Bigfoot Networks' Killer M1 NIC

[AssVas]

Bigfoot Networks' Killer M1 NIC

An kapoios exei lefta gia petama kai th goustarei , mporei na thn tsibisei.
To ti exei kai ti kanei, sto parakatw link...

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/killer-m1-nic,review-1083-2.html

[enc]

Προσωπικά δεν έχω δοκιμάσει πότε την κάρτα αλλά σας κάνω quote την άποψη ενός φίλου από wow που έχει αρκετά σωστά σημεία για το πόσο αξίζει ένα τέτοιο κομμάτι hardware στο pc σας.

Well after spending 5 minutes reading up on it, I can safely say that it's more or less a complete rip-off. What you get is a NIC (Network Interface Card) specifically designed to provide hardware processing of TCP/IP packet encapsulation/decapsulation and error control. Basically it's a glorified high-quality Ethernet adapter that specialises in TCP/IP. This may sound good, but think about it for a minute.

The very technology that is on this card is normally used in the dedicated server market because it essentially takes the burden of network traffic processing away from the CPU, allowing it to concentrate on everything else (i.e.: the services it provides). This is absolutely awesome when you have a loaded server where CPU time is expensive, but when you have a desktop system with two or more cores it becomes..well....somewhat pointless. Granted if you have a slower single-core CPU you could possibly save a bit of CPU power with one of these assuming you have a lot of processes running, but anyone else living in the modern age of multiple cores probably won't notice a thing.

This article: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2865&p=1 basically describes the overhead Windows produces when processing average volume network traffic for a desktop machine is somewhere in the region of 3-10ms on average, which when you consider is the worst case scenario you're looking at a minimal amount of processing required compared to video, sound, input, etc.

So what you need to ask yourself is this: is your CPU the bottleneck for your system? If it is, you're better off upgrading that anyway since it affects everything. If it isn't, this card will probably provide a minimal change - if you get 100ms in WoW at the moment, you're looking at 90-95 with that card. For the sort of game WoW is, that is completely irrelevant. Understand that the card doesn't alter anything about your connection at all, it offloads the network traffic processing onto the hardware it has. If you have a dual/quad core CPU you'll probably not even notice a change, and for latency sensitive games like CounterStrike, Quake, Battlefield, the smallest determining factor for your latency is your own machine*, the largest being the server location and your routing.

Bottom line? If you have low FPS and notice your connection suffering, buy a new CPU/video card. If you have a great system and your connection is suffering, examine your network settings, routing, bandwidth usage and loaded addons (they do make a difference). Do not get this card unless you're completely out of options.

*unless you're chugging along at 25FPS or something!

[Jinxcat]

Den einai h prwth karta pou exei auta ta abilities.

8umamai oti douleua enan gnwsto mou pou eixe plhrwsei 140 shmerina euro (100 lires Agglias) to 2000, gia mia karta pou ekane akribws auto to pragma. Otan oi aples kartes pouliountan gia 6-7. Dhladh TI forto exei pia to mhxanhma pou einai anagkaio na fugei to tcp de/encapsulation apo to CPU? An kapoios paizei CoD enw katebazei torrent kai paizei mousikh/video sto background, e... as thn parei. To na kleiseis omws to MSN enw paizeis 8a sou dwsei pio polu cpu.

PS: Asteio... auto to montelo einai PIO akribo...