Does killer NIC affect performance CPU compared to intel ethernet?

[whitedragon101]

It seems Killer NIC produces a 7~8% cpu load and Intel only 1~2%.  Losing 5% of CPU performance seems about equivalent to jumping back to the previous generation CPU.

 

The numbers are listed here under network

http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_RANGER/

 

Is it really a 5% CPU performance loss?

[Sam Z Man]

All I see is marketing Bullshit with no conclusive testing to back the claim.

[ManIkWeet]

There is no way to "make that packet go faster"...

 

Yes, it'll give packets priority on your home router, which only makes sense when there's a heavy load on your home router... Very unlikely!

Once the packet leaves your home router, prioritization is gone...

[whitedragon101]

There is no way to "make that packet go faster"...

 

Yes, it'll give packets priority on your home router, which only makes sense when there's a heavy load on your home router... Very unlikely!

Once the packet leaves your home router, prioritization is gone...

 

I couldn't care less about the prioritisation.  Its the CPU load I'm concerned about.  If it eats 8% of the power of your CPU that sounds pretty bad.

[Bogica]

There is no way to "make that packet go faster"...

 

Yes, it'll give packets priority on your home router, which only makes sense when there's a heavy load on your home router... Very unlikely!

Once the packet leaves your home router, prioritization is gone...

I have to agree, as someone who studied telecommunications, the only place where you can dictate priority and have something go faster is in your PC and to your router and that is it. And unless your router is constantly under a lot of load, which it isn't, trust me, even a shitty router can handle quite a bit of load, there is no use for any of these. I consider them all just marketing gimmicks and a load of bullcrap.

[whitedragon101]

I have to agree, as someone who studied telecommunications, the only place where you can dictate priority and have something go faster is in your PC and to your router and that is it. And unless your router is constantly under a lot of load, which it isn't, trust me, even a shitty router can handle quite a bit of load, there is no use for any of these. I consider them all just marketing gimmicks and a load of bullcrap.

 

Again not concerned at all with the prioritisation of the traffic.  I am concerned that the killer NIC may use 8% of your CPU to do it.

[Bogica]

Again not concerned at all with the prioritisation of the traffic.  I am concerned that the killer NIC may use 8% of your CPU to do it.

Not sure if it is 8%, but yes, Killer NIC is known for using CPU processing power to "speed up" your connection. It might be something small, it might be more, I don't know that part because I haven't personally tested it, nor have I read reviews online (I wouldn't trust them either). It's from all the user feedback I've read.

[whitedragon101]

Not sure if it is 8%, but yes, Killer NIC is known for using CPU processing power to "speed up" your connection. It might be something small, it might be more, I don't know that part because I haven't personally tested it, nor have I read reviews online (I wouldn't trust them either). It's from all the user feedback I've read.

 

I like the MSI motherboards but they all use killer NIC

[ManIkWeet]

It probably uses your CPU to analyze each packet to see what it actually is, now packets are relatively small so it shouldn't use much CPU (unless maybe you're downloading something, which is much faster than any game-traffic). I don't think it'll affect game performance that much, as it's probably limited to a single core, where the game uses the other cores. I do have to agree that it's a waste of computing power though!

[Kc7vwc]

I have an Msi Z97M Gaming mobo with a 4690K. Honestly if 5% CPU usage degrades your gaming performance, you need a new CPU.

I can't see any difference in network trafic vs my last couple mobos. (Msi A88X FM2+ & an Asus 970 AM3+)

If your home network at 10Mb or less, you might. But considering most home networks are orders of magnitude above what your actual internet connection is, your router & modem will make more difference in the equation that anyone on your local machine will.
I've tried using network prioritization on my router & NIC, and turned it off & can't see any difference. Benchmarks might show something, but for gaming & typical internet use I can't see any difference.

 

Biggest change I've found is setting my router to Low bandwidth for my kid's netflix streaming but that's been it.

[i_build_nanosuits]

There is no way to "make that packet go faster"...

 

Yes, it'll give packets priority on your home router, which only makes sense when there's a heavy load on your home router... Very unlikely!

Once the packet leaves your home router, prioritization is gone...

just so you know, i have the killer ethernet chip on my motherboard and it allows me to download games or porn while playing BF4 with a ping that remains bellow 25ms and i get no lag what so ever even if steam is downloading at full speed while i'm gaming...try to do that with a standard non gaming motherboard that is not equipped with a killer nic

OP, impact on CPU is next to nothing, you don't notice it even if your on a pentium dual-core.

 

I couldn't care less about the prioritisation. Its the CPU load I'm concerned about. If it eats 8% of the power of your CPU that sounds pretty bad.

it does not, from my experience it seems to be less than 1% because when i download stuff from the internet my CPU is not seeing much usage at all. Trust me on this, if something in the background would eat me 8% CPU ressources i would have noticed long ago.

[ManIkWeet]

just so you know, i have the killer ethernet chip on my motherboard and it allows me to download games or porn while playing BF4 with a ping that remains bellow 25ms and i get no lag what so ever even if steam is downloading at full speed while i'm gaming...try to do that with a standard non gaming motherboard that is not equipped with a killer nic

Games don't use much bandwidth, but yes it does prioritize gaming packets in that case.

 

(try downloading a game and watching YouTube at full speed)

[i_build_nanosuits]

Games don't use much bandwidth, but yes it does prioritize gaming packets in that case.

 

(try downloading a game and watching YouTube at full speed)

i can prioritize any packets i wan't with the provided killer software, it's just a matter of selecting youtube and setting it to highest priority, and boom your watching youtube at 1080p 60FPS while downloading porn, without a hitch...killer nic are a wonderful thing, anybody stating otherwise is clueless.

By default the killer network software will prioritize anyhting that is gaming related packets...but you can set your priority wherever you want. You could for example play BF4 with highest priority, followed by your favorite album rocking out on youtube on high priority, then having steam downloading other games on low priority...all that without the game lagging or the video cutting out because the nic will distribute/allow the bandwidth adequately amongst all aplications.

The wonderful piece of software to control all this is called the Killer network manager, and it look something like this:

 

 

This works really well for me, that's all i have to say on this.

[whitedragon101]

I just came across PCPer motherboard reviews and I noticed they do CPU utilisation tests on the ethernet port for every board they test.

 

It seems the Asus numbers are correct no matter what board manufacturer you choose an intel ethernet LAN is 2% and a KillerNIC is 6%+ (The MSI Gaming 7 killerNIC is 14%).

 

some examples :

 

MSI Gaming 7 http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/MSI-Z97-Gaming-7-Motherboard-Review/Integrated-Device-Testing

MSI z97 XPower http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/MSI-Z97-XPower-Motherboard-Review/Integrated-Device-Testing

MSI X99S Gaming 9 http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Motherboards/MSI-X99S-Gaming-9-AC-Motherboard-Review/Integrated-Device-Testing

 

All those examples are from MSI so its not the board maker.  The MSI XPower board uses intel lan and its CPU utilisation is 2% just like the Asus intel lan scores.