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'Killer' Network Card Actually Reduces Latency

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i'll-be-a-monkey's-uncle dept.

fatduck writes "HardOCP has published a review of the KillerNIC network card from Bigfoot Networks. The piece examines benchmarks of the product in online gaming and a number of user experiences. The product features a 'Network Processing Unit' or NPU, among other acronyms, which promise to drastically reduce latency in online games. Too good to be true? The card also sports a hefty price tag of $250." From the article: "The Killer NIC does exactly what it is advertised to do. It will lower your pings and very likely give you marginally better framerates in real world gaming scenarios. The Killer NIC is not for everyone as it is extremely expensive in this day and age of "free" onboard NICs. There are very likely other upgrades you can make to your computer for the same investment that will give you more in return. Some gamers will see a benefit while others do not. Hardcore deathmatchers are likely to feel the Killer NIC advantages while the middle-of-the road player will not be fine tuned enough to benefit from the experience. Certainly though, the hardcore online gamer is exactly who this product is targeted at."

3 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Game studio did their own test... by bl4nk · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have a friend who works at a game studio who had their IT guy perform several tests to see if it did anything... chat log:

    > killer NIC. bad.
    > file transfers = 1/4 of the speed of a normal NIC
    > the drivers are fucking TERRIBLE to install/uninstall/update, you have to reboot. then it'll let you do whate you need to do. then reboot AGAIN...
    > and when it does start working, there is literally no difference in either framerate or ping, even on the games they say it specifically improves

  2. Anandtech == Better Review by fineghal · · Score: 5, Informative

    Anandtech has a much better review here: Linky: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx? i=2865

  3. Not exactly. by khasim · · Score: 5, Informative
    Look at it this way, a 500 dollar pair of running shoes really isn't going to help the average person much compared to a 50 dollar pair. However, a professional runner is going to benefit.

    The $500 shoes worn by the professional will not be the same as the $500 shoes purchased by the average person. For one thing, the professional is paying for the technology and customization. The average person is paying for the marketing and endorsements.

    That being said, the professional would NOT compare two shoes provided by a shoe company and "tested" on their own track.

    S/He would compare them to his/her CURRENT favourite shoes on his/her current training track.

    And that is where every single one of these KillerNIC "reviews" fails. It is not that difficult to swap a NIC. Yet the "testing machines" are always different. And none of the "reviewers" seem to be able to script a game. Or setup a test network with a test game server.

    The "professional" in this case would setup a test network, with a test game server and a sniffer to see what is happening "on the wire" and script the game on his/her favourite machine with his/her current NIC.

    Then the "professional" would swap the NIC's and re-set everything and run the script to see what difference/improvements there were.

    It's not that difficult and it's not that expensive and yet not a single "review" of this "KillerNIC" seems to be able to do that.

    Sure, you can pay $500 for shoes that were hand stitched by virgins under the light of a full moon with thread blessed by the Pope. And they may perform better than this other pair of shoes I'll give you to run in.

    But in the end, you'd still be paying for the marketing of un-tested technology.