MSI Radix AXE6600 WiFi 6E Tri-Band Gaming Router

When it comes to online gaming, you can have the fastest desktop rig in town, but it won’t make a difference if your router can’t deliver the bandwidth necessary to keep up with your competitors. If network lag is holding you back, it may be time to invest in a dedicated gaming router like the MSI Radix AXE6600 ($349.99). Armed with Wi-Fi 6E technology, a powerful CPU, and multi-gigabit wired connections, the Radix AXE6600 delivered decent throughput at close range in our performance tests, but its long-range signal strength was lacking. If you can live without multi-gig connectivity, the $200 TP-Link Archer AXE75 offers better all-around performance and network security software for less money.

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Radical Looks, Less-Radical Performance

One look at the Radix AXE6600 tells you that it is designed for gamers. The gray and black enclosure has the look of a sports car front end, complete with sculpted cooling grills and beveled edges. It measures 7.8 by 13.3 by 8.8 inches (HWD) with the antennas fully extended. The six non-removable antennas contain embedded LED light strips that change color depending on the currently active Quality of Service (QoS) mode.

The top of the cabinet contains four LAN activity LED indicators, power and internet indicators, a WPS button, and buttons that turn the LEDs and Wi-Fi on and off. Also up top is a backlit Dragon Shield button that lets you cycle through the router’s preset QoS modes. As with the antennas, the Dragon Shield button will change colors depending upon the active QoS mode.

Around back are a 2.5Gbps WAN/LAN port, a 1Gbps WAN/LAN port, three 1Gbps LAN ports, a USB 3.0 port, a reset button, a power button, and a power jack. In addition to the above-mentioned cooling grills, the Radix uses special heat pipes and heat sinks to help cool down all of the internal components, which include a 1.8GHz CPU, 256MB of flash memory, 512MB of DDR4 memory, and the Wi-Fi 6E circuitry.

The Radix AXE6600 is a Wi-Fi 6E router, which means it can send and receive data using the 6GHz radio band as well as the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio bands. It is capable of reaching speeds of up to 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band, up to 1,202Mbps on the 5GHz band, and up to 4,804Mbps on the 6GHz band (that's a total of 6,580Mbps, which is how it gets the "6600" in its name. It supports all of the latest Wi-Fi 6 technologies, including 1024 QAM, direct-to-client beamforming, MU-MIMO simultaneous data streaming, OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access) transmissions, 160MHz channel bandwidth, and WPA3 encryption.

You can manage the RadiX router using either a web-based console or with the MSI mobile app, but you’ll get a few more options with the web console. These include Port Forwarding, USB, IPv6, VPN, and Firewall settings. The console opens to a dashboard screen that contains a panel where you can select one of four QoS presets including AI Auto (the router automatically assigns bandwidth), Gaming (bandwidth is optimized for gaming traffic), Streaming (bandwidth is optimized for video streaming and live broadcasting), and WFH (bandwidth is optimized for online meetings and conference calls). There’s also a Traditional QoS option that allows you to manually configure bandwidth limits for each device.

Below the QoS panel is a status panel that displays real-time CPU, network processor (NPU), and memory usage as well as a real-time traffic analyzer. At the bottom of the screen is a network map and a listing of connected wired clients.

A menu on the left side of the screen has options for Dashboard, Game Center, WiFi Setting, Guest Network, and Advanced. The Dashboard option takes you back to the dashboard from wherever you are in the console, while the Game Center option opens a screen where you can enable a Game Boost feature that optimizes bandwidth for specific games. Here you can also configure the Dragon Shield and antenna lighting effects, set up Port Forwarding, configure the VPN server feature, and run ping diagnostics.

Wi-Fi settings include Smart Connect (one SSID for all three bands), WPA and password settings, channel width settings, and advanced wireless settings such as RTS Threshold and TX Power settings. Use the Advanced Settings menu to access administrative tools and to configure parental controls as well as WAN, LAN, USB, and firewall settings.

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Testing the MSI Radix AXE6600: Installation and Performance

Whether you use the web console or the mobile app, installing and configuring the Radix AXE6600 for first use is easy. I powered down my modem, connected the router to it using the included LAN cable, and powered up both devices. I opened the mobile app, selected Setting Up New MSI Router, and used my phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the bottom of the router. After a few seconds, I was prompted to create an account and select my WAN connection type. (I selected DHCP.) On the next screen, I entered SSID names and passwords for all three radio bands and waited around 30 seconds for the settings to take hold. I was then prompted to sign in to finish the installation.

The Radix is not what you would call a stellar performer overall, although it did return decent scores on some of our throughput tests. Its score of 110Mbps on the 2.4GHz close-proximity test was a bit faster than the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E (106Mbps), but lagged the Asus RT-AXE7800 (118Mbps) and the TP-Link Archer AXE75 (121Mbps). Results were similar on the 30-foot test: The Radix’s score of 38Mbps was slightly faster than the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E (33Mbps) but not as fast as the Asus RT-AXE7800 (51Mbps) or the TP-Link Archer AXE75 (63Mbps).

On the 5GHz close-proximity test, the Radix took second place with a score of 820Mbps. The TP-Link Archer AXE75 took top honors with a score of 918Mbps, and the Asus RT-AXE7800 and Linksys Hydra Pro 6E scored 784Mbps and 750Mbps, respectively. The Radix’s score of 263Mbps on the 5GHz 30-foot test was the slowest of the bunch: The Linksys Hydra Pro 6E scored 303Mbps, the Asus RT-AXE7800 scored 300Mbps, and the TP-Link Archer AXE75 scored 360Mbps.

The Radix couldn’t keep pace with the competition on the 6GHz tests, either. Its score of 858Mbps on the close-proximity test came in behind the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E (927Mbps), the Asus RT-AXE7800 (921Mbps), and the TP-Link Archer AXE75 (921Mbps). Similarly, the Radix trailed the pack with a score of 146Mbps on the 30-foot 6GHz test, while the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E delivered 379Mbps and the Asus RT-AXE7800 managed 175Mbps. The TP-Link Archer AXE75 led with a score of 397Mbps.

The Radix somewhat redeemed itself with a strong showing on our file transfer tests, in which we move a 1.5GB folder containing photos, video, music, and office document files back and forth between an external USB 3.0 drive and a desktop PC (both of which are connected to the router) and record the read and write speeds. The Radix’s write (67MBps) and read (66MBps) scores were the fastest in the pack.

Our final test uses an Ekahau Sidekick 2 Wi-Fi diagnostic device and Ekahau’s Survey mobile app to test wireless signal strength. This combo generates heat maps that illustrate the router’s 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz signal strength throughout our test home. (Note: Ekahau is owned by Ziff Davis, the publisher of PCMag.com.) The circle on the map represents the location of the router, and the colors represent signal strength. Dark green areas indicate the strongest signal, lighter yellow areas indicate a weaker signal, and gray areas indicate a very weak signal or no measurable signal reception.

From top to bottom, the Radix's 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz Wi-Fi heat coverage maps

As illustrated on the maps, the Radix router did a relatively good job of providing a strong 2.4GHz signal throughout our test home, but its 5GHz signal range became weaker in the garage area.

This router and the Asus RT-AXE7800 are the first Wi-Fi 6E routers we’ve tested using the new Sidekick 2, which has the ability to measure 6GHz signals, and as you can see from the bottom map, 6GHz signal strength became very weak as I moved further away from the router. We saw this with the Asus RT-AXE7800, as well, which is not surprising given the fact that 6GHz signals use shorter wavelengths and lower-power transmissions, and are better-suited to devices that are in the same room as the router. In MSI's own internal testing, the Radix's 6GHz signals only extended about 20% as far as its 2.4GHz signals.

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Verdict: Seek Peak Speed Elsewhere

If you’re looking to boost your online gaming cred, the MSI Radix AXE6600 WiFi 6E Tri-Band Gaming Router can help, especially if your gaming devices can connect to the speedy 6GHz band. The Radix also offers high-speed wired networking via a 2.5Gbps WAN/LAN port, plus strong parental controls and cool lighting effects.

Still, with such uninspired performance in testing, it pales in comparison to the multiple faster Wi-Fi 6E routers out there. Our reigning Editors’ Choice pick for mainstream Wi-Fi 6E routers, the TP-Link Archer AXE75, offers faster performance for around $150 less, though it lacks multi-gigabit wired ports and gamer-centric features. If you must have these features plus Wi-Fi 6E, options like the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 do exist, although their astronomical prices are tough to justify.