Killer Wireless-N worth it?

So I read interesting things about this card. From what I understand it has massive throughput and beats intel in a few areas. Anyone notice any significant improvements over intel or should I just save the extra 50$ for something else?

 

Killer-N is comprised of 70% marketing and 30% substance. Granted, it is better in some aspects as compared to the Intel Ultimate-N 6300, but the performance difference is not worth the price difference at all.

 

Save the $50 for an SSD. I had a Killer-N 1102, and the only way to get it to work reliably was with generic reference drivers provided by chipset maker Atheros. That pretty much defeated the purpose, as Bigfoot's software is supposed to be what makes this card stand out from the rest. I found their software to be buggy and unreliable.

 

I use the 1102 wifi card, I have no complaints.

I paid a pittance for my card back in June.

 

I made a little proof of concept test to show why Bigfoot claims are worthless here.

The card itself is very good but it has nothing to do with Bigfoot sticker- it's a good Atheros reference design.

Also the test made by Anandtech that most people base their opinion on is wrong on so many levels that it's hard to decide where to start pointing out "inaccuracies".
I made a post about it here somewhere but it's hard to find anything since I post quite a lot in this sub-forum.

 

I would just get an ultimate intel n 6300, i always see the same replies when the bigfoot 1103 and intel 6300 are compared."the slight difference is not worth the money"

 

The hacker types definitely would prefer to be using an ath9k card (ie: Atheros AR9280 or AR9380) versus an Intel card, that's for sure. There are a number of features that just aren't present in the Intel's. I'm not even sure any of the Intel cards can be put into Master mode.

Personally I'd like to find one of the latest Broadcom cards Apple is using in their laptops. But they are really pricey.

 

Hmm for me Atheros > Intel > Broadcom > Bigfoot, just because Bigfoot isn't worth it at all, despite them using Atheros chipsets. Otherwise if you look at manufacturer the above applies. Broadcom has given me some problem sin the past with range and speed, but Intel and Atheros are both quite good imo.

 

I think you want the arrows the other way if you meant that Atheros is better than Intel, Broadcom, and Bigfoot.

 

We hacker types are still waiting for a 3x3 93xx half-sized card without crappy world roaming firmware (no patches work yet) that locks down pretty much the entire 5ghz band to client mode only

Until then, we are stuck with a full card pulled from iMac parts bins, and only some are set to a useful country code, or 2x2 92xx.

 

Those are not arrows

 

So glad I found this post, I was wondering if the Bigfoot cards worth worth it and was considering getting one in my husband's new Sager. Now I'll just stick with the Intel card.

 

So is the Intel better than the Killer, regardless the extra dough?

 

The Intel is slightly better in certain aspects, while the Killer is better in some others. But the differences don't justify the extra cost of a Killer.

 

Two pages of opinions and nothing real. Let me put it this way, if you don't care about on-line gaming ping and lag, if you don't need a smooth video conferencing in apps like Skype, if you are ok with OS and apps "stealing" the channel when you need it the most - then you don't need the killer. Also, yes it's the Atheros card but it's the software what really rox. It's basically a mini firewall pre-configured for gaming, video, and data transfer.

 

I disagree with the bit about the software being good. Almost everyone I've seen using a Killer, me included uninstalled the laggy POS that Killer provided. The generic Atheros drivers worked so much better. Also, what's the point about minimising lag between your computer and the router as compared to the lag between your modem and the game server? The ping between you and your router is usually within a few milliseconds and that is peanuts compared to the ping between server and modem. As for channel stealing, the 2.4GHz band is already overcrowded anyway, and while 5GHz is relatively free, you'd be hard pressed to find 3 adjacent free channels for the full bandwidth, which does not affect games and/or video calling a lot anyway. This is why Killer is not worth your money at all. Get an Intel 6300 and spend the money on something else that does make a difference.

 

I did some tests using my home broadband connection. Killer 1103 with Bigfoot software/drivers gave me slightly better ping times when i play games and i found youtube/lovefilm streaming is bit faster. I'd say around 15%-20% faster than Intel 6200 card. However when i install generic Athreos software difference, is ignorable. Therefore my personal conclusion is Bigfoot SW have some special souse to maintain performance.

When i brought AW M17x they gave me Bigfoot card as a free upgrade and asked me to pay extra £9.99 for upgrade to Intel 6300.

BTW I have to thank Qualcomm, after they brought Atheros they improved drivers really well. Old Atheros drivers gave me huge lag spikes.

PS: I live in studio apartment and tested using service provider supplied crappy WiFi-G router.

 

That's a rather unfair comparison because you're pitting a 3x3 card (1103) against a 2x2 card (6200). You have to compare the 6300 and the 1103, then you'll realise the difference is minimal between the two. Anyway, downloads already made a good real life comparison to show why Bigfoot's claims are worthless a few posts up, see it here.

 

nop..my router is wifi g and only work in 2.4ghz and i removed 3rd antenna from killer card before test. since router is wifi g i don't think it'll make a difference even i attached 3rd antenna.

 

If your router is wireless-g, your speed increases cannot be attributed to the cards since you're already saturating the bandwidth with them. You have to use a wireless-n card and do transfers within your local network, the wifi card does not matter when downloading files over the internet

 

When I talk about lag and ping I don't care about the card to router link, it's never a problem. It's the server ping what matters here. Some servers have a link of less than 50-100k and that's why stealing the channel by the OS and apps will greatly affect your ping and lag. I have tested the 6300 vs 1102 and 1103 in online shooters and always had about 20-30% lower ping on the killers. Don't believe me, check the AW section of the forum, there are plenty of users who can support this claim. And the funny thing, even the 1102 (2x2) card beats the heck out of the 6300 in gaming. Same goes for calling. I have about 2-5 important video conferences a week and was really hard pressed to find a proper solution to laggy connections. You can technically tweak your os, router and firewall to achieve similar results with any card but the problem is an average rookie doesn't have enough skills or time to mess with it on a regular basis, whereas the killer manager does everything in auto mode.

Important to note, however, that the card doesn't seem to be 100% compatible with certain routers. Plus, it won't work in every notebook, only on supported systems. Those who criticize it the most usually fall into one of the 2 groups. So if you are going for it, please check if your notebook can run it properly. If you have a Sager/Clevo or AW laptop (those have full support for the killer) and still experiencing issues - please contact Bigfoot Networks. There's a good chance they might have a solution for you.

 

I have an acer with the bigfoot wireless 1102. I had the intel 6200 i know for a fact my modem is what messes up and causes this major spike and lag that games become unplayable on the intel 6200 and my broadcom wifi. Ive somehow managed to complain so much it happens often but not as bad to cox. Since i got my killerN the only lag i feel is when i start up the computer for the first time and get on vent and for that sec my ping is only 70 for just one sec. I have played for hours and hours no problem but my sister and dad always call me saying to go restart the modem or router because their internet is slow and they are having problems LOL... either way for me it was a well worth while upgrade. 0 problems