Chat Log with Bigfoot Networks

I would like to welcome the BigFoot Team. Jacob, can you please introduce our guest speakers

Hello everyone, we have Harlan on the chat who is the founder and CTO. AKA Mad Scientist

Hello everyone, it is awesome to be here chatting with the best of the best.

Just a reminder to everyone, post your questions directly into the chat. If approved EVGA will post the question and Harlan will answer. On to the first question:

Would the network card give me any benefit running my Media server Over a normal nic? Meaning will I see any improvement in Data steaming to my PS3 Or what ever I am running for my Media server for movies music and pictures while running your product?

alright guys, we have some good questions coming in.

we will be posting those shortly as we get the answers from Harlan

Short answer is it is not really what Killer is designed for.

Longer answer is (for hardcore customers only)

Since Killer Xeno is built on Linux Network Processor

it can be fine-tuned for any purpose including Media Streaming.

Has there been any testing on Killer NIC for the ping in Guild Wars, and if so, what is the results/indications?

Yes, Killer NIC performs very admirably in Guild Wars!

Yes, Killer NIC performs very admirably in Guild Wars!

Does the Xeno pro allow you to raise your ping like you could do on the older version?

RE: Guild wars, the Killer NIC forums have a great breakdown of Guild Wars performance.

RE: Xeno Pro & Ping Throttle: NO! We removed that feature from our standard toolset.

Would this Card be of any use if I'm on a Wireless N network?

3 part answer:

1.) if you use the "wired" port of a Wireless N network, then yes.

2.) if you are thinking Wireless Killer Xeno: then no... not yet.

3.) if you are playing against people on wireless-N... then you will own them.

When you say "2.) if you are thinking Wireless Killer Xeno: then no... not yet." Does that mean your planning on coming out with a wireless version?

Ah, some savvy smart readers.. I have to be careful, I've got marketing people on the chat! I can't announce anything right now regarding that. But you can infer capability possibilities for the future: we have a USB port. We have Linux... anything is possible.

Will EVGA and Bigfoot Networks ever include this product into the LOANER PROGRAM?

I will take this one

It has been added to the EVGA Loaner program already www.evga.com/elp signups are ready now.

Next question for Harlan...

So just who are these new NIC cards targeted at?

Well they were designed for many different types of gamers

1.) FPS gamers who would be interested in offloaded voice & a performance edge

2.) MMO gamers who would be interested in offloaded voice & a smoother experience (especially while backgrounding (doing stuff in background)

3.) myself & gamers like me who play both types... a lot! .

Thanks for having this chat session. Why was Linux chosen for the embedded OS (and along with that, what makes the Linux stack attractive in an embedded system compared to other embedded OS's)

fredbsd, you are very welcome, I am a huge linux fan and it is one of my boots (i 5-boot my system!)

fredbsd, please email me your ship to address, you have won a free EVGA Folding shirt for participating in the EVGA Bigfoot chat jacobf@evga.com

the short answer is that Linux is fast, flexible and readily modifiable

we will be offering a full linux development kit for the card as well as linux drivers in the near future

we will have more items to giveaway guys, might even be a killer Xeno giveaway during the chat

it is an awesome embedded O/S since we can control interrupts/tasking/real-time and so many other kernel options to count

but the #1 reason was that it allows us to rapidly develop new things like Voice chat, of all different flavors (ala Mumble, bittorrent,etc).

What use is the Killer Xeno to me if I have a low-latency fiber-optic connection to my home, and no online games that use anywhere near half of my CPU time?

its perfect for you imho, because you will see the benefits of bypassing the windows stack perhaps the most

its not about cpu time, its about kernel time and windows ineffeciency

plus for you, this means you can let Xeno download your bittorrents, handle your voic chat, and continue to enjoy gaming without any impact to your gameplay

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Say a person was using linux and wine to run fps games, what would they gain from switching to windows and using your card?

haha, well besides the benefits of not-emulating windows: you get an offload stack

this means a direct hardware interrupt to your game's Winsock interface, as opposed to traversing the linux->wine stack: you traverse only an embedded linux (highly optimized) zero-copy stack, that interrupts the game when data is available.

Would the Killer NIC be beneficial to network traffic on a game server?

Short answer: it was not designed for that purpose

longer answer: it can be tweaked for such a service, primarily as a Network Traffic Shaper, which is something that game servers should be aware of (especially if they serve multi-purpose which most do).

Will the Xeno Ultra also be apart of the EVGA lineup?

I can answer this one.

Right now EVGA launched the Killer Xeno Pro, but we have a great relationship with Bigfoot and EVGA is interested in a long term relationship using the Killer technology.

next question for Harlan

Where did the name "Bigfoot" come from?

interesting question, but it is a complex answer, I'll do my best

in truth, it has to do with TOE (TCP Offload Engine) technology Killer was built on (toe, foot, you get it)... combined with my own VERY large feet it made for a good name

then it beat out the competition because it also had a mythical quaility: something that is a personal goal

to demystify networking and give the POWER of your internet in your hands

which is why Xeno Bandwidth Control is so important: and why I love these chats with you guys!

It has just stuck!

Since there is a 400 MHz NPU will it be overclockable and is there any advantage to being able to do that

I will answer this one

Due to large amounts of VOIP traffic on large gaming servers with the combination of in-game and Ventrillo or Teamspeak type functioning team communication will this reduce game lag, especially when someone spams the mic. thanks in advance.

Not currently, but stay tuned.

Harlan can take that last question on VOIP

ah, well, i think the question is about VoIP server performance: again not really the intention of the card.

but if hte question is about someone spamming the mic causing client performance problems then BINGO!

How did the partnership between Bigfoot Networks and EVGA come about?

I will take this one

We originally were interested in using Bigfoot's technology, it was perfect timing for the Killer Xeno Pro! In the future you will see more innovative products using this technology.

Does Killer NIC perform any better in COD, and Crysis?

That one is for Harlan.

Crysis definately some serious "out of the box" benefits that are easy to measure and see: that game is just so complex that offloading/bypassing the stack really makes a difference (again see http://www.killernic.com/forums for even more games that we've tested)

COD not as much as Crysis out of the box, unfortunately, but it can be tweaked REALLY well with bandwidth control, etc.

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The current Killer Xeno Pro listed on EVGA's site has dual channel audio output and single channel audio input; Do you have any plans for a version with six channel audio output?

No plans at the moment, the reason for the dual channels is in case you want to "patch" your voice-chat in with your game-audio (using your onboard sound card --- like the CD-IN or AUX-IN port)... so short answer no plans yet... we work WITH your sound-card, not replace it.

Is Bigfoot Networks going to be prepared to support Window 7 when it is released?

Hells yes! Even sooner than release, if I have anything to say about it. Our Vista drivers already work in compatibility mode, and we are hard at work on W7 Native drivers.

Good question, rochat send me an email at jacobf@evga.com for a shirt

next question

What are gamers seeing in ping differences? Say they started out at 60ms what would they get with this card?

This full chat transcript will be available on the EVGA website later tonight.

That question I can't answer precisely because it really depends on: a.) the game. b.) the settings of the card & what else is going on in the background. c.) many other variables.... in general we see 5-10% performance benefit most of the time (especially when doing bittorrent, voice, or downloads in the background).

Can you PXE boot from the Killer Nic?

No, sorry.

Would you say there would be a bigger advantage to using the Xeno Pro with an older/slower system versus a new, top-of-the-line system?

Maybe, but sometimes there is a better upgrade option (like a better EVGA graphics card). [marketing don't be mad about that]... but a mid-of-the-line system Killer Xeno is usually a VERY good upgrade choice, bang for the buck, and especially for the EXCLUSIVE features like offloaded bittorrent & voice chat!

I've heard that driver support was an issue in the original M1/K1 killer releases. Will the Xeno ship with mature drivers? I'm specifically wondering about 64 bit versions of Vista and Windows 7, which have in the past suffered from poor driver design amongst a wide range of manufacturers.

I know the Killer Xeno supports Mumble and Teamspeak; Do you currently have plans to offload Ventrilo, and if so, what is your current estimated timeframe for release of that feature?

Sorry, Harlan can you take the driver one first then the Ventrilo question

Sure.. RE: driver stability: MUCH more stable and no problems we know of yet! This is partly because of EVGA's help in testing & working out the kinks (thanks!)... and also because our drivers & team are much more experienced.

RE: Ventrillo, I can't announce anything yet, but for me personally (not necessarily the views of all Bigfoot) I REALLY want that to happen!

I tend to play around with many OS's such as linux, many have gone to torrent distribution. How would the Killer Xeno perform on a torrent application with small pieces of a large file, as my current NIC dramatically slows my 15Mbit connection for just surfing.

I think you'll see some serious benefits with Killer if you use BitTorrent for any purpose! Not only do you get fine control over your networking bandwidth & network priorities, you can even offload Bittorrent into Killer! This feature may not be ready for a bit, but any linux hacker can compile ctorrent or rtorrent themselves and run it on Killer... we're working on bittorrent more fully functional in the near future.

How much heat is added insode the case by installing a Xeno Killer NIC?

Heimie - good question, please send your information to jacobf@evga.com for a free EVGA TShirt

Xeno is about 50% cooler than Killer NIC... and about 1000% cooler than a GPU. We use about 2 Watts RMS, and 10 Watts max. Shorter answer, VIRTUALLY NONE... just be careful about restricting airflow (but Killer Xeno is smaller so it shouldn't be a problem).

sorry guys, for some reason it looks like a few are getting dropped for inactivity, we will try to get this corrected by the next chat

So if I have really slow DSL will this help me lower my ping?

Well, yes and no.. if you've got really slow DSL, you may be better upgrading that first.. then getting a Xeno. But lets' quantify that a bit

512Mbps Down and 128Mbps Up is sufficent for gaming, providing you are NOT doing anything else

what Killer Xeno can do with a "mediocre" ISP like that, is let you prioritize and balance your bandwidth and give you a MUCH better ping and much better gaming experience.

I see you went with 128MB 266MHz DDR2 memory for this card, was there any talk of ddr3 or was that even brought up during the creation of this beast?

DDR3 is not needed yet given our I/O needs and architectural goals of the card. We are working on some Server Cards/Tech where DDR3 would be needed... that said: a DDR3 version WOULD have faster and fatter Memory access, making it a "better" General purpose Linux device,,, so many linux hackers would probably like that (and I've got 6 or 7 of them on-staff!)

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Why was the Xeno Killer NIC designed with only one ethernet port? Wouldn't it more beneficial to have to in case a user also wanted to use the card for up and downstream (for example: as a NIC card for a firewall server).

Guys make sure you check out the Killer Xeno Pro video on our videos page http://evga.com/videos/

Noooooo!!!! Don't do it man! Killer is for gaming!!! And everyone knows that MORE ethernet ports does not help gaming performance! That said, our server card/tech will have multiple ports on it (but will be beyond the average gamers price-range).

Will the technology on this be incorporated or integrated into future motherboards?

We can answer that one

This is technically possible and may look at in the future

I noticed a 3.5mm audio input and output. what is that used for? should i be using that as opposed to my sound card?

For you Harlan

No, it is for offloaded voice Chat (Teamspeak and Mumble at launch) running fully in the card

the ports are desiged to work WITH your soundcard, in 2 ways

1.) in So-Com mode you have an extra headset mic plugged into back of Xeno and your surround sound gaming connnected to your speakers (like Xbox chat style): something NO other card can do by the way

2.) in Mixed mode: you can easily patch your Xeno's audio output to your Soundcard to get game sound and voice chat sound mixed together (however you like it) in headset or speakers/surround.

I think the cables are included right?

Right

Does USB speakers like Bose have any affect on the ping or banwidth of this card

No. USB speakers work fine.

Will the "offloaded voice chat" interfere with X-FI drivers please?

Not at all, we work GREAT with X-FI.

I run it in my rig.

Will the Xeno Killer NIC allow the use of a proxy for internet browsing and data transfer?

Yes, in "application mode" this will work.

Will there be software that will allow to quick adjust the card for Max performance in different games. SO that even a novic jumping from one game to another can always get the full benefit?

A novice will NEVER get more benefit than an advanced user: but the card IS designed to work GREAT out of the box without any tweaking.

How much more time do you have Harlan?

Maybe 2 more questions

Sounds good

I'm having so much fun!

Great questions and a great group here.

Is there anything else that could limit the performance of the Killer NIC? (ie, router, modems, etc)?

That one's to you of course

Hmm, well yes and no:

yes in that those things can cause problems generally with game performance.

no in that Killer isn't designed to replace those things and IN FACT is designed to help overcome ANY ineffeciencies you do have (ala bandwidth control, voice chat offload, etc.).

Ok this is a good last question.

make sure you stay around a few mins after the chat, i am going to have a giveaway of an EVGA killer Xeno Pro card

The question was lost, but it was this:

Say I have $150 and it's going toward upgrading something in my PC. Where does this fall in the upgrade path before I get a new GPU or CPU?

thats a matter of opinion... but I can give you my experience

If you have a 7800 (or better) GPU, and you play online games a lot: a Xeno Pro is a GREAT investment, because it will stay with you from computer to computer/upgrade to upgrade, and has a lot of bang for the buck for ONLINE gamers

If you have an Athlon 64 at 2Ghz plus, I think you are also pretty good there and Xeno pro is a great upgrade

and if you have 2GB of memory, same: xen pro is a great upgrade

if you've got less then what I've listed: you might want to think about upgrading that first (that is my opinion of course.).

All right, we had some EXCELLENT questions tonight guys - thanks for your participation.

I wish we could get to them all, but we have to cut it off sometime, Harlan needs to sleep haha

Hang tight of course

Thanks again Harlan for being here!

thanks for taking the time to inform us more about the product.

You bet it was a blast! Hope to do it again soon!

Thank you Harlan for this great info on your product

Thanks EVGA for setting this up, I have never seen a CO do this before. I love it!

Thanks

thanks very much

thanks!

Thanks

There are a couple of questions left here that I think we can handle

As someone who has not used your product before, is it straight forward for first-time users to configure and fine tune your NICs for different types of connections as mentioned?

Thanks for coming.

Answer is yes, very easy

once you install the card and the driver, it automatically gets set to gamer mode

that is the best mode for online games, and no further configuration is needed

I don't have any more pci-e slots available. will this card come in a pci slot interface at some point? would that decrease its capabilities?

Currently it is only offered in PCIe format, but remember that it can fit into ANY pci express slot, including 16x, 8x, 4x

Does the offloaded voice chat support PTT (push to talk) inputs from the mouse or keyboard?

and 1x

What would you categorize as the primary benefit of a Xeno versus onboard networking? Should we view the card as a means of improving game performance, network efficiency, or both? Is there any word on a release date for the Pro? And thanks for your answers thus far - I'm much more excited about this card now that I have a clear idea of the design and reasons behind its conception.

Both really, by bypassing the network stack that gets the game data to your PC fastest. Release date is around mid April

Sorry lost a question, it was asking about the speed differences from 16x/4x etc

no difference because it operates at 1x speeds

Is the killer xeno pro avaliable at stores such as fry's and best buy?

It will be available at Frys

say someone does does a lot of large lan tranfer, will it be handy for someone to have one of these cards?

It was designed for more small packet trasfers, like gaming. File transfers will not be affected

Thanks for the questions, I will hand it over to Joe for now

alright everyone, i would like to ask everyone for a number between 1 - 50 the first one to give the number that Jacob and I are thinking.....

36

you are the lucky winner of the EVGA KILLER XENO PRO!

thank you everyone for coming to the fist of many Guest chats

wow, really? Holy cow

if you have a suggestion of who you would like to have EVGA host, plesae email joe@evga.com your suggestions

pipchaos, please email me your information

again, thank you everyone!