The Killer NIC: Any good?

Hey everyone,

Sorry if this belongs in the networking hardware category but I was just reading a review in my magazine about a NIC (remember those?) that is geared for gamers called the Killer NIC (official site www.killernic.com).

Basically, all the Killer NIC is is a card that takes all of your networking traffic and processes it independent of the CPU. There's a bunch of other stuff like ping reduction and Gamefirst packet prioritiser, but the big seller is FNA (Flexible Network Architecture), which, if developed for, allows the application to run its networking elements exclusively off the card, bypassing the CPU and Window's network.

Oh yes, it also works out of the box, unlike other PCI devices I can think of *cough* PhysX! *cough*

The big deal about it is that the Killer NIC has apparantly been getting really good reviews. However, I've never heard about it until today.

Does anyone on the TH forums own one? If so, is it worth the entry price?

I concur that this NIC is almost a total waste.

Think of it this way.

When I ping my local router (mine, not at the ISP) I get a response of <1ms.
When www.tomshardware.com I get a response of 87ms.

There is no way that the killer NIC is going be able to reduce the 86ms that occurs outside of my local network. This is where most of the lag will occur for games.

These on-board NICs frequently are used by robust Web Servers, File Servers, etc.. and can put out huge amount of traffic to a large number of clients. The amount of traffic in these games is fairly low.

Well, so long as the claim is that the NIC card will send and receive packets across the internet then it does in fact do what it claims.

If the claims are that it will provide a perceptable performance boost in games, it does not from what I have read and seen. The problem is that the delays/lag due to networking that is seen does not exist on the workstation unless there is some type of hardware configuration problem on the PC.

its good for looking good
its good for lab testing

its not good for what they claim!

WE do recommend them for our EXTREME Gamers who want an edge on CABLE or T1.

WE've had hundreds of customers tell us that DSL just doesnt have the bandwidth, and it's intermittent.

21 of our 25 "EXTREME" customers with the KILLER NIC have said that they do see a huge difference in gaming because we advised them on getting cable or a T1 line for those who could afford it, but they also have top of the line quad core pc's running on XP PRO which we had configured for them.

So the Killer NIC is a great addition if you are within 2 miles or near a major internet hub, have a State of the art PC with 2 gigs plus mem, and either cable or T1.

Its also nice if you have a crapy CPU; in that case the KNIC will take some load of the CPU and handlethe conection and it will be noticeable. The catch is, someone who doesn't have cash for upgrading a CPU wont have cash for KNIC any way...

So I guess it works both for extreme systems and for extremely BAD systems. For the middle-high systems, that we all have, its a waste of 150 bucks.

You also recommend your "EXTREME Gamers" play at 1024x768.

That's why it's good for hackers. Or really a ton of interesting uses.

And if you can somehow, *gasp*, make do with out the ridiculous heat sink, you can pick on up for about 170

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6833342003

Still too much, maybe once it drops below 100 I'll think about snagging one to play around with.

Hey 1024x768 is better on the eyes when u play 22 hrs a day straight.

stefx woudnt know about that.

Our customers have told us that 1024x768 is better for the long run of 150 hrs a week. A lot less eyestrain

but stefx wouldnt know about eyestrain, stefx is all flames, no eyes.

Jonny FLAME ON!

Of course he does since he does it too. That's why he recommends running 1024x768, because he has no job and cant afford anything better than his old Geforce 2.

Ok the short answer is Yes it is good. It does what it says, providing improved performance with your connection/packets etc.

Now the better answer is that unless you just need to fill another PCI slot and have money to burn the vast majority here on the forums do NOT believe its boost is anywhere near worth the high cost of this card.

If you have money running out your bum every time you potty then by all means go for it. If like most of us you have to make wise $ investment decisions to get by and have your PC toys too then steer very clear of this.

I saw a review on ign about this card, and they said that it was pretty good even increased frame rates if i remember correctly but for $150 you can just save that for a better gfx card or such.