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What I think of it: To me, having a Killer NIC installed in my system is great. I love that even in games like Guild Wars, where it has very little to improve, I can still see some small benefit. I love that in other games I can see a noticeable increase in FPS and that it seems to smooth out and equalize the performance.
Now, I'm sure some of you have heard the rumors that installing a Killer NIC will cause you all sorts of headaches and problems. Let me tell you what I experienced. I am lucky enough to have a motherboard that has three PCI slots. This means I can install Killer without removing my sound card or my PhysX card. Well, it means that in theory, anyway. In reality, my motherboard refused outright to see the Killer NIC in any slot but the bottom. That was not so great, since it meant moving all my cards around until I discovered where it would work, but it was a problem with the motherboard, not the card. Fine, now it's in, I can start testing. Wrong. Once I had the card in, I found that it would randomly not power on with the rest of the system. This meant that every time I turned on my PC, there was a 50/50 shot of the Killer actually receiving power and being detected by the software. Once again, the Killer is blameless, and I can curse the manufacturer of my motherboard. A BIOS update seemed to fix this up nicely. The Killer NIC can be run in gaming mode, or normal application mode. Bigfoot claims that if you experience problems with something in gaming mode, switching to application mode should solve them. I pretty much forgot to ever switch to app. mode, since I never had a problem with any software. Firefox 2.0 is locking up, but the same problem occurs on my laptop and my work PC, so I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with the Killer NIC. I think a majority of people tend to blame the most recent change in their system, rather than realize that adding something to the system can expose an existing instability. Add to that the fact that the Killer NIC has, in the past, had a few problems of its own and I can see why people automatically blame it for their problems. However, I want to be clear here, I experienced no actual problems with the Killer NIC itself. In fact, when I installed it on my fiancée's system, I had no trouble at all - from the card or the system. Who I think can benefit most: Drawing a conclusion from testing on my own PC as well as a lower end PC, I would have to say the people who would benefit the most are people with mid-range PC specs. My fiancée's PC is by no means the slowest thing I have heard of running WoW or GW, but it can certainly benefit from less CPU overhead. It could also benefit from a new processor, new RAM, and a new video card, all of which would require a new motherboard. Adding all that up, it would definitely be cheaper to purchase a Killer NIC for a boost in performance. For people with really low end systems, you will undoubtedly benefit more from upgrading your other components than from installing a Killer NIC. You simply don't have the resources to free up to see any benefit. For those of us with higher-end PCs, it comes down how much you are willing to do to increase performance, and if you are willing to do it intelligently. For example, I could very well upgrade my BFG 7800 GT video card to a 7900 model, but it would be cheaper to install a Killer NIC, and the performance boost would be greater. However, I could certainly save that money and upgrade my processor to an AMD FX for an even greater performance boost. For the people who already have the latest and greatest, let's face it: You have probably spent more than the gross national product of some countries upgrading your rig. If you are in to squeezing every last ounce of performance from your system, $280 for 1 or 2 more FPS is probably worth it to you. (At the time I am writing this, the Killer NIC can be picked up for $249 from many online stores. The MSRP is still $279, however.) Final Thoughts: What it boils down to is that the Killer NIC does what it says it does, and you can definitely feel the difference in MMORPG games. It may not appeal to everyone, but I think that those of you who do pick one up will be pleased. As an added bonus, Bigfoot Networks will undoubtedly be releasing more FNA programs in the future, which can only improve its value. And me? You'll have to compete with my fiancée to get it away from me. Now excuse me, I feel the urge to go hurl fireballs at some orcs. * How hardcore is Harlan Beverly? He met his wife online while playing Ultima Online. Their characters married and had two children, Christopher and Samantha. Eventually, Harlan and his wife married in real life, had two children, and named them - you guessed it - Christopher and Samantha. Harlan says the biggest difference between his online family and his real family is that he can't send the children off to mine gold for him. ** For those of you not familiar with these shows, I offer the following explanation: In Star Trek, characters gibber on and on about technology and exactly how they are going to make it do what they need it to do. In Farscape, when a character attempts a techno-babble explanation he is quickly shushed by other characters who don't care how it works, they just care that it works. |
Bigfoot KillerNIC Review
