I wonder how this compares to low end enterprise class Ethernet nics such as intel pro series, and various nics made by 3com and cisco. The article suggested a forthcoming review; hopefully they will be comparing competing products in the same price range rather than comparing it to onboard/cheapie $20 nics which don't even offload the processing.
[citation][nom]mavroxur[/nom]It seems that many people don't understand the benefit of having a hardware engine processing the TCP stack. While I have to agree, for the average user doing gaming / light file transfers, the benefits are negligible, under heavy throughput, there is a considerable difference.[/citation]
I think marketing a high end nic (if this truly is one) to end users is questionable as far as a business decision for the very reason you mention. On-board and cheapie nics are not great for high demand use. There's benefit even to end users / gamers, but I'm not sure it's worth the price to most. Personally I think if all you're concerned about is your quake score or your wow ping you should probably look elsewhere as neither of these put high demand on a nic. Obviously there's *some* market for it, but I'm suprised "killer nic" or whatever the company is called can survive on this business alone. Perhaps that's why you see companies like eVGA selling killer nic products now.