Hardware Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 Gaming Network Card Review

I think you should try and increase the network throttling index, and run your file transfer tests again...

By default Windows Vista and Windows 7 limit the amount of packets to 10 per millisecond, when a process is accessing a time-sensitive device like the sound card. With a standard packet size of 1500 bytes, that comes down to a peak theoretical transfer speed of 14.4 MiB per second.

Increase the index, or disable the sound card, and try again.

 

put the £60 toward upgrading your connection lol

 

Your speed is largely irrelevent past a set speed. Doesnt matter if you got a 8Mbps connection or a 50Mbps connection. Latency is what makes online gaming (particularly fast FPS games) hit or miss.

 

I've only just read this. Why are you only getting 11MB/sec over a gigabyte network? That's barely 100Mb/sec speeds.

[edit]

4gb Folder with 10,000 files = 47MB/sec
5GB folder with 3 large video files = 98MB/sec

Tried to record it to show you but FRAPS massively hits the performance, so I can't.

 

You guys may want to run the transfer test again, like others have said you should be seeing closer to 120MB/s

 

Not with lots of small files... it will be much slower, but 11MB/sec seems very slow.


You'll never see 120MB/sec over gigabit. The theoretical max is 112MB/sec, and there's always a overhead for the protocol itself. The most I've seen transferring a single large file is 110<B/sec, but usually with such files it's in the high 90s. This is backed up by actually timing the transfer as well.

 

Well, I actually had my eyes on this for a while after not being able to get the Xeno Pro where I live. Not for the "ping boost" or some such nonsense, but because you could have a firewall running on the card. In essence a "hardware" firewall. Something I've been missing since retiring my nForce4 motherboard.

Luckily, Bigfoot Networks saw fit to remove the one redeeming quality of their product by removing this feature (or FNApps in general if I recall correctly).

 

Props to you guys, your testing methods are always very good. I think, particularly with the ping, the results are basically the same when you consider all errors and variables.

What's really good is the software - I'd really like to be able to control where my bandwidth goes. It's a shame they don't just sell it on its own, as it can't be that hard to get it to work with other controllers.

 

The cards from Bigfoot aren't just using a network interface chip, but are instead fully fledged computers themselves running some form of embedded Linux. That's more or less what makes the software do the things it does, especially in case of the old FNApps.

 

Did you test this in the office or work place? You might find a larger disparity with a consumer broadband connection compared to expensive and powerful office one. I would like to know the results of testing under different connections.

 

That may be true, but latency is still dependent to a large extent on your broadband connection and the route the traffic takes from your connection to the gaming server. These are things that are entirely out of your control, and no flashy network card in your PC will ever affect that.

Added to which, a difference in a few milliseconds (which is within the realms of experimental variance anyway) probably won't affect the average gamer's success at a particular online game unless they're playing at the absolute pinnacle of gaming skill.

Basically, this card is snake oil and is targeted at people who don't know better and have more money than sense.

 

There's a clue in the name of the company. You're about as likely to see an improvement from this as you are to see a Bigfoot

 

we did some tests a long time ago.. we know nic cards use the cpu (this was before duel cores were popular so cpu usage was kind of a big deal in gaming) so we bought an expensive 3M nic that supposedly offloaded

there was no noticeable difference in ping while gaming.. and it used as much cpu as the cheap 5 dollar nic xD

 

I see bigfoot have baked up another fail cake to succed their last fail cake that also failed. if you are concerned about frame rates - you are better off putting that £60-70 towards a more powerful graphics card. looks like they havent learned from their first 'mistake'

 

also - I would just like to add - lowering your ping by a measly 3 or 5 hardly makes any difference at all. I bet a lot of the pro league players just use what comes built in to their motherboard if not they their most likely to have a cheapo semi-decent giga lan card installed. If any pros endorse this product or similar products they are most likely being paid to promote it. similar to what Fata1ity wendel does.

 

http://www.netlimiter.com/

works great.. used it for years- good to limit browsers over a lan also.. around 115k dl limit on firefox/ie/chrome ect.. then youtube/video can stream uninterrupted, and you can share the bandwidth with everyone else on the lan

 

Why does this product exist?

Why does this company still exist?

 

That very same question could be applied to everything from UFO and Bigfoot sightings to world religion and homoeopathy.

Answer: Because people will believe what they want to believe, regardless of the facts, and they will pay for the privilege.