Killer Network Interface Card

[Heffty]

Is this BS?

http://www.killernic.com/KillerNic/

 

[cleverhandle]

Looks like overpriced balonius to me. The only part that looks like it could genuinely helpful is whatever kind of prioritized queueing the support software provides. If that's done in hardware (they mention a reprogrammable onboard chip) that would be pretty neat. Though I'm guessing they're going to be charging a hefty premium for these things that wouldn't be worth it. Good marketing, though - there's enough technobabble there to convince many in the "hardcore" crowd to buy it, and they've even got the little plastic do-hickeys ricing it up.

 

[Missing Ghost]

This was on dailytech I think. IMHO it's a stupid overpriced piece of ******. I can do prioritization of traffic easily using just software thanks to my openbsd home router/firewall box, and with a normal pair of intel 100mbit nics that I got free from a friend.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: Missing Ghost
I can do prioritization of traffic easily using just software thanks to my openbsd home router/firewall box...

Well, yeah, I'll take PF over that Killer shite any day. But I think they're assuming their target market is not network-savvy enough for that. A reasonable assumption...

 

[ku]

As sad as it sounds, I know a few people who probably would seriously consider buying that unless they receive some guidance. Some gamers just don't understand.

 

[fire400]

the research involved will open the gates to newer hardware based networking. this is just the beginning where everyone making fun of it will see in the future what newer implimentations will be capable of.

I personally wouldn't buy it even if the hardware worked the way it did without too much software adjustments. I can play BF2 on a premium DSL connection with a 2.8 GHz Intel, I don't see lag when I'm owning?

So what. Play at your University with a T3, and you can still download music and files and still play BF2 with a solid connection. Could even do that on a regular highspeed connection.

I'm just ranting, but the first thing I said I still support. they need to make it sound hype to fund their research so they can create hardware that will make software alone look like garbage. compare the x-fi to onboard sound and figure out the rest. you are looking at software enabled dolby on a motherboard-int. audio, whereas the X-fi can stream Dolby surround through your speakers from MIDI music on your computer, get it? I really don't know what I'm talking about, I'm just making stuff up because I'm tired, lol~

 

[aniruddha23]

How dare you . . .

I mean cmon its got a flashy site complete with techno jargon which convinces me that this is the next best thing to happen to the tech industry since sliced bread. Wait . .

 

[TekDemon]

So, apparently IGN reviewed this and proclaimed that it does in fact improve gaming performance. HOWEVER-while IGN's review was awfully positive, it was being compared against a generic NIC-the kind that offloads all the work to the CPU, so obviously it wasn't going to perform worse lol.

I for one, would like to see a review against say, an Intel PRO NIC. I'm fairly certain it'll get almost no performance boost in that situation.

EDIT: Well I'll be damned...Killer's own stats mention the Intel PRO...hmmm
Ahahahaha...they only published ping improvements against a different card though...there's no comparison of the ping improvement versus an Intel PRO NIC...

Someone should do a serious review where the Killer has to showdown against the top Intel NICs that cost like 1/4 the price.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: fire400
the research involved will open the gates to newer hardware based networking. this is just the beginning where everyone making fun of it will see in the future what newer implimentations will be capable of.

I personally wouldn't buy it even if the hardware worked the way it did without too much software adjustments. I can play BF2 on a premium DSL connection with a 2.8 GHz Intel, I don't see lag when I'm owning?

So what. Play at your University with a T3, and you can still download music and files and still play BF2 with a solid connection. Could even do that on a regular highspeed connection.

I'm just ranting, but the first thing I said I still support. they need to make it sound hype to fund their research so they can create hardware that will make software alone look like garbage. compare the x-fi to onboard sound and figure out the rest. you are looking at software enabled dolby on a motherboard-int. audio, whereas the X-fi can stream Dolby surround through your speakers from MIDI music on your computer, get it? I really don't know what I'm talking about, I'm just making stuff up because I'm tired, lol~

I absolutely agree, to me this would be in the realm of early graphics card makers, AGEIA physX as well. In their early inception, they seemed stupid and overpriced with little benefit but with enough tuning, software support, etc. it may infact be quite useful, though I see more benefit for this in a server environment where prioritization etc. is most important. (Irrelevant) I hope AGEIA takes off because I'd really love to finally see a game where in game physics can do things such as real time car crashes that actually effect components in the car, suspension etc.. It'd be fscking awesome.

 

[Bluestealth]

Originally posted by: TekDemon
So, apparently IGN reviewed this and proclaimed that it does in fact improve gaming performance. HOWEVER-while IGN's review was awfully positive, it was being compared against a generic NIC-the kind that offloads all the work to the CPU, so obviously it wasn't going to perform worse lol.

I for one, would like to see a review against say, an Intel PRO NIC. I'm fairly certain it'll get almost no performance boost in that situation.

EDIT: Well I'll be damned...Killer's own stats mention the Intel PRO...hmmm
Ahahahaha...they only published ping improvements against a different card though...there's no comparison of the ping improvement versus an Intel PRO NIC...

Someone should do a serious review where the Killer has to showdown against the top Intel NICs that cost like 1/4 the price.

Agreed, I don't see this becoming as big as Physics in the slightest though... believe it will always be a niche market thing for FPS gamers. BTW does it come with a light to glow with all their other Fatality gear?

 

[Smbu]

There's a preview? about this at HardOCP , also the forum link at the end of the article has a thread that is pretty active about it +7 pages, I think. The thread is mainly about what other uses this has besides being a NIC.

 

[L00ker]

This isn't really just a nic either it's more commonly referred to as a TOE (TCP/IP Oflload Engine) and in a server environment they can be very helpful, primarly for adapters that connect to SAN's I am actually contemplating getting one to test at work (or pushing my boss to get one) because we have customers that pay close to $400 for TCP offload cards all day long, and at $275 this is a steal. For average home use and gaming tho I don't see it as being a signifigant performance adder...

 

[theprodigalrebel]

In that case, L00ker, their marketing team need to do a better job. Although they do mention what you're saying in their Product Overview, the general feel of this NIC is 'A Extreme Performance Upgrade for the Highly Competitive FPS-Gamer'. I still haven't seen a single thread in these forums about someone's positive (even marginally) experience with nVidia's FirstPacket technology from the nForce 500-series, so this makes me very, very skeptical.

The only way they can sell these cards and actually hope to make money is striking deals with Alienware, VoodooPC, Falcon NW and all those over-priced custom-PC shops and putting tons of Flash-demos on their pages touting it as the next big thing since dual-GPUs and PPUs. Perhaps make it standard equipment on all the top-of-the-line models. People who paid an extra $50 to go from a Raptor 150 to a Raptor X with a clear window on the HDD might go for this

I SERIOUSLY doubt these things can sell in the retail channel...you know, the people who read and post in forums before buying stuff online.

 

[Sunner]

I'd like to see what kind of crappy CPU couldn't handle the meager amounts of network traffic that just about any game generates without even showing any signs of it.

 

[imported_RedStar]

the more of you that buy thi snow..the cheaper it will be for me a bit later on.

Someone has to start the market rolling

I wa sjust gettin used to the idea of free integrated nic solutions too.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Repost

 

[Madwand1]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=36&threadid=1907754&enterthread=y

 

[theprodigalrebel]

LOL @ Baked's comment: "Maybe you can get negative ping time with this"