VisionTek Killer HD 5770: The GPU + NIC Combo

By Marcus Yam
published

The graphics card that can also bring you the internets.

Ever wish that your NIC could do more than just pulling packets, or you’re your GPU could do more than pushing pixels? VisionTek and Bigfoot Networks today has the answer in what is a rather interesting product for those looking for both a new GPU and NIC.

The two companies today announced the launch of the VisionTek Killer HD 5770, the world's first single-card, PCI Express solution combining Bigfoot Networks' Killer E2100 game networking technology and AMD's Radeon HD 5000 graphics.

The Killer HD 5770 is a one-card, one-slot solution that has a full 5770 GPU that supports Microsoft DirectX 11, multimonitor setup and 7.1 audio via HDMI output. On the networking side, the card also uses an embedded version of the Killer 2100 gaming network card developed by Bigfoot Networks.

Like the standalone Killer NICs, this hybrid card has all the controls with Advanced Game Detect and Visual Bandwidth Control to make sure all the bandwidth goes to the game.

While combining a GPU and a NIC isn't common practice, AMD seems rather pleased at the coming together of its Radeon with networking capabilities.

"VisionTek has been a strategic partner for nearly 10 years and brings extremely innovative AMD design concepts to the North American market," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's GPU Division. "We rely on our leading partners to expand on our technology reach. VisionTek once again delivers on that directive with its new Killer™ HD 5770 launch."

The VisionTek Killer HD 5770 gaming graphics and network card will be available in early December through North American online and retail channels at an MSRP of $199.99 USD.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
51 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ewood
    Its cool but I fail to see the point.
    Reply
  • cmartin011
    uhg!! don't they see most motherboard come with Ethernet standard these days? and that card is only worth 100$ at most
    Reply
  • amstech
    Idiotic idea, this will sell quite poorly.
    Reply
  • nevertell
    Cmartin011, you are clearly missing the point. The network controllers on the motherboard use system's ram and the cpu to manage networking, whilst this has it's own RAM and a special CPU to deal with networking, and because of the drivers, can give certain programms or even connections different priorities, so you won't be bothered by your porn downloads while you are playing call of duty.
    Reply
  • hok
    Is this really needed when most boards have two NICs?
    Reply
  • face-plants
    Dumb...I fail to see the point of combining two cards that almost certainly will never both be upgraded at the same time in the future. Upgrade your graphics card in a year and now you have to buy another $100 NIC?! I already fail to see how this Killer NIC can really do much to help gaming when port forwarding, QoS, and application prioritizing can be set up in most routers. (Even my 3 year old D-Link Gamer Lounge router does this fine). Then again if you have a SLI/XFire mainboard you could always leave this card installed when you upgrade to a better video card in the future. I'm sure that won't be a burden on power consumption......
    Reply
  • fullcircle_bflo
    The thing is its one of those gaming optimized dealies that you end up paying more for in order to lower your ping 5 points. I'm sure there would be more of a market for it if it were on the 58xx/59xx or 6000 series, newer more powerful cards where people would be willing to spend a little more, but i guess you have to start somewhere. Also, if it were wireless maybe?
    Reply
  • jomofro39
    y
    Reply
  • eccentric909
    cmartin011uhg!! don't they see most motherboard come with Ethernet standard these days? and that card is only worth 100$ at most
    While I can't say how good or bad the "Killer" network card is, the network card which is built into this video card, by itself lists for around $85 on Newegg. So the price in the article makes sense, since individually they probably have an MSRP of around $100 each.

    The actual network card, is also distributed by VisionTek.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833189002
    Reply
  • rubix_1011
    Go ahead and look up some reviews and stats on the Killer Nic cards vs. onboard or add-on cards...there is virtually no difference. Yes, I get that it runs its own TCP/IP stack within the hardware of the card and doesn't use system resources. What year is this? 1996? We have to make sure we don't lose 2mhz of CPU power and 2mb of system RAM to the network controller on the motherboard (BTW...didn't exist on consumer and most server boards in that day).

    Seriously, almost every single onboard NIC has the ability to allow QoS, forwarding and many, many other options that were built into like BOTH network adapters on the board. Like some have also said, 99% of routers also have these features, if you REALLY want to do this on the hardware level (which would also be even more effective than doing this locally on the card).

    Gimmick. Expensive one at that.
    Reply