Killer Card

[Bokishi]

Killer Network Interface Card gives online games faster ping. Hmmm.

[LostStraw]

Haha.. Marketing BS for the win.

[Bokishi]

Ya, $300 for less pings sounds gay.

Edited August 24, 2006 by Bokishi

[Cantousent]

Think there's anything to it?

[LostStraw]

Here's a link to the discussion on Slashdot about the card:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/08/193237

 

I'm more inclined to believe the nerds that inhabit that space over some marketers trying to sell a "killer" product.

[alanschu]

Pffft.

 

I call bunk.

 

I already get sweet pings when I'm on a LAN, so it clearly is not an issue with my network card. It's obviously capable. Local MP servers also give sweet pings.

 

I'm not sure what this NIC is going to do for the actual problem, which is latency that comes from going through many, many routers, which you're going to do unless you're sticking around close to home. And even then you might not be. I remember tracing my net connection to a local server, and the thing took a pitstop down in Los Angeles.

 

Unless the NIC is going to make those things run faster, I call BS.

 

 

As for offloading CPU performance....well...perhaps if running a network required more than tiny fractions of your CPU power that would make a difference. Maybe this would help more in a server, which may (I have no idea) use more CPU power, it's not going to make a difference.

 

People that buy this = sucker.

[angshuman]

I have no doubt that this thing is going to make zero perceptible difference to gameplay (unless the Windows IP stack has some ghastly inefficiencies). As Alan said, router delays dominate over internal CPU delays by such a huge margin it's not even funny.

 

Rough calculation: My guess is it takes a few 100's of instructions to process a UDP packet. A typical ping is 20ms. A Conroe can execute roughly 100 *million* instructions in that much time. Even more ironic is the fact that the embedded CPU on the card is probably several hundred times slower than a Conroe!! (although it wouldn't suffer from many of the OS and communication overheads that your main CPU suffers from.)

 

I do however have to admit that the thing is pretty darned cool. It really is a full computer running Linux (so are a bunch of high-end server NICs these days, but I don't think they are as "affordable"). You can log on to the Linux system inside and play around. It actually has a USB port where you can plug in a device, and run drivers for that device on the card's CPU. Very cool. Way too expensive for me to consider buying it even as a toy, though.

[Fionavar]

Most tweaking of network cards - in my experience - remains gimicky. That having been said, until it can be assessed, never say 'never.'

[alanschu]

Meh, I think this is one of the few times that I'll say never, at least with respect to this particular card.

 

The bottleneck is already outside of our computer (router jumping). Sure it's nice that it prioritizes game packets, but unless you're maybe doing something like downloading at a high bandwidth, I doubt that that will make a difference.

 

This card will be doing what most cards do....waiting for the internet to send it the next packet.

 

 

Like some guy on Slashdot commented, unless the thing is some how able to construct a LAN between two remote computers, you're not going to see a difference. I already get a latency of 0 ms when pinging my roommate's computer, so clearly my current NIC (which is onboard) is already capable of really low latency. If one of us is pinging 5 in a LAN game, then that's hardcore lag (or poor netcode in the game).

[mkreku]

It would be kind of neat if the card somehow had an ant-like AI (send out a billion "ants" in all directions, the one that returns first with a completed mission is the one that the other ants will follow and try to improve upon) that was able to find the fastest route between two servers itself. But unless it does that (highly unlikely) I'm doubtful that this card can improve anything significantly.

[alanschu]

That would start things off slowly. It's also reinforcement learning, and I'd be surprised if routers didn't actually implement it in some way.

 

It's the the best interests of ISPs and companies like AT&T that layout much of the network to make sure that packets get from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, if for no other reason than to make sure that their network is not necessarily bogged down.

 

Good performance helps stop the phones from ringing with complaints.

[metadigital]

It's garbage of the highest order (see Alan's previous posts).

 

Even if it created a connection-oriented virtual network, the whole notion of QoS (Quality of Service) is flawed, as it is impossible to manage assets that are outside the domain of the card (with any credible reliability).

[Diamond]

I hope this card is a flop or I'll lose my hope in the Internet humanity.

 

 

MaxFPS

[Judge Hades]

CRY! CRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

 

BWAAHAAAAHAAAAAA!

 

We are indeed getting a influx of junk nowadays.

[Cantousent]

Yeah, but real junk tends to sink. It's like cars, a gimmick might push your product, but for sales to endure it needs to do something. If it doesn't improve performance, I figure it will flop.

[mkreku]

Oh crap, maybe we laughed too soon:

 

http://www.gdhardware.com/hardware/network.../review/001.htm

 

AND IT'S EXPENSIVE TOO!

[LostStraw]

I'm surprised by the frame rate improvements, doesn't really make sense to me. The ping results are pretty much what I expected though.

 

I'd really like to know how they benchmarked the FPS. I take it they had two different people playing on both computers and took the average FPS (very poor benchmark)? Or did they try to put load on the network and then run a time demo.. or.. or.. lacking so many details .

[Diamond]

Oh crap, maybe we laughed too soon:

 

http://www.gdhardware.com/hardware/network.../review/001.htm

 

AND IT'S EXPENSIVE TOO!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The idea of such a card isn't bad. It is price and marketing that I find disturbing.

 

How much do you think a fancy heatsink contributes to the cost?

Edited September 13, 2006 by Diamond

[mkreku]

Anandtech has posted a really interesting, in-depth pseudo-review of the Killer NIC card which we laughed so hard about a few months back. Now that I understand the technology behind the card, I'm not laughing anymore. It's more like an embarrassed giggle. Anyhow, here it is:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2865&p=1

 

Lengthy, but a good read.

[Walsingham]

Ya, $300 for less pings sounds [strikethrough]gay[/strikethrough] Like Bokishi

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

*edited by Walsingham*

[mkreku]

A cheaper alternative to the Killer card has been released:

 

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/2/prweb504722.htm

 

Read more about it here: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6100

 

Why doesn't Bokishi own one of these yet?!

[Bokishi]

My 680i mobo already got it integrated, "first-packet technology" I believe.

 

It also lets me plug in two lines so I can get dual bandwidth, but I don't have 2 lines available

[mkreku]

My 680i mobo already got it integrated, "first-packet technology" I believe.

 

It also lets me plug in two lines so I can get dual bandwidth, but I don't have 2 lines available

You have a motherboard with a dedicated CPU and RAM just for the network capabilities? Which brand and model is that?

 

My motherboard has dual Gigabit LAN too (of which I am using one) but it's not anywhere near the same technology as is offered by the Killer card.

[Diamond]

Broadcom uses network stack offloading for a long time now and offers cheaper solutions. Or which part of technology are you excited about?

[Bokishi]

My 680i mobo already got it integrated, "first-packet technology" I believe.

 

It also lets me plug in two lines so I can get dual bandwidth, but I don't have 2 lines available

You have a motherboard with a dedicated CPU and RAM just for the network capabilities? Which brand and model is that?

 

My motherboard has dual Gigabit LAN too (of which I am using one) but it's not anywhere near the same technology as is offered by the Killer card.

It's a EVGA 680i. It has some integrated thingy called "first-packet technology" that prioritizes online gaming to lower pings. Prolly not as advanced as killer, but I'm out of PCI slots.

Edited February 16, 2007 by Bokishi