USB ethernet adapter versus PCI-E card

[Cel]

I've been having issues with an in-built intel's ethernet device (I219V) in my asus maximus viii hero motherboard which is causing latency spikes and i wanted to supplant it with another ethernet card.

What would be a better choice for a gaming desktop PC with a 6700k processor and internet speeds up to 1000mbit/s (100mbyte)?

Something like this usb 3.0 adapter:

http://www.dlink.com/uk/en/support/product/dub-1312-usb-3-gigabit-ethernet-adapter

Or a simple pci-e card:

http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-11_TG-3468.html

Im looking for a smoother performance and lesser impact on a cpu.

 

[L&LD]

A PCIe card is preferred over USB 'anything' if latency and overhead is important.

Can't recommend for or against that particular card you link (no experience with them), but I would prefer an Intel based Ethernet solution in any case.

 

[System Error Message]

PCIe has lower overhead than USB and latency depends on the chipset. For example nvidia nforce PCIe (the ones used to give you more PCIe lanes) had higher latency. The chip giving more lanes isnt an issue because PCIe is essentially a switch so devices can communicate with each other without going through CPU but that nforce chip itself had higher latencies.

For example my soundcard has higher latencies than a usb soundcard that only just translates the signal and has CPU handle the processing because it has its own CPU and PCIe chip. So even though it lowers CPU usage significantly for very high quality sound there is a significant lag from the sound going in to the speakers whereas the usb wire has almost no latency.

It really depends on what you're looking for. PCIe can have lower latencies than usb and it really depends on the device that is being used. Direct CPU processing will usually have lower latencies if the CPU is fast enough which is why realtek NICs can have lower latencies than some NICs like marvell with its own CPU to handle the processing (both being onboard) but the marvell one lowers CPU usage and has more features. The latency difference is only like 0.1-0.2 ms. So check the chips used by the NICs as it usually isnt the brand's own chips.

As long as you use usb3 the difference is highly dependent on the chip used for the NIC. Compare the features and hardware specs and things like power savings (for usb if you want wake on LAN than power over usb during sleep/power down must be enabled), make sure to check what features are actually hardware accelerated and what is moved to the CPU. For PCIe you need at least 1 lane PCIe V2 or 2 lanes PCIe V1 for a single gigabit port wheares some usb3 ports even though claiming 5Gb/s are actually limited to 2Gb/s because they are connected via PCIe (this is also an important factor). If the usb3 port is connected via PCIe you might as well get the PCIe card otherwise choose the one that suits you best if the USB3 port is part of the chipset.

another thing about usb3 ports PCIe connected is that they are usually only connected by 1 PCIe lane for multiple usb3 ports so multiple usb3 ports share that 1Gb/s of bidirectional bandwidth. So unless you expect to use more bandwidth for usb3 never buy a PCIe usb3 card that is only 1 lane or more than 1 port with 1 lane.

 

[sfx2000]

I've been having issues with an in-built intel's ethernet device (I219V) in my asus maximus viii hero motherboard which is causing latency spikes and i wanted to supplant it with another ethernet card.

What would be a better choice for a gaming desktop PC with a 6700k processor and internet speeds up to 1000mbit/s (100mbyte)?

None of the above - the NIC you have is a good one. There's a reason why Asus puts that one on, and it is not because of it being a low-cost solution..

Check drivers, driver settings, turn off power management for that network interface...

Noticed you mention "gaming" computer - have you been "tuning" things? Return to stock clocks for a bit if you've been pushing the bCLK's, and check Asus for any BIOS updates..

 

[Cel]

None of the above - the NIC you have is a good one. There's a reason why Asus puts that one on, and it is not because of it being a low-cost solution..

Check drivers, driver settings, turn off power management for that network interface...

Noticed you mention "gaming" computer - have you been "tuning" things? Return to stock clocks for a bit if you've been pushing the bCLK's, and check Asus for any BIOS updates..

I've had latency issues with this network adapter for more than half a year and nothing worked so far. There are plenty of threads on asus forums and intel forums about this issue and the only recommendation is to buy a separate network card. In fact - Asus customer support recommended simply buying any cheap network card instead of using an in-built intel's one. They claim this is a specific intel's issue which appears on some windows 10 platforms with this device. Intel in turn blames asus and doesn't really respond on their forums. Some guy claiming to be intel's technician flat out denied that their device is causing this issue despite a thread having hundreds of posts about it. He also claimed that intel doesn't know anything about I219V device which isn't even mentioned in their recent drivers updates.

The latest driver on asus site for I219V is dated half a year ago when this motherboard was released and nothing i did in regards to drivers helped with the latency issues so i've officially given up on that.

Latency issues only appear while i download something or cache videos, they are related to a networks driver (ndis.sys) and appear even after a clean system installation. They get progressively worse the longer your pc is switched on and the more you download. Rebooting pc temporarily fixes them or at least makes them bearable for several hours. I've posted over a dozen different forums, read at least 30 different threads, wrote to Asus support 5 times, talked to a store support and did everything i could in my powers to fix this. I even tried to return the motherboard but was told that the issue isn't "bad enough" to be considered a manufacturers fault, especially since Asus blames Intel and officially recommends "waiting until Intel fixes this issue" or "buying a separate network card".

BIOS updates, windows upates, other driver updates, tweaking settings, not tweaking settings - nothing helps and honestly im done with that. Hence i am asking which would be the better option for a separate network card. From the responses above - ill stick with pci-e card.

 

[sfx2000]

BIOS updates, windows upates, other driver updates, tweaking settings, not tweaking settings - nothing helps and honestly im done with that. Hence i am asking which would be the better option for a separate network card. From the responses above - ill stick with pci-e card.

Weird... I'd go with a cheap PCI-e card then - ensuring to disable the onboard NIC in UEFI/BIOS to free up the PCI-e lane - the TP-Link should be fine.

BTW - Intel is aware of the card - see the ARK - http://ark.intel.com/products/82186/Intel-Ethernet-Connection-I219-V

 

[Cel]

Weird... I'd go with a cheap PCI-e card then - ensuring to disable the onboard NIC in UEFI/BIOS to free up the PCI-e lane - the TP-Link should be fine.

BTW - Intel is aware of the card - see the ARK - http://ark.intel.com/products/82186/Intel-Ethernet-Connection-I219-V

I've been downloading same drivers from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25016/Network-Adapter-Driver-for-Windows-10

And they've never mentioned 219 in the list of products below. Good to know that it at least exists somewhere.

I've ordered tp-link as well. At least it's cheap.

 

[sfx2000]

I've ordered tp-link as well. At least it's cheap.

Cool - once installed, don't forget to clean up the windows side if you used the Intel installed (Add/Remove Programs), reboot, and disable the onboard NIC...

 

[System Error Message]

you could go for older intel server NICs or even ones they use in datacenters but for the ones in datacenters they would either support linux or windows server, not windows 10, 8, 7, vista and so on.

For a gaming system you dont want to use usb stuff. With my gaming rig im still running windows 7 and i have dedicated soundcard, NIC and so on as it really helps lower CPU usage which in turn helps to run the game smoother as it has more CPU available for physics and AI and it has helped in a number of issues. In from the depths my FPS doesnt drop much when loading a large ship with many guns as others who have similar or better specs drop to single digit FPS because of sound processing(because it tries to process many sound sources all at the same time)

Some gaming boards do include dedicated soundcard and NIC. As long as the NIC isnt realtek. Realtek NICs however with a fast CPU have lower latencies.

 

[sfx2000]

you could go for older intel server NICs or even ones they use in datacenters but for the ones in datacenters they would either support linux or windows server, not windows 10, 8, 7, vista and so on

Those Server NIC's - many times they take up much more than a single PCI-e lane, and rarely fit inside a single lane slot (1x slot) - just as an FYI...

Realtek NIC's under Windows are ok - not awesome, but ok, and they're consistently ok, and Windows 10 doesn't munge the drivers compared to other cards.

Stay away from USB NIC's if you have slots available.

 

[System Error Message]

Those Server NIC's - many times they take up much more than a single PCI-e lane, and rarely fit inside a single lane slot (1x slot) - just as an FYI...

Realtek NIC's under Windows are ok - not awesome, but ok, and they're consistently ok, and Windows 10 doesn't munge the drivers compared to other cards.

Stay away from USB NIC's if you have slots available.

The single port ones take 1 lane.

 

[RMerlin]

Have you tried replacing the Ethernet cable? A bad cable might lead to packet retransmits, which would introduce latency.

 

[Cel]

Have you tried replacing the Ethernet cable? A bad cable might lead to packet retransmits, which would introduce latency.

I didn't try that. If there's anything wrong with cables it's probably somewhere inside walls where i wouldn't be able to reach it anyway. Just in case i've switched back intel's ethernet adapter and replaced cables leading to pc from my router and to router from the outlet. Though tp-link adapter which i just installed was working fine.

Is there any way to monitor packet retransmits over time?

Actually i just realized - the issue can't be related to cables since it did not occur on my previous PC which was using the same router and cables as this one.

 

[sfx2000]

Have you tried replacing the Ethernet cable? A bad cable might lead to packet retransmits, which would introduce latency.

Jumping over to the Intel and other support sites - seems that under Win7/8.1 the adapters were working fine, it was with Win10 that things tend to fall apart, so this does suggest that something has broken in either the driver, or Windows ndis.sys components...

Win10 hasn't been very kind to many different adapters - not sure why...

 

[Cel]

Jumping over to the Intel and other support sites - seems that under Win7/8.1 the adapters were working fine, it was with Win10 that things tend to fall apart, so this does suggest that something has broken in either the driver, or Windows ndis.sys components...

Yup. The consensus is that something is wrong with windows 10 and adapter drivers. Some people reported that rolling back to windows 8.1 fixed their issues but im not doing that. I've reinstalled windows 10 three times in a row when i was upgrading my pc and not doing that again. Also i prefer windows 10 over windows 8 anyway.

 

[TonyH]

Yup. The consensus is that something is wrong with windows 10 and adapter drivers. Some people reported that rolling back to windows 8.1 fixed their issues but im not doing that. I've reinstalled windows 10 three times in a row when i was upgrading my pc and not doing that again. Also i prefer windows 10 over windows 8 anyway.

Eventually working W10 driver will come out. Luckily all my NICs are working OK with W10.

 

[System Error Message]

Yup. The consensus is that something is wrong with windows 10 and adapter drivers. Some people reported that rolling back to windows 8.1 fixed their issues but im not doing that. I've reinstalled windows 10 three times in a row when i was upgrading my pc and not doing that again. Also i prefer windows 10 over windows 8 anyway.

Im still using windows 7.

 

[sfx2000]

Yup. The consensus is that something is wrong with windows 10 and adapter drivers. Some people reported that rolling back to windows 8.1 fixed their issues but im not doing that. I've reinstalled windows 10 three times in a row when i was upgrading my pc and not doing that again. Also i prefer windows 10 over windows 8 anyway.

@Cel - As a follow up - how did things work out for you?

 

[Cel]

@Cel - As a follow up - how did things work out for you?

Not good. Even though i am using a separate tp-link PCI-e card now - the latency issues did not seem to have disappeared. After about 6 or 8 hours they become noticeable when i watch youtube videos or update several browser pages at once or download torrents (though the torrent one could be related to disk usage rather than internet usage but i do get some video stutter once in a while when i run the software).

Right now i am still testing this though. I've just now disabled intel's lan completely in my bios. Quite honestly i do not understand what else could be causing ndis.sys spikes and general latency issues other than ethernet adapter.

I've also had a separate issue with youtube which appeared on previous a PC and continued on this one despite the fact that i've changed everything except gpu and pcu - html5 videos sometimes stutter horribly, get all distorted and just stop playing or lose their sound after some audio distortion. This appears to happen on different browsers as well. I was thinking that this is a "normal youtube behaviour" since some people wrote about it as well on other forums but now i am not so sure. Since i've installed the plugin which forces the youtube to use flash plugin instead - i've never had that issue so i didn't care about it any more. Now im thinking that all of those issues might somehow be related. Or maybe not.

I'll post in a few days when im sure that the latency issue is still here despite disabling lan controller completely.

 

[sfx2000]

Hmm... that's very odd - no lack of bandwidth across the chipset, so these spikes suggest odd timing across the bridge going down to the PCH...

I'm running out of ideas here - I'm assuming you are running in full-UEFI mode vs. Legacy (BIOS) mode, but might be worthwhile to check - I've seen similar weirdness with modern Intel chips there -

msinfo32 will show what mode it's in - BIOS Mode will indicate Legacy or UEFI

Can you check and share back?