VisionTek Killer HD 5770: The GPU + NIC Combo

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Cmartin011, you are clearly missing the point. The network controllers on the motherboard use system's ram and the cpu to manage networking, whilst this has it's own RAM and a special CPU to deal with networking, and because of the drivers, can give certain programms or even connections different priorities, so you won't be bothered by your porn downloads while you are playing call of duty.
 
Dumb...I fail to see the point of combining two cards that almost certainly will never both be upgraded at the same time in the future. Upgrade your graphics card in a year and now you have to buy another $100 NIC?! I already fail to see how this Killer NIC can really do much to help gaming when port forwarding, QoS, and application prioritizing can be set up in most routers. (Even my 3 year old D-Link Gamer Lounge router does this fine). Then again if you have a SLI/XFire mainboard you could always leave this card installed when you upgrade to a better video card in the future. I'm sure that won't be a burden on power consumption......
 
The thing is its one of those gaming optimized dealies that you end up paying more for in order to lower your ping 5 points. I'm sure there would be more of a market for it if it were on the 58xx/59xx or 6000 series, newer more powerful cards where people would be willing to spend a little more, but i guess you have to start somewhere. Also, if it were wireless maybe?
 
[citation][nom]cmartin011[/nom]uhg!! don't they see most motherboard come with Ethernet standard these days? and that card is only worth 100$ at most[/citation]

While I can't say how good or bad the "Killer" network card is, the network card which is built into this video card, by itself lists for around $85 on Newegg. So the price in the article makes sense, since individually they probably have an MSRP of around $100 each.

The actual network card, is also distributed by VisionTek.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833189002
 
Go ahead and look up some reviews and stats on the Killer Nic cards vs. onboard or add-on cards...there is virtually no difference. Yes, I get that it runs its own TCP/IP stack within the hardware of the card and doesn't use system resources. What year is this? 1996? We have to make sure we don't lose 2mhz of CPU power and 2mb of system RAM to the network controller on the motherboard (BTW...didn't exist on consumer and most server boards in that day).

Seriously, almost every single onboard NIC has the ability to allow QoS, forwarding and many, many other options that were built into like BOTH network adapters on the board. Like some have also said, 99% of routers also have these features, if you REALLY want to do this on the hardware level (which would also be even more effective than doing this locally on the card).

Gimmick. Expensive one at that.
 
Conceptual idea and ultimately how pratical can this be. But i like the idea behind this as these SLI/CROSSFIRE systems are getting double slot cards leaving many of those 1x/4x PCIe slots between those 16/8x slots unavailable. I like the idea of putting some more stress on the GPU and utilizing the excessive 1/2gb of ram these things have and with HDMI audio, maybe someone like Asus can combine the Xonos sound card with a GPU. Yes many systems have audio/NIC but not all and i have a dual socket xeon board with no audio at all so i've got to use a PCIe slot for this purpose. GPU/NIC - not a fan but applaud the idea and pioneering concept to utilize those power hungry cards when not 3d gaming!
 
In terms of maybe things like Flash and etc, networking say to the graphics card might be useful, even outside like flash. Could network other services for visual input and output more easily maybe. Especially given just visual setups of use. You can now get input or and output of video card to say. No networking maybe within motherboard and cpu? Its an ok idea, and does have varies uses for it, but to expand upon the idea would require and idea the industry hasnt been much up for for awhile. Rather they continued to work within means to do so, idk. They've wanted to wait for alot of releases and developments to be made before this kinda product releases have been stated as a release for consumers.
 
Not nessecarily a bad idea, but they should perhaps restrict this combo to high end cards - I doubt any midrange system builder would desire a killer nic in the first place. it's such a gimmick that I can't imagine a success when paired with a low end/midrange gpu. It's like the p55 chipsets with pcie splitters or those hydra chips - with the money spent on the special p55 they could've bought a better chipset or two matched graphics cards instead.
 
Is this one card hosting two product?

When the drivers for one or the other become outdated, can they be upgraded without losing functionality?

(example: New Catalyst package is released by AMD. Will it be usable here? If I install that driver will the onboard NIC quit working?).
 
Gamers who would pay $200 for that are more likely to purchase 6870 instead. The Killer NIC is overpriced but clearly not as good as similarly priced server-grade NIC.
 
Interesting product, but of limited performance value. For those who like gimicky products, this is for you. For the rest of us, I just don't see the benefit (cost or performance-wise).

As indicated by many here and via multiple other sources, the whole Killer NIC argument is virtually moot (at best). Combining with a mid-tier GPU just doesn't make a lot of technical sense nor common sense. In fact, even as I try to think a bit out of the box, I see virtually no value here combining these capabilities with any GPU.
 
[citation][nom]amstech[/nom]Idiotic idea, this will sell quite poorly.[/citation]
I Disagree, those killer network cards retail for over $150. while they may be good performing, i cannot justify spending $150 on a network card, however a $200 video card that contains really $350 worth of hardware. I do think it's a good deal.
 
[citation][nom]nevertell[/nom]Cmartin011, you are clearly missing the point. The network controllers on the motherboard use system's ram and the cpu to manage networking, whilst this has it's own RAM and a special CPU to deal with networking, and because of the drivers, can give certain programms or even connections different priorities, so you won't be bothered by your porn downloads while you are playing call of duty.[/citation]

The traffic prioritization and bandwidth control can certainly be useful in some cases. Having the CPU deal with networking isn't a problem these days however - most games don't even use four cores, so you have one or two full, 3GHz cores doing nothing anyway. Maybe it's useful if you still game on a Pentium III with 256MB RAM...
 
[citation][nom]hok[/nom]Is this really needed when most boards have two NICs?[/citation]

Is this really needed when most boards have one NIC? I would guesstimate that it's few and far between your average gamer needs even more than 1 port, plus mostly higher end board only have 2 NICs.
 
I'm sure there is a minor amount of people willing to spend money on a 'gaming network card' and a minor amount of people in that minor group would need/want to spend extra money to save space/the slot. If that group is large enough to make this product profitable, great. But to me, it's an uninteresting niche product.
 
Combining a (mid-range) graphics card and a NIC does not sound like a good idea. As others have said, anyone looking for a dedicated gaming NIC is probably looking for a higher end card too. IMO, you only need this card if you do not have Ethernet already on your motherboard.

The hybrid card idea has potential, but manufacturers need to find the right combinations. Remember when motherboards did not have networking, audio, or all the other on-board perks.
 
******* awesome, a double slot solution with integrated NIC...good for all the crossfired and multi GPU rigs out there. Even if its not practical or how much it really is, you should take your hats off for what visiontek have come up with, its a step non-the-less - forward

BRAVO - I'd get one anyday - provided its available in my country :)
 
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