Review: The TP-Link GX90 is a gaming router that falls short of its promise
The TP-Link Archer GX90 is the kind of router you’d expect to see in the still-new Wi-Fi 6 space. There’s still a growing number of routers that tout different features to distinguish themselves from the rest. The GX90 chooses gaming features as its way into your home. It houses a fast CPU and a dedicated 5GHz gaming band to dole out as much bandwidth as possible to your devices. These features sound great on the box, but it’ll take a bit of digging to see whether they amount to anything.
TP-Link Archer GX90
The Good
- Strong QoS option
- Thorough parental controls
- USB ports
- Extremely fast speeds and good range
- 5x 1Gbps+ LAN ports
The Bad
- Expensive
- Massive size
- Overkill for most people
TP-Link Archer GX90: Price and availability
Source: Windows Central
The Archer GX90’s price and its young age make its value tricky to pin down. It could be cheaper than its sister model, but that would still put it a fair amount higher than its competitors in the best Wi-Fi 6 router space. There’s a chance it’ll be the best choice for you if you’re in the market for a new router regardless of whether or not you need its unique features.
TP-Link Archer GX90: What’s good
Source: Windows Central
In actual use, this means that when you’re streaming video or playing online-only games, you won’t see buffering or lag respectively. I used the router for all of my daily habits for a week and the only thing I noticed is that some websites and videos would load faster than my older, Wi-Fi 5 router. The GX90 pumps out internet without fuss and that’s aside from all of its gaming-specific features.
Source: Windows Central
This is essential because the router features some key gaming features that you’ll need to enable yourself. This includes a Game Accelerator, which aims to recognize when you’re streaming or playing specific games (although it seemed to detect games not on TP-Link’s list) to lower their latency and prioritize their bandwidth allocation. Think of it like a focused QoS that tries to keep specific devices fed with the internet over others. It also has a Game Protector antivirus option that includes a set of options for blocking malicious websites and applications from accessing your network.
I tested the GX90’s speeds (using Ookla’s Speedtest) against a Wi-Fi 5 TP-Link Archer A7 with a 4th-generation iPad Pro.
TP-Link Archer A7 (Wi-Fi 5) 2.4GHz
Location | Ping | Down speed | Up speed |
---|---|---|---|
10 feet | 19ms | 70Mbps | 41Mbps |
30 feet | 10ms | 50Mbps | 39Mbps |
40 feet | 11ms | 40Mbps | 25Mbps |
TP-Link Archer A7 (Wi-Fi 5) 5GHz
Location | Ping | Down speed | Up speed |
---|---|---|---|
10 feet | 13ms | 500Mbps | 39Mbps |
30 feet | 10ms | 323Mbps | 39Mbps |
40 feet | 11ms | 150Mbps | 25Mbps |
TP-Link Archer GX90 2.4GHz
Location | Ping | Down speed | Up speed |
---|---|---|---|
10 feet | 13ms | 135Mbps | 39Mbps |
30 feet | 10ms | 90Mbps | 39Mbps |
40 feet | 11ms | 76Mbps | 39Mbps |
TP-Link Archer GX90 5GHz
Location | Ping | Down speed | Up speed |
---|---|---|---|
10 feet | 13ms | 500Mbps | 39Mbps |
30 feet | 10ms | 288Mbps | 39Mbps |
40 feet | 11ms | 130Mbps | 35Mbps |
TP-Link Archer GX90 5GHz (Gaming band)
Location | Ping | Down speed | Up speed |
---|---|---|---|
10 feet | 13ms | 552Mbps | 39Mbps |
30 feet | 10ms | 427Mbps | 39Mbps |
40 feet | 11ms | 330Mbps | 35Mbps |
TP-Link Archer GX90: What’s not good
Source: Windows Central
This router bets on too many features that vary wildly.
This router bets on too many features that vary wildly. Maybe with extremely intensive tests, someone might find that it’s particularly useful for, say, a game like Valorant, but for now, it doesn’t have any obvious benefits over having a simple router that gives you enough bandwidth overhead to play any modern online game. Most people buying routers aren’t stress-testing their hardware and keeping notes. For them, this is a router that might promise to make games faster, but won’t be consistently true, judging from my tests.
The GX90 suffers from Wi-Fi 6 routers still being relatively early in their adoption rate. It’s hard to recommend going out of your way to upgrade to a Wi-Fi 6 router unless you’re buying your first router or desperately need to upgrade. Spending the extra money on these gaming features is a risk if you won’t make use of them at all or something that can’t be bothered to figure out how they work.
TP-Link Archer GX90: Competition
Source: Windows Central
The router touts big gaming features that simply don’t do as much as the company might lead you to believe.
TP-Link Archer GX90: Should you buy it?
Source: Windows Central
You should buy this if …
- You want to maximize your internet connection via Wi-Fi 6
- You need specific gaming features to reduce ping in specific games
- You need a potentially affordable, fast, new router with tons of features
You shouldn’t buy this if …
- You already own an adequate router for your needs
- You don’t play online competitive games that require low ping
- You have a moderate internet connection with few people using it
The TP-Link Archer GX90 is a solid Wi-Fi 6 router all things considered. Its set of 5 LAN ports, USB ports, and dedicated 5GHz band keep it very competitive in its price range. But the router touts big gaming features that simply don’t do as much as the company might lead you to believe. Even someone who regularly plays games won’t find a ton of use in its features like the gaming band or the Game Accelerator other than peace of mind in small instances where a difference of 10ms matters.
It’s unclear then who exactly this router is for if its main selling point can be popped like a balloon. For people without incredibly fast internet connections and the money to afford a Wi-Fi 6 router, this one doesn’t offer enough to convince you to save up or spend more to be future-proof. There are plenty of other options out there at cheaper prices that will suit you.
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