Is the Intel I225-V Ethernet chip still a buggy piece of...

[trparky]

I've been reading elsewhere on the Internet that a lot of people seem to be having problems with the Intel I225-V Ethernet chip and that it should be avoided at all costs. However, it seems that it's quite popular with the motherboard manufacturers.

Is the I225-V still a buggy piece of shit? Or has it been fixed?

 

[Bill_Bright]

I am going to assume it depends on the age of the device. There is no reason for any manufacturer to keep manufacturing and selling products with known bugs. It is not like they have to "retool" a factory. They just need to fix the code they burn into the firmware. So if your product was recently produced, no doubt those bugs have been fixed.

That said, firmware can be updated in the field too. And it is my understanding, updated firmware has addressed the problem - which, BTW, was not nearly as widespread as reports suggested. As has become typical over the last few years, a single incident can be reported and repeated 1000s and 1000s of times, making it appear to be very widespread. Of course, if that single incident happened to you, that does not make it any less frustrating.

 

[R-T-B]

There is a revision that fixes it. It's quite good. However, there is still a lot of buggy stock floating around. Yes, on early boards the problem was quite widespread, and required a silicon respin.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Yes, on early boards the problem was quite widespread

"Quite widespread" is a relative term. When millions are out there, and only a few 1000 are affected, is that "widespread"? It is not like the problem was so bad, they had to pull inventories off the shelves and/or conduct a recall.

Still, 1 is too many - especially if it affects you.

 

[freeagent]

I've have two boards that are a couple of years old that have it. My Strix-F is a little more sensitive to a crummy cable than my XE, but outside of that it works really well. And on my main system the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are actually pretty good.

 

[R-T-B]

When millions are out there, and only a few 1000 are affected, is that "widespread"?

of the early revisions 100% were affected. It only really shows though at above gigabit speeds... which is the products goal.

 

[Bill_Bright]

of the early revisions 100% were affected.

Gotta link?

Obviously, if the bug is in the code used to program the product, then all products with that code will have the bug. But just because a product has a bug, that does not mean that bug affects a user. Or more significantly, that it affects ALL users.

Surely, Intel does in-house beta testing. OF COURSE no company can test with EVERY possible scenario. But they sure test with a multitude of common configurations and scenarios.

You say above Gigabit speeds - that reflects my point. The vast majority of users don't have routers or modems or Internet service that support those speeds.

I am NOT defending Intel, or trying to downplay the problem - just put it in perspective.

 

[freeagent]

A driver update back in 2020 or 2021 took care of many of the issues that I had.

 

[kiriakost]

Current Intel i225 2.5GbE NICs Are Missing a Big Feature

Current Intel i225 2.5GbE NICs are missing a big feature. As an industry, we need Intel to release new 2.5GbE NICs suitable for servers

www.servethehome.com

 

[Ware]

I'd just avoid it. After seeing the issues still present on Z690's, it was clear to me that either manufacturers were still knowingly using defective chips, or the newer chips still had defects - either way it's one to avoid if you can.
I225-V v1 has much lower throughput than any other gigabit nic I've tried here, even really old ones.
Latency seems fine, but in any large transfer I225-V falls way behind(like 1/2 - 2/3 the speed of other nics).
I can limit my bandwidth with my router QOS and see that for whatever reason, my I225-V v1 becomes less efficient with more bandwidth.
None of my systems actually get full gigabit, but other nics here get around 900Mb.

They just need to fix the code they burn into the firmware. So if your product was recently produced, no doubt those bugs have been fixed.

The fix was a new revision of the hardware. The firmware "fix" is only for fallback to 1Gb when 2.5Gb fails.
The device has other problems besides the fact that it doesn't work with most 2.5Gb hardware
I seriously doubt that the entire production of I-225V v1 was "only a few 1000", and newer revs may have other issues.

of the early revisions 100% were affected. It only really shows though at above gigabit speeds... which is the products goal.

It's not just above gigabit - it might not even get close to gigabit.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I seriously doubt that the entire production of I-225V v1 was "only a few 1000"

That's not what I said.

and newer revs may have other issues.

If I based my purchase decisions on what "future" versions of a product "may" have, I would never buy anything - ever.

It seems your minds are made up. The 1-225V was, is, and never will be worth considering.

I'm done here. Have a good day.

 

[trparky]

I’m thinking it might be safer to avoid this chipset at all costs if I have the chance to get a board with a Realtek chip instead. The bad part is that a lot of boards use this chip which limits my options.

Even AMD boards come with this chip on them which is kind of stupid if you ask me.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
z490 apex 1225-v seems fine I'm still on bios just before win-11 compatibility stuff hit though
Think the wireless was a little slow but thought that was a crappy xfinity modem wifi because had the same issue on x299 wifi.

My x299 is on 1219-v always been fine never used wifi until recently then gave up a hardwired every thing

I’m thinking it might be safer to avoid this chipset at all costs if I have the chance to get a board with a Realtek chip instead. The bad part is that a lot of boards use this chip which limits my options.

Even AMD boards come with this chip on them which is kind of stupid if you ask me.

You can always just get an addon card.

 

[Vya Domus]

You can always just get an addon card.

Yeah but having to buy a networking card like it's the 90s again because a basic onboard component sucks is quite ridiculous

 

[trparky]

Yeah but having to buy a networking card like it's the 90s again because a basic onboard component sucks is quite ridiculous

A lot of people on Reddit seem to think that Intel should be forced to recall these things.

 

[thewan]

It seems to me on my end my system with the onboard i225v has the same problem I had with realtek gigagbit NICs before this, they can't run at their best supported speeds when connected to a validated working cat 6 cable and a router that supports the same speed at the other end. the i225v can't negotiate 2.5gb and even gigabit when connected to the 2.5gb port of my AX86u router, going down to 100mb instead. However, when connected to the gigabit port on that same router, Gigabit is negotiated and works fine.

This is the exact same behavior as the previous realtek gigabit ones on this same network, when connected to the gigabit port of my previous AC68u router, it would go down to 100mb instead. But every single other non realtek router negotiated gigabit with the exact same cable, router and router port. I had desktop intel gigabit, broadcom gigabit on older macbooks, qualcomm gigabit on my old personal laptop, and another desktop killer e2200, all of them no issue with getting gigabit speeds. the two desktop boards that had realteks refuse to negotiate gigabit and always go down to 100mb. i swapped one motherboard to another one with an intel, the other board installed an addon card that specifically used an intel nic, problem solved.

and now intel is doing this exact same thing. I have a feeling intel swapped engineers with realtek here and end up with a terrible deal.

 

[Space Lynx]

I've been reading elsewhere on the Internet that a lot of people seem to be having problems with the Intel I225-V Ethernet chip and that it should be avoided at all costs. However, it seems that it's quite popular with the motherboard manufacturers.

Is the I225-V still a buggy piece of shit? Or has it been fixed?

Yes it is, my gigabyte z690 board i was using with raptor lake had a Intel LAN port, AND IT PISSED ME OFF TO NO END... internet would randomly drop every few minutes on it, and it was not just me, I googled it and apparently this particular LAN controller has this problem for a few years now... why companies still use it is beyond me.

STAY THE FUCK AWAY WITH A TEN FOOT POLE

I refunded my Gigabyte mobo in the end and sold my raptor lake on. Fuck Intel.

 

[tabascosauz]

I've been reading elsewhere on the Internet that a lot of people seem to be having problems with the Intel I225-V Ethernet chip and that it should be avoided at all costs. However, it seems that it's quite popular with the motherboard manufacturers.

Is the I225-V still a buggy piece of shit? Or has it been fixed?

It *should* have all been fixed with the few hardware steppings early on (years ago now), but people still don't like it. Hard to tell whether that's just a stubborn reputation that's hard to shake off, or actual issues.

The problem is that most people don't realize is that the chip is only half the equation - the board vendor's design and implementation of the NIC is just as if not more important.

Case in point, realtek 2.5Gbe (unlike realtek 1Gbe) is generally regarded as a reliable choice, but Gigabyte has had a running reputation for ruining it on various late AM4 (B550) boards with it and never really fixing it. In addition to also ruining AX200 Wifi and BT functions on those boards. It's a good thing that my B550I Aorus AX is in my portable PC and always on Wifi (the AX200 is still excellent), because on wired the RTL8125 far underperforms compared to the various other RTL8125 boards I have (B550M TUF, B550 Strix-I, B550 Unify-X).

The Aorus also had the AX200 bluetooth disappearing act, but that was largely fixed by AGESA 1200. The RTL8125, not so much

 

[trparky]

STAY THE FUCK AWAY WITH A TEN FOOT POLE

Ok then, stay away from that chip. I will do that.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Think bad memory oc and latency effect the intel nic.

 

[Space Lynx]

Hi,
Think bad memory oc and latency effect the intel nic.

good, they don't effect a Dragon nic, so my conclusion still stands, Intel can piss right off mate, Gigabyte too for that matter.

 

[ThrashZone]

good, they don't effect a Dragon nic, so my conclusion still stands, Intel can piss right off mate, Gigabyte too for that matter.

Hi,
Only gigabyte I'll agree with that
My asus apex system is doing just fine.
I had a z490 formula briefly that had both intel and giga lan and there was one dude that was complaining about the nic on ROG forum I still wasn't having issues his was he wasn't getting the advertised speed or some thing
I had no local network to test the issue.

 

[Space Lynx]

Hi,
Only gigabyte I'll agree with that
My asus apex system is doing just fine.
I had a z490 formula briefly that had both intel and giga lan and there was one dude that was complaining about the nic on ROG forum I still wasn't having issues his was he wasn't getting the advertised speed
I had no local network to test the issue.

Maybe it is only a problem for those of us who are pulling more than 1 gig download speeds. I actually was using 1.4 of the 2.5 gig capability (I have insanely fast internet) and my guess is the Intel Nic has some glitch it in that shuts it down when its working at super fast speeds... seemed to work fine browsing the web, but as soon as Steam started downloading a game and it broke a barrier of speed... it would start disconnecting me more frequently, etc.

the Dragon 2.5 has had 0 issues and 0 disconnects just an fyi.

 

[freeagent]

I really have no complaints with either of mine.. no bugs, everything was resolved with a combo driver/firmware update. Its actually pretty sweet, but there seems to be a lot of hate so maybe I am just lucky

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah my speed is listed as 1200mbps don't believe the nic is able to do that but this is x299 1219v

Have to also figure speed is also limited by where ever your downloading from.