We’ve been following the development and launch of Killer NIC ever since we first heard of the network card that would be the optimal choice for gamers with high demands. Bigfoot Networks has claimed that using Killer NIC would result in a lower ping, higher fps and simply an improved overall performance when playing online games. The problem is that the price of Killer NIC is about $250, which is a bit steep considering the high quality network circuits we find on more or less all of today’s motherboards. We’ve seen a couple of reviews of Killer NIC where the results have been varying, while the references have been quite few. Anandtech has now published a review of Killer NIC which is the best so far.
Here we see how Killer NIC stands up to the integrated network circuit nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition uses, but also an external network card from D-Link. To top it all off, they’ve used a D-Link router which is suppose to offer similar features as Killer NIC for lowering the access times over the network and increase the efficiency. The conclusion is simply that Killer NIC has very few applications where it can display any noticeably better performance while at the same time the price is anything but competitive. Killer NIC seems to be heading for an early grave, if it doesn’t get a big update and a lower price soon.
“Our current opinion is, without FNapps, improved performance across a wide variety of titles, and a significantly lower price tag, this card is destined to be nothing more than an interesting footnote in the annals of hardware history.”
