PACKETPERF

Primary Device

Cisco Catalyst 9500X
Cisco Catalyst 9500X
★ 3.1 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Switching Capacity: Up to 25.6 Tbps
  • Forwarding Rate: Up to 8 Bpps
  • Ports: 28x 40/100G (QSFP28) + 8x 40/100/200/400G (QSFP-DD)
  • PoE Budget: N/A
  • Layer: Layer 2 and Layer 3
  • Stacking support: StackWise Virtual

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Industry-first 400G fixed core switch; 8GB HBM buffer for micro-burst protection; Hardware-accelerated MACsec-256 and IPsec; Programmable Silicon One Q200 ASIC.
  • ✘ Cons: Extremely high total cost of ownership including mandatory DNA licensing; Significant power and cooling requirements; Complex management through Cisco DNA Center.
  • Est. Price: $64,000 - $75,000

Compare Against

Fortinet FortiSwitch 124G
Fortinet FortiSwitch 124G
★ 3.7 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Switching Capacity: 240 Gbps
  • Forwarding Rate: 355 Mpps
  • Ports: 24x 100/1000/2.5G RJ45, 6x 10G SFP+
  • PoE Budget: N/A
  • Layer: L2 with Static Routing
  • Stacking support: Yes (via FortiLink)

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Full 2.5G multi-gigabit support on all 24 access ports; robust 60Gbps uplink capacity via 6x 10G SFP+ ports; fanless design for silent operation; native FortiLink integration for centralized management via FortiGate.
  • ✘ Cons: Non-PoE model (requires FPOE variant for power); advanced L3 features like OSPF/BGP require a separate license; lacks hardware-based MC-LAG support found in higher-tier models.
  • Est. Price: $1,130 - $1,504

Popular Comparisons

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