This is an interesting move as instead of removing features the have ‘locked’ them and the only signifcant change is the lower clock frequency on the Freescale processor. The lower clock frequency is said to lower the performance level on the Killer K1 slightly during game play than Killer NIC. Users should not be able to tell the difference between the Killer K1 and Killer NIC during game play though as the difference is so minor. This is because the different speeds mainly affect FNA. People who have the Killer NIC will have more horsepower for their FNApps, but right now the only applications available for the Killer series of cards are FN Firewall and FN Torrent, which don’t need gobs of power to run.
The Killer K1 NIC card really doesn’t have too many components on it, so let’s take a look at a few key components and examine their function. By understanding what components are used on the card one can get a better understanding of the pirce and quality of a product. Under the ‘K1′ sticker we find the heart of the card, which is the MPC8349E Freescale processor. The MPC8349E PowerQUICC II Pro is an integrated communications processors developed from the older PowerQUICC II product line. Based on a system-on-chip (SoC) architecture, the MPC8349E PowerQUICC II Pro integrates the enhanced e300 core and advanced features, such as DDR memory, Dual Gigabit Ethernet, Dual PCI and Hi-Speed USB controllers. With clock speeds scaling to 667 MHz, the MPC8349E family of processors offers the highest performing PowerQUICC II devices available. The Killer NIC has a MPC8349E Freescale processor that runs at 400MHz and the Killer K1 has the same processor running at 333MHz. By looking up the above part number we found the Killer K1 to have the same part number as a 400MHz part. The above part number is MPC8343EVRAGD, with ‘AG’ being the processor frequency of 400MHz and the ‘D’ being the 266MHz platform frequency.
After spending an evening of gaming with and without the Killer NIC and Killer K1 on both our Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista Ultimate test systems it was the unanimously agreed by all that the Killer NIC and Killer K1 is not worth the added $180-$250 cost. The Killer NIC and Killer K1 did reduce our pings and improved frame rates, but by less than 5%. The difference was so small that no one could correctly tell when the Killer NIC was or wasn’t installed in our ‘blind’ taste test, which was rather alarming. If someone is going to spend $180-$250 on something they better be able to see and notice the difference when they game.
We also experienced problems with the drivers when removing the Killer NIC on our Windows XP Professional test system. After the card was removed and the system was turned back on the driver was trying to detect the Killer NIC and after about a minute the machine would just reboot. The driver couldn’t be removed in safe mode as it wouldn’t activate the installer, so we had to enter MSconfig and uncheck the Killer NIC to get the system up and running back on the integrated network controller.
