Killer NIC Hands On Testing Part 1

[Ubermann]

Hardcore PC gamers live and die upon squeezing every drop of performance out of their hardware, and everyone can appreciate less lag. The Killer NIC's initial announcement was met with a degree of skepticism, however, as gaming network cards and their potential benefits are a rather uncharted territory. A murmur of vaporware developed on the forums, but that can now be put to rest. Bigfoot Networks is real, and the Killer NIC is actually rather neat.


If you did a double take at the spec's of the Killer NIC's NPU you weren't alone. It's dramatically overkill for common networking processing that the card will encounter. That doesn't mean it's useless, however. Far from it, as a matter of fact. The Killer NIC is actually running an onboard Linux build that handles all its networking duties, and, best of all, is entirely accessible to the end user via console prompt or with what Bigfoot Networks is calling Flexible Network Applications (FNA).

Check it out at IGN (http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/729/729557p1.html)

http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/729/729557/VGPocketCaplet017_1156985902-000.jpg

[lookmomnobrains]

it doesn’t look like a bad concept... would like to see it up agens something like onboard LAN from a asus p5w dh... I don’t think its worth the $279.99 the are asking for it do:brick:

[Ubermann]

I think the idea as a good nic will be forgotten and it will be used for something else.

[Cobalt]

Price it the same as the low end x-fi and give me clear performance gains. Then I'll consider it

PS: also make it PCIe

[3NZ0]

Make it pci-e and about £50 and ill buy it. :)

It just isnt worth anything more.

[[XC] hipno650]

http://gear.ign.com/articles/729/729733p1.html

numbers look good up to 65% performance gain:eek:
now if mobos only had more pci slots:rolleyes:

[lookmomnobrains]

What have them guys been smoking...

sins I’m kind of not buying the 65% performers increase from a NIC. would like to see some more info do about test setup.. and a comparison of the scores side by side..

[Eastcoasthandle]

they are asking way to much for it. I don't care if it works or not. The price will keep most away.

[Ubermann]

Im sure you get one for free..if you make a "tweaked" review =)

[Shpoon]

WOuldn't help me...I use no internet resources while gaming, and my ping still sucks...

[[XC] moddolicous]

Id rather see them compare it with a different brand linksys card.

[nn_step]

400Hhz
Typo or new world Clock speed record? (aka 10^98 hz)

[exhausted mule]

i'm using a 5-7$ nic 100 or so meg card that's pci...

my advertised sympatico service is 5 megs a second. my average speed is just over 5 megs.

BOOYA. i can sorta this being good for high data transfer over a network or with fiber of some sort but... for what i have now.


nope. at least it looks cool.

[revenant]

Plus, you can pull the K off the card and spread pate with it at your next social. ;)

[arisythila]

Im sure this card has a pretty good purpose.. It actually looks pretty cool. As it being typical, Im not sure.. But then again this is "Xtreme Systems".

~Mike

[nn_step]

Strangely enough I would consider it iIF:
1) it was PCIe
and
2) Under $100
Because then I could use my FTP server's cpu cycles for something else...

[Eastcoasthandle]

get yourself a D-Link GamerLounge 4100 or 4300 that is the ONLY router that has lowered my ping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833127158
all these people who are praising it aren't lying, having purchased one (one you enable the gamefuel option) it has lowered my ping during game play. BF2 is around ping of 10 instead of 70. Results will vary.

[Cobalt]

My pings are usually sub 25 on the right server anyway. Thats with the ethernet port on my mobo and a linksys WRT54GS-UK hooked up to the cable modem. On my favorite CSS servers I get between 5-10 so I really have no need for something like this anyway.

[Stuperman]

I'm glad it's not PCIe, PCI has better latency, that's why sound and NIC are sill on PCI.

It's still freaking expensive.

[nn_step]

I'm glad it's not PCIe, PCI has better latency, that's why sound and NIC are sill on PCI.

It's still freaking expensive.
umm I suggest you read this post
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1660495&postcount=3

[couppi]

I think the reason people are saying that PCI has better latency is because many products just have a PCI to PCIe converter chip on board which increases the latency.

[[XC] Lead Head]

Isnt PCI-E 100MHz?

[.sentinel]

Nope 250

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

... PCI-E is 100mhz.

Maybe if they'd compared it to a *real* NIC rather than the garbage dell integrates onto their boards...

Considering that for the same price you can get fibre channel cards, quad-gigE PCI-X cards, and *probably* 10gigE cards, all of which *will* trounce this thing... I fail to see the purpose.

NICs and routers are a completely known entity... no room for "miracle cards" here, just "money-pawning cards". If you want extreme performance, get server-grade equipment, ie solid intel gigE chips or broadcom gigE chips, and run a computer as a router. Smoothwall or IPCOP > any router you can buy (unless, of course, its an enterprise-level router that's really just a dual P3 rig running smoothwall or similar...)

lets see some *real* numbers from a reliable reviewer, and maybe even a comparison against hardware that doesnt suck.

[Eastcoasthandle]

why not buy the D-link 4100 or 4300 game lounge (if you have a ping problem)

[Starscream]

280 dollars is to much for a nic and a big K ontop ofit wich u can only use as a letter opener.

i use my onboard lan and it works for me.

[Entity_Razer]

looks nice and has some nice features; don't care for the PCI though as the network card should burn that much bandwidth since it handles everything himself and just relays his findings back (like a function, it does all the work itsself and only returns the conclusion)

it needs to drop in price though and i'll consider it.

having a NIC which can improve ping and run a firewall and spam filter at the same time sounds very cool. if they play this right they could have a winner

but as said price needs to drop first.... by a lot

[Nanometer]

No PCI-E, no thanks.

[Cobalt]

They seem to have got their target market wrong with this. Although PCI is more common generally, it is only people like us who are actually going to be buying the product and we want PCIe. Not to mention we are also the group who is least influenced by gimmics like the big K. They could probably drop the price a lot if it didn't have that because I bet the production process for something as complicated as that is very expensive.

[arisythila]

yeah, technically, your onboard network card uses CPU time everytime you use it. with this, the processor is actually on the NIC. its a NPU Network Processing Unit. How hot is that?

~Mike

[techstyled]

I pre-ordered when I first heard about it. Just got the ship confirm this afternoon. Mine will be here tomorrow. I'll tell y'all if it's worthwhile. For me, the money just isn't the issue.

[iddqd]

Don't most onboard NICs use no CPU cycles? They're VERY simple devices..

[m0da]

I pre-ordered when I first heard about it. Just got the ship confirm this afternoon. Mine will be here tomorrow. I'll tell y'all if it's worthwhile. For me, the money just isn't the issue.

would you use this 24/7? How many slots do you have... and do you have a PPU and are you planning to get a AIPU? keep us updated!

If money wasn't an issue for me... oh my...FEDEX/UPS BEST BE READY FOR ALL THAT SHIPPING!!!

[arisythila]

LOL. Network cards still take CPU time.. Just how it works.. This would take some of the strain from the processor..

~Mike

[Daveb2012]

how does this thing translate in terms of performance? FPS increase? lower ping? any benches, I think a nic couldnt help a lot because the most importing factor is the incomming signal.

[BlaqMale]

well there is THIS (http://www.gdhardware.com/hardware/networking/bigfoot/killer/review/001.htm) review too. price is a little on the high side but it seems to increase fps when playing online by a decent amount. add to that the ability to run your torrents of it etc. then it not all bad. hmm seems i need 3-4 pci slots though for a full fledged gaming system :(

[ewsforos]

... PCI-E is 100mhz.

Maybe if they'd compared it to a *real* NIC rather than the garbage dell integrates onto their boards...

Considering that for the same price you can get fibre channel cards, quad-gigE PCI-X cards, and *probably* 10gigE cards, all of which *will* trounce this thing... I fail to see the purpose.

NICs and routers are a completely known entity... no room for "miracle cards" here, just "money-pawning cards". If you want extreme performance, get server-grade equipment, ie solid intel gigE chips or broadcom gigE chips, and run a computer as a router. Smoothwall or IPCOP > any router you can buy (unless, of course, its an enterprise-level router that's really just a dual P3 rig running smoothwall or similar...)

lets see some *real* numbers from a reliable reviewer, and maybe even a comparison against hardware that doesnt suck.


Have to say that I am very sceptical about this "killer" NIC as well. The concept is nothing more than a "mini pc running linux, and obviously doing some sort of QoS (using "tc" would be my guess) which is directly interfaced with the PC. That's why it takes the load off the cpu, and that's why it uses its "own" (linux) stack.

Having said that, the linux stack itself is a huge improvement over windows' as well. The Linux TCP/IP stack is consider by most specialists to be one of the best available stacks, and its performance alone is about 30% better than Windows'.

The tests being conducted are relative to the throughput of the system (using obviously the same hardware) in data transfers using numerous protocols, while introducing a 5% random error in the data stream.

Personally I believe that the linux stack itself is a big part of the performance increase people are going to see using this card. It is only seconded by the Solaris 10 TCP/IP stack which is able to handle up to 100Gbit/sec bitrates. Mind you, the linux stack is on its way to support this as well as they are multithreading the stack as we speak.

Also I have to correct a small misconception that I saw in the post I quote above. Enterprise class routers, are not "dual P3s running smoothwall". As a matter of fact they have very little in common with PCs except that they use (sometimes) hardware that is used in PCs, but in a different way, and with the whole platform optimised totally differently than on PCs.

For example a Cisco router is massively optimised for I/O operations, with hardware ASICs for most of the operations that normally are cpu-bound on a normal PC. A well known fact is that hardware performs the same tasks hundeds of times faster than software. (ie. encryption, routing decisions, CRC checking, etc).

They also have special operating systems (IOS for CISCO) that are again optimised for the specific platform and for I/O throughput using a large number of different size buffers. They also (in most cases) have their own networking stacks.

The result is that a Cisco router which uses for example a Celeron 500Mhz might massively outperform a P4@2.8Ghz in routing and in applications involving encryption like VPN. The number of concurrent connections and VPN tunnels these routers support is nothing short of mindblowing for the casual observer.

They also tend to use less power, less hardware resources and be more reliable (no moving parts, nothing that gets too hot, just exactly what it needs to perform its tasks).

Hope that helps :)

[BlaqMale]

^^^^ so... your sceptical cause of why again?

[nn_step]

I think the arguement these days about it is, if it is WORTH it. For some yes.. but for others no

[ewsforos]

^^^^ so... your sceptical cause of why again?

Because if this is the case, it is nothing more than a marketing gimmick... The card ain't doing what they say it is, well, not directly at least. They just use a better stack (Linux) + QoS. The QoS part you could do yourself anyway. Given the price, the cost is excessive for what they offer.

You could set up QoS and lower your "pings" for gaming purposes, without any new hardware whatsoever, and the cpu utilisation for gaming purpose networking is laughable at best... Maybe you gain 1-2% cpu utilization in comparison to if you used a decent NIC, a bit more if it's a crappy one. So you can get 70% of what they offer, for free.

People using Linux and *BSD have been doing this for years now. Then again, the stacks are native to the OSes ;)

The concept is not bad, it's just way too expensive to be practical at the moment IMHO.

Of course this is just an educated guess. If it is indeed using Linux, in order to be legally acceptable they should offer the source code (Licenced under GPL). So, when (if?) their source code is released to the public, I will be able to tell you more :) If it isn't, it could mean trouble for them :)

In any case, I find it plain ironic that in order to increase the performance of the networking subsystem in Windows, they had to turn to Linux and pretty much McGyver their way through to integrating it in. :rolleyes:

[ewsforos]

I think the arguement these days about it is, if it is WORTH it. For some yes.. but for others no


Agreed! :D

I also wonder how well the "integration" is implemented. hmmm... Time will tell I guess :)

PS: Nice to see a fellow *nix user on such a performance oriented forum (which is kinda uncommon) :) :toast: