When it comes to PC hardware reviews, the biggest challenge for the reviewer is establishing a set of parameters by which the hardware can be tested thoroughly and accurately. Being that BSCreview.com is new to hardware reviews, it was nothing less than a Hurculean task to ensure that the very first piece of hardware – Bigfoot Networks’ Killer2100 Gaming Network Interface Card (NIC) – was reviewed fairly and thoroughly.
I’m not a number cruncher, nor can I pretend to be savvy enough to dig into giant benchmark tests where every bit of information is analyzed under a microscope. I’m a gamer, and even though I love stats I must mention that all I care about in the end is how my experience differs between one type of gadget and another. The bottom line is that any piece of hardware can tout lots of stats and claim that those numbers are why it’s “the best” in class, but if the gamer sees no noticeable difference in gameplay, ultimately the numbers mean nothing.
I met Bigfoot Networks at E3 2010 back in June, and it was one of my favorite booths to visit. I met three professional gamers from team Evil Geniuses – Jordan “N0thing” Gilbert of team Counterstrike, Isaac “Azael” Cummings-Bentley of team WoW, and Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen of team Warcraft III. Jordan toyed with me several times playing Counterstrike and pwned me huge, but I enjoyed the fun and being pwned by the best of the best!
For the purposes of this review, Bigfoot Networks provided BSCreview.com a brand new Killer2100 Gaming NIC and the Killer Network Manager software. The Killer2100 was installed in a Dell XPS gaming PC running Windows 7 64-bit, 8GB of high-speed SDRAM, RAID-0 (striped array) 7200 RPM hard drive configuration, and an onboard, built-in Gb NIC.
THE HARDWARE
Network Interface Cards (NICs) are a dime a dozen these days. No PC or Mac is shipped without at least one. In the past, before the advent of high-speed Internet, modems were standard and NICs were able to be purchased separately as ISA/PCI cards. Today, almost all PCs purchased at retail outlets or online include a NIC that’s built into the motherboard itself. By default, all NICs are controlled by the Operating System, such as Windows or Mac OS. The CPU (central processing unit) handles all the traffic coming from the NIC into the TCP/IP stack. Even if you have a multi-core CPU (eg. Intel Core 2 Duo, Quad Core, or i3/i5/i7), the processing of all Internet traffic is handled by Windows and the CPU.
The problem with this setup isn’t readily apparent to non-gamers or casual PC owners. Traffic handled so fast that it’s difficult to perceive the inherent lag and spikes that plague built-in NICs controlled by Windows (see graph above for average ping spikes between Killer2100 and onboard NIC). But for hardcore gamers, professional and otherwise, lag equates to losing. Literally, lag by even four or five frames and that could make the difference between eliminating your opponent and being eliminated yourself. Gun fire in FPS (first person shooter) games happens in milliseconds. Have you ever played Call of Duty: World at War online and swear you shot the guy in front of you, only to be killed yourself? That’s lag. That’s bad. That’s what Killer2100 was designed to remedy.
So how does the Killer2100 perform its magic? Simple: the Killer2100 includes a 400MHz NPU (network processing unit) and 128MB of RAM. It’s its own brain. It basically says to Windows and the PC’s CPU “Hey, I’ll take over all this UDP and TCP/IP traffic processing and you can focus on working the calculations for the game”. Yes, that’s a layman’s way of explaining it, but that’s exactly what’s happening behind the scenes. Offloading the CPU enables the traffic to bypass the Operating System’s TCP/IP stack, which increases performance greatly.
In short, the Killer2100 acts as the brain for all network traffic handling, making it more efficient and FAST!
THE TESTS
The benchmark I used for my personal testing was the PC game Call of Duty: World at War, which was patched to the latest level. Bigfoot Networks insisted that I try to find the fullest servers I could find, which I did. My first batch of tests were with the built-in NIC on my Dell.
Some variables to mention:
- I have a LAN at home, consisting of three servers (domain, email, and file).
- Comcast cable Business Class Internet at ~15Mbps download, ~5Mbps upload speeds
- Cisco Wireless Gateway/Router with built-in stateful packet inspection firewall; PC is hard-wired to the built-in switch.
I first tested the game straight up with no downloads in the background. I experienced lag, but nothing too horrible to mention. I played no less than 3 hours in this fashion.
In my second round of testing, the onboard NIC was still in use, but this time I started some downloads in the background while playing the game. The lag was much more noticeable and I had a hard time competing.
The third round of testing is where the differences became clear. I plugged the network cable into the Killer2100 and rebooted the PC. This got everything back to neutral. The NIC processing spikes went away per the Killer Network Manager software, which I’ll discuss below. While playing the game, I experienced ZERO lag. Was it enough to notice my skills getting better? I’d have to say no if I’m being honest. I’m not a professional gamer, but for me to notice ZERO lag was still impressive, even on a full server. I played approximately 3 hours in this fashion.
The fourth and final round of testing included the same downloads from the same locations on the Web as in round 2. I began the downloads in the background and fired up the game. Now this impressed me: ZERO LAG! I was downloading GBs worth of data streaming online, and I experienced no lag while playing in the busiest servers I could find. I repeated the test several times, and throughout the entire experience I experienced zero noticeable lag.
THE KILLER NETWORK MANAGER
The KNM is the software suite shipped with all Killer2100′s and it provides users with absolute and total control over the bandwidth management of all application traffic generated by the machine.
The Applications Tab in the software uses Bigfoot Networks’ exclusive “Visual Bandwidth Control” feature to see how much bandwidth you’re using and which applications are using it. Let’s say you’re downloading a 2GB patch for one of your games on Steam, but you want to play a different game while you’re doing it. Slide the bar for the Internet Explorer/Firefox/other browser to the left to throttle down its bandwidth usage and you’re good to go! A technology called “Advanced Game Detect” always keeps the game you’re currently playing at top priority for bandwidth usage.
The KNM also includes an Online Gaming PC Monitor, which you can use to see your framerate in online games, get a baseline ping value, see your inbound and outbound traffic, or save all the data and use it to tune your rig.
And lastly, the KNM allows total control by showing gamers an at-a-glance dashboard to monitor your total bandwidth, system configuration, network speed, and ton of other stats.
BT’S BOTTOM LINE
The bottom line is that the Killer2100 lives up to its hype and features. I’ve been playing around with the KNM ever since I installed the Killer2100 and it’s never crashed or gave me false data. There are advanced features for you tweakers out there, not just monitors for your rig. The bandwidth throttling is an amazing feature that works perfect. I noticed immediate improvements over the onboard NIC when playing high bandwidth usage titles (primarily Call of Duty: World at War), virtually non-existent lag, and total control over my gaming experience on the PC.
A recent price cut was announced last Wednesday, August 11, 2010. The Killer2100′s price point went from $129.99 to $89.99, a testament to Bigfoot Networks’ committment to delivering top of the line products to a hungry PC gaming crowd yerning for the best equipment to elevate their game. If you’re in the market for a gaming rig, DO NOT ignore the NIC. It could make the difference between pwning and being pwned.
This product receives two thumbs up from B.T. Robertson!!!
