Leadtek Brings WinFast Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Cards to Online Gamers

[btarunr]

Leadtek Research Inc., known globally for its extreme visual graphics technology development, today revealed the latest WinFast Killer Xeno Pro, the only network card designed to provide smoother, more responsive online game play. Leadtek will distribute the WinFast Killer Xeno Pro through online and retail channels in Taiwan, Korea and Japan, improving the competitiveness of millions of online gamers.

The WinFast Killer Xeno Pro gaming network card delivers superior online performance by putting intelligent networking technology inside gamers' PCs. Its dedicated Network Processing Unit (NPU) and innovative architecture offload network traffic, bypassing the Microsoft Windows networking stack and prioritizing competing bandwidth demands from applications such as Web browsing, music streaming, software downloads and voice chat. Its Game Detect technology identifies, prioritizes and accelerates game traffic, giving players a competitive edge in the latest online games, from shooters to MMOs. Intelligent Bandwidth Control keeps the game running smoothly and lets you allocate bandwidth to other applications so you can do more while you game.



Demand for the WinFast Killer Xeno Pro has been fueled by continued growth in the worldwide video game market. "The WinFast Killer Xeno Pro appeals to gamers at every level of expertise and all players benefit from its plug-and-play installation, which gets them into the game with minimum downtime. Competitive gamers appreciate the ability to adjust performance using Intelligent Bandwidth Control. We anticipate strong demand for this powerful and innovative networking technology," said K.S. Lu, CEO of Leadtek.

Online gamers depend on their network connection. Their network card shouldn't be an afterthought. Lab tests show that the WinFast Killer Xeno Pro significantly accelerates online games, giving players a crucial advantage in today's demanding online gaming environments.

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[brandonwh64]

Wait isnt this the same thing as the Killer NIC card that was put out not to long ago? i herd it didnt really do anything?

 

[btarunr]

It's more like something that could help people like me. I can't see a BC2 server with pings less than 150 ms (there are no BC2 servers in this country). Maybe it axes that to 70~100 ms? But to those with BC2 servers around (<70 ms), this is snake oil. To those who want to go to LAN parties with this, it's not any more useful than $200 Monster gold-plated HDMI cables.

 

[Selene]

I beta tested this when EVGA had them, and I can 100% tell you it did nothing.
Glad it was free, that was the only up side to having it.

 

[Marineborn]

i loled, id get the same performance out of sticking a poptart in one of my pci slots, LHAHAHAH

 

[btarunr]

I beta tested this when EVGA had them, and I can 100% tell you it did nothing.
Glad it was free, that was the only up side to having it.

Because probably you were playing on servers near you and the 70 ms to 50 ms latency cut it brings no observable difference to gameplay? On the other hand, a 200 ms to 150 ms cut could make all the difference in an SMG or combat knife fight.

 

[badsykes]

Because probably you were playing on servers near you and the 70 ms to 50 ms latency cut it brings no observable difference to gameplay? On the other hand, a 200 ms to 150 ms cut could make all the difference in an SMG or combat knife fight.

The NIC control the packets that enter in your computer.It can't control the packets over the ISP network or external networks.All this NIC can do is to cut 3ms or maybe 5ms because do not travel around your computer.If your remember hardware dial up modems this card basically do the same function as those..Hardware dial up modems were expensive when they were on the market and this NIC card is something like going back to the roots with same expensive price..

 

[Selene]

Because probably you were playing on servers near you and the 70 ms to 50 ms latency cut it brings no observable difference to gameplay? On the other hand, a 200 ms to 150 ms cut could make all the difference in an SMG or combat knife fight.

Not at all, my ping doing nothing was 250ish.
My ping using registry tweaks 60ish, after installing the EVGA Killer Nic, it made 0 difference.
I also tried it with out using the tweaks, and It still made little difference.
IMO the only time it seams the cards are worth it, it for older PC's that could use some help by taking the load off the cpu, and heck if your spending that type of cash, you should upgrade the PC not the NIC IMO.

 

[Yukikaze]

Useless PoS...

 

[badsykes]

I think this card is missunderstood a little.The company is at fault with this.They should market the card as a something like a multi purpose NIC to use like a torrent storage, server card and programming different networking stuff and and the gaming part should be adjacent.The company know that is impossible to control gaming packets and ping over the internet.This move to advertise like a gaming card was a very bad move from them.Is not really PoS but not worth 200$ either..If it was 50-60$ i would have bought one.

 

[Phxprovost]

Is not really PoS but not worth 200$ either..If it was 50-60$ i would have bought one.

for like $50 more i can build an atom torrent box, and use my mobo nic to do everything this card does. Does this even work in windows 7? does the os hijack everything in w7?

 

[Yukikaze]

I think this card is missunderstood a little.The company is at fault with this.They should market the card as a something like a multi purpose NIC to use like a torrent storage, server card and programming different networking stuff and and the gaming part should be adjacent.The company know that is impossible to control gaming packets and ping over the internet.This move to advertise like a gaming card was a very bad move from them.Is not really PoS but not worth 200$ either..If it was 50-60$ i would have bought one.

It isn't worth 60$, 50$ or 20$. It doesn't really do anything useful. It doesn't do what it is advertised to do, either.

For a real server you want a real server NIC, not this over-branded toy, and for home use or gaming your 1GbE on the rear of your motherboard is all you need.

 

[Zubasa]

Because probably you were playing on servers near you and the 70 ms to 50 ms latency cut it brings no observable difference to gameplay? On the other hand, a 200 ms to 150 ms cut could make all the difference in an SMG or combat knife fight.

Nope, it is proven time and time again that this card simply does nothing for modern gamming PCs.
It is more like 200ms to 199.99999999999999999999999~ ms.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

The best use for this card is currently offloading work, and not specifically networking loads. Right now I offload my firewall to it. I'd like to offload more but I think you need to use a special torrent program for that to work and I don't feel like switching from vuze. If the company got it together this card has a lot of potential as a linux system on a card, for that it'd be worth $50. In general the more things you can do with something the more it will be worth. I got mine cheap on ebay to mess with and at the least it hasn't hurt anything.

 

[Suijin]

Not at all, my ping doing nothing was 250ish.
My ping using registry tweaks 60ish, after installing the EVGA Killer Nic, it made 0 difference.
I also tried it with out using the tweaks, and It still made little difference.
IMO the only time it seams the cards are worth it, it for older PC's that could use some help by taking the load off the cpu, and heck if your spending that type of cash, you should upgrade the PC not the NIC IMO.

What Selene said, I read a review way back in time (on Tom's Harware I believe) when all CPUs were 1 core and then it did something by unloading work from the CPU. Now with multicore CPUs, and better NIC motherboard controllers of course, it really doesn't do anything for you.

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

Totally agree, this is just some PR bullshit to convince some fools to buy crap that is 10x more expensive than the normal network card just so you can feel good that you wasted all that money.
I think Leadtek is really going under, they are making one stupid product after the other. Like those remote access desktop systems, that cost about 800+ bucks just so you get a network card and a set top box that allows you to run programs on the server. This in the age of 350$ netbooks and 500$ laptops.
They are getting stupider and stupider each year, they used to be a company that tried to bring decent VGA to our computers, now they are just another business trying to sell crap labelling it silk.

 

[badsykes]

What LAN_deRf_HA said is the purpose of the card.Is an Offloading NIC that optimizes at maximum the potential of the network.It doesn't matter if it's gaming, firewalls or other program the point of this card is Offloading..From offloading and prioritizing gaming packets you get the lower ping..People should look this way at it not like how the company advertise it.
And someone said about atom box.You cannot compare a "hardware" NIC to a atom box..If i want a server yes, another pc is the way but when i want one PC that do all and i want optimized to max here comes this NIC.This can be compared to VGA's that offload the movies from CPU.For some people with specific needs like a corporate the Killer NIC may be a strategic piece of stuff in the hands of a some profesionals..This one is pretty unique because is programable..
Imagine buying many servers with this kind of NIC's and offloading the firewalls or other programs directly on the card.It brings better performance overall on the cluster and maybe a little less investment in computers itselfs..

 

[Yukikaze]

What LAN_deRf_HA said is the purpose of the card.Is an Offloading NIC that optimizes at maximum the potential of the network.

Offloading things from the CPU in a home environment is useless - You CPU is under-utilized 99% of the time anyway, so it doesn't need the offload capability in the NIC. Offloading doesn't maximize any network potential, it reduces CPU load, and nothing else.

It doesn't matter if it's gaming, firewalls or other program the point of this card is Offloading..From offloading and prioritizing gaming packets you get the lower ping..People should look this way at it not like how the company advertise it.

Prioritizing gaming packets on your computer level does next-to-nothing to ping. The queuing delays inside your home system are on the order of tens of microseconds, while the delays in the network are on the order of tens and hundreds of milliseconds. There are several orders of magnitude of difference between the two so this "prioritizing" does in effect nothing.

And someone said about atom box.You cannot compare a "hardware" NIC to a atom box..If i want a server yes, another pc is the way but when i want one PC that do all and i want optimized to max here comes this NIC.This can be compared to VGA's that offload the movies from CPU.

The comparison is invalid. Weak CPUs cannot smoothly playback high-bitrate, high-definition content, and such content also requires quite a bit of CPU time which increases power consumption during playback. This a GPU offload of decoding movies is warranted. However, on the typical traffic experienced by a home computer, any CPU from the last 10 years can keep up with the traffic with no issues, making the offloading simply useless. It looks great on paper ("Ohhh, it can offload !"), but in effect it is good for nothing.

For some people with specific needs like a corporate the Killer NIC may be a strategic piece of stuff in the hands of a some profesionals..This one is pretty unique because is programable..
Imagine buying many servers with this kind of NIC's and offloading the firewalls or other programs directly on the card.It brings better performance overall on the cluster and maybe a little less investment in computers itselfs..

You are saying this as if there's anything new in offloading networking tasks to the NIC. This technology exists in server NICs for years (Both in add-on cards, and in Lan-On-Motherboard chips), and is better implemented and with more options than the "Killer" NIC offers.

In the cluster scenario you outlined above, you want real server NICs, not, like I've already said, this over-branded, overpriced toy.

 

[btarunr]

Offloading things from the CPU in a home environment is useless - You CPU is under-utilized 99% of the time anyway, so it doesn't need the offload capability in the NIC. Offloading doesn't maximize any network potential, it reduces CPU load, and nothing else.

It's not about reducing CPU load, it's about reducing the latency involved in making the CPU (host) process network stacks.

 

[Yukikaze]

It's not about reducing CPU load, it's about reducing the latency involved in making the CPU (host) process network stacks.

True. Of course, that overhead is so insignificant in the face of overall network latency in the case of a home user, so it doesn't make this NIC any more viable, or any more needed.

 

[pr0n Inspector]

Just get an Intel GbE NIC?

 

[badsykes]

Ya it's about latency that is eliminated by switching the all packet processing to NIC CPU only instead of walking around the PC..
The price is the worst thing about this card.This is a "server" card for gamers.The market didn't have something like this and like a market for Velociraptors people will buy this NIC too
Now i own a broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit card.I wanted actually to buy the best of the breed from broadcom but it was expensive and offloads TCP/IP traffic and some server stuff that i really don't need
This is what i wanted to buy in the first place:
http://www.broadcom.com/products/Ethernet-Controllers/Enterprise-Server/BCM5708C
with this features
http://www.broadcom.com/collateral/wp/C-NIC-WP101-R.pdf

As you see many of the stuff here are very server orientated and not really home user offloading..Toe is hard to configure and maintain and not very necesarry in gamers enviroment.
Here it comes that killer NIC to create the "server-like" cards for gamers...

Again this Killer NIC is needed on the demanding market where people play WOW and look at HD movies at same time, have messenger and run some torrents in parralel and prioritize gaming packets so your wow is smooth with all crap running simultaniously..MMORPG have part of the guilt that fueled the creation of this card...The behaviour of the gamer changed completly when MMORPGS killed the gaming market..
Let the barge in eve mining and you can look at last season from lost in streaming from internet and also download the next episode from lost at the same time...I think this getting typical.BTW i am still old fashion gamer play only the game and not looking at movies simultaniosly...

 

[iamverysmart]

The NIC control the packets that enter in your computer.It can't control the packets over the ISP network or external networks.All this NIC can do is to cut 3ms or maybe 5ms because do not travel around your computer.If your remember hardware dial up modems this card basically do the same function as those..Hardware dial up modems were expensive when they were on the market and this NIC card is something like going back to the roots with same expensive price..

I call BS, shouldn't it only be able to change whatever the latency is between your computer and the router? That is usually <1ms to 1ms

Maybe this could be used for QoS?

 

[TAViX]

The question is simple. How much better than the integrated 1Gbps LAN card is? And 110$ for this card?!? WTF!

Update: Just saw some news on the Japanese TV, and it seems this card is best suited for 100, 300, or the new 1000Gbps fiber/broadband connections. Those are really popular in S.Korea and Japan, so I can understand why they are releasing the card in there mostly. I'm interested on the use of that 128MB DDR2 on board...

 

[badsykes]

iam: Packets are on the wire travelling..It's not like a hand that push them faster...
Yes the point is Qos or packet prioritization so as i said you can play an online game simultaniosly downloading a torrent and streaming a hd movie
Tavix: what i said above... Because the user can access high capacity bandwith you can do many things simultaniosly with the pipe and this card comes in handy..The memory is used with firewalls and other programs like on normal computer..