Matrox networking card? Is it good?

[Snowfly]

Does anyone have any opinions about the matrox 10/100 nic?
Is it good for gaming or are there better solutions out there?
I'm mainly want it to join a LAN for games such as Quake, Baldurs GAte 2, etc.

[Pace]

I don't have a clue about Matrox network cards! I suppose they will be ok, but if you want a quality NIC, then go for a 3Com, such as the 905C-TX.

Paul.

------------------
The Pace3000 Network (under reconstruction)
PaceCentral | Seti
Matrox Users / SETI@MURC
Join the team! | Crunch faster! | View the stats!

[Snowfly]

alright anyone else with any opinions such as asante, d-link, linksys, (not to ignore
Pace ) I would like a 3com but im saving up for that dual g800 ya know

[HedsSpaz]

Opinions? Sure, there are lots of people with opinions around here. The real question is, do you really want to know what they are?

Seriously, I would avoid Linksys if you can. D-Links aren't too bad as far as cheap NIC's go. 3Com and Intel make the best NIC's. I myself prefer 3Com but I use Intel when that isn't an option. NetGear, aka Bay Area Networks also makes pretty good network equipment, although their hubs are their strong point. I've never heard of Asante so I can't comment on them, except that the fact that I've never heard of them brings a certain amount of doubt to my mind (take that with with a pile of salt).

Ian

[ccharleb]

I currently own 2 Matrox FastNIC 10/100 in my PC. One is plug into my Cable-modem, and the other for my LAN. The setup is working fine. I'll compare a Matrox FastNIC with Netgear FA310-TX.

But believe my, if your going to buy one, I would not count on Matrox Network tech-support if you have a problem... They stoped producing those cards

==========
Christian

[dZeus]

there might be many different manufacturers of networking cards around, but most of them only use one of the following chips, and therefor perform comparably:

- An Intel chip that was formerly know as the DEC Tulip chipset, but now carrys a Intel brand name, since it the Digital Equipment networking devision was bought out by Intel. Fairly good chip, performs slightly worse than the 3Com 905 series chips

- Realtek chips. Used mostly in cards under $25 dollars, and are complete crap. May work just fine in your system, but may also give HUGE problems, and nevertheless, the DEC Tulip and 3Com chips always perform better.

I guess Matrox designed their own network chipset, but I never saw a Matrox networking card here in The Netherlands. But a chip that performs worse than the Realtek ones is almost impossible.

The best way to identify which chip a card uses (apart from the specifications/looking at the card itself), is to look at the price of the card. I have never seen cards based on the DEC Tulip chipset on sale for under 25 dollars.

Of course there are more chipsets than the DEC Tulip, the Matrox, the 3Com and the Realteks, but I don't know much about them.

In the Linux networking HOW-TOs some professionals give their opinion on the different chipsets, and there are quite some mentioned in there.

[Pace]

Ok, try not to ignore this:

<font size="7">3Com, Intel, 3Com, Intel, 3Com, Intel, 3Com, Intel...</font>

Ok?

Seriously, with network cards and Win9x you have to be kind of choosy. Let us know your full system specs and I'll let you know of your chances of getting a Realtek to work!

Paul.

[Greebe]

If it's a Realtek 8139 based nic it'll work and I don't need to see any system specs to say that. Their others blow chunks, stay away from them.

[kjliew]

I would say Realtek is not a bad solution, though I don't have much experience here. I have 2 Realtek 8139B 100/10 NIC at home. Both work like a champ, one of them even work on my overclocked 83MHz/41.5MHz PCI bus speed with no problem. Tried OSes include Win98SE, WinNT4, Win2K and RedHat Linux.

Drivers support from Realtek is quite good as well.

Well, Intel and 3Com NIC are good, but they are quite expensive. Speed wise, I don't feel much difference between Intel and Realtek NIC. That's for my personal home networking, it can be different for corporate networking needs.

So far, I have had good experience with Realtek 8139B NIC.

[dZeus]

3Com NICS have a lifetime warrenty, and perform the best. DEC tulip chipset performs comparably, but slightly less. Realtek cards use a lot more of CPU time for each MBps of throughput they do, and also give higher latencies when sending packets. (do a ping over a LAN with different NICs).

If Realtek cards fullfill your networking needs, consider yourself happy, but f you seek better performance and guaranteed problem-free usage, go for a 3Com or card that is based on a DEC Tulip chipset.

[Liquid Snake]

I have four Linksys LNE100TX NICs in my network, without any problems. I believe it is based on the DEC Tulip chip (my Linux box uses the tulip driver). I would've gone with 3Com, but the network is for sharing the DSL connection, and I'm not doing anything major over the network.

[WayneHu]

Intel's network chipset is EEPro(i8255x) series... i8255x have the different designs from Intel(DEC) 21x4x series.

If you use Linux platform, i8255x series should have the best driver among all with Full-Duplex support. (It won't make the system hang-up or crash if the LAN becomes unstable.) In fact, most NICs and some switching hubs often hang up during high load with Full-duplex mode.

Realtek chipest is the worst NIC if you connect it into Ethernet network. The single Realtek NIC can kill the entire LAN. The reason is that it doesn't perform the CSMA/CD algorithm correctly(in fact, it doesn't seem to perform that...). But it should be ok to perform the dedicate connection between it and DSL/cable modem. However, its driver is not as mature as i8255x, 3COM, and 21x4x series, either. Therefore, it is not good solution to perform long-term uninterrupted connections. (several days to several months)



------------------
PIII-550E@733/1.65v, P3B-F, G400DH/32MB@140/186

[Greebe]

dZ, if they have a problem with ping times (latency) then why are mine <1ms responce time? I haven't bothered to test cpu utilization while transfering files, but it's so insignificant that it doesn't warrant me to investigate.

I agree that 3Com/Intel nics are great, but the 7 year warranties I recieve with these (especially for the $$$) is what I'd consider lifetime for this product due to the way technology advances.

[Snowfly]

Ok OK wait a sec my head is starting to burst from all the opinions
k 3COM or Intel r fine hmmm I'll have to check out intel and their price$
thanks for the responses....
you can stop now

Abit bxr-2 P3 450@525 256mB
wIN98
MATROXG400DH32MB@190mem-170core(ithink)
Plextor scsi cdrom and zip scsi
Live card USR hardware modem

[dZeus]

everyone I know who has a Realtek 8139 chipset, can't get a ping lower than about 15 in quake3 on the local network (100Mbps, fully switched). 3com cards al give ping times of 0 - 5 in q3a. I thought the higher ping times in q3a would also translate into higher latency with the tool 'ping'. Maybe that assumption is wrong? or maybe you need to test the ping time under heaver load?

And look at your CPU utilisation when copying a file with about 7MBps over a network with your Realtek 8139, and with a 3com 3c905 series card. Maybe you don't mind higher cpu utilisation, but the fact is there is a big difference (relatively). Try for yourself.