Gaming requirements are subjective. There is no such thing as a "Gaming Router", only a router that fits the needs for a particular category of games. First we need to identify the protocol mainly used for communication such as udp (realtime) or tcp (mmorpg). TCP is not a big deal but udp is because although udp is punt and hope protocol we don't want excessive drops. Small packets will not cost much bandwidth but do require processing power and low latency. A realtime vs mmorpg game makes a huge difference in overall needs to fine tune things. I would recommend a router with at least 1gig cpu and 256+ of ram and wifi duties on a seperate access point. QOS helps a bunch but still hurts when dropping udp packets. Consider the average size of a gaming packet is between 150-250bytes. an example:
Which shows that gaming packets are a tiny fraction of what you can push through a gigE interface?
If you want to know what the duration of glitch is from a packet drop it's just 1/(60 packets/sec) = .0167 or 17 ms which is indeed noticeable as a glitch.
I note that one needs to account for the full 38 byte effective ethernet overhead when running calculations on the transfer durations on a real ethernet (as the 1000000000 bps really are the gross capacity). In the context of the exemplary calculation this simply implies a smaller payload fraction on the 200B packet, but still it is somewhat important to keep the details precise as the predictions otherwise will fail in the saturation case....
Im curently building a new network for myself with 2 Wan (500/40 mbit and for a year the old 100/40mbit). x86 is a must. Not only network bandwidth can do you a problem in matter of sqm and switch/routing performance, but the number of concurrent connections is important too.
You can try with dslreport a more advanced test with more concurrent conections. Everything might be fine on "low end" hardware (or arm/mips cpu in your typical OpenWRT router) with 8/4 connection, but not anymore with for example 32/8. For even a more advanced test, check out iperf (or jperf for a gui) to simulate high loads with your network.
So a small x86 (6-10w tdp dual or quadcore celeron on Aliexpress or do it yourself with a soc board and a bunch of second hand intel network cards), a network switch (something small starting with 8 ports should be enough depending on the number of devices) and your chosen AP (only for wifi since the arm/mips cpu and internal switch have a lot to do with high bandwidth or connections).
Together we are talking for about ~200€ mixing new and old hardware, and you have a solid and truly 1gbit capable network.
Are you working with several switch/AP in your house? Well you can use sqm on your internal network too!
Oh Boy, and im not even talking about the cheap 10gbit second hand network stuff landing on ebay since most datacenters upgrade to 40-100gbit and are throwing their old stuff out . A custom x86 build is really needed there.
I guess thats a bunch of reason to upgrade today to a small x86
I was taking the middle ground of 200 bytes and yes the point is to show the extreme situation that for gaming bandwidth is NOT the focal point, only latency. I did write that in the whee hours while enjoying some blue moon beer lol.
Unless the op has a business class line that respects and honours class of service markings everything will be set to CS0 best effort meaning low priority. SQM and routers stats do help immensely by organizing and processing those packets faster "to" the wan. Pro gamers don't have the faintest conception about nodal delay or sojourn times. Most will simple restart their modem and swallow the blue pill
Sadly i can see on my cable modem that those markings are ignored.
In most case people have to trust not getting a bottleneck somewhere before or right after their line. At the end its just like keeping your car running: some basic knowledge would help a lot of people "laging" outthere because of bad wifi or because, meanwhile, the little brother is downloading prons at the same time.
100% agree. An all in one solution explained in simple terms is what the masses can understand. Here's a link to some of that excessed equipment types you were talking about https://www.savemyserver.com. I also performed a packet trace on a Black Ops 3 session (friend's router) if anyone is interested.
You are not really helpful at all. You always want to be right and when you're not, you begin to argue.
That way, @jeff, the thread is drifting from what it was intended. It wasn't a thread about @diizzy's 2ms jitter.
I mean, opinions are good and discussion is a great source of knowledge. But arguing about connection jitter for more than 5 posts in a thread about hardware recommendation doesn't seem to be helpful towards the solution.
Just my opinion, tho. Diizzy argued against me before so I feel the need to say it.
Almost any router with a gigabit switch built in will offer ideal gaming 'speed' if you're wired. If you want to use SQM because you have several people using your network though you need a fast router like the WRT32X or R7800. Keep in mind gaming uses barely any bandwidth (under 1Mbit) so ping, QoS/SQM, and bufferbloat are far more important metrics.
My WRT32X runs OpenWrt and handles over 500Mbits with SQM enabled and gets all A+ ratings on DSLreports.com/speedtest which includes bufferbloat. This is most important for gaming. There are other good routers too of course but it's a very good $120 option if you get the renewed one on Amazon.
. A custom x86 build is really needed there.
