XR500 -> Asus AX11000 Pro -> Netduma R3 coming tomorrow, questions

[V1k1]

Hi, first big post here. Was hoping to give my journey to the R3. Had some questions about the R3 / Duma OS 4 and how it stands up to an older XR500 and an Asus AX11000 Pro for gaming and management of those gaming packets, hard wired. Please know I don't know finer details that others may know. I'm happy to continue learning whether it's here or more google searches. I am here because I have unanswered questions or have struggled to get down to the nitty gritty of what I'm looking for.

Prior:
-XR500/DumaOS for prioritized gaming traffic via ethernet cable for both myself and my wife, no others using the internet
-1gig up/down fiber speeds (consistent)
-Moved and now on cable 1gig down, 40Mbps up (consistent)
-No use for QoS (my bandwidth was never constrained), traffic prioritization kept gaming at the front
-Primarily used gaming traffic prioritization for smooth gaming. Duma OS recognized this in the UI
-Didn't use anti buffer bloat or geo fence, congestion control, etc, as most games I play have built in server selection (of course I select the nearest servers with low ping <50)
-Netflix/streaming services can run on the smart TV (wifi) while playing a PC game with no felt interruptions
-Have always had two Google Nest wifi cameras, smart devices, work laptops, etc on the network
-Router kept every old IP address/device on the network tree until I delete them. Hated this clutter
-Unknown if I could have utilized more features to further improve anything. I tried QoS but nothing felt different

Current:
-Asus AX11000 Pro from black Friday
-Like the hardware (not sure if it matters in my use case), like the Wifi 6 for some devices / work laptops
-Utilizing latest Asus Merlin firmware and FlexQoS 1.4.4 as this seems like the closest I can get to prioritizing or managing traffic, but it seems more QoS focused vs the traffic prioritization features that Duma OS offers (I could be wrong)
-Using FlexQoS fq_codel mode. Order priority is Gaming - Other - Work from Home - Web Surfing - Video & Audio Streaming - File Transferring - Learn from Home.
Note for FlexQoS: I am using their gaming rule for our local IP addresses. At first, I had 'Other' as last in priority, but Valorant and other games felt off, Valorant had rubber banding (I'd get shifted 4 feet back every minute or two which I never experienced before). Enemies seemed to not die or I'd be dead well before I had a chance. I later learned that some games fall into the 'Other' category (found like 1 forum post where someone pointed this out), so moving 'Other' right after gaming equated to literally not a single rubber band or lag spike and enemies were dropping like flies again, bullets connecting flawlessly as far as I could tell/feel. I'm also able to see the ports and Rate/Total Data go into categories as I launch games, so here I can tweak/validate if something falls into a weird category.
-I don't necessarily understand if there is SQM built in or if it's strictly QoS based with a touch of SQM, or SQM works differently here with QoS. I see Cake QOS has Cake SQM, but this QoS was not recommended for gaming or for higher internet speeds. This router feels like it's a beast/has potential but feels more like you have to tinker with it with what's available, which is the QoS/FlexQoS. It doesn't seem like it has what DumaOS has in terms of SmartBoost, Geo Filter (may or may not use, games I play already have built in server selection), congestion control, antibuffer bloat, traffic prioritization for gaming packets and more. Of course both have the option for QoS.
-No need for the other features this router offers such as Mesh
-After tweaking FlexQoS last night, Valorant felt VERY good... I'd say around equal to the XR500 and I suddenly was getting kills.. almost easier than before? Like it felt like everything connected instantly at 22-25 ping. I can't say any more or less at the moment. I don't know how to test this specifically as it's only recent and just a feeling. I wonder if the router with more RAM/processing speed helps keep up more, or can manage both gaming PCs with prioritization very well in comparison to a router with less ram/CPU power

Future:
-Netduma R3 is coming tomorrow
-Would love to put the latest beta firmware in which hopefully improves disconnection issues and hope to avoid most issues I saw folks posting about in Dec 2023-early 2024.
-I want to set up the R3 to the best of my ability for gaming for us both and compare it to the AX11000 pro
-Would love to use features that give us the best hard wired gaming experience for less lag and less latency, no other home devices interrupting a game, etc. Would love to have both my wife and I gaming at the same time with the router managing both gaming sessions with priority over all other devices on the network
-I want to feel fluidity in everything from movement to firing/bullets connecting, not delayed, not out of sync, etc, like I have felt before in the same games I've been playing or have felt prior to my XR500
-Range should be OK for the smaller home/area, not many devices are far from router location anyway
-Concerns are the firmware issues folks are having in the recent months or issues that still are buggy since release
-I'm wondering if the OS is so efficient that it can handle what I am looking for on lower RAM/cpu speeds

I understand some features of DumaOS won't be utilized to give the best gaming connection, and that's OK with me.
I simply want which will offer us the best gaming experience whether I'm using 1 of the routers features or have to set multiple features up - I'm all for it.
I also want to know which one will detect games/gaming packets better so I don't have to tinker as much, like FlexQoS has some limitation to how many manual IPtable rules I can add in to tweak if some games aren't going into correct categories. I'd rather have one router/OS detect most packets correctly (I like some simplicity) or be able to submit to the developers to add in games (like if Valorant isn't on their list, can this be added and how long does it take?). I've done a handful of searches on XR500 -> R3, Asus compared to R3 but would like to know more and refresh the topic as we come up to 2025.

Questions that are under the assumption of a consistent ISP connection and having newer PC hardware:
1. Has anyone experienced both the AX11000 Pro (or similar) and R3 on their latest firmware (or most stable)? Thoughts after maximizing each of their potential for hard wired gaming? Do you find any additional features useful for gaming between the two? Has any feature really stood out over another that has immensely improved their connection?
2. I don't know crazy details, but I'm wondering what does Duma OS 4 have in terms of how they prioritize traffic over the Asus/FlexQoS? Does DumaOS have some secret sauce that they know is an improvement over other brands sauce like QoS/FlexQos, etc? Can a developer talk more about this or send a link I can read into more? I'm intrigued by general QoS vs the additional Duma OS features to further improve a lag free/low latency experience.
3. If I only want gaming traffic prioritized with fast internet, I likely don't need QoS, right? I don't care if Netflix fights with a smart device or a quick steam download that can wait the <10 minutes it takes due to fast download speeds - they have all worked equally for me on the XR500, but I wonder if QoS may further improve something I don't see? Again - just want gaming in the front line for 0 lag, 0 hiccups, etc. Unless I see QoS will improve Netflix speeds fighting with a smart device?
4. Can DumaOS/developers let us add games into their list that may not be detected yet to prioritize packets? How fast is the turnaround on this? I saw a forum post where we could maybe add games if we send in some data.
5. Do you think there'll be any hardware limitations for my needs? Not sure if the lower RAM on the R3 would ever hurt our PC gaming, or cause lag elsewhere. We don't plan to add hundreds of devices. If we do, we'd definitely get a router with more power strictly for that.
6. Are there suggested tests to run somewhere somehow for each router, and compare ping/latency/consistency in gaming packets? I'd like to set up both routers to achieve good performance, then compare.
 

Hoping to learn more as I test both routers after tomorrow.
I want to figure this out before any return windows close.

My hopes are in favor of the R3/Duma OS 4, as much as I think the Asus router is a beast of its own.

Thank you!

[Netduma Fraser]

In terms of prioritizing traffic, I can't speak to any other router and how they do things, just what we do. We use deep packet inspection to determine what you're playing and when, it's not all an automated process, we do need to add games. There is also more that will be coming surrounding this that I can't speak on at the moment. You can suggest games and provide data for it that will help but I can't give you an ETA on when/if it might be added.

Based on what your circumstances are, I don't think you really need much in the way of features by the sounds of it, even using the XR500 you were only using 1 small feature and that's it essentially. At the end of the day, you don't have many devices fighting for bandwidth, sounds like you're generally playing games together so you're not going to be using much bandwidth then and when you do need more bandwidth for a download you won't be gaming and so any additional ping introduced is kind of irrelevant.

Feeling 'fluidity' is kind of a subjective thing, there are no stats that are available to support that feeling all the time and thus it's hard to say, enable this, disable that and it'll be fluid 100% of the time. The best thing to do is to achieve the best ping you can with the features available, see how it feels, if it doesn't feel right you can adjust. It's more trial and error rather than one size fits all.

Hardware on routers is really a marketing move, as long as the software is optimized then it doesn't matter - we've put DumaOS 4 on our previous slower hardware R2 router after using the R3 to develop the software in the first place. The hardware on any of the routers is more than sufficient, your usage/devices are not particularly taxing for the routers to deal with.

As you want to achieve feel more than anything just play around with all the features, use Congestion Control, try SmartBOOST and different ways to prioritize your device, even reserve bandwidth for those devices, try port forwarding, the Geo-Filter etc. It seems to me that actually you're starting with a bit of a luxury - you don't actually seem to have many lag issues. In which case you can quite leisurely experiment with everything to find the best for you. A feature will arrive in hopefully the new year that would take the only real negative out of using Congestion Control so you'll definitely have no real reason not to use it when that's available.

Anyway, I hope that's an alright answer for you, some people don't like the experiment answer but there are so many variables when it comes to networking that it's extremely difficult to provide a one size fits all setting - hence why all our features are pretty open and allow you to tweak how you want to set it up.