Author Topic: System Improvements (Read 341 times)

Airscrew · « **on:** February 09, 2007, 11:22:14 AM »

I have a question. Normally when I think of improving my system for game play I consider my Video card, motherboard, ram, CPU, even the PS and the hard drive. But I've never considered my nic card as an area to improve my gameplay. Right now I just use the network port thats on the motherboard.
I just ran across an ad in Frys for BigFoot Networks Killernic, a Gigabit Interface Card. 400 Mhz Network Processing Unit, 64MB DDR that they say "works in conjunction with the NPU to support the network offload functionality as well as the Flexible Network Architecture" .

http://shop2.outpost.com/product/5117816?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

At $279 I'm not considering buying this although it sounds nice.

does anybody have a suggestions on a nic card that might actually improve the gameplay? Is it even necessary? Also can your router make a difference in your connection speed and ping rates?

thanks Ken

mipoikel · « **Reply #1 on:** February 09, 2007, 11:27:55 AM »

I would say, dont waste your money.

Airscrew · « **Reply #2 on:** February 09, 2007, 11:41:32 AM »

Oh no doubt on that part, id rather spend $279 on a cpu and motherboard before I buy that card. I just wondering if there are similar benefits in a different nic card, does it make a difference in my connection and pings. Cost vs game improvement. Id be willing to spend maybe $30-40 if I can get a improvment in lag and some lower ping rates

Airscrew · « **Reply #3 on:** February 09, 2007, 12:04:08 PM »

well I found it on Newegg also

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833342001

I wasnt so much interest in this exact card as I am in exploring the possibility of getting a better nic card to improve connections and prioritize packets

after reading some of the reviews on newegg I dont think so

Airscrew · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2007, 12:28:05 PM »

did a little more looking on this particular card, at Anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2865&p=11

Quote

This is the real irony of the Killer NIC as the systems that show the greatest amount of improvement (in a very limited number of titles) belong to owners that would never consider spending $279.99 on a NIC. Those who can afford the card are probably running system specifications in which the game performance improvements would never be noticed. In fact, we could simply overclock our systems by 5% or a little more and end up with the same frame rate improvements. That leaves a very small audience of buyers who would potentially purchase the card for the gee-whiz factor or the professional gamer who has the ability to take advantage of a 1ms or better improvement in ping rates in Counter Strike: Source or could tell the difference between 58 fps or 53 fps in F.E.A.R..

like I said, the card sounds interesting but I wasnt particulary interested in buying the card, just wondering if upgrading my nic or router would translate into any kind of improvment packet wise.

llama · « **Reply #5 on:** February 09, 2007, 12:28:23 PM »

This is, BY FAR, the DUMBEST hardware scam in the history of the universe.

Ok, maybe I'm overstating things a tad, but this is definitely hardware for someone with more money than brains.

The overhead of processing network packets with your CPU is less than 1/10th of 1%, and the additional time it takes to have the CPU's instructions travel down the motherboard traces, through the PCI bus, and to the NIC itself is less than 4 ms - I would guess it is actually just 2ms.

Now then.

To spend almost $300 and waste a PCI slot to save that little time and CPU resources to replace a NIC that you already have is just comically insane. There is no way that these trivial improvements will have any real-world benefits to any game. I suspect that anyone who says they see any improvement at all are suffering from a placebo affect, and that if two otherwise identical computers were set up, but one had this card and one didn't, I doubt anyone could determine any difference in any game.

If you're looking to improve the gaming experience, that money is better spent on a surround-sound headphone set, a laser gaming mouse with lots of buttons, a gaming keypad like a Nostromo n52, more ram, a faster CPU, or even a video card that's better than what you have.

When the revolution comes, these guys will be the first that the angry mob sticks in front of the firing squads...

-Llama

Skuzzy · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2007, 04:26:44 PM »

Yep, what llama said.

Tigger29 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2007, 10:11:03 PM »

A computer network, just like a chain, is only as fast as it's weakest (or in this case, slowest) link. The internet is part of the network. You could install a network card capable of a million KB/SEC and you're still not going to exceed the limits of your internet speed.

The internet bottleneck is likely at the server's end, and almost never at your end, therefore there is no amount of hardware in the world that you can install to fix this.

Yes it MAY take a bit of load off of your CPU, but the amount would be small and not even noticeable... and you're going to see the exact kind of improvement by installing a $12.99 NIC or a $300 NIC.

The only way I see this card actually making a difference is if you connected locally to another system with a similar card.