Dedicated Network Card - My Findings

[smogsy]

Here are my findings going from On-board Network Card to Dedicated
My Network (50M from house to Cabin)

Machine under Test
i7 3770k @ 4.6Ghz
16GB 1600MHz
MSI Mpower Z77 Motherboard
7990
Most important
Onboard
LAN 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet by Realtek® 8111E
Dedicated
Intel Gigabit PRO/1000 CT Desktop Adapter PCI-express
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-015-IN&groupid=46&catid=1597&subcat=1599

i have always wanted to test Onboard vs Dedicated but, never found a decent chance to. So now i do!
as my On-board would only reach 128mb/s from my Virgin connection but my laptop would reach 156mb/s! (difference Laptop has intel onboard!)
Steam downloads on onboard peaked at around 22/35 but would suddenly drop like it could not keep this up.

Time difference between tests Max 5-10 Minutes

Comparing Onboard to Dedicated
Test #1 - Measure Ping
Simple Ping Google.com
Onboard - 22ms Average (over 3 attempts)
Dedicated - 11ms (average over 3 Attempts)

Test #2 - TF2 max Server Ping
Used UKCS 32 man Full Server
Onboard - 57ms - (using Hl2 Console ping command) (3/3 attempts)
Dedicated - 37ms - (using Hl2 Console ping command) (3/3 attempts)

Test #3 Speed-Test
Using Namesco Server (tested each 3 times)
Onboard - 126mb/s down - 8mb up
Dedicated - 153mb/s down - 8.5mb up

You could say this could be Internet Fluctuations & indeed you are correct, But didn't have a good setup to test at the time. (Offline Only) So just used this. i'm Happy for £30 it did what i wanted. Not slowly down my throughput

Might Test Steam tonight

This thread is not to tell you if this is good or bad, just my findings. that is all.

 

[Aedus]

Looks like you had some results. I'd probably go with you having an issue with your onboard device which was causing a slower connection, which this has solved, but if the onboard device was giving you your full connection speed all the time, the results would probably be negligible.

 

[MikeTheNative]

You have Sky & Virgin internet?

 

[HazardO]

I'm not sure it's a fair comparison, it really depends on the on board network controller. I suspect the intel ones are better than the RealTek.

 

[smogsy]

thats the point ^ it was worth me upgrading others may not. but sometimes onboard is not a good as we think

yes i have sky & Virgin with autoswitching if one goes down (see my sig for setup)

 

[nuzik]

To be honest it's just in the wrong section on the forum.

 

[smogsy]

To be honest it's just in the wrong section on the forum.

possibly thought gamers might like the ping reduction

 

[ots3go]

Ping your router from both, any other difference to latency is external.

 

[KIA]

Ping your router from both, any other difference to latency is external.

This.