Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 - where is the WiFi 7?

[MonkY]

Hi everyone!

I was really happy to finally upgrade from my trusty old Asus GT-AX11000 to a new Asus GT-BE98. You can't believe how hard it was for me to not upgrade all these years from the WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E, and waited until I get the full WiFi 7 experience. But now, that is finally here, it doesn't look good at all. 

First of all, no matter what device I've used (I have tried 3 different notebooks with WiFi 7, 2 desktop PC's recently upgraded to WiFi 7 and a ton of smartphones and tablets), I have never managed to connect at anything beyond 2.8Gbps. Even with the router at 1-2m distance, and no obstacles. This means that the new GT-BE98 is actually the same speed as my old 4-5 years router (where I used to connect at 2.4Gbps). 

But then it gets worse. Not only that the WiFi 7 band is useless (and you can't even see the 320Mhz band in Windows 10, you need Windows 11), but even devices with WiFi 6E or WiFi 6, are actually slower than the previous router. For example, on my iPhone 15 Pro Max (that only has WiFi 6E) I get on the old one speeds like 900Mbps DL and 500Mbps UL (I have a maximum 1Gbps DL and 500Mbps UL speed from my ISP), but on the new one, the DL speed goes down to 6-700Mbps DL (and strange, the same 500Mbps UL).

Even worse than that: my main computer I have tested (an i9-13900K with a BE200 card) works so bad with the new router, that only does like 70Mbps DL instead of 900Mbps I had before. But that's only on the 6Ghz - 320Mhz band, the one for WiFi 7. If I connect to 5Ghz - 1, I get the same 700Mbps or so (still worse than before).

I have tried resetting the router to factory defaults. I have tried all the 4 available firmwares, with no success. 
I don't know what else to try... and I am about to breeak the return window. Yes, for the way it works now, and for how expensive this router is (the most expensive router I ever had), I wasn't expected to see issues like this.

So, please... if you have any ideas, please let me know.
Thanks in advance!

[MonkY]

Nope. Sorry. Changing the router and computer timezone (from UE to US), and rebooting them, did not helped at all.

[Saltgrass]

You should be getting it, so as to your question, where did it go, I have no idea what is happening.

Sometimes, the physical configuration may be involved.  Are your devices and router on the same level, such as a single floor home?

Have you asked your ISP about the situation or gone to their forum area?

When you changed the Wi-Fi card, did you remove the prior one first?  Maybe the install is still seeing remnants of the old card.  Check the Device Manager and set the view to show hidden devices.  Maybe the old card will still be showing as greyed out so you can uninstall it.

You can test your signal strength by moving around to see if that helps.

Maybe some folks in your same situation, will drop by.

[MonkY]

As I have previously said, the issue is happening with devices that not only are on the same level/floor, but also with those that are 50cm-2m away, with no obstacles. Also, I have placed the router exactly in the same position as my old GTX-11000, were everything worked flawlessly for more than 4 years. 

I can't ask my ISP about a personal router. They only care about what they are selling, and those are some cheap TP-Link ones, that only have WiFi 6 (not even 6e).

About the "old card"... the laptops I have tried, were fresh new ones, with BE200 preinstalled. So no old card in there. In my PC, I have replaced the old one and installed a new Windows 11 (on Windows 10 it wouldn't even see the 6Ghz band). 

The signal strength is fine. The only issue is I have never actually seen a WiFi 7 connection on this router. With any WiFi 7 device I have tested. That's why the title of the post... I am already questioning if this router has actually WiFi 7 enabled on it... Sad that Asus support in my country can't help me with anything. They just said to send it back if I'm not happy with it. 😞

[MonkY]

Well, as I said, I have already bought a new WiFi 7 card. It's Gigabyte GC-WIFI7 BE5800 WiFi 7 PCIe card Rev 1.0, that uses Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 chipset. This one actually manages to connect with 802.11be standard on the BE98. It's strange that Windows shows only 1.4Gbps speed in the WiFi 7 status window. But inside the router map, I can see it going upto 4803.9Mbps. Unfortunately, it still connects on a lower 6Ghz channel: only 69. But, at least now I am getting some better speeds. Not as WiFi 7 is expected, but...

What I have noticed with this Qualcomm chipset is that everything else is really bad. Like, connecting on a 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz band, is so much slower than a WiFi 5 or WiFi 6 card. Like, before I hade 700Mbps DL, now I can get only 350Mbps DL on the main 5Ghz band. So, with this router and this card, you win some, you lose some.

Now, I don't know what to say about the Asus GT-BE98 + Intel BE200 cards. I have tested 3 of them. And none of them being able to connect to WiFi 7. Somebody in here said they might be "fake" WiFi 7 cards (how is that even possible?). I don't have an answer. Maybe some of you do... but for now, I think 99% of the WiFi 7 cards out-there are using this BE200 chipset.

So, I guess I will not return my GT-BE98 yet. It's clear Asus has a lot of work to do with this router, specially on the compatibility side, but... I have faith.

[Silent_Scone]

Interesting, thanks for confirming @MonkY 

Please if it's not too much trouble, could you list adapters you've tried prior that haven't negotiated the correct protocol? This is why my first question to you last week was asking what you've tried

[MonkY]

Hello, @Silent_Scone !

I don't have access now to all the adapters and devices with WiFi 7 that I have tried, but here are the latest ones I bought:
3x M.2 Cards from eBay (this seller told me he sold tons of this, and never had issues, and when I told him what router I have, he recommended me to move to some Ubiquity model): https://www.ebay.com/itm/235380092301
1x PCIe WiFi 7 card from Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CM95565L
1x PCIe WiFi 7 card from this online store: https://ipon.ro/shop/produs/gigabyte-gc-wifi7-tri-band-be5800-pcie-card/2238708 - the only one that worked at 802.11be standards

Among the other devices I have tested on WiFi 7 (and didn't worked): Samsung S24 Ultra and Odin 2 Max (this one: https://www.ayntec.com/products/odin-2?variant=44035820683456)

I will PM you with pictures and more infos.

[Silent_Scone]

As per PM, thanks for this.

It is the weeks end, so I may be having a lapse of judgement - but it doesn't appear that card is even listed here.

http://www.ziyituod.net/Product.aspx?TypeID=70

Regardless, I can pass this information on. I am also picking up an intel card shortly.

[jzchen]

Wow.  Thank you for spending much time and money into this.  While there could be fakes, there are a couple of reasons that they are likely not, too new, and not expensive enough.

I’m still weary of having the incorrect driver installed.  For very new stuff get the drivers direct from the manufacturer.

Also since you are in the EU nobody can sell you a router that broadcast in the 6500 - 7000 MHz range as it is illegal.  Here if ASUS suddenly start selling WiFi 8 in 8 GHz range they’d be in big trouble.  Also any customer as it is not released for use will be in trouble.  Otherwise ASUS would just sell BE98 Pro worldwide…

[Saltgrass]

Glad you got it working.  Your speeds are now like mine.  The Windows indicated speeds are all over the place, so not sure they are accurate, yet.  Maybe 24H2 will help in that area.

The BE200 is a card with a PCIe interface.  If you were to be using it on a computer with a CNVio interface, it may have problems, depending on your systems configuration.  By going to an add-in card, you went around that possibility.

I notice the new card mentions High Band Simultaneous, which I believe, is the same as Intel's Multi-Link Operation.  As far as I know that type of capability is not yet available.  

[chuckbuck1]

I know this is months down the road from the original poster but this is a response to his post after looking up the Asus GT-BE98 there were two versions of it the one that you got and then Asus GT-BE98 Pro and the pro version from what I saw was in fact at the time the WiFi7 the one you bought was the WiFi6e version also just an FYI the newest one out is the ASUS RT-BE96U and it can be set up in WiFi 6e as well as WiFi 7 and also IPV6 I own this one myself and at times I do get the 1gig internet that I'm paying for from (yuck) Specturm and yes it is the worst provider in the US right along with Comcast but needless to say at 900mbps down and tops 34mbps up I happy until I can get the Fibre optics in to the house