consider upgrading to the AX11000. Although fairly expensive, it delivers fast throughput and a variety of game-enhancing settings including one-click bandwidth priority, a Game Accelerator that reduces latency, game diagnostics that let you investigate network issues, and a Game Protector dashboard that lets you assign parental controls and protect your network from viruses, phishing attacks, and other malicious content.
PROS
- Easy to install
- Lots of gamer-friendly settings
- Numerous ports
- Multi-gig WAN. Link aggregation
- Lifetime malware protection
- Solid parental controls
Read Our TP-Link Archer AX11000 Next-Gen Tri-Band Gaming Router Review
TP-Link Archer AX50 (AX3000) Dual Band Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 Router
Best Budget Gaming Router
Why We Picked It
Strong throughput performance, wide signal coverage, and a feature set typically found on more expensive models earned the Archer AX50 our Editors’ Choice award for affordable gaming routers. If you shop around, you can find this device for under $100, which is an excellent deal for a Wi-Fi 6 router that offers four LAN ports, a USB port, and support for high-speed networking via link aggregation.
Who It’s For
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