syncrod wrote:just another PhysX card scenario
There's a big difference here.
The PhysX card actually does something when you write an application that is optimised for it. So the benefits are there, when the developer can take advantage of it. IF its a "quick and dirty" implementation like in GRAW on PC, its not gonna do much. (as can be seen by benchmarks with GRAW, it did jacksh*t).
Now this "Kill NIC" concept is a different story altogether. You ain't gonna benefit unless you use it in a certain way. That is, download something while gaming...Even then the benefits aren't worth the price they charge for it.
As noted in the review itself, NO ONE noticed a difference with or without the card! Now how are BigFoot Networks gonna convince someone to spend a dime on their product if they don't notice a major difference?
This is the gamer or enthusiast market. Less than a fraction of them know how to write applications, and the majority are gulliable to marketing BS...But if they don't notice something big in improvements with a product, they won't spend a dime on it. (and no amount of marketing can help).
What I find most ironic about this product, is that even though it uses an embedded version of Linux, the full features of the cards themselves aren't fully supported under Linux.
That is, you can't access FNA in Linux because of the current status of the Linux driver!...Now how the heck are you gonna start a collection of FNA apps when the only people who actually know how to tinker with software are not being well supported to begin with? (As you folks can see, its not a well thought out plan).
Sure you can cross-compile for the Killer NIC, but you won't be 100% sure unless you buy the card to test and debug your FNA application! (Which you need a Windows box because the Linux driver doesn't support uploading FNA apps to the Killer NIC!). There is no way in hell the opensource community would interested. Its NOT affordable like WRT54G, NSLU, WL500G routers/network devices, and that alone will turn people off.
OT:
Price means EVERYTHING. Nvidia and ATI/AMD don't make money with the high-end video cards, they make it from the mainstream and budget markets. Here's a fact, less than 1% of the world's gamers have SLI or Crossfire and actually use it...Heck, have a think about this one: Marketing encourages people to think "AGP is dead"...And yet, both Nvidia and ATI are still gonna provide DirectX 10 cards in AGP form?
This is the message I'm getting:
"AGP is dead...But we're still supporting it."
Back when 3Dfx released the Voodoo 1 (3D accelerator), it changed the way gaming was to be done forever. It actually did something considerable, and the customer or end-user actually noticed a big difference. People were willing to pay money to get that difference.
Today, the technology world is highly reliant on marketing (hyped BS). They really have nothing to show to the consumer, (meaning something that will utterly blow them away), so they rely on marketing.
Examples include:
* PS3 = Pre-rendered demos were awesome. Then when the games came out...What a let down!
And for Linux users?
Sony said Linux would be pre-load as an alternative OS to choose...Guess what? Didn't happen. Install it yourself. (You have to pick a distro with PS3 support).
NO access to 3D Acceleration, because Sony used a hypervisor to prevent us opensource folks from writing a driver. So you can't do sh*t with it. Would've been awesome to port some OpenGL apps or use it as a frontend for MythTV.
At least IBM provided info with working on the Cell processor.
* Windows Vista = All those built-in security features MS was tooting about to sell Vista did NOTHING to prevent exploits attacking the ANI vulnerability. (Which results in Explorer crash and restart in an infinite crash loop!).
Conclusion? Security band-aids mean crap when the code and design decisions made by MS are the actual causes of Windows's security problems! (2 yrs ago, MS fixed the ANI problem in WinXP...Somehow it got unfixed, and the code was included into Vista!). Today, they have to re-fix the issue with a patch...Then provide another patch, because the first one causes problems!
Notice how in both the above cases its turning off consumers? (Consumers aren't interested).
Anyway, back to my point. You really can't justify the asking price for a Killer NIC to the consumer, given the benefits aren't great enough to be seriously noticed.
You won't see the benefits until you use it in a certain way AND get out benchmarking apps to see if there really is a difference.
If a reviewer needs a benchmark app to actually measure a difference, then its not gonna be beneficial to the typical gamer.
Save your money for a better web connection AND build your own Linux or BSD firewall with QoS. (prioritise gaming traffic ahead of P2P traffic).
