New Tech - What Do You Think?

[JoMaMaz]

I got this email this morning from EVGA about a new type of network card they have, I wonder if this will actually work or not. Before you laugh, remember that people back in the day used to laugh at a 'separate card just for graphics."

EVGA - Killer Xeno Pro

http://www.evga.com/articles/00467/

What do you think? I actually see potential in this; however, due to people's connections/isp's, wouldn't that still be a factor that could hinder a certain amount of the performance gain?

[iQue]

Re: New Tech - What Do You Think?

As long as it's low priced and actually works - sure, especially for those with a bit poorer internet speed/stability

Your internet connection can have a huuuge impact on fps

[imported_Whiskey]

Re: New Tech - What Do You Think?

Rudedog over at FPSAdmin wrote a bit about it yesterday

EVGA to release Killer Zeno Pro gaming NIC
Based off Bigfoot technology, EVGA will release a EVGA branded Killer NIC sometime in April.

Using licensed Bigfoot technology, onboard software accelerates, priorities and shapes the packet stream that goes to and from the computer, bypassing the Windows Stack and allowing the NPU to handle all network functions including Voip, streaming video and background downloads.

While in the past, I've recommended purchasing an inexpensive dedicated NIC vs an the onboard nic, to reduce any CPU cycles wasted while processing the onboard NICs stack(s). This is more interesting now that it helps with in game Voice communications and is in the form factor of the PCI-E 1x. It can also be used in a standard PCI slot if you don't have a PCI-E 1x compatible motherboard.

EVGA is claiming to increase your in game frame rate by 10-20 percent (I would stick with max of 10%) and decrease your letancy by about 6ms.

Cards come with 128 MB of dedicated ram, USB 2.0 (download bittorrent while playing games and not be effected your letency and or frame rate) as well as headphones and mic jacks, for voice communications optimization.

- Cost should be around $130 and be available in April of this year.
- For more info and a video talking a bit about this new EVGA / KIller nic card cllick here: http://www.evga.com/videos/killerxeno.asp

Sounds good in theory, but at least one user posted about his experience with such a card when they first came out - he saw very little performance boost, and had a lot of technical issues with it. That may just have been because the tech was new, however.

This may well be one of those things that gets better/more effective with time & development. And as games get more complicated, using more resources, such a card may eventually be almost a "must-have" in order to have a smoother gaming experience, as it can take care of things in the background like VOIP, etc.

[=98=]

Re: New Tech - What Do You Think?

Like the KillerPing, this simply bypasses the Windows network TCP/IP stack and uses it's own optimised version, possibly penguin based. It can filter and sort packets more efficiently thus effectively prioritising and speeding up gaming traffic.

It is usually also possible to download (whether it be http/ftp/p2p) in the background whilst gaming without affecting ping (unless you are using 70% bandwidth).

Advanced NIC's that shun Windows TCP/IP service are great and would be a real selling point to me if they were incorporated onto a motheroard.