Asus launches the world's first gaming router with built-in AI and native Docker support for $899

Wi-Fi 7 speeds meet built-in processing power

by · TechSpot

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First look: Asus has revealed what it calls the world's first-ever gaming router with a built-in processor, the ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI. It comes with a stunning specs list, but it's the $899 price that's the most shocking part.

Companies love to pack AI into their devices these days, for better or for worse. Asus says that the ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI is the first gaming router to include this functionality.

Connectivity comes courtesy of tri-band Wi-Fi 7, which combines 320MHz channels with 4096-QAM modulation to deliver blazing-fast wireless speeds of up to 19Gbps. As expected, it supports the standard 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequency bands, giving users broad compatibility with both legacy and next-gen devices.

The 6GHz band, in particular, takes advantage of those wide 320MHz channels – effectively doubling the bandwidth available on Wi-Fi 6 – while 4096-QAM enables higher data density for massive throughput in short-range, low-interference environments. Together, these technologies promise ultra-low latency and a more stable connection, even in data-heavy gaming or streaming scenarios.

There are also dual 10G Ethernet ports – one of which can be used as a dedicated gaming connection to easily prioritize traffic – and four 2.5G Ethernet ports provide a total wired capacity of up to 31Gbps, and it supports 20Gbps link aggregation.

The router features a slew of other impressive specs. There's a quad-core 2.6 GHz main CPU, 4GB of DDR4 RAM, and 32GB of onboard flash storage. Its artificial intelligence smarts come from a dedicated AI processor with four cores running at 2.1GHz alongside a 7.9 TOPS NPU.

It's this AI processor that enables an integrated Docker Engine with CLI and Compose support, making the Rapture GT-BE19000AI the first router to run containerized applications natively.

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Asus notes that this turns the router into an edge computing device, enabling advanced users to deploy automation, AI services, or IoT management directly on the router without the need for a separate PC or server.

"Whether running home assistants to AI-powered video recognition with Frigate, or using AdGuard as a DNS server to filter ads and protect family members online, this router doubles as a central hub for automation and smart services that traditional routers cannot provide," Asus writes.

The router also features the same AI game boost features used in its previous gaming routers, though these are now apparently enhanced with AI algorithms for real-time optimization. As well as offering device detection, adaptive QoE for intelligent traffic prioritization, and GTNet routing, AI Game Boost reduces latency by up to 34%, according to Asus' testing.

Such a fancy router – it also looks very cool – comes at a high cost: a painful $899.