Onboard NIC vs. Intel NIC

[conlan]

I'm upgrading to a new mobo equipped with a Realtek 8111C onboard NIC. I have an Intel® PRO/1000 PT PCI-E NIC on my current board.
Have the newer onboard NICs improved as the newer onboard sound chips have?
Or should i just keep using the Intel NIC?

 

[Madwand1]

Realtek doesn't compete in the "premium" category with Intel, so even though they've gotten better, the Intel is almost certainly better. However, for typical home Internet usage, etc., the areas where the Intel is better probably doesn't matter.

I suggest installing the Intel and trying them both. If you can't see any difference, then there's practically no difference to you, and you could recoup/redeploy the Intel elsewhere. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to buy a new Intel NIC for a general-purpose home machine, but if I had one, I'd probably put it on my file server instead of selling it.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Use the Intel NIC, its just better period

 

[JackMDS]

If you have to buy one skip it, if some thing is labled better it does not mena that it is Better under any circumstances.

For Internet traffic it would do Nothing what so ever.

For Local Traffic between computers, while Intel card in general is better it would not do any thing better than the Realtek on a regular usuge.

If the computer is a server or any thing else special with really heavy Network traffic, then an Intel might fare better,

 

[EricMartello]

The main benefit of the Intel NIC is that its chipset includes a DSP that handles the network traffic, thus offloading it from your CPU. This typically results in substantially lower CPU utilization during high network activity. Given a choice, I'd stick with the Intel NIC, but if you're not running a server you'd be hard-pressed to find a big difference between the realtek and the intel.

 

[cmetz]

Intel NICs have a lot better hardware and a lot better drivers than Realtek.

 

[Zstream]

Originally posted by: EricMartello
The main benefit of the Intel NIC is that its chipset includes a DSP that handles the network traffic, thus offloading it from your CPU. This typically results in substantially lower CPU utilization during high network activity. Given a choice, I'd stick with the Intel NIC, but if you're not running a server you'd be hard-pressed to find a big difference between the realtek and the intel.

+1

All comes down to CPU usage. Maximum PC did a review several years ago and cpu utilization was at 11-13% just for network usage. Obviously that has come down quite a bit but the add on NIC is generally better.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I have that same Intel NIC, had to stop using it because I got corrupted downloads when using it. Wish I knew what caused that.

 

[Elias824]

Originally posted by: EricMartello
The main benefit of the Intel NIC is that its chipset includes a DSP that handles the network traffic, thus offloading it from your CPU. This typically results in substantially lower CPU utilization during high network activity. Given a choice, I'd stick with the Intel NIC, but if you're not running a server you'd be hard-pressed to find a big difference between the realtek and the intel.

Even for a gaming computer it would be better, the same idea applies to sound cards, but at a lower margin. I use an intel pro somthing or other card on my file server, works wonders noticed better transfer rates from the server after I upgraded from the onboard.