The Killer NIC hardware now comes integrated into gaming motherboards and gaming laptops from manufacturers such as Acer, Alienware, AsRock, MSI, and Gigabyte. The company has gone through some iterations since then, most recently becoming independent under the umbrella of Rivet Networks. It was hard to justify the price as the reviews were less than favorable. Yeah, we all remember a decade ago when the original Killer NIC card came out at a budget busting price of $279. On a gaming PC, this is what the networking hardware from Killer NIC can do. The other point of intervention is to shape and prioritize the traffic at the level of the device. Killer's Network Manager QoS prioritizes data from the client-side. Each router is different, so check your router's manual to see what QoS settings are offered and how to change them. The manual mode offers more granular control of each of the four categories of traffic, which can be assigned a user selected level of priority. The QoS setting on the Netgear X4S can run in the default mode as above, or in a manual mode. From the screenshot above, the software of the Netgear X4S router offers four tiers of priority for network traffic: The approach favored by Asus and Netgear is to have gaming applications configured to get the priority over lower priority applications. While D-Link and ASRock models we looked at prioritize by device, this is the less preferred strategy. The first is to have the router prioritize by device, and the second approach is to have the router prioritize by application. From our recent look into the Best Gaming Routers, there are currently two approaches to QoS. While QoS is a sine qua non of a gaming router, all QoS is not equal. On the other hand, with a gaming router that supports QoS, gaming can take priority over other types of data, resulting in smooth gameplay even when other traffic is hogging bandwidth. That can result in games that stutter and stall while the rig is grabbing some updates. Without this, Windows’s never-ending update downloads are given the same priority as gameplay data. QoS prioritizes important time-sensitive data over less crucial data streams. The technology we’re concerned with is known as Quality of Service, often abbreviated as QoS, which allows a router to act as a data traffic cop. With so many devices competing for the your bandwidth, you need a router that has some technology to help shape the traffic baked into its DNA. Netgear's router QoS interface is easy enough for most users to configure. The two points of intervention are at the router, and at the computer’s network interface card (NIC). Now that we have our computer connected and the ISP issues worked out, we turn our attention to further optimizations that can be done to the network. These routers, while fine in their day, are also not designed for multiple devices they aren't designed to handle all of the smartphones, tablets, and media streaming devices that clog up a modern home network. A router is the grand poobah of a network, and 802.11n (or the even slower 802.11g) gear simply cannot keep up with the demands of today’s high speed games. Just like you would not game with a basic five dollar mouse designed for word processing, it’s preferable to have something a little more substantial than the basic router your ISP gives you. Though it’s less desirable, wireless is increasingly used by a significant number of gamers, with the understanding that the convenience of wireless has a higher latency, lower security, and reduced stability compared to a wired connection. However, given the configuration of so many houses, only the most dedicated will be moved to renovate just for network considerations. Wired Ethernet should be your first choice when it comes to connecting your PC to your network. However, CAT6 offers less interference over longer distances than CAT5e. If you have a bunch of CAT5e lying around, use that. In the vast majority of cases, CAT5e or CAT6 Ethernet cabling will be more stable and offer less interference. With the need for a stable, secure, and low latency connection, serious gamers will espouse the benefits of a wired connection. Routers built with gaming in mind, like this D-Link AC5300 Ultra, often offer more advanced features like QoS and MU-MIMO.
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