Running in a VM (Proxmox, ESXi) is arguably its best use case.
. While MikroTik’s own hardware (like the CCR series) is generally more power-efficient, the x86 64-bit architecture is unmatched for sheer raw processing power, especially for tasks like heavy BGP routing and 10Gbps+ throughput. MikroTik community forum Performance & Core Strengths Massive Throughput mikrotik x86 64 bit
| Feature | 32-bit Limit | 64-bit Advantage | |---------|--------------|------------------| | Max RAM | 2–3 GB usable | Up to 64 GB+ | | NAT connections | ~500k | 2M+ (with RAM) | | BGP routes | ~1M | 3M+ | | IPsec throughput (AES) | Limited by RAM/CPU | Multi-Gbps with AES-NI | | Wireguard | Slower w/o 64-bit | Full multi-core scaling | | Container support | No | Yes (x86 64-bit only) | | ZeroTier | No | Yes | | Routing table size | ~500k FIB | >1M FIB | Running in a VM (Proxmox, ESXi) is arguably
The introduction of the architecture changed the game. By utilizing the x86-64 instruction set, RouterOS can now: RouterOS can now: