Killer NIC makes a difference in WoW

[d0z3rr]

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...ZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Have yet to read more reviews. But everytime I walk past one in Microcenter, I want to buy it so bad.

[-silencer-]

The performance for WoW has more to do with freeing up CPU cycles by offloading network processing to an external NIC processor than doing the work on the CPU. I'll explain why..

Here are the two protocols used for multiplayer game programming:

TCP - requires that all packets are received, and that they're received in the correct order. If a "received packet" message isn't received by the sender, the sender will have to re-send the packet.. also, we can't send another packet until we receive a "received packet" back because we have to have all packets arrive in order. TCP is highly used in client-server architecture where error checking is important for solid transfer of data as well as data integrity checking on the server side - to prevent hacking, which is why you don't see WoW hacked like Diablo 2.. D2 was a UDP game. This reliability tends to make TCP much slower, which is why you'll likely never see ~20-50 ping to WoW like you do on CoD4. This protocol is highly used in MMORPGs.

UDP - Packets that don't arrive at the destination within a certain time frame are lost. This won't work for MMORPGs - you'd miss too many attacks with a bad connection. However, this works well for FPS since we don't care what happened two seconds ago if a packet arrived late.. just forget it. Also, since packets can arrive in any order, the server side can process whatever arrives immediately. We want those bullet hits to process as soon as possible, even if our 2nd bullet fired actually "hits" before the 1st. UDP is also why you see lagging players jumping back and forth in FPS, but decent dead-reckoning algorithms help reduce this effect. This protocol is highly used in FPS games.

Now, there are some instances of games using both TCP & UDP, but it's not too common today.

Since many web connections are TCP (because it's connection-based, while UDP will just throw packets as fast as possible), the real benefit of the Killer M1 is for UDP packets, which aren't used in WoW - WoW uses TCP/IP. The Killer M1 intentionally pushes UDP packet priority ahead of TCP for the lowest absolute ping in speed games - those that use UDP. Now, if you open a UDP-heavy application while running WoW, your WoW ping will take a back seat to whatever is sending UDP packets. Not usually a big deal, but something to be aware of. Fortunately, since the M1 NIC has its own fast processor, it can get more work done faster than your onboard NIC, so that helps reduce ping for both TCP and UDP.. but UDP is still where this card was meant to shine. Since the CPU has to do less work in processing network packets, it can do more work in executing your game faster and providing the graphics card(s) with more data to process. This both increases fps and ping.

A Killer M1 is on my list to purchase for the rig I'm building, but since it's PCI and my sound card is PCI, while my motherboard only has one PCI slot, I'll have to wait until after I get a PCI-x1 sound card to buy the Killer M1 NIC.

[d0z3rr]

A Killer M1 is on my list to purchase for the rig I'm building, but since it's PCI and my sound card is PCI, while my motherboard only has one PCI slot, I'll have to wait until after I get a PCI-x1 sound card to buy the Killer M1 NIC.

Same here, upgrading the the Killer NIC means I have to buy the x-fi titanium. So basically I wind up spending about $500. UNLESS they come out with a x1 Killer NIC.

[-silencer-]

A Killer M1 is on my list to purchase for the rig I'm building, but since it's PCI and my sound card is PCI, while my motherboard only has one PCI slot, I'll have to wait until after I get a PCI-x1 sound card to buy the Killer M1 NIC.

Same here, upgrading the the Killer NIC means I have to buy the x-fi titanium. So basically I wind up spending about $500. UNLESS they come out with a x1 Killer NIC.

I do a lot of audio recording with my guitars & keyboard, so I've got a PCI X-Fi Elite that is PCI and I'm not ready to put in a non-main machine. The X-Fi Titanium Champion has a couple nice features and easy access front bay, but it's not as good as the X-Fi Elite. I wish they'd make a PCI-x1 of the Elite, but I have a feeling they won't since it's not a high-sale item. I may just have to keep my audio recording and the Elite on my Q6600 machine and get the Titanium Champ. for this new i7 so I can use the Killer NIC.. *sigh*.

[Oatboat]

If you've got $200 to light on fire, go ahead and buy it.

Otherwise, its a waste of money.

Nice and constructive to the question. I like Silencer's response... matter of fact Silencer always makes me feel smarter after reading his posts.

[-silencer-]

If you've got $200 to light on fire, go ahead and buy it.

Otherwise, its a waste of money.

Nice and constructive to the question. I like Silencer's response... matter of fact Silencer always makes me feel smarter after reading his posts.

Thanks, and your avatar always cracks me up. I even emailed it out to my coworkers when I was out with food poisoning a couple months ago and they got a kick out of it.

As for the Killer M1, almost all current reviews are quite accurate - it does work. The original Killer NIC got off to a bad start because sloppy drivers didn't really do anything for most people to really optimize/prioritize packets being sent.. and some people refuse to believe anything but that original stigma because the original reviews were (correct at the time) awful. The truth behind it is that there are still better upgrade options out there today for your machine than a $230 network card. However, if you already have one hell of a system that can't be upgraded much farther, the M1 is one of the few ways to increase performance. If I had to choose between an SSD and a Killer M1 for WoW, without a doubt the SSD makes a huge improvement. That still doesn't mean that the M1 is a waste of money... any time you can take load off the CPU will benefit all processes being run.

If you've already got an i7 965EE, 12GB of ram, 2x SLI/Crossfire with top-end cards, add-on hardware processing sound card, add-on hardware processing RAID controller, RAID0 Velociraptrs, RAID0 SSDs.. an add-on hardware NIC processor is a logical solution and $230 is a relatively minor cost for the overall price of the machine.

Also, don't forget the extra development being put into the Killer M1's feature as a firewall/gateway. There are now a couple apps, and a few in development, that run completely only the Killer's processor - namely a firewall to isolate the network from your mainboard. That's quite useful for security while also not costing you performance - a hardware firewall right there on your machine. This is why the Killer M1 has a USB port on the back of the card. It's not a USB hub, it's a place to hook up a flash/external drive to load the M1-isolated apps.

[Boylston]

If you've got $200 to light on fire, go ahead and buy it.

Otherwise, its a waste of money.

Nice and constructive to the question. I like Silencer's response... matter of fact Silencer always makes me feel smarter after reading his posts.

Fursphere's response didn't educate you about network transmission protocols, but he is still giving good advice. I liked his advice, straight and to the point!

[Bovidae]

uh, old.

If I had a billion dollars I would buy one of these....

[Harem]

thinking about this one:

http://killer2100.bigfootnetworks.com/2/

Has anyone actually seen improvement from using this? Everything here has been theory but not really even anecdotal. Only $100 but I'd like to know someone noticed a difference after installing one, specifically a difference in their multiboxing play.

[Pycno]

I have the Killer NIC and I dont really think I would recommend it, onboard nics are as good IMO. No way I could differentiate them in a blind fold test.

If you've already got an i7 965EE, 12GB of ram, 2x SLI/Crossfire with top-end cards, add-on hardware processing sound card, add-on hardware processing RAID controller, RAID0 Velociraptrs, RAID0 SSDs.. an add-on hardware NIC processor is a logical solution and $230 is a relatively minor cost for the overall price of the machine.

That was what I thought when I purchased it, 230$ for a possible minor upgrade. However its more like 230$ for a downgrade to something with buggy drivers.