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Killer NIC – First look
Would you have to be noob with rich parents to pay £180 for a network card, or is the Killer NIC the ultimate upgrade for online gamers?
Further first-person shooter proof was in evidence while testing with Battlefield 2142. In a 64-player conquest map the PC with the Killer saw average frame rates touching the low 70s, compare to 60fps, dropping to 45fps with on-board LAN. Therefore, the Killer certainly provided an edge, or rather, maintained the edge that Windows (and possibly the integrated Realtek chip) was otherwise blunting.
Finally, we really noticed the difference in Lord of the Rings Online. Logging into Bree - one of the game’s most densely populated areas - proved tricky without the Killer. Frame rates dropped to 10fps, eventually allowing normal character movement after 60 seconds of high lag and latency. No such problems were present with the Killer, however - we breezed straight in at a cool 45fps, which remained consistent even in mob-thick areas, and rose to a high of 92fps when trekking alone across Middle Earth. This seemed to prove Bigfoot’s claims that MMOs receive a clear improvement from the Killer. The Killer also helped to improve the ping in these games, dropping the ping in Counter Strike: Source from 25 to 17, in Battlefield 2142 from 23 to 15 and in Lord of the Rings Online from 29 to 15.
However, there’s more to the Killer NIC M1 than just better frame rates and pings - you can also run applications on the Killer, called ‘FNApps’. There are currently six FNApps, including FNA Bit Torrent and FNA Firewall, which are free to download and easily accessible from the Killer’s system tray menu.
We downloaded a free 185MB film, ‘Five Minutes to Live’, from www.bittorrent.com to a USB flash drive plugged directly into the Killer while playing CS:S, and noticed no obvious dip in server connection/game load time or in-game frame rates. Without the Killer there was obvious slow-down as the Bit Torrent data interfered with our game packets. Our frame rates fell from 40fps to 30fps, and our ping doubled.
CONCLUSION
The Killer NIC’s claim of being able to maintain the frame rate that your CPU and graphics card is capable of achieving by avoiding the Windows TCP/IP stack in favour of a more efficient Linux-based one held up during testing. Frame rates are much higher and more consistent than with an on-board Ethernet chip. Plus, the ability to run apps such as a Bit Torrent client without it affecting your ping or frame rate is excellent. The Killer NIC is certainly a desirable piece of kit for gamers and leechers alike and if you can stomach the £180 price tag then it’s a great purchase.
Price £179.99 inc VAT
Supplier Play.com
Manufacturer Bigfoot Networks
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So what is the difference between this card and the "KillerNIC K1 Network Interface Card" that sells for £129.99? Is it to do with the Bit Torrent features? If the gaming features and performance are the same, I might invest in one. Help needed please CPC!
Comment by grimerking at 9:12am 28th September 2007
So what is the difference between this card and the "KillerNIC K1 Network Interface Card" that sells for £129.99? Is it to do with the Bit Torrent features? If the gaming features and performance are the same, I might invest in one. Help needed please CPC!
Comment by grimerking at 9:12am 28th September 2007
Just go with a better internet provider ?? Although the hassle vs price difference is what people will choose in the end Personally it looks like another expensive gimmick like physix.
Comment by Lightning_Pete at 4:24pm 7th September 2007
Very similar idea of using LInux on-board. We have been using them as hardware firewall in servers for a couple of years. This seems like a cheaper alternative to someone needing a hardware firewall.
Comment by gravy_uk at 1:32pm 7th September 2007
I wounder if they could integrate this on motherboard.
Comment by megapig at 12:28pm 7th September 2007
"If it was pcie , could run bittorrent with the pc turned off, and you could configure bittorrent remotely with the pc turned off then I'd buy one. (hosting an ftp/webserver via a usb stick with the pc off would be useful as well)" for what you want just get a cheap old laptop off ebay and install a small linux build...even dsl would do what you need...
Comment by reashlin at 9:02pm 6th September 2007
I have been using this card for the last couple of weeks. I have had problems running it on XP Pro 32bit but it works like a dream on Vista 32bit. Unfortunately gaming on Vista isn\'t as good as on XP. For the brief periods of time that it did work on XP (15-25mins before loss of connection) CS:S played like it should. I hit what I aimed at and my FPS did increase a reasonable amount.
Comment by Conroy at 4:33pm 6th September 2007
I have been using this card for the last couple of weeks. I have had problems running it on XP Pro 32bit but it works like a dream on Vista 32bit. Unfortunately gaming on Vista isn\'t as good as on XP. For the brief periods of time that it did work on XP (15-25mins before loss of connection) CS:S played like it should. I hit what I aimed at and my FPS did increase a reasonable amount.
Comment by Conroy at 4:33pm 6th September 2007
If it was pcie , could run bittorrent with the pc turned off, and you could configure bittorrent remotely with the pc turned off then I'd buy one. (hosting an ftp/webserver via a usb stick with the pc off would be useful as well)
Comment by mcmadhatter at 3:07pm 6th September 2007
It could possibly tempt me at £140 if the price comes down in time, guess its something that would be a one time buy too unlike a gfix card
Comment by Paul866 at 1:17am 6th September 2007
All the reviews out there seem very good and tbh i would consider one of these for the torrent prioritisation... problem is i only got 1 pci slot and that has an xfi in it... we need 1x pci-e devices soon people...we need to use those sockets.
Comment by reashlin at 9:58pm 5th September 2007
I'd be instantly sold if it could do the torrents to USB or hard drive while the main computer was off/suspended. Is there still a noticable difference if you use it with very fast machines/quad core etc. Also, no one plays LOTR tell us how it performs with WoW ;)
Comment by Fizzzl at 4:29pm 5th September 2007
If they could make a wireless NIC with the same specs I'm sure a lot more folks would consider it...me for example!
Comment by F_A_F at 4:25pm 5th September 2007
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