dslreports logo
 story category
The 'Lag Killing' Gaming NIC Returns
Still can't fix your ISPs congestion issues...

We've previously discussed how a company by the name of Bigfoot Networks has begun marketing a "Network Gaming Accelerator card" they promised would lower your latency and "kill lag." To sell gamers and investors on the idea, a few years back they released an amusing (but since pulled) pseudo-scientific whitepaper that redefined "lag" (or latency) as we traditionally know it - largely denying the reality that most causes of lag are outside the player's control (bad lines, saturated nodes, or other problems).

Click for full size
Their first generation uber-NIC offloaded all networking chores from the CPU to the card's 400Mhz processor and 64MB of RAM, resulting in some slight latency and frame-rate improvements over traditional gear. The company says they've now got a second generation version of the card named the "Killer Xeno," which comes with more memory, an upgraded network processing unit (NPU), and integrated audio for hardware-accelerated voice-chat.
quote:
Killer Xeno's voice-chat acceleration technology addresses the most requested gamer feature, and will enable the millions of online gamers worldwide who utilize these chat services to enjoy a "hiccup-free" voice experience while playing the latest generation of online games.
Of course unless your ISP just stinks, or the coaxial drop to your apartment building needs to be replaced. While the usual startup promoting sites un-skeptically paint this product as something revolutionary, you'd probably be better off saving your money (two versions of the cards go on sale in April from $129.99 & $179.99).

Most recommended from 58 comments



gattaca
Premium Member
join:2003-05-28
USA

2 recommendations

gattaca

Premium Member

This company won't be around long...

before it's bought out by Monster Cable.