Wireless Reviews

Routing Performance

Routing performance for the C8 loaded with 3.16.27 Build 20140903 Rel. 75232 firmware using our standard test method is summarized in Table 5 with the C7 V2's results.

Remember when I mentioned the NAT Boost's effect on throughput earlier? Table 5 shows that disabling NAT Boost (it's enabled by default), which is required to use Bandwidth Control, cuts throughput by more than 50%. However, 300 Mbps of both up and download throughput will be more than enough for plenty of users.

The IxChariot composite plot for unidirectional up and downlink tests shows periodic peak throughput above 900 Mbps in both directions.

TP-LINK Archer C8 routing unidirectional throughput

The C8's simultaneous up/downlink throughput doesn't set a new Chart high. But it looks like the C8 gives a bit of preference to upload throughput when both directions are fully loaded.

TP-LINK Archer C8 routing bidirectional throughput

Here's the unidirectional plot with NAT Boost disabled.

TP-LINK Archer C8 routing unidirectional throughput - NAT Boost disabled

And the bidirectional plot.

TP-LINK Archer C8 routing bidirectional throughput - NAT Boost disabled

Wireless Performance

The Archer C8 is not Wi-Fi Certified. It was tested using our V8 Wireless test process with 3.16.27 Build 20140903 Rel. 75232 firmware.

I'm no longer running 20/40 Coexistence or Fat Channel intolerance tests. But a quick WPS test using a Win 7 client prompted for a WPS pushbutton connection. Pushing the C8's WPS button successfully completed a WPA2/AES session in short order.

Both radios come up with unique SSIDs and auto channel and auto bandwidth modes. For throughput testing, the router was first reset to factory defaults and Channel 6 and 20 MHz B/W mode set for 2.4 GHz and Channel 153 and 80 MHz bandwidth mode for 5 GHz. A WPA2/AES connection was used for all testing.

The C8 was centered on the octoBox chamber turntable. I propped it up to get a more vertical orientation for the antennas to keep the antennas centered during rotation. The front of the router was set as the 0° test position as shown in the photo below.

TP-LINK Archer C8 in test chamber - 0 degree position

The Benchmark Summary below shows the average of throughput measurements made in all test locations.

TP-LINK Archer C8 Benchmark Summary

To put these average values in perspective, compare each of the four average throughput benchmarks for all AC1750 routers tested with the latest V8 process. The C8 isn't a chart-topper in any of the comparisons. It sometimes does better than the Archer C7 V2 and sometimes worse.

Average Throughput comparison

I didn't include the C7 V1 results in this comparison because it was tested with a different test process and results are not directly comparable.

Introduction, Inside Features Wireless Features, Storage Routing Performance, Wireless Performance Wireless Performance - more, Closing

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