Final Words and Conclusions
Well there isn’t really that much to say. The KillerNIC does what it does, and does it quite well. From our tests, from the results of tests on other hardware sites, and from the guys at Bigfoot themselves, it would seem that almost every bit of criticism the card received was basically unfounded. When gamers want to beef up their system they upgrade their processor, buy another video card, add more RAM, or even stick a PhysX card in there. Do they add a NIC? We’ve certainly never heard of anybody going out of their way to use a NIC to increase FPS; then again, we’ve never really tested one before either. From our results it is pretty clear that not only can a NIC boost performance, it can do it pretty well.

In every single test we ran, and we ran a lot of tests, the KillerNIC showed a pretty decent improvement. In several of the tests we ran, the KillerNIC showed a really good improvement. These weren’t once in a lifetime tests either; they were genuine - and for the most part repeatable - tests that really give a good idea of the performance of the card.

Stepping back to what we said earlier, there is no proper way to test a NIC card. We had to devise our own custom test methods to get performance numbers for what we were trying to test. As such, the results we attained when using the KillerNIC are most likely not the same results you will read on another site. However, we do solemnly believe that our test method provided us with a very good and fair set of data.

Although we have not tested any other NIC cards, we would have a hard time believing anyone that told us that such cards could offer better performance than the KillerNIC. The performance of the KillerNIC card seems to be quite a lot higher than what is possible from a NIC in the first place, and getting higher numbers than this would seem borderline impossible. Furthermore, no other cards have the ability to run small applications – by themselves – to further boost system performance. With these things in mind, we can confidently say that the KillerNIC is probably the best way to go for gamers looking for unparalleled networking hardware. However, the KillerNIC seems to have two major drawbacks.

First and foremost is the cost - at 280 dollars, gamers are going to have a very hard time buying a card that looks more like a star-trek prop than something that will boost their computer’s performance. For gamers with high budgets, looking for the very best rig money can buy, the KillerNIC is a must-have. However, gamers with lower budgets shooting for mid-range to low-end PCs are probably going to want to look elsewhere. The second issue we see with the KillerNIC is that is has only a single Ethernet port. For business-class PCs, dual gigabit Ethernet compatibility is quickly becoming the norm, and most NIC cards on the market today facilitate this; most high-end motherboards do as well. Granted, the KillerNIC is not a product that is targeted at business-class PC users. We can’t legitimately dock any “points” from Bigfoot and the KillerNIC for this, but it would seem that a card with seemingly boundless technology at its fingertips should have more than just the one Ethernet port.

What it really comes down to is this: Gamers looking for the best network card money can buy should go for the KillerNIC. It costs a lot, but it does a lot, too. Is it worth it? We can’t really be the judge of that, as different features mean different things to different people. One thing we can do, however, is acknowledge that the KillerNIC from Bigfoot is a solid product that seems to do everything it says it does and does it quite well. For these reasons, GotFrag Hardware is proud to present the Killer Network Interface Card with our Editor’s Pick award.

Editor’s Pick – Network Interface Card (NIC)



The KillerNIC is readily available from Newegg.com