2021's Best Gaming Routers

You know about speed if you're a PC gaming enthusiast. The best gaming rigs have the latest and fastest CPUs, lots of memory, the fastest solid state drive (SSD), and, of course, the best graphics cards. This combination will definitely result in a fast machine, but if it is connected to a crowded network with an Internet connection controlled by an outdated or overloaded wireless router, performance can still be affected. Moreover, a majority of home networks are more taxed than ever due to the fact that so many people work from home due to COVID-19. So if game performance is important to you, it's well worth your time to optimize your network.

Consider what's connected first. A family's worth of gear can include a ton of phones, tablets, TVs, streaming video/music devices, and smart home devices all connecting to-and hammering-the household router. Most households will have dozens of devices. Online gamers will have to compete for the router's bandwidth not only with their family but also with those smart devices. Poor performance may result.

Even budget routers come with Quality of Service (QoS) settings that let you give priority to devices or applications that require a lot of bandwidth. Yet few of them provide the gamer-centric settings and optimizations that come with a dedicated gaming router. Read on to learn how a gaming router can give you back your competitive edge-and how to choose the one that's right for you, your household, and your budget.

QoS: You Gotta Have Priorities

In terms of QoS, or bandwidth prioritization, gaming routers differ greatly from typical consumer routers. Most routers offer some form of QoS. Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) extensions can automatically prioritize network packets carrying voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing data, or you can assign a higher priority to specific devices connected to the network, ensuring better performance for those devices.

Game routers go a step further by prioritizing gaming systems and applications, as well as allowing you to decide how much bandwidth each client is entitled to. This is especially important if you have multiple online players in the same household who are all fighting for the same feed. Linksys gaming routers, for example, have firmware that automatically gives network priority to devices equipped with Rivet Networks' Killer Prioritization Engine (KPE). In the event the router detects a device equipped with Killer networking hardware, it grants that device the lion's share of bandwidth to ensure smooth, lag-free online gaming.

Gaming routers typically have a modified management console with a gamer-friendly interface that makes it easy to assign bandwidth priorities on the fly. Netgear has recently begun offering its gaming routers with DUMAOS, an interactive, gamer-friendly operating system developed by Netduma. You can see what is going on with your network at a glance, with graphs showing real-time CPU and bandwidth use, currently installed apps, guest networking status, Wi-Fi status, and internet status.

A Geo-Filter feature aids in reducing lag by limiting the distance between you and the host servers. You can prevent players and servers outside of your range from hosting your game by specifying your home location on the map and a distance range.

You can also use customized software to improve your online gaming performance. You can use firmware from sources such as OpenWRT, DD-WRT, and Tomato to optimize your router's signal strength and prioritize bandwidth usage by using firmware from sources such as OpenWRT, DD-WRT, and Tomato. The router must, however, support open-source firmware upgrades in order to accomplish this. Make sure you have a good understanding of how routers and firmware work together before making this decision.

Dual Band or Tri-Band?

A gaming router worth its salt will have at least two radio bands. The 2.4GHz band is the most widely used and tends to be more crowded than the 5GHz band. The 2.4GHz band has a much better range, but its speeds can't match those of the 5GHz band. PC Labs thoroughly tests every router across all bands, but you should be aware that different bands can affect performance.

The 5GHz band will provide the best throughput if your gaming system is located near your router. In the event that you have several devices connecting to your network, a tri-band router is the best option, especially if you're also using range extenders to cover the corners of your house. Tri-band routers provide a second 5GHz band that can be dedicated to specific devices or applications.ions. The 5GHz band can be dedicated for gaming (if your PC or console supports 5GHz Wi-Fi) and the other 5GHz band can be used for high-bandwidth applications such as video streaming, massive file transfers, or torrent downloads. Thus, the more crowded 2.4GHz band can be used for everyday tasks such as web browsing and connecting to smart-home devices such as lights, cameras, locks, and security systems.

MU-MIMO, Beamforming, and Wider Channels: Buying for Tomorrow

It goes without saying that if you are an avid online gamer (or if you have one in your house), you know that network demands for the latest games never change for the better. So make sure you choose a future-proof router.

MU-MIMO (Multi User Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology is a big feature to look for today. Simultaneous data streaming to multiple clients is possible, instead of sequential streaming. To take advantage of the improved throughput, each client device must support MU-MIMO. The gear you add to your network in the coming years, however, is more and more likely to support MU-MIMO, so you'll be glad you chose it for your router. (To learn more about MU-MIMO, read our primer, Understanding MU-MIMO Wireless.)

A key emerging tech to look out for is beamforming, which also improves throughput. The name implies that it involves shaping the signal itself for maximum efficiency and range. Instead of broadcasting in all directions, it transmits a Wi-Fi signal directly to a client. Both devices must support beamforming, in order to communicate their relative positions to each other, and thus focus the signal in the desired direction.

Although all 802.11ax devices (more about those in a moment) support beamforming, not all 802.11ac routers do. (Be aware that some router manufacturers refer to beamforming with their own proprietary names.)

Newer routers offer channel bandwidths of up to 160Hz, compared to the typical 40Hz and 80Hz channel widths of older routers. To access the wider channels, you will need 160Hz-compatible clients. Even so, it makes a lot of sense to opt for 160Hz in a new gaming router now, since, as with MU-MIMO, it will become more and more common in new devices you add to your network over time.

What Is Wi-Fi 6?

802.11ax is also known as Wi-Fi 6 or High Efficiency (HE) Wireless, and there are plenty of Wi-Fi 6 routers available. 802.11ac is the predecessor of 802.11ax. Throughput speeds (up to 4.8Gbps), reduced congestion, increased capacity for clients, and better range performance are all promised by new and improved wireless technologies. These include Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Target Wake Time (TWT). Using OFDMA, Wi-Fi channels are divided into sub-channels, enabling up to 30 users to share a channel at the same time. In order to reduce power consumption, Target Wake Time (TWT) allows devices to determine when and how often they will wake up to begin sending and receiving data. The technology is expected to extend the battery life of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, as well as battery-powered smart home devices including security cameras and video doorbells.

As a result of all these capabilities, Wi-Fi 6 is the perfect option for Wi-Fi mesh networks, which are fast becoming the most popular option for broad home networking, especially since prices are dropping.

Aside from its suitability as a mesh protocol, 802.11ax takes advantage of previously unused radio frequencies to provide faster 2.4GHz performance, and it uses refined uplink and downlink bandwidth management to provide improved Quality of Service. Additionally, it supports both uplink and downlink MU-MIMO streaming (802.11ac only supports downlink MU-MIMO). 802.11ax, like 802.11ac, works with devices that use 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi radios. The market for 802.11ax client devices is just beginning to take off, even though 802.11ax routers are widely available. Here is some guidance if you're contemplating upgrading now.

There are no dedicated gaming routers that support the Wi-Fi 6E standard yet. As far as software and features are concerned, Wi-Fi 6E is the same as Wi-Fi 6, but routers that support 6E can access the newly released 6GHz band. This boosts bandwidth, so it's beneficial for bandwidth-hungry apps, especially games, as well as chronic connection problems in more crowded environments, such as apartment buildings.

More to Know: Ports, Security, Access Controls

Gaming routers typically have the same hardware inside that traditional Wi-Fi routers do, but you will often be able to tell them apart from the rest by looking at them. Unlike their general-purpose counterparts, they usually have a different exterior-chassis design. There are many places where you can find unusual flare, such as a stylish enclosure or even LED illumination effects.

To provide wired connectivity to nearby gaming consoles, printers, and PCs, you should look for a router with at least four gigabit LAN ports. You'll need at least one USB port, preferably supporting USB 3.0, to attach peripherals you'd like to share across the network, such as portable hard drives, flash drives, and printers. With two such USB ports, a router offers a lot more flexibility.

Parental controls are important as well, especially if you have young children. Access to certain sites (think adult content) can be blocked, online gaming or network access limited to specific hours and days of the week, and network usage can be tracked for each client. It is also worth considering a guest-networking feature if you often have digitally savvy houseguests, as this allows you to provide limited wireless access to your network with a separate SSID and password. This allows your guests to access the Internet, but they cannot see other network assets, such as folders, files, printers, and the identities of other connected clients. (Plus, you can assign guests to a radio band that won't interfere with your gaming.)

Of course, all routers provide some level of security. Wireless Protected Access (WPA and/or WPA2) is the most common and requires that clients use a password to access the network. There is also support for Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), which you can add to your network with the push of a button. When it comes to more robust security measures, however, look for a router that supports WPS-Enterprise or Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS).

Our favorite gaming routers are listed below. Once you've found a router that fits your home and budget, you'll also want to check our tips on how to set it up and boost your Wi-Fi signal.