http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/ Engadget Comments for Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 reviewed, 'completely destroys' on-board NICs http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/Summary:
they tested LAN. Somehow made 2 PCs in lan lag whole 6-10ms while KILLER had 0.1 ms lag.
The rest of results show no difference between KILLER NIC and a build-in solution for $0.

They did not:
run speedtest.net test with KILLER and build-in NIC
run pingtest.net test
no online MMO games
no online FPS games
no nothing.

Yet they say "its so cool I'm going to piss in the pants!!!" Yeah, because LAN no longer lags. Thats just soooooooo cool.

I wish I had extra $130 - I'd buy it just to make a proper review of it. Always wanted to since the thing came out few years ago but economy crisis got me faster than the card crossed the border of my country.]]>May 13th 2010 10:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 10:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
The problem with your statement is that you are expecting magical things to happen with your internet connection when in reality your internet ping and bandwidth results are ultimately decided by your provider hardware.

This is a network interface card, not a modem.

NO CARRIER
]]>May 13th 2010 11:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
This is why this card is BS

if you have a GB lan at home, ping another computer. what do you get? Sub 1ms latency.

Enough said. ]]>May 13th 2010 11:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/And that is exactly the problem with the Bigfoot NIC. Why plunk down $100+ for a NIC when 99% of your network problems are coming from the servers or the transit? The Bigfoot makes the 1% that you can control even faster!

Gamers may be their target market, but I have a hard time seeing it gain any traction at that price point, especially considering all the other hardware in a system vying for upgrade dollars, and in light of the first 2 versions of the Bigfoot making close to no difference whatsoever vs a $0 onboard NIC in real-world online gaming scenarios.]]>May 13th 2010 11:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
That's what reviews like the one linked in this article are for.]]>May 13th 2010 12:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
You all are fools! I never even read the article because the product is a complete waste of money! You all assumed I read the article and support the product because of my silly comment! haha ;-)]]>May 13th 2010 12:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
One small correction, the first benchmark was a latency *variation* test, which means the Killer could have still produced higher pings but little variation between them.

Not very helpful test!

This card is really just for rich kids and nut jobs.]]>May 13th 2010 12:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/My guess is that the drivers for the NIC are designed to report a "different" latency to the system than the true latency.

If two computers are connected in a LAN and you're testing pings by sending requests to the other computer, then the ping will always be as slow as the slowest computer, it doesn't matter that one computer has a different NIC installed. This test is entirely falacious. The fact that they report a "lower" latency for the computer with this hardware NIC installed on a two computer LAN system just goes to show the card is misreporting latency information. The manufacturer's information even says its drivers 'replace the Windows LAN stack' or something to that effect.]]>May 13th 2010 1:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
The facts are in the benchmarks and testing. You can clearly see the performance results of this gaming network card improving latency in the GaNE tool and boost in speed in the Netperf & file transfer tests, etc

These tests show the gaming network card performing. Its in the undisputed #s. Overall, if your a competative gamer would you not simply want the fastest network card on the planet regardless? Even if its just a few ms differece. Once that first game packet leaves your wire from the PC its that much more ahead of the curve on all the rest of the competing packets along the way...

To get the fastest NIC that can help with your latency/speed performance plus the software in which helps you completely manage your whole network with visual controls for $100 seems reasonable especially in light of the $300-$400 graphic cards. What have you got to lose? We all know you can buy this card easily at an etailer and if your not happy return it. If you dont believe the benchmarks and testing showing this card performs, just go try it for yourself. Ultimately its the experience you feel in the game (smooth & faster game play) that matters anyways ... I see pro gamers using this product..]]>May 13th 2010 1:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 1:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/This Maximum PC review of last year's card give a better idea how this tech works? http://www.maximumpc.com/article/reviews/evga_killer_xeno_pro]]>May 13th 2010 2:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/But the numbers ARE disputed, because the methodology of the tests are unclear and potentially flawed. The above sourced review states they created a local network and transfered files between two computers, presumably one with the external NIC and one with the onboard NIC. Regardless of which computer initiated the transfer, it should still be as slow as the slowest computer and the ping should be as slow as the slowest computer. Perhaps the review article needs to include more information on the methods they used, but if they connected two computers, one using on onboard NIC and one an external hardware NIC, If the computer with the hardware NIC displayed a significantly lower latency, it's because its driver is intentionally deceiving the operating system.

If the test was using two computers both with the external NIC, then it's incredibly deceiving, because in what situations will you have two people with desktop computers both with the same external NIC hooked up together, unless you buy TWO $130 (!!) cards to make yourself a two player LAN party at home. If anyone else joins you LAN, the fact that you have a faster connection is meaningless and this is becomes an entirely moot point. When you're playing games over the internet, or over a LAN with one slow computer, it doesn't matter if your ping is ZERO, if you've got a player jittering around with a ping of 300, it's impossible to predict their location. Having a lower ping does nothing to improve your own performance, it only decreases the difference of your own perceived location and your actual location for OTHER gamers.

In fact, who would even bother with this when you could just play Quake Live Instagib, for instance, and have the server effectively make everyone have a ping of zero.]]>May 13th 2010 5:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/Also, according to the review website, the hardware NIC manages an INCREDIBLE 900+ MB/sec over a gigabit ethernet router, which is only capable of 150-200 MB/sec ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM.

Either this website has no journalistic credibility, or the hardware NIC is producing false numbers to the benchmarking software. Either way, this should not encourage people to blow $130.

Here's an idea, $130 will give a starving kid in Somalia food for a several years. That sounds like a better deal to me.]]>May 13th 2010 5:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/]]>May 13th 2010 9:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
I agree. This is like monster cables, how can a dedicated NIC improve latency ffs?]]>May 13th 2010 9:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
"how can a dedicated NIC improve latency" ??

It can't !!]]>May 13th 2010 9:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/Indeed, especially seeing that most latency can't be blamed on your adapter, its much more likely to be your broadband connection latency, not to mention the number of hops to and from the game server and general internet traffic lag caused by other peoples traffic.

]]>May 13th 2010 9:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
Your OS creates some of the latency. Not, much, just a few milliseconds.

Really, the main benefit from these cards is FPS improvements in games with high network traffic like MMOs in crowded cities in raids. When I got my M1 years back, I did testing in WoW-IF and the Vanguard Elf City, and saw about a 3-5% framerate increase on average (some 'intense' testing around the IF bank-auction area saw up to 8%), and fewer/less severe framerate spikes.

As far as latency improvements, I never really noticed much. About all I ever see is when my brother comes over and plays the same games, my ping is typically a few ms lower...nothing I would consider worthwhile.

In any case, it's definitely not the first (or second, third, or fourth) thing to spend your money on when building a gaming PC, but you can see some respectable improvements in the right situations. Not some magic miracle card, but far from the snake oil some claim it to be.]]>May 13th 2010 9:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/But the amount of processing your CPU does to interpret the data from the onboard NIC is inconsequential, far less than 1% of your CPU cycles. Especially considering you generally have about 20 other servers or devices your connection hops through. 1% of 5%, at most conservative scenarios, is not significant. Say you have an average cable internet connection, this back-of-the-napkin calculation indicates that around 0.025 ms is lost due to your onboard NIC.

If you're a "professional" gamer (*chortle*) and play LAN parties for money and have sponsors (*chortle*) this might be something you'd have in your setup, just like a football player might put a pink rabbit's foot in their helmet to improve their performance on the field.]]>May 13th 2010 9:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
I'm lowering your status to techi19. You lose 6 points for even
suggesting that reading the Mfg's literature will explain how it
works.

"Paper don't refuse ink" .....I can put anthing I want on paper. fact or fiction]]>May 13th 2010 9:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/

It all depends on your level of cowbell]]>May 13th 2010 9:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:36AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
I'd agree, and I don't know why, but for some reason that review really doesn't sit well with me.

- At the beginning when they are describing the changes from the old model, they say that the upgrade "really ratchets up performance across the board over the competition". How would they know? They haven't even started testing it yet!

- They use a "Game network efficiency" test to show better performance. A quick Google suggests that nobody else has ever used this test. Was this test invented just for this card?

- They completely fail to describe the other test that shows better performance: a UDP throughput test. How was it done? Why was it done? What does this all mean?!

I think it's a bit odd too that Boot Daily is the only place that has got hold of one for review instead of one of the bigger tech sites like Anandtech or Bit-Tech and yet aren't gloating about an exclusive.

Definitely not the best review I've seen, I'd want a second and third opinion before believing it.]]>May 13th 2010 9:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
I agree, the "review" is definitely written like a promotional piece. They didn't make any attempt to test it in real-world gaming scenarios, nor did they compare the *actual* ping times in games with the two card solutions. My feeling is that your local PC contributes so little to your latency that even if you were able to entirely eliminate it, your results would still fall barely outside the margin of error.]]>May 13th 2010 10:05AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
Anandtech is reviewing one next week.]]>May 13th 2010 10:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
How do you know this? Ping the loopback on your computer. It will be less than 1 ms. Ping a game server or google, and it will probably be between 30-100 ms depending on your ISP. The ONLY portion of this latency that the killer NIC can affect is the part internal to your system, NOT the part attributed with your router, or ISP. If that portion is roughly 1 ms, and your router and ISP are attributed for roughly 50 ms, you are talking about affecting 2% at MOST of your latency with any speedup. Even if it doubles the rate at which your machine is able to create and transmit packets (which is unlikely), the speedup will be almost unnoticeable, if not immeasurable.

This is a perfect example of a product which has no real benefit at all.]]>May 13th 2010 9:37AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
you can bypass to a certain degree by tunneling to/via a server closer to your destination]]>May 13th 2010 9:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
Loopback is not a useful measure of on-desktop latency. Please see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopback#Virtual_network_interface
]]>May 13th 2010 2:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
Or even better this:
http://geekstersparadise.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/denon_ethernet_cable.jpg]]>May 13th 2010 9:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/Yeah, but if your source isn't using those cables either, your line degradation is still gonna be a factor.
Just cause you put chrome on your exhaust, doesn't mean your emissions are going to be magically transformed (but they might sound different :D ) ]]>May 13th 2010 9:44AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 10:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 14th 2010 12:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
MPP
http://paepcke.de]]>May 13th 2010 9:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
thats something like whats faster, a porsche or a old beetle ... ]]>May 13th 2010 9:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
Plus I wonder how it holds up against my Intel pro/1000 PT]]>May 13th 2010 9:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/Exactly. The Intel NICs have been around for years -- they've been tested and are rock solid...I have a dual port PRO\1000 MT and it's the shiznit...it has two gige ports, and costs less than this. ]]>May 13th 2010 9:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/
That's exactly what I have. salvaged from a dead server so I can't say I made an educated purchase. There's a lot of knobs to turn on this one, I'd be glad to find a walkthrough of the settings to be used somewhere to optimise for gaming and which driver to use (MS 7 default or Intel's X64 one)]]>May 13th 2010 9:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/13/bigfoot-networks-killer-2100-reviewed-completely-destroys-on/May 13th 2010 9:44AM