I just tested the first Wi-Fi 8 router and it’s a major upgrade — even if device support is still a year away

If you’re looking for a sneak peek at what the upcoming Wi-Fi 8 spec looks like and can do for your home network, you can do no better than Asus’s new ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro.

A high-performance gaming router, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro is the first, but certainly not the last, Wi-Fi 8 router. A welcome update that focuses on reliability and range, Wi-Fi 8 also can extend the router’s reach and provide a serious mid-range throughput boost to just about any home network. Unfortunately, it will remain an expensive tease until Wi-Fi 8 client hardware appears sometime next year and the spec’s full promise is within reach.

Still, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro excelled with Wi-Fi 7 clients, giving a taste of its potential to not only speed up the data flow but provide a window on the next generation of wireless networking. Read the review to see if this is the best gaming router for your home network and whether or not its $900 price tag is worth the extra range, throughput and reliability.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro: Design

Top shelf all the way, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro is the first Wi-Fi 8 router to hit the market. Based on the draft IEEE 802.11bn spec, it has “conditional approval” from the FCC for sales in the U.S. to enable next-generation performance and reliability. An amalgam of old and new, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro builds off the ROG Rapture GT-BE98 Pro and Asus will soon have a mesh networking set based on an existing ZenWiFi design.

There’s a major caveat, though: We’ll have to wait for Wi-Fi 8 client hardware to show up for phones, notebooks, tablets and USB upgrade kits. Give it six months before we see the true potential of Wi-Fi 8.

In the here and now, the quad-band GT-BN98 Pro pushes performance by transmitting 4X4 data across each band, starting with 2.4 GHz (for 1.376 Gbps), 5.0 GHz (5.674 Gbps) and two 6 GHz bands (23.058 Gbps). It adds up to a theoretical top speed of over 30 Gbps, making it one of the most powerful networking devices available.

To get there, the router uses all the tricks of Wi-Fi 7 – including 4K Quadrature Amplitude modulation, ultra-wide 320MHz data channels, and Multi-Link Operations – and adds several new Wi-Fi 8 ones – like a more efficient modulation and coding scheme, unequal modulation as well as enhanced distributed channel access. In other words, Wi-Fi 8 can fill in some of the gaps left by Wi-Fi 7.

Under the skin, Broadcom’s BCM 6718 Wi-Fi chips leverages the draft spec with a 2.6 GHz quad-core processor as well as 2GB of DDR4 RAM and 256MB of flash storage to hold its firmware and settings. Expect several updates as the spec is finalized and new features are added.

It’s ready to go with a braided Cat 7 jumper cable, an external power supply and Republic of Gamers stickers. The black and silver GT-BN98 Pro looks impressive and intimidating, just what a gamer wants. On top of a see-through window to show some of the router’s internals and the longitude and latitude of the company’s Taipei headquarters, the backlit ROG logo has seven lighting effects, although none are performance oriented.

The GT-BN98 Pro’s eight antennas can be swiveled and rotated but not easily removed. It’s big at 13.8 x 13.8 x 2.7 inches plus an extra 6.1 inches for the antennas when pointed straight up. Turn it over and the router looks more like a mechanical spider.

Its input and output ports are among the best available for multi-gig home networking. One of the two 10Gbps WAN input ports can be used as a high-speed downstream networking link, and both can be set for gaming priority. There are also four 2.5Gbps ports, one of which can be used for input or output data flow as well as a 1 Gbps downstream networking port.

The router’s old but reliable USB 2.0 spec (480 Mbps) is augmented by a high-speed USB 3.2 Gen 1 port (10 Gbps) link. They can connect a drive across the LAN or as an Internet backup with a mobile phone during a broadband blackout.

During extensive use, it peaked at a warm 102.6 degrees Fahrenheit thanks to its massive heat sink that’s visible on top; there are four others under the skin to help cool the unit without resorting to a fan. In addition to LEDs for Power, WAN, LAN and action on each band, the router can run as a traditional router, mesh node, access point, repeater and media bridge.

The ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro puts an emphasis on gaming with access to GTNet’s AI-based gamer’s network, although it lacks a world ping map to show areas where connection speeds lag. The adaptive QoE (aka quality of experience), real-time traffic monitor and traffic analyzer help balance the flow.

It includes online protection for children, a capable firewall and can block ads, trackers and dangerous sites but lacks client level scanning software. One more thing, it can run as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) server or client using any of seven popular protocols. The service is included along with a year of NordVPN protection.

The ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro’s three year warranty and a lifetime of support outclasses Netgear’s 1-year warranty and 90 days of support. Online, the manual appears basic but its extensive links to setup, security and performance make it a must read.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro: Performance

Based on three weeks of real-world use and throughput testing with Keysight’s IxChariot networking benchmark and a Wi-Fi 7-based HP Envy X360 notebook, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro provides a sneak peek at Wi-Fi 8’s capabilities. Set to simulate 10 data hungry users, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro moved 2.407 Gbps over Wi-Fi with the two devices next to each other, just below the company’s GT-BE19000Ai at 2.867 Gbps.

Using 15 feet of Cat 7 cable, the router delivered 4.492 Gbps. This blasts past the GT-BE19000AI’s 3.519 Gbps with nearly a gigabit per second more data.

At a more reasonable 15-feet, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro delivered 2.300 Gbps of real-world Wi-Fi throughput. Between the TP-Link Archer GE650 at 2.019 Gbps and the GT-BE19000Ai’s 2.580 Gbps it’s plenty for 8K videos and high-performance gaming.

The router’s 950.6 Mbps of throughput at 50 feet was a shade off the GT-BE19000Ai’s 1.006 Gbps pace but nearly double the 552.5 Mbps of bandwidth offered by the TP-Link Archer GE650. At 75 feet, the router showed the potential of Wi-Fi 8 to fill a house with data at 799.7 Mbps, four times the Nighthawk RS700S at 187.6 Mbps and 50 percent higher than the ROG Rapture GT-BE19000Ai’s 528.3 Mbps.

The router’s 135-foot range makes it perfect for filling large homes with data, and at 90 feet, it led the pack at 63.4Mbps compared to the GT-BE19000Ai’s 49.1 Mbps.

As far as sending data across a 20-foot room and through a wall, the GT-BN98 Pro excelled at 2.122 Gbps of throughput. That’s more than double the Archer GE650’s 954.9 Mbps.

Still, it left a couple of dead zones in the basement of my 3,500 square foot home, making me anxious to see what the first Wi-Fi 8 mesh sets are capable of. The router didn’t choke on anything and was good for everything from work emails and video calls to some gaming and streaming ultra-high resolution videos.

Its 28-watt peak power use and lack of idle mode add up to an annual power budget of $43, if it runs 24/7 and you pay the national average of 17.5 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. That’s $20 more than the Archer GE650’s power estimate.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro: Setup

Setting up as a ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro wireless network started with loading Asus’s Router app on my Samsung Galaxy S25 phone. I picked the router from a photo page, snapped the QR code underneath and added log in data.

In a little less than six minutes, I was done.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro: Configuration

The app’s Home screen has the current lighting effect and the host’s IP address. There’re links to who’s connected.

Its other four tabs include Devices (for online connections), Insight page (remotely operating the router and using Asus’s AiProtection) and Family (parental controls based on several broad age groups). Its Settings section allows redoing the setup and using it as a VPN server or client.

Based on Asus’s WRT6.0 interface, the browser-based connection looked great and its options mirror those of the app.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro: Gaming

The GT-BN98 Pro has lots of gaming potential, starting with an excellent Traffic Analyzer that can track bytes over each wireless band. The QoE section allows tuning for a variety of uses, including online gaming.

I love the GTNet’s server acceleration network but spent more time with the app’s Ping and Packet Loss data – essential optimization steps before gaming.

Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro: Verdict

Being first counts for a lot in the Wi-Fi world and Asus leads the pack with its ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro, the first, but certainly not the last, Wi-Fi 8 router. Based on the draft spec, Wi-Fi 8 routers can make Wi-Fi 7 even better. That said, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro delivers an excellent all-around home router with an emphasis on gaming. Able to send data over the 2.4, 5.0 and a pair of 6GHz portals it offers class-leading range and mid-range throughput.

It’s premature to crown a Wi-Fi 8 king, and the entirety of the spec’s abilities will become evident sometime next year when Wi-Fi 8’s details are finally ratified and client hardware comes out. At that point, Wi-Fi 8’s reliability, extended range and mid-range throughput will truly be put to the test.

I personally can’t wait. In the meantime, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro is the leader for a field that I expect to get crowded very quickly.

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