Killer gaming WiFi adaptor released
The wireless card is likely to include Bigfoot's proprietary NPU (network processing unit).
As ever, the launch has been accompanied by some eye catching numbers, with Bigfoot claiming that the Wireless-N offers transfer speeds up to five times faster than those of standard WiFi adaptors.
This, says Bigfoot, will enable laptop gamers to have the edge over opponents who don't have comparable networking kit, cutting down on latency and lag.
Bigfoot Networks' CEO Michael Howse was also quick to point out that wireless connections are usually unsuitable for other online activities that are sensitive to wireless packet loss, such as VOIP and HD video streaming.
He went on to state that 'with our innovative networking technology and advanced 802.11n hardware, Killer Wireless-N adapters not only accelerate performance for online games, they also reduce stuttering, excessive buffering and other annoyances in video chat and on-demand entertainment services.'
To achieve this performance, the card purportedly uses a number of clever range-enhancing 802.11n technologies to maximise the bandwidth available to the PC, which Bigfoot has developed itself. The card will also come bundled with the Advanced Stream Detect traffic prioritisation technology and Visual Bandwidth Control software, which Bigfoot currently ships with its desktop gaming network cards.
We’ve been pretty scathing in our criticism of the Killer range of network cards in the past, but Bigfoot could finally be onto a winner by targeting the unreliable world of wireless networking, which is often ridden with packet-loss issues. After all, trying to play competitively over a buggy wireless network can be a very frustrating experience.
Do you game on your laptop? Does a wireless card that prioritises gaming traffic sound like it would be useful? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums Reply/rant.
Fixed :D
It's all down to setting things up properly. I use a decent wireless-N usb dongle positioned clear of obstacles, choose a clear channel so no interference from neighbours and rarely have any trouble at all.
In my experience the quality of connection is affected more by how good your ISP is, whether there is congestion anywhere along the route to the server and if anybody at home is downloading.
I do agree that producing a killer wifi card is a waste of time without sorting the router as well as the connection is only as good as the weakest link.
Exactly what I was thinking. ;)
I game wirelessly and have no difference in pings no extra lag from when I used ethernet cable.
Were they comparing it to a 802.11g adaptor by chance?
Once the wifi adaptor is working normally, it's ALL in the router. We know that...they're trying to fool the wrong crowd, methinks.
for example in chop tests against a wireless g.. we used a popular wireless card with high wattage- it ran a 40 second chop
same distance we ran a card that was 4 times weaker in wattage but was the newer n type, using the same 9 dbi antennae- did it in 12.. same 2.4-2.5ghz range so it's not using the higher frequency either
with 18 dbi directional of course even better
so they may have a claim, but they aren't the only ones.. I ended up amping the sucker and probably have the best setup for wireless that would blow the socks off this card- for a lot cheaper too
thing is I maybe plan to sell these as kits.. so I can't be giving up the exact details as I normally would (you guys know me- give up all the secrets and if someone is being a fanboi they get the pumpkin to the face :o)
Of course they're faster. They use double the radio bandwidth, and use MIMO.
There's a difference between frequency and bandwidth. The frequency is the centre frequency that the signal is modulated about (somewhere 2.4-2.5GHz in this case) and bandwidth is the width of the channel within that (20MHz for b/g, 40MHz for n).
Yes seriously, lol, most of us here know that not all hardware is equal and some is simply not worth paying over the odds for, false and often exaggerated claims, marketing ploys, etc
Afterall, it's not just about pure speed, surely it's about having a high or at least consistent throughput, especially for games vs multimedia streaming or web browsing. If all hardware was equal then we'd all be using the same products made by one manufacturer, now that would be a dull world indeed!
Yes I'd rather have a wired connection than wireless anyday and onboard Lan connections suffice for my needs but my needs aren't every ones.
n is not in the 2.4-2.5 range.. we used the same router for both tests- I know n is faster because it runs in the 5k range =]
we were expecting the higher power would always win considering it was using the same freq.. not bandwidth but latency related, I know what your saying but it was to the exact same g wireless router- so all I can think of is the b/g/n card either has better drivers written for it, or the hardware is changed like killer is claiming here
or another possible difference was the antennae we used- it was really interesting to see
Or at the least, I wonder why Monster hasn't taken into the PC market yet. I'd love to see a $499 500W PSU and $65 SATA cables.
Why don't they make enterprise hardware? Because their product is snake oil.
Edit: seems there are two models. One that has N up to 300mbps the other 450mbps. Interesting.
Actually they have been proven time and again to work, it's also been proven that they miniscule increase in stability is not worth the cost unless you happened upon one for free.
Nope, Dual Band N uses a frequency that is in the 5Ghz range, in addition to one at 2.4-2.5Ghz. Hence it has a max theoritical throughput of 600Mb/s, it's using 2 channels. Standard 802.11n runs at 2.4-2.5Ghz.
As for the card itself, it's probably decent as a wireless card goes, but nothing I would shell out big money for, and certainly not for something with as much snake oil attached as this.