Nice, I saw the E2600 earlier this week and couldn't find any information on it (outside of driver references). Any word on new design wins for the E3000 (2.5Gbps)? It seems to be more interesting to me.
So Ian does this really help a laptop or desktop user when playing games? I mean if the Intelligence Engine is prioritizing workloads like an advanced QoS don't you need more than just one or two workloads from a laptop or desktop for it to matter? Maybe it's just me but I don't see this tech being very useful outside of a router.
Rivet is working with Netgear and have some products together. It helps with games by virtue of deprioritizing updates, but also the optimization tool might help streamline some system elements that like to take Cpu time or networking away from the game.
Ignore anyone that says it is marketing software fluff. It's a real complex hardware engine that does a lot of the work. The benefits are hard to quantify directly, and a lot of people don't like that, but indirect benefits are numerous. I'm waiting for a Killer 10G nic and I'll probably transfer over.
I think the optimization tool sounds interesting, but that's only because I don't know enough about Windows' network settings to do it myself. As far as prioritizing web traffic, it's really quite simple. If you don't have enough bandwidth, then don't be watching 4k video while gaming. If you want to be selfish, go buy a "gaming" router and turn it on game mode so nobody else can watch 4k video while you game. However, they will interrupt you to tell you the internet sucks.
All I can say about gaming performance is that the intel nic never has any issues and the killer one gives me random disconnects. Granted I never changed anything in software. Still on a back then 100mbit fiber connection this should not happen.
Yup, QCA designs for the ethernet chips, they must've been thinking of the Killer wireless chips which are rebadged Intel designs.
Thankfully, you can use the standard QCA driver sets on them too, then they at least work as well as any other QCA ethernet controller (that is to say not quite as well as the Intel ethernet controller my current mobo also has which delivers slightly lower latency and CPU load for sustained transfers.)
Wake me up when Rivet announces the company is going bankrupt or being sued via class action for misleading marketing. Those would be press releases worth getting excited about.
Honestly, I'm not a fan of Killer, quite the opposite actually as I got burned with their early nic's as so many others did with terrible drivers and support. They have slowly made a decent comeback and now that they are using Intel tech with Killer software it's pretty decent. Anything that helps latency and bufferbloat is good imo. Killer just makes the optimizations easy and accessible to users. The options to tweak network settings have always been available to help games but you need to know what you are doing. Sadly, even if common Joe gets Killer on client side, still tons of room left for bad networking with modem, router, cables, wireless, etc. So, in the end, you still need to know what you are doing when it comes to optimizing your network for latency and packets. Hopefully new wifi standard coming up will fix a lot of old issues with wireless. It's definitely a step in right direction. But if you game, please, learn to optimize your network and wifi or just plug it in ffs.
Killer stagnated a lot under Qualcomm. Its now its own entity not tied to qualcomm at all, and they're now making vast improvements and taking feedback.
One of their NICs came with a MoBo I had a while ago. I found it nice to de-prioritize game updates or battle.net updates (when I played blizzard games) over other traffic, and the software was very simple to use. Probably can get just as much with QoS shaping in Windows directly, but I'm not a Network Admin, so none of it makes enough sense to me to do on my own.
That being said, I can't say that it made that much of a difference. If they're now piggybacking off Intel Networking chips, that's probably a good thing.
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jeremyshaw - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Nice, I saw the E2600 earlier this week and couldn't find any information on it (outside of driver references). Any word on new design wins for the E3000 (2.5Gbps)? It seems to be more interesting to me.AdditionalPylons - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
I would also very much like to hear if there are any news on 2.5/5/10 Gbps NICs (any manufacturer).Dahak - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
Realtek has a 2.5g chip. Not sure how new its is. Noticed it on some of the announced x570 boardsFreckledTrout - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
So Ian does this really help a laptop or desktop user when playing games? I mean if the Intelligence Engine is prioritizing workloads like an advanced QoS don't you need more than just one or two workloads from a laptop or desktop for it to matter? Maybe it's just me but I don't see this tech being very useful outside of a router.Reflex - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
No. They do not help games. It's just marketing and software that is often problematic.Ian Cutress - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
Rivet is working with Netgear and have some products together. It helps with games by virtue of deprioritizing updates, but also the optimization tool might help streamline some system elements that like to take Cpu time or networking away from the game.Ignore anyone that says it is marketing software fluff. It's a real complex hardware engine that does a lot of the work. The benefits are hard to quantify directly, and a lot of people don't like that, but indirect benefits are numerous. I'm waiting for a Killer 10G nic and I'll probably transfer over.
Rumpelstiltstein - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
I think the optimization tool sounds interesting, but that's only because I don't know enough about Windows' network settings to do it myself. As far as prioritizing web traffic, it's really quite simple. If you don't have enough bandwidth, then don't be watching 4k video while gaming. If you want to be selfish, go buy a "gaming" router and turn it on game mode so nobody else can watch 4k video while you game. However, they will interrupt you to tell you the internet sucks.qlum - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
All I can say about gaming performance is that the intel nic never has any issues and the killer one gives me random disconnects. Granted I never changed anything in software. Still on a back then 100mbit fiber connection this should not happen.Rumpelstiltstein - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
Killer doesn't design the hardware themselves anymore, and last I heard they were using Intel NICs.CheapSushi - Saturday, June 1, 2019 - link
I believe they're Qualcomm Atheros, from what I remember reading.Azurael - Sunday, June 2, 2019 - link
Yup, QCA designs for the ethernet chips, they must've been thinking of the Killer wireless chips which are rebadged Intel designs.Thankfully, you can use the standard QCA driver sets on them too, then they at least work as well as any other QCA ethernet controller (that is to say not quite as well as the Intel ethernet controller my current mobo also has which delivers slightly lower latency and CPU load for sustained transfers.)
mooninite - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
1Gb? In 2019? Immediately DOA. Any new networking products *must* be 2.5/5/10Gb capable (at least one of the 3 speeds).Lord of the Bored - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
"Any new networking products *must* be multi-Gb."There you go.
PeachNCream - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Wake me up when Rivet announces the company is going bankrupt or being sued via class action for misleading marketing. Those would be press releases worth getting excited about.ST33LDI9ITAL - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Honestly, I'm not a fan of Killer, quite the opposite actually as I got burned with their early nic's as so many others did with terrible drivers and support. They have slowly made a decent comeback and now that they are using Intel tech with Killer software it's pretty decent. Anything that helps latency and bufferbloat is good imo. Killer just makes the optimizations easy and accessible to users. The options to tweak network settings have always been available to help games but you need to know what you are doing. Sadly, even if common Joe gets Killer on client side, still tons of room left for bad networking with modem, router, cables, wireless, etc. So, in the end, you still need to know what you are doing when it comes to optimizing your network for latency and packets. Hopefully new wifi standard coming up will fix a lot of old issues with wireless. It's definitely a step in right direction. But if you game, please, learn to optimize your network and wifi or just plug it in ffs.Ian Cutress - Friday, May 31, 2019 - link
Killer stagnated a lot under Qualcomm. Its now its own entity not tied to qualcomm at all, and they're now making vast improvements and taking feedback.CheapSushi - Saturday, June 1, 2019 - link
I honestly want them to create another PCIe NIC card again.erple2 - Sunday, June 16, 2019 - link
One of their NICs came with a MoBo I had a while ago. I found it nice to de-prioritize game updates or battle.net updates (when I played blizzard games) over other traffic, and the software was very simple to use. Probably can get just as much with QoS shaping in Windows directly, but I'm not a Network Admin, so none of it makes enough sense to me to do on my own.That being said, I can't say that it made that much of a difference. If they're now piggybacking off Intel Networking chips, that's probably a good thing.
A.Hamster.Gaming - Wednesday, June 26, 2019 - link
Their parent company has a website that is inaccessible. That's a bit troubling...rivet network