The Killer NIC and Killer K1 Gaming Network Cards

[Apoptosis]

Bigfoot Networks has recently introduced the Killer K1, a new, more affordable version of its flagship gaming product, the Killer NIC. Legit Reviews takes the Killer NIC and Killer K1 out for a few frags on Windows XP and Windows Vista to see how it does. Instead of bounce of charts showing ping time LR invited a half dozen gamers over to see if they could tell a difference or not. The results might be shocking to some and this is a must read for any gamer.



Article Title: The Killer NIC and Killer K1 Gaming Network Cards
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/478/1/

[camaroguy1998]

Thats unbelievable no one guessed correctly when the Killer NIC was installed and when it was not!

For a cost of $250 thats disappointing!

[Skippman]

That's pretty much EXACTLY what I figured would happen. You're still limited by the speed of the rest of the network. Having a faster NIC in your PC does not mean the data will be delivered any faster than the servers NIC. And with GigE becoming standard the point is fairly moot.

My only complaint about the article was that I wasn't there to enjoy the gaming.

[Illuminati]

DUGG!

[HONkUS]

wait a minute! where is that guy from Bigfoot who posted on here to defend those cards? where is he now?

Sounds to me like this review shot him in his toodles!

[Digital Puppy]

wait a minute! where is that guy from Bigfoot who posted on here to defend those cards? where is he now?

Sounds to me like this review shot him in his toodles!

I'm predicting that LR will be blacklisted again and that we will not hear from any of the Bigfoot/Killer people. They will probably complain that we weren't using the ideal monitor or USB stick when the tests were done...

I hope I'm wrong, but I guess we'll see.

[dgood]

Kinda what I expected, but I hope it just prompts them to make a better product that can be legitimatly worth the upgrade. You should have tested it on a 100 tick server that you were at or around 100 to see if you got kicked more with or without it. Good job guys, I like how you did it one person at a time and told about their experiance on the games. Great review.

[AntiV6]

wait a minute! where is that guy from Bigfoot who posted on here to defend those cards? where is he now?

Sounds to me like this review shot him in his toodles!

Link?

[Apoptosis]

http://forums.legitreviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=8162

Cinrellik is his user name.. He works for Killer and does all the viral marketing in terms of forum posts and what he DIGGS.

On a different note... check out this 10GbE networking card from sun... It's multi-threaded! Twice the price, but it's PCIe, mutlithreaded and 10GbE!

[AntiV6]

http://forums.legitreviews.com/viewtopic.php?t=8162

Cinrellik is his user name.. He works for Killer and does all the viral marketing in terms of forum posts and what he DIGGS.

On a different note... check out this 10GbE networking card from sun... It's multi-threaded! Twice the price, but it's PCIe, mutlithreaded and 10GbE!

Thanks for the link!

It's kind of funny how the guy compares the "first" NIC for gamers to the first dedicated GPU.

[Zertz]

Do you know if the performance increase is better with other games, like World of Warcraft or any MMORPG/RTS game?

But anyways, 3 ms isn't worth 200$

[chuggy]

Hey Gang,

I work for Bigfoot Networks, with Cinrellik. As Nathan said, we were glad to see that the Killer performed and delivered a 3MS improvement (on average) in Ping as well as a bump in FPS. We'd also like to thank the folks who played, as well as Nathan, for putting the time into the review.

This style of testing has been done by Hard OCP and other reviewers in the past, with very different results (i.e. -- Killer getting an Editor's Choice award because the measurable improvement was also feelable). Not knowing exactly how the testing was done, its hard to really comment on it. What I mean by this is that before and after testing is really only significant if the testing is done on the same server, with the same other players, and *super importantly* on the same map. For example, one Quake 3 or 4 map has dramatically different performance on a machine than others. In the end, I believe Nathan did his best to eliminate variability but when testing on one machine it is hard to do.

Another thing I felt was missing from the review was the benefit of downloading files with FN Torrent as opposed to using a regular bit torrent appliciation. With FN Torrent, you can download files without any interruption to your game play. Literally, you can download a movie while you save the world in Counterstrike, and it will play as if the download was not going on even though it is.

I am happy to answer any questions you guys have for me. Check out what PC Gamer had to say about Killer in its April 07 issue here : http://www.killernic.com/killernic/PDFs ... Review.pdf

Chug

[HONkUS]

Chugg

I understand you are trying to market a product but even you must realize how absurd it is to spend over 100 dollars on a NIC that nets you single digit lower ping. While your FN Torrent program does sound promising it still does not make up for the cost. While I cant speak for everyone I can honestly say that I am not on my computer 24/7 and with that said my computer has plenty of idle time in which I run a free bit torrent client with no impact on my gaming performance. Again I cannot speak for everyone but I personally am not so impatient that I am willing to spend big bucks on a NIC so I can download stuff on bit torrent while I play online games. Ive been around computers my entire life, ive built them for people and am currently the IT Supervisor for a psychological practice. Also I attend multiple LAN party's a year and am also a yearly attendee of Quakecon. I feel competent enough to make an educated decision as a tech consumer and the facts lead me to my opinion that there just isn't enough benefit to justify the cost of your product for me personally.

Id like to hear the opinions of others on here.

[syncrod]

just another PhysX card scenario

[Alathald]

just another PhysX card scenario

Hell I'd buy a PhysX card before this...I agree that neither the PhysX or the KillerNIC are worth the $$$ but at least with the PhysX card you get a noticeable improvement in visuals (explosions and such are much more realistic); I see the KillerNIC as little more than rice at the moment. Who know though, in the future it may amount to something but by then prices will have dropped significantly as well. At the moment, it's just not worth it...
On a side note, these people (viral advertisers such as chuggy and Cinrellik) could sell contact lenses to Helen Keller...that's the type of stuff they're trained to do, so take everything they say with a grain of salt. I remember reading a story I found somewhere about a day in the life of viral adverts, but I can't remember where I saw it, may have been here...
Oh well, that's my piece,
Kyle

[bigblockmatt]

Thanks Nate and guys for the review!!! it was a good read. If i were to spend 150-200 bucks on something for my comp, id better see some improvements, no matter what.

Question: How long were the testers playing with and without the K1 installed?

[Apoptosis]

Thanks Nate and guys for the review!!! it was a good read. If i were to spend 150-200 bucks on something for my comp, id better see some improvements, no matter what.

Question: How long were the testers playing with and without the K1 installed?

As long as the wanted... Didn't really give them a time limit... I'd say on average 35mins or so with and without the card back to back on the same server on the same evening.

[Apoptosis]

Hey Gang,

I work for Bigfoot Networks, with Cinrellik. As Nathan said, we were glad to see that the Killer performed and delivered a 3MS improvement (on average) in Ping as well as a bump in FPS. We'd also like to thank the folks who played, as well as Nathan, for putting the time into the review.

This style of testing has been done by Hard OCP and other reviewers in the past, with very different results (i.e. -- Killer getting an Editor's Choice award because the measurable improvement was also feelable). Not knowing exactly how the testing was done, its hard to really comment on it. What I mean by this is that before and after testing is really only significant if the testing is done on the same server, with the same other players, and *super importantly* on the same map. For example, one Quake 3 or 4 map has dramatically different performance on a machine than others. In the end, I believe Nathan did his best to eliminate variability but when testing on one machine it is hard to do.

Another thing I felt was missing from the review was the benefit of downloading files with FN Torrent as opposed to using a regular bit torrent appliciation. With FN Torrent, you can download files without any interruption to your game play. Literally, you can download a movie while you save the world in Counterstrike, and it will play as if the download was not going on even though it is.

I am happy to answer any questions you guys have for me. Check out what PC Gamer had to say about Killer in its April 07 issue here : http://www.killernic.com/killernic/PDFs ... Review.pdf

Chug

Bob,

I added the part about the benefit of FN Torrent downloads in the review, it wasn't meant to be overlooked or anything like that. I ping and framerate improvement was noted, but as mentioned in the review it didn't lead to a significant difference in performance levels.

Our testing was done differently than many as we took our readers and put them in the drivers chair and used Windows Vista, which is something I don't think any other site has done... All your awards thus far have been on Windows Vista and we both know the networking stacks are different. I also let everyone play on a Windows XP system, so we actually tests both in this article...

As for the review you linked by PC Gamer that gave it a good review -- That's all fine and good, but I would never buy something based on a half page article that doesn't list the specifications of the test system, the OS, or really anything for that matter and then says the product helped out significantly, but they hit the nail by saying it's for people that don't care about a budget... and for that buy it and try it!

[Dragon_Cooler]

ok ok ok so the card looks good....there is that much.


BTW that 10gb card i would buy!!!!!!! gimme some fiber optics to connect it with and i will be a happy man!!!!

[Digital Puppy]

Hey Gang,

I work for Bigfoot Networks, with Cinrellik....

[snip]

Chug

Guess I was wrong about the whole blacklisting thing. Glad to know they at least acknowledged the article.

Going back to what Nate was saying about the kind of reviews that we do around here, I'm kinda partial to the whole "getting-your-hands-dirty-in-the-real-world" kind of reviews we do here versus the "read-the-stats-and-post" at other hardware sites.

Just my $0.02. Still, it's good to have a Bigfoot sighting in the LR Forums!