Does a network card really make a difference?

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Muaz Hassan

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Aug 10, 2013
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Hi can you give me some advice on whether i should get a network card or not? does it speed up internet connect or make a noticeable difference in online gaming?

BTW i live in the UK and I'm getting wireless (i might use wired for stable internet) fiber optic, the site says ill get an estimated 38mb download/1.9mb upload. I also am not a very big online gamer so im more curious as to whether it affects internet speed.

Thanks
 
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smorizio

smorizio

Titan
Jan 22, 2010
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the newer 5g wifi dongles and routers do work well. the downside with wifi is the further your pc is from the router the slower it is. and what your building is made out of and if there are any other routers near by. living in a large condo there 40 or more routers where i live and there a lot of cross jamming because most users are not changing there router default channel. Im lucky i have my one pc plugged into the router with one Ethernet cord. if i tried using an n dongle it would be slower then land wire. (most newer pc have one wired port on them).
 
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corroded

corroded

Splendid
Sep 5, 2011
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Wired will always be more stable than wireless...

As long as your NIC's ability is 50% or more than your internet connection, you should not run into any issues from the NIC.

Remember the total "speed" you percieve is based on the whole PC's performance, not just the NIC and Internet connection.
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

Titan
Nov 23, 2004
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Yes and no.

For most games a wired connection 100(only if your isp rate is in megabits not megabytes. if megabytes you want 1000 for sure) or 1000megabit will be fine. Intel gigabit lan cards are supposed to be a bit better, but very few users would notice the difference in games.

Wireless is another beast all together since interference and overhead tend to cause better cards/routers to perform better. So dual band tends to have less problems then single band 2.4 ghz. 2.4 ghz being used so much by everything can lead to more interference.

Products like the Killer network cards do work(prioritize packets and bypass parts of the Windows network stack), but can not fix problems that happen out on the internet it self. your game does not just go from you to isp to the server. It tends to travel in many other providers systems on its way. even one bad connection along the way can cause issues that you nor your isp can fix.

The biggest thing that effects internet and even gaming is other users on the same network. If this internet connection is used for multiple people ensure your router or modem has a decent form of QoS(Quality of Service) engine enabled to lower priority on things that do not need real time access(downloads for instance will work fine even with packet delay while a game or streaming video would skip or lag.).
 
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