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Buying Guide: The Best Gaming Routers
What should you look for in a gaming router? You might think that any router that extends an Internet connection to other devices on your network (such as gaming consoles and PCs) or lets gamers share an intra-network connection for multi-gamer playing would be enough. However, picking any old router could hinder an optimized gaming experience.
For gaming, you want a router with Gigabit Ethernet ports. This is because you can wire a gaming console or desktop to one of the Gigabit LAN ports and take advantage of the 1,000Mbps speed. While wiring your gaming console to your router won't increase the speed of your Internet connection (that is a fixed speed from your ISP) I find downloading additional gaming content and accessing a gaming platform like Windows Xbox's Live more reliable and peppier with the console hard-wired to my router than when I'm connected via a wireless connection. You just don't have to deal with the added latency and interference of a wireless signal.
You also want a router with some form of traffic shaping or QoS (Quality-of-Service). This feature can prioritize the type of network traffic you specify such as gaming traffic. This means that gaming traffic will be allocated the most bandwidth over other types of traffic on the network. Many routers tailored for gaming have proprietary QoS engines, such as Western Digital's FasTrack feature.
Dual-band routers are a must for gamers who have networks with multiple devices accessing the Internet connection at one time and who want to play wirelessly. With a dual-band router, reserve the 5GHz band for devices used for wireless gaming. Devices and computers that do nothing more than surf the Internet or check email can connect at 2.4 GHz. If you are the lone person using your Internet connection, you can get away with a high-performing single-band router such as the Engenius ESR9855G.
Here is a list of the best router choices for gamers from the most recent routers we've tested:
Western Digital My Net N900
$179.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Western Digital's foray into the wireless router space is the My Net N900. This user-friendly router is also ideal for gamers. A highlighted feature is the proprietary QoS (Quality-of-Service) engine called FasTrack plus QoS. FasTrack plus QoS is designed to improve the streaming performance of video as well as VoIP and other types of network traffic including gaming. For further performance gains, Enhanced WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) is also included. Read the full review ››
Buffalo AirStation AC1300/N900 Gigabit Dual Band WZR-D1800H
$179.99 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Although Buffalo's AirStation WZR-D1800H is a pre-draft 802.11ac router and there aren't 802.11ac wireless adapters and clients on the market as of yet, this is the fastest router we've tested to date with excellent range and sure to be hit with gamers, especially for home network multi-game play. The interface includes wizards to walk you through a variety of management tasks like setting up UPnP or port forwarding for optimized gaming. Read the full review ››
EnGenius ESR9855G Multimedia Enhanced Wireless 300N Gaming Router
$100 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Gamers on a budget will find Engenius' ESR9855G a router that's affordable and tailored for gaming. Although it's only a single-band router (hence, the lower price) a QoS (Quality-of-Service feature) called SteamEngine can prioritize gaming and other types of traffic. Lots of gamers are also power technology users and may appreciate advanced settings that allow for very granular tweaking of a wireless signal, such as transmit power and DTIM interval. Read the full review ››
Netgear N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4000)
$150 MSRP
%displayPrice% at %seller% Netgear's powerful N750 dual-band router is a throughput champ, packed with features that should satisfy the most particular gamer. The level of control the N750's features offer will delight advanced users. The entrée to those features is the management interface, which will look familiar to anyone who has managed a Netgear router in the past. Read the full review ››
Cisco Linksys EA3500 App Enabled N750 Dual-Band Wireless Router with Gigabit and USB
$100 MSRP
If it isn't enough that the EA3500 offers very good throughput at the 5 GHz band and excellent performance on the 2.4 GHz band integrated QoS and powerful hardware makes this router an excellent option for gamers. While it doesn't offer as much feature tweaking as the Buffalo and Netgear routers; gamers who just want to get to gaming will like the almost automated setup process. Read the full review ››