Router Upgrade Increase Wireguard Speeds?

Hi All,

I have had the GL-ARM300M16 for a few years and never got amazing speeds on it whether I’m using openVPN or Wireguard, NordVPN or Mullvad. The latest is using Mullvad wireguard client and I get 5-8MBPS, even on close servers.

I’m conscious that this is a small, low-powered router, however, I never seem to use more than half of my memory or CPU according to the stats page.

With some offers on GL.inet routers with Black Friday I thought a newer more powerful route MIGHT gain me greater speeds, such as https://www.amazon.co.uk/GL-B2200-Tri-Band-2x867Mbps-Pre-Installed-Supported-1-pack/dp/B08TBQQ5S5/ref=sr_1_10?crid=SY6HKHKEHSVL&keywords=gl.inet%2Brouter&qid=1700414637&sprefix=gl.inet%2B%2Caps%2C1481&sr=8-10&th=1

Would this actually work? I’m not getting anywhere near the speeds I thought I should be getting currently.

A Certa (GL-AR750) is basically a Shadow (GL-AR300M) with a 5 GHz radio. It’s the same CPU/SOC.

I run a Certa w/ the latest stable firmware 4.3.7-release4. WG Client to a Flint (GL-AX1800, f/w 4.4.6-release1) as a WG Server all on the same subnet… so ‘direct device’ connection, if you will.

The Certa gives me 38.5 Mbps as wired. Wi-Fi may well impact performance significantly.

My Slate AX (GL-ATX1800) & Flint (GL-AX1800) run at near line speeds wired as a WG Client to a VPN provider but my ISP package, while well over 40 Mbps, isn’t even 500 Mbps so YMMV. You should expect even better from a Flint 2 (GL-MT6000).

I just tried a wired to wired connection and I get it up to 12, but still far away from ideal. I’ve got 1Gbps source connection so its not an issue with speed there.

1 Gbps ISP… nice. You’ll be wanting to look at the Flint 2, then.

I suppose I want to be sure that it’ll boost the speeds compared to my current one and it’s not something I’m doing wrong currently. I’d not waste money to have the same result.

Try closer to 80x… or more.

GL.inet is claiming upto 900Mbps with Wireguard on the FLINT2. As nobody here in the forum has the FLINT2 yet (well nobody admitting it anyway) nobody can be certain but if you have a full gigabit connection and want as fast as possible on wireguard then the FLINT2 is the least expensive way to go unless you already owned another PC and wanted to covert it to a dedicated router. We’ll see once we receive the FLINT2 if it lives up to the 900Mbps on Wireguard. For those that recall the original Flint Router originally had specs above 600Mbps for Wireguard but that got changed later to 500Mbps…That may have had to do with the change of firmware (3.x to 4.x).

Sorry I should of been more pointed in my reply, in essence I should see faster speeds with any more powerful router?

The CPU of the router will have to decrypt and encrypt data that is sent to the VPN server. The quicker that CPU, the more traffic it can handle. And quicker CPUs are generally put in more powerful routers.

With the sample size of devices I have, specs for VPN speeds are pretty close to best case.

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Exactly. Furthermore, GL notes the WG rates are best case while in WG Client mode. It’s surely a different story if using the router itself as a WG Server but that’s not applicable to OP’s inquiry.

The Flint 2 is currently GL’s flagship device. The SOC/CPU is considerably better than the original Flint… & the underlying OpenWrt operating system is the most up to date release from OpenWrt. There’s a table comparing the two on the Flint 2’s page.

Every indication gives the Flint 2 outperforms Flint 1, Slate AX, etc. If I didn’t already have a Flint 1 I’d be all over the Flint 2.