We talk with Harlan Beverly, Co-Founder of Bigfoot Networks about the original Killer N.I.C and their second card, the Killer Xeno.

If you're a hardcore gamer, you've probably seen advertisements for the Killer N.I.C that's whole claim is it will help "deliver the smoothest, fastest online gaming experience you can get out of your system & ISP". I've been using the original card for a couple of months now, and it's not bad, but it's also not something your average gamer is going to even notice without a lot of testing. With the second generation (Killer Xeno) coming soon, we spoke with Harlan Beverly, Co-Founder of Bigfoot Networks to see how these new cards will compare to the original Killer N.I.C.

ZAM: Hey Harlan. It's great to talk with you again about the Killer N.I.C.

Harlan Beverly: You do realize you are taking time away from my Death Knight don't you!  Well I do love Thottbot so...

ZAM: *laughs* Can you start off by explaining the advantage for gamers that own one?

Harlan: Well, Killer Technology was designed to deliver the smoothest, fastest online gaming experience you can get out of your system & ISP.  We don't fix the internet and we don't fix the server you play on…, but we do ensure that you get the most out of the gaming PC you have.  In short, the benefits of Killer Technology are a smoother, faster, online gaming experience, while also letting your system do MORE than just gaming.  This can be FELT by playing games, and MEASURED using tools like FRAPS (frames-per-second boost) and in-game ping tools (like "Tab Key" or latency bar in WoW).

ZAM: Let's get a bit more technical. Can you explain some of the technologies used for the first card? GameFirst, FNA, PingThrottle and UltimatePing to name a few.

Harlan: It is funny because we've gotten completely away from "naming" the technologies with catchy names.  We learned early on that funky names only serve to confuse and not to explain what we do.  Instead we make it super simple to explain HOW we give gamers the smoothest & fastest online gaming that their system can deliver.  First, we bypass all of the Windows Networking stack that games usually are forced to use.  Second, our hardware delivers a hardware interrupt directly to the game's net code when new data arrives, getting data to the game as fast as possible.  Third, we prioritize and allow for full QoS of each application's data packets: ensuring Games are #1, Voice Chat is #2, and everything else is #3. Finally, since Killer Technology is built on Linux (but runs in Windows), we can actually fully offload useful internet applications such as BitTorrent, http downloads, Voice Chat, and more into the card itself.  And we do all that PLUG&PLAY, meaning it works in all games, all the time, no hacking the game or developer buy-in required.

ZAM: I had the opportunity to visit Bigfoot a couple of months ago to play around with a card for myself. During which we saw several demonstrations. My favorite was the World of Warcraft jump delay demonstration. Can you explain how that demonstration worked?

Harlan: Sure, it is one of my favorite demos.  First, I want to say, I am a huge fan of World of Warcraft.  The game consumed my life for a time, but now is just a really fun way to spend a few hours in the evening (I hate TV, and think it is the curse of our society, so I game in the evenings instead)…

As for the demo, it is really simple.  It was using our last-gen Card (Killer NIC M1), in a high-end Alienware system (next to another High-End Alienware system w/o a Killer NIC at all).  These are identical systems other than one having the Killer.  We had enabled Killer NICs TCP Optimization tool (needed since WoW is now almost exclusively TCP/IP).   And then created 2 new characters in the starter zone (forgot which).  Both characters "jumped" at the same time (using space-bar), and you could actually see the character jump on the KILLER machine before the machine without Killer.  In practice this means packets from the server were getting to the Killer Machine many milliseconds faster than the non-Killer machine.  We often see 10-20ms faster ping times on Killer enabled boxes, especially if those boxes are also doing something else in the background (like Voice Chat, BitTorrent, or web download/patching).

ZAM: In some of the benchmark tests that I've been running from home, I've noticed that in idle situations, the Killer N.I.C doesn't look like anything special, but when in congested areas, let's use Shattrath in World of Warcraft as an example, the test scores clearly show the Killer performing better than my onboard. What causes the score variance?

Harlan: Short answer is that there are more packets and more graphics in crowded areas (or raids or even PVP Arenas).  Longer answer is that Killer is designed for exactly this case: when the action gets intense.  Killer is literally separating graphics from networking and that is best seen when both graphics and networking are at a peak.

ZAM: Let's switch focus and talk about next generation of Killer cards. Last week the Killer Xeno was announced and it features new technologies like voice-chat acceleration. Can you explain how this works?

Harlan: Yes, in short, we've partnered with Teamspeak, Vivox, and Mumble (all Voice Chat providers), and are able to offload their entire application inside Killer Xeno.  This is possible because Killer Xeno has an audio chip built-in and audio ports right on the Xeno, to provide full offload of voice chat.  In practice, you can be chatting with friends/guild-mates/etc. with 0-impact to your gaming performance, since the entire Voice Chat program is running on the card itself.

ZAM: What kind of improvements have you made to the software that helps the card run efficiently? I personally found the software for the first generation card to cause more problems than it solved. Can gamers expect the software to adjust settings automatically to work better with their system?

Harlan: Yes, absolutely.  The original cards were designed with Hard-core gamers in mind.  Specifically, it was designed for technically minded gamers who don't mind "tweaking" a bit to get the best boost in performance.  

The new cards are MUCH better in this regard.  Almost everything is automatic now.  We detect games automatically much better, and give them a priority boost right away.  Our Bandwidth control tool is enabled by default now, and requires no tweaking for optimal performance benefit (although hard-core tech heads like myself can still tweak EACH individual applications network priority and bandwidth if desired).

Voice chat is super simple, and in general all the tools are more 'automatic' and simpler than our last gen products.

ZAM: From a performance point of view, what kind of gains will a gamer see with the Killer Xeno Ultra over the Killer Xeno Pro?

Harlan: The main differences between the Ultra and the Pro is 256MB of RAM vs. 128MB of Ram, and a really cool LED display on the side of the Ultra not present on the Pro version.  The performance gains are really measured in how many "applications" can be run inside the Xeno at a time.  For the 128MB version, only 2 applications (like Teamspeak & BitTorrent) can be run at a time.  On the 256MB card, we can do up to 4 (or even more) applications at a time.  Performance-wise, offloading MORE stuff to the card means your main system can be dedicated to playing the game!  So, you can see up to 10-20% even better performance out of your system (depending on what you offload).

ZAM: When will the Killer Xeno be available for purchase and how much will the product be?

Harlan: The Killer Xeno Pro will be available from EVGA for $129.99 sometime in April.  It will also be available from Alienware at $129.99 as part of a new Alienware gaming system.  The Killer Xeno Ultra will be available in May for $179.99.

ZAM: Thanks again for taking some time to talk with us about the Killer N.I.C.

Harlan: It was my pleasure.  I really am a big fan of WoW and Thottbot, and for me, I'm constantly doing Teamspeak with my Guild on WoW AND Downloading (legal) BitTorrents like video clips/etc AND playing games like WoW or Lord of the Rings Online.  So, for me, and hopefully for many of your readers, the Killer NIC and new Killer Xeno really can help deliver the most out of the system you have!

Andrew "Tamat" Beegle
Editor-in-Chief
ZAM.com