A method and system for routing frames based on a port's speed using a switch element. The method includes receiving a portion of a frame in a receive buffer of a port; determining a frame length threshold value; and setting up a status bit based on the port's speed, the frame length threshold value and an amount of the frame received. The status bit is sent to a transmit segment of the switch element and the frame length threshold value is proportional to the port's speed. Also, if the receive buffer is almost full when the frame arrives at the receive port, then a cut status is based on the frame's end of frame (“EOF”) value.