Killer gaming networking

Intel is acquiring the company behind Killer gaming networking cards New, 13 comments. Share this story Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share All sharing options Share All sharing options for: Intel is acquiring the company behind Killer gaming networking cards. Linkedin Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Intel declined to share the transaction price for the acquisition. Next Up In Gaming. Sign up for the newsletter Verge Deals Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week.

Just one more thing! QoS prioritizes important time-sensitive data over less crucial data streams. That can result in games that stutter and stall while the rig is grabbing some updates. On the other hand, with a gaming router that supports QoS, gaming can take priority over other types of data, resulting in smooth gameplay even when other traffic is hogging bandwidth. While QoS is a sine qua non of a gaming router, all QoS is not equal.

The first is to have the router prioritize by device, and the second approach is to have the router prioritize by application. While D-Link and ASRock models we looked at prioritize by device, this is the less preferred strategy. The approach favored by Asus and Netgear is to have gaming applications configured to get the priority over lower priority applications.

From the screenshot above, the software of the Netgear X4S router offers four tiers of priority for network traffic:. The manual mode offers more granular control of each of the four categories of traffic, which can be assigned a user selected level of priority.

Each router is different, so check your router's manual to see what QoS settings are offered and how to change them. The other point of intervention is to shape and prioritize the traffic at the level of the device.

It was hard to justify the price as the reviews were less than favorable. The company has gone through some iterations since then, most recently becoming independent under the umbrella of Rivet Networks. The secret sauce here is termed Advanced Stream Direct 2. The software can configure bandwidth limits separately for both upload and download for each running software application, making this particularly valuable for a gaming rig that is also multitasking during a gaming session.

Advanced Stream Direct 2. For the sake of completeness, the Killer NIC also has Double Shot Pro that is designed to use internet access from two sources simultaneously, such as broadband from an ISP and municipal Wi-Fi for a user fortunate enough to have two sources of broadband simultaneously. Native Windows can only make a single internet connection at a time with non Killer hardware. Filter By:. Product Name.

Embedded Options Available. Cabling Type. Port Configuration. Data Rate Per Port. System Interface Type. Pretty good deal, when taken as a set of separate controllers.

The problem comes from the extended driver package for gamers that tries to combine these separate controllers via the Killer network manager. This adds bandwidth control and network priority rules to the mix and allows simultaneous use of all network controllers to assist with routing.

This is meant to ensure the latest games and important software get fast-lane bandwidth privileges. Everything seems to install and work smoothly, but test results were less optimistic. With a single exception, no tests or combination of settings made any difference, even when two or more separate local servers were accessed for copy operations, a best-case scenario configuration that bypasses some bandwidth limits. Without rule adjustments, file copy operations get routed off to Wi-Fi where they languish at low speeds.

This is the experience out of the box. When run with the latest downloaded rules, network file copy operations are shunted to Wi-Fi in a fruitless quest to preserve network speed, even when no high-priority network tasks are in evidence.

This predictably results in slower overall operation and produces some embarrassing results, especially in general use, with no measurable advantages gained in return.