BigFoot Networks Killer NIC: Killer Marketing or Killer Product?
by Gary Key on October 31, 2006 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Networking
Killer NIC Marketing Materials
Instead of rewriting the BigFoot Networks marketing materials we will just present it as is in abbreviated form. There are five features that are prominently featured on the Killer NIC website and the descriptions listed below are a quick recap of these items. We have already implied the marketing utilized by BigFoot Networks is very aggressive, and while understandable to those with a marketing background (no offense to the suits) we believe the website information and advertisements set the expectations of this card too high. A little more education about the background of the technology utilized and how it really works would have been better than in your face statements about gaming domination and free T-Shirt giveaways.
In fact, the description of MaxFPS technology along with the associated graphs in the reviewers guide we received does more to explain how the card works and why than the entire website at this time. Our suggestion to BigFoot Networks is to openly provide the technical information and remember that not everyone is a thirteen year old (not that there is anything wrong with them) gamer with $279 in hand and wanting to pimp out their rig because a Killer NIC advertisement with a limping sword makes them feel inferior in some way. All this is academic anyway; if the hardware does not work then who really cares about the marketing, right? So here's the marketing spiel:
MaxFPS - MaxFPS will increase the frames per second (FPS) in most gaming systems. It does this by reducing the CPU utilization due to networking, and speeding up the main game loops of the game. For gaming systems that have older graphics cards, the additional performance in CPU, cache, and main system memory will improve the efficiency of the card. This allows it to run at more FPS or at higher resolutions and settings. For gaming systems that have new graphics cards, the FPS performance is usually limited by the performance of the main gaming loop or the CPU's ability to get data to the card. MaxFPS will improve the speed of the main gaming loop and reduce the CPU utilization and main system memory thrashing thus improving FPS. Depending upon the situation MaxFPS will use its direct transfer of data to host application memory. Latency is further reduced by eliminating the time to write in and out of the system memory.
UltimatePing - UltimatePing will reduce the effective UDP-internal ping time (ping using UDP sockets). A UDP-internal ping is very different than a standard ICMP ping such as one might get when calling "ping" from the command line. UDP-internal ping runs over a UDP socket and includes such overhead as UDP checksum, buffer copy, real data transfer, and stack efficiency. UltimatePing is based on two technologies. First it ensures that neither your operating system nor your network card is introducing unnecessary latency into your game by ensuring interrupts from the NIC and OS are efficient. Secondarily, UltimatePing uses a side effect of MaxFPS to improve the response time in the main game loop or threads.
PingThrottle - PingThrottle is a user controlled setting that literally adds latency to any outbound network traffic, effectively increasing ping a gamer has to the server. The max latency you can add is 20ms and the latency is real as it is processed by the NPU. (The basic premise is that this will allow you to placate anyone complaining about LPBs (Low Ping B...s), although the real application of the technology can be somewhat less desirable depending on your viewpoint.)
GameFirst - GameFirst basically prioritizes your inbound and outbound network traffic so that your gaming packets are delivered or received first. This feature is very useful if you are running other applications that are uploading or downloading data while gaming.
FNA - FNA stands for Flexible Network Architecture. It is in effect the infinite flexibility of the Killer NIC. FNapps are designed to allow a user to run an application with a minimal or reduced impact on the main system's CPU, memory subsystem, or hard disk. FNapps can be anything from simple packet monitoring utilities like firewalls to full blown VoIP programs or file sharing programs like BitTorrent. FNapps can be designed to utilize the dedicated USB port as well as the Gigabit port. FNapps are designed with the included open-source Linux compiler and source code. The card includes a Linux console, 64MB of RAM, and an embedded Linux build.
The single most touted feature on the Killer NIC is the MaxFPS system that includes the LLR technology. Please note these comments as we will find out shortly if they work or not. The second most hyped feature is FNA. We believe this feature can really set this card apart from others and has the potential to be the most useful feature. Unfortunately, there are no FNapps available to test at this time. Considering the time that has passed since the card was introduced and the press material describing how easy it is to make an FNapp we would have expected something to test by now. FNapps are still MIA at this time, though we understand there might be some released over the course of the next few weeks.
UltimatePing actually worked in a few of our benchmarks. PingThrottle worked as advertised and by using it continuously during a heated Quake 4 match we were able to get kicked off the server and brandished cheaters for life. (It was fun while it lasted.) GameFirst worked but the outgoing packet prioritization worked about the same as our NVIDIA nForce 590 NIC and D-Link Gamer Lounge DGL-4100 router. The inbound capability is what makes the difference although we typically would not be caught downloading or uploading files while gaming online.
Instead of rewriting the BigFoot Networks marketing materials we will just present it as is in abbreviated form. There are five features that are prominently featured on the Killer NIC website and the descriptions listed below are a quick recap of these items. We have already implied the marketing utilized by BigFoot Networks is very aggressive, and while understandable to those with a marketing background (no offense to the suits) we believe the website information and advertisements set the expectations of this card too high. A little more education about the background of the technology utilized and how it really works would have been better than in your face statements about gaming domination and free T-Shirt giveaways.
In fact, the description of MaxFPS technology along with the associated graphs in the reviewers guide we received does more to explain how the card works and why than the entire website at this time. Our suggestion to BigFoot Networks is to openly provide the technical information and remember that not everyone is a thirteen year old (not that there is anything wrong with them) gamer with $279 in hand and wanting to pimp out their rig because a Killer NIC advertisement with a limping sword makes them feel inferior in some way. All this is academic anyway; if the hardware does not work then who really cares about the marketing, right? So here's the marketing spiel:
MaxFPS - MaxFPS will increase the frames per second (FPS) in most gaming systems. It does this by reducing the CPU utilization due to networking, and speeding up the main game loops of the game. For gaming systems that have older graphics cards, the additional performance in CPU, cache, and main system memory will improve the efficiency of the card. This allows it to run at more FPS or at higher resolutions and settings. For gaming systems that have new graphics cards, the FPS performance is usually limited by the performance of the main gaming loop or the CPU's ability to get data to the card. MaxFPS will improve the speed of the main gaming loop and reduce the CPU utilization and main system memory thrashing thus improving FPS. Depending upon the situation MaxFPS will use its direct transfer of data to host application memory. Latency is further reduced by eliminating the time to write in and out of the system memory.
UltimatePing - UltimatePing will reduce the effective UDP-internal ping time (ping using UDP sockets). A UDP-internal ping is very different than a standard ICMP ping such as one might get when calling "ping" from the command line. UDP-internal ping runs over a UDP socket and includes such overhead as UDP checksum, buffer copy, real data transfer, and stack efficiency. UltimatePing is based on two technologies. First it ensures that neither your operating system nor your network card is introducing unnecessary latency into your game by ensuring interrupts from the NIC and OS are efficient. Secondarily, UltimatePing uses a side effect of MaxFPS to improve the response time in the main game loop or threads.
PingThrottle - PingThrottle is a user controlled setting that literally adds latency to any outbound network traffic, effectively increasing ping a gamer has to the server. The max latency you can add is 20ms and the latency is real as it is processed by the NPU. (The basic premise is that this will allow you to placate anyone complaining about LPBs (Low Ping B...s), although the real application of the technology can be somewhat less desirable depending on your viewpoint.)
GameFirst - GameFirst basically prioritizes your inbound and outbound network traffic so that your gaming packets are delivered or received first. This feature is very useful if you are running other applications that are uploading or downloading data while gaming.
FNA - FNA stands for Flexible Network Architecture. It is in effect the infinite flexibility of the Killer NIC. FNapps are designed to allow a user to run an application with a minimal or reduced impact on the main system's CPU, memory subsystem, or hard disk. FNapps can be anything from simple packet monitoring utilities like firewalls to full blown VoIP programs or file sharing programs like BitTorrent. FNapps can be designed to utilize the dedicated USB port as well as the Gigabit port. FNapps are designed with the included open-source Linux compiler and source code. The card includes a Linux console, 64MB of RAM, and an embedded Linux build.
The single most touted feature on the Killer NIC is the MaxFPS system that includes the LLR technology. Please note these comments as we will find out shortly if they work or not. The second most hyped feature is FNA. We believe this feature can really set this card apart from others and has the potential to be the most useful feature. Unfortunately, there are no FNapps available to test at this time. Considering the time that has passed since the card was introduced and the press material describing how easy it is to make an FNapp we would have expected something to test by now. FNapps are still MIA at this time, though we understand there might be some released over the course of the next few weeks.
UltimatePing actually worked in a few of our benchmarks. PingThrottle worked as advertised and by using it continuously during a heated Quake 4 match we were able to get kicked off the server and brandished cheaters for life. (It was fun while it lasted.) GameFirst worked but the outgoing packet prioritization worked about the same as our NVIDIA nForce 590 NIC and D-Link Gamer Lounge DGL-4100 router. The inbound capability is what makes the difference although we typically would not be caught downloading or uploading files while gaming online.
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Gary Key - Wednesday, November 1, 2006 - link
We tested these two cards as part of our Killer NIC testing routine. We did not report the numbers as they did not vary greatly from the NIVIDA 590SLI NIC solution.Crassus - Wednesday, November 1, 2006 - link
Sorry, but that plus the server test would have been very useful information I would have liked in the review. Or maybe we can have a different review, sort of a "NIC roundup". If your results are the same across the board, it's a finding worth mentioning as well, isn't it?Frumious1 - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
I bet it doesn't even beat the onboard NVIDIA NIC. Or rather, it will tie the NVIDIA solution, which means it's equal to the Killer in most situations and fractionally slower in a few games. Maybe it has lower CPU usage when doing gigabit transmits, but high bandwidth with low CPU usage isn't going to matter much for gaming. Not that any NIC related stuff matters much for gaming these days.vaystrem - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
I agree its very difficult to test NIC performance and kudos to Anandtech for trying. But, it seems to me that using the card as a server for the games where it saw the most improvement, Fear/CS, and even for those that it didn't may be more enlightening than exploring the client side of things.Gary Key - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
We set up one of our test beds as a server for a couple of the games we tested. The performance was actually worse than our NVIDIA NIC (dualnet/teaming), Intel PRO/1000 PT, and barely did better than our D-Link PCI NIC in half of the tests. We will not fault the card for its peformance since it was specifically designed as a client side card. This very well could change in the future due to their ability to optimize driver code on the FPGA unit. The article could have gone another five pages with the server and LAN tests that we completed (neither showed any significant differences). It appears from several of the comments that anything over three pages was a waste anyway. ;-)EODetroit - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
Except according to the PR material the card is made for game clients, not optimized for game servers.VooDooAddict - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
While the POSIBILITY of embeded linux apps is interesting. For someone who would have the $$ do buy this ... they would have the money to put inexpensive PC parts together into a linux machine. Likely they have spare parts leftover from thier last upgrade.Anyone else think the company name is strangly fitting? "BigFoot" ... Myth and Hype?
Certainly not saying a nice NIC isnt'a good investment ... but at almost $300 ... it's a joke. Drop the embedded linux, hit the $50 price point and this thing would probably sell like mad to WoW Addicts. (eventually also have a PCIe version)
The aegia(sp?) physics processor is the same way. Great concept, but the tangable benefits are so minimal for the price. $300 Video cards took off because there was a tangable benefit.
Dropping anothre $300 into the Storage System, Monitor, CPU, Video card, RAM, or even Audio system (surround speakers) would give one a much mroe imersive experience.
Someone made the wrong decission to stick with the embedded linux thing. Seriously a sperate leftover parts Linux box and a DLINK 4100 router would be a far better way to go.
So any guesses as to the next $300 (*caugh* gimic *caugh*) expendature to "improve" gaming?
For those comparing this to SLI/Crossfire. SLI and Crossfire can offer substantial image quality enhancements for people with large pixel count LCDs. The ability to run LCDs at native resolution for gaming is a very tangable benefit. Not something everyone agrees it worth the $$. But the benefit is there.
VooDooAddict - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
I was really hoping for somethign major from this card ... just from the perspective of reliving history.Around 10 years ago now (back around '96-'97) when NICs weren't build onboard spending $60-$70 on a 3Com 3c905 or a server class Intel NIC would make a bug differance in overall system performace when working with the Internet, LAN, and Gaming. They gave me big advantages over anyone who just went out an bought a cheapo $20 NE2000 comptable NIC (16-bit ISA even!).
I'm talking Quake 1, Duke3D, Quake 2, Quake CTF, Original Unreal... A single 3dFx VooDooGraphics Board + 3c905 = pwnage (back when "pwnage" was still a typo). I was so often accused of cheating by laptop wielding, software emulating, newbies (wasn't spelt "noob" then).
... That above is why I picked up the handle "VooDooAddict"
EODetroit - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
And they deleted it. Claiming it needed to be moved from "Testimonials" to "General" forum. Whatever, but they didn't actually move my post, they deleted it and replaced it with a post of their own, with the link, plus quoted all the good things said in the Anandtech review and none of the bad. Typical and misleading, but hey, its their web site. They can do what they want. Still, misleading people doesn't endear them to anyone.LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - link
I admire the amount of engineering that went into this product. It's obvious that the product isn't "snake oil" in the same way that, say, SoftRAM software was back in the day. There's a lot more to this card than just a NIC.That said, I don't think it provides enough benefit to justify $279 (unless perhaps you're making $50k+ a year in the PGL). Today's NICs are already pretty well optimized for most situations, plus many mainboard NICS are directly on the PCIe bus, something the Killer NIC can't offer (and as someone pointed out, try doing gig ethernet across a PCI slot; it really isn't feasible, especially if you already have the PCI bus shared with other components like a TV tuner or sound card). The Killer NIC's most interesting feature, FNApps, is not useful at the moment, and I'm still concerned that it might pose a security risk through a malformed application (that's assuming someone coded that app in the first place, considering how little marketshare the Killer NIC is likely to have). Like the Ageia PhysX, at this point in time, I don't see the justification.
P.S. Is it just me, or does the heatsink "K" look like a Klingon weapon? I'm thinking either Klingon brass-knuckles or a hybrid bat-lef. ;)