Best NIC for Game Servers?

[Alex]

I am just curious what you guys use, I tried a Killer 2100, but that increased pings instead of making everything better or smoother.

[Edge100x]

The Intel gigE network adapters are the best available, at least on the server side (so I'd expect the same to be true for clients).

[Alex]

What about for servers, doesn't it have to be Toe offloading?

[Edge100x]

TOE wouldn't make a difference for game servers, since they use UDP.

UDP checksum offloading might make a very small difference if you have a slow machine, since it saves the CPU a little work, but probably not enough to notice.

[Alex]

So should I purchase this for servers?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833106121

[Edge100x]

For a server, you'd probably want a server version of the Intel card, running PCI Express or PCI-X (depending on what the motherboard can support). Most server-grade motherboards should include very good built-in ports, though.

[Alex]

Do you have links for what you suggest? I am not very good at choosing NIC cards, and I just want the best one.

[Edge100x]

PCI Express: http://www.intel.com/products/server/ad ... erview.htm
PCI-X: http://www.intel.com/products/server/ad ... erview.htm

[Alex]

PCI Express: http://www.intel.com/products/server/ad ... erview.htm
PCI-X: http://www.intel.com/products/server/ad ... erview.htm

Thanks a ton John. Will take a look at it now.