A quick question on the VisionTek Bigfoot Killer 2100

[whatdoiput12]

This is my first post to this website despite having visited numerous times to gain insight while choosing parts for a new computer. I am currently looking at purchasing a VisionTek Bigfoot Killer 2100 gaming network card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833189002), yet I cannot help but feel that I would be giving into the hype surrounding this product.

Some background info: there will be two devices on my network at all times: my PC and my roommate's PC. Addition devices are the occasion Xbox and any potential device that a guest might bring. The card boasts the ability to reduce latency to online game servers along with several added perks, although I realize that it's benefits will extend to my machine alone.

Here are my questions: what can this NIC provide that my router's QoS feature doesn't already? Will this purchase truly benefit my online experience? Or will this end up being a redundant piece of hardware? When the network is weighted down, will I still see a performance boost?

Thank you in advance!

 

[dogman_1234]

Hello, and welcome to THG.

I would actually post this question in the "Network" Section of the Forum. There, many experts will help you. Trust me, they will help.

Wish you the best of luck.

 

[intel4eva]

I think the Killer 2100 is awesome if you can spare the money and the pci-express slot.

Also, you might want to look into this
http://www.sejent.com/lagbuster/

Router-side QoS is not very good. I use it, but that's because I have no better alternative, unless I want to spend 200 bucks on the device linked above. And even then, that thing will only prioritize games. I still want other stuff prioritized, like Skype. There's a huge untapped market here. Whatever products you buy, be aware the QoS market on consumer devices is nowhere near mature.

 

[Frizzo]

my experience with this network card wasn't too good. i liked the concept of the card a lot, offloading the network stack from the cpu to the npu. the problem is on the games i tried, it doesn't work. nice theoretically , but functionally it doesn't offload anything to free up cpu power...i was told that it does work with some FPS games, but i was mainly playing mmo type games at the time, and it didn't work with any of them.