enthusiast.hardocp.com — A network interface card for the hardcore gamer? This is exactly who Bigfoot Networks is targeting with their “Killer NIC.” While telling your mom “FNA (Flexible Network Appliations) applications rock" might get you slapped, this is really the heart and soul of the Killer NIC
Aug 29, 2006 View in Crawl 4
tdkpetrusAug 29, 2006
Oh boy, oh boy! The box will be right next to my "Powercolor Radeon 9700 Pro: Evil Commando 2", or my "PowerColor X800 XT Platinum Edition VIVO: Limited Assassin Edition".
cbizAug 29, 2006
I'm going to put this Killer NIC card right next to my AGEIA PhysX Card ;)
uidzeroAug 29, 2006
Thus card is basically a TOE card. It "speeds up gaming" not "speeds up internet connection for game". It offloads the TCP to the chip on the card. Therefore freeing up your PC CPU for the game. I am sure you knew that but the marketing didn't scream bullsh1t to me as much as it could be misleading to uneducated users.
binarypowerAug 29, 2006
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Closed AccountAug 30, 2006
/me must have! (plans on building super vista-based gaming rig then going linux on all else =] )
epluribusunixAug 30, 2006
I think there are too many people talking about too many things they don't understand. For starters, what game uses TCP? Last time I checked, most of them transport UDP, which usually isn't processed by a TOE.Second, by "prioritization" of packets, they are referring to which packets get passed through the network stack to the application. Maybe that's why they have 64MB of RAM on board -- for buffering.Third, the only FPS increases they claim come from the fact that your CPU isn't calculating IP data.Maybe someone needs to actually USE and BENCHMARK this card before people start blasting it (maybe just reading the articles would help). I, too, was outraged at the concept and price, but there may be a valid market for this yet -- depending on FNA apps and the security of the built-in server.
maseoneSep 29, 2006
so far i see that "bigfoot networks" is paying off HardOCP for pro reviews, and Newegg to censor all honest reviews.Look at Newegg's reviews of this scam, er, i mean network card, EVERY one has stupid s**t like "wow my fps jumped 50%", or like "wow it made my satellite connection 500% faster", or like "wow i was able to use the gay ass heatsink as a swiss army knife"
lone1Sep 29, 2006
guess what, its not BS.I'm as surprised as anyone :)The only game I have tested more than a little is WoW, simple test for framerate but I ported my druid into Moonglade in first person view to get a baseline for fps, before it would vary between low 30's and 40 fps, after install(with no other changes) it would be in the low 40's, never dropped into the 30's. The interesting thing here is the fps had very little variation compared to before. I think it gave me about 5 fps there so about a 10% increase.On latency, I saw it drop to 85ms sometimes. I can't remember it dropping below 100ms before. The main thing I notice thou is a less spikey feel to it. Subjective I admit but it sure "feels" better.I tested BF2 a bit on a server I play alot. I always thought I had a good ping in the 35-60 range but now its 25-30 solid. I am thrilled with that, sure its only 10-20 ms lower but in this case it is reduced by half.The only problem has been some trouble accessing some websites and nttp news servers even in "app" mode. I'm not really sure what I did to fix it. I have to say thou, this was my biggest fear, that it would affect non-gaming networking in a bad way, but it seems ok at this point.So I have seen improvement in both framerate and latency. I don't think I can recommend it to everyone because of the price but for people who like to mess with hardware it is probably something you want if you have the PCI slot.I too, would like to see some more reviews but I suspect its something that is difficult to test in a concrete way and who wants to stick their neck out when its all kind of murky.BTW, my previous NIC is whatever is onboard with KN8E- deluxe motherboard. I'm upgrading soon to a Conroe board, most likely a nforce 590. I might do a more involved comparison there.
cinrellikNov 30, 2006
most people complaining havent actually tested the card, or seem hung up on the price.the reality is simple: not everyone can afford to buy the best hardware.do you own the best video card? do you own the best processor? is any of your hardware true top of the line? for most of you that answer is no.well for the people that actually want the best, price isnt the first issue you discuss. its performance, and the killer nic delivers. it is simply the best network card money can buy. is that worth $250 to you?if you look at the pc hardware market there is always a price gap between the best and the worst. i mean, can you play most games with a $200 video card? yep, quite a few of them can be played with a $100 video card. so answer me this: why do $1000 video cards exist? why do motherboards exist where 4 of those can be plugged in at once?does the average gamer need $4000 worth of video cards in one machine? probably not, but that high end market does exist, and it exists for the highest level of gamer.i use vid cards as an example because if you look back far enough, there was a time when people would laugh at you for even suggesting that you needed a seperate vid card at all. most people were happy with their junky integrated video. it took time for people to understand the performance gains that could be achieved by seperating out the vid card into a seperate process.well, if you look at other pc components, there already exists a high end market for most things, from sound cards to physX cards to video cards.there was nothing in the network card market that compared. why? maybe no one was willing to find out what would happen when you put a built in cpu onto a network card. i dont know.bigfoot took that risk and like the pioneering video card market decided to put a seperate cpu on a card to handle a process that for 2 decades was always just passed through the mobo cpu.when another network card exists capable of doing this, than we can argue over which is better.but for now, the killer nic exists as the best possible network card money can buy.
cinrellikNov 30, 2006
there are quite a few reviews out now, and if you actually look at the data collected, they have all been postive.the biggest complaint is the price, and some reviewers devolve into debating its value.but none have said it doesnt work, or that it doesnt improve performance.ive personally tested the card in dozens of computers, with dozens of games. it works as advertised.and just for comparison. i was at one point using a $30 a month DSL connection. i switched to a $80 DSL connection. thats an extra $600 a year to "improve" my internet connection.i can honestly tell you i got a better and smoother connection from the killer nic when i upgraded to that, than i did from upgrading my DSL line.so compare, (in my case), a $600 internet connection upgrade to a $250 network card upgrade, and IMO, i got a better value from the $250.and before you tell me "you should have upgraded something else". why? id have to spend $500+ to upgrade any other part in my system.
cinrellikNov 30, 2006
a router cant bypass the windows network stack. the killer nic can.so no, just upgrading your router isnt the same thing. and if you actually test the card, the feel is noticably better.a good gaming router can improve certain aspects if the network is running multiple pc's through it. but it never shapes and prioritizes at the start of the cycle the way this can. your already at the second hop in the network chain by the time you get to the router.the killer nic will still give an individual pc an edge over any other pc running on the same gaming router.the benifit of having both is measurable.