Killer Xeno Pro: Do You Really Need A Gaming Network Card?

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

Network Gaming Benchmarks, Loaded

The No Load benchmark was a functional tie, but now let's download two huge .iso files in the background using Firefox. This will give the Killer Xeno Pro's software the opportunity to prioritize network traffic and limit bandwidth for the Firefox downloads, reserving lower latency for the game.

We'll also test the freeware Firefox Throttle plug-in, to see if it can deliver any advantages compared to the integrated network card. We set both the Killer Xeno Pro's bandwidth Controls to limit Firefox' download speed to 128 Kb/s and the Firefox Throttle plug-in to the same limit.

In this situation with multiple downloads occurring during the gaming session, the integrated network card shows a large performance penalty compared to the Killer Xeno Pro.

However, once the freeware Firefox Throttle plug-in is used, the integrated network card delivers nearly-identical performance compared to the Killer Xeno Pro.

Now, let’s look at the frame rates:

Here, the Killer Xeno Pro is showing a notable advantage over the integrated network card, but once again the freeware Firefox Throttle plug-in allows the integrated solution to remain very competitive. Despite the large margin of error in these tests, the Killer Xeno Pro has pulled a win. But is this victory notable enough to warrant the purchase price compared to a freeware browser plugin?

In our subjective testing, we noticed no difference between the Killer Xeno Pro and the integrated NIC with or without the Firefox plug-in enabled.

Don Woligroski
107 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tryceo
    I won one of these from wowhead.com, but i havent fitted it inside the case yet...

    IMO its a waste of money... I just keep my internet idle when im playing online.. plus you can get a better upgrade for your GPUs if you dont spend money on this...
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    Wasn't there an article similar to this a while back, and everyone bashed it saying that it was pointless? (It was, but just saying)

    Doesn't seem like its still worth the premium yet.
    Reply
  • ColMirage
    Hah, I've been wondering about how bad of a scam this card was today.
    Reply
  • haplo602
    try a quality server NIC like an intel f.e. and you'll see better results for less money, the killer nic and derivates are just hyped nonsense
    Reply
  • IronRyan21
    eddieroolzWasn't there an article similar to this a while back, and everyone bashed it saying that it was pointless? (It was, but just saying)Doesn't seem like its still worth the premium yet.eddieroolzWasn't there an article similar to this a while back, and everyone bashed it saying that it was pointless? (It was, but just saying)Doesn't seem like its still worth the premium yet.
    When I saw the headline for the articles, I was thinking the same thing....Yes, they did an article before and yes this product is pointless. +1 eddieroolz
    Reply
  • tirzono
    Wow, I have bought this card and it even cured my AIDS!

    Thanks Killer Xeno Pro!
    Reply
  • tryceo
    yep... after about 1 minute of testing(removed 1 9800 GTX) The lagg is still there.

    If anyone wants mine tho... willing to sell it for $90. it just got opened..
    Reply
  • Neggers
    Some important testing is not done here which I would like to see.

    I live in Australia and I am a WoW player on the US servers, so a typical ping for me is 250-300 and 300-400 when raiding.

    Now when you guys are testing with a 60 ping a difference of 10% for you is going to be 6ms and not going to translate into anything noticeable.

    However for someone like me, if this card can improve my connection with the WoW servers by 10%, that could be upto 40 or 50 ms, which could be a huge difference.

    So I would like to see more testing done in Higher ping situations, prehaps if you guys tested connection to MMO server in korea or europe, so you were testing in a 300+ ping enviroment, and see if this effects the results.
    Reply
  • Ciuy
    And i was thinking spending 50$ on a PCI network card , now i wont ...
    Reply
  • cangelini
    NeggersSome important testing is not done here which I would like to see.I live in Australia and I am a WoW player on the US servers, so a typical ping for me is 250-300 and 300-400 when raiding.Now when you guys are testing with a 60 ping a difference of 10% for you is going to be 6ms and not going to translate into anything noticeable.However for someone like me, if this card can improve my connection with the WoW servers by 10%, that could be upto 40 or 50 ms, which could be a huge difference.So I would like to see more testing done in Higher ping situations, prehaps if you guys tested connection to MMO server in korea or europe, so you were testing in a 300+ ping enviroment, and see if this effects the results.
    I never understood why the AUS guys would play on mid-west servers. I knew some really nice raiders from Australia, but they'd lag everyone and either do lower DPS or be unable to tank as a result. Not their fault, but they had way more success playing on Oceanic servers when they eventually swapped over.
    Reply