**Putting QoS to the Test: A Deep Dive into Killer's Traffic Management**
To see what improvements it offers, we'll put Killer's traffic management features to the test. We'll start by demonstrating its performance with my router limited to 15 megabits per second, approximately the national average in the US. Our goal is to queue up an "arms race" game and monitor the applications currently using network traffic on the right side of the Killer Control Center.
As we look at the killer control center, we see that all the applications currently using network traffic are ranked in order of priority, which is determined by how sensitive the application is to latency or general lag. At the top, we have Counter Strike GO as a priority one application, expectedly so given its competitive nature. Below it, we have several priority four applications like Steam, where most programs fall. At the very bottom, we have priority six programs like uTorrent or Windows updates.
**Prioritization vs. Real-World Performance**
As we jump into the game, our download speeds are pretty much non-existent, with Counter Strike GO using about half a megabit or so. Our upload speed is also severely limited, even less being used. This is reflected in our latency, which hovers around 62 milliseconds and shows no significant change over just a second.
However, when we disable the prioritization features and turn off Advanced Stream Detect, our latency remains unchanged because there's nothing competing with Counter Strike for bandwidth at the moment. Our latency stays steady at 63 milliseconds, giving us an idea of how Killer's traffic management can impact real-world performance.
**Adding Background Activity**
To further test Killer's traffic management, we'll add a background activity by queuing up a YouTube video running at 1080p. We monitor the traffic profile of YouTube and see that it bursts up slightly to build its buffer and drops back down to zero. This minor fluctuation doesn't significantly impact our latency, which remains in the mid-low 60s.
**Testing with Torrenting**
To simulate a full pipe of traffic through our network, we launch some torrents for Linux distributions. As the seeds start up, our bandwidth skyrockets for torrenting in the killer control center. However, our latency jumps up slightly to around 80 milliseconds due to the increased traffic load. This minor increase is understandable given the sudden surge in bandwidth usage.
**Latency and Host Processes**
As we pause this test and observe the impact of host processes on latency, we notice a jump from around 65 milliseconds to around 80 milliseconds. The cause of this anomaly isn't specified, but it's clear that certain background tasks can negatively affect performance.
**Enabling QoS and Disabling Advanced Stream Detect**
Next, we'll jump into settings and disable the advanced stream detect again. As expected, our latency starts to skyrocket, jumping from around 130 milliseconds to over 150 milliseconds. The game begins to show signs of lag, with characters skipping around the screen. This highlights how Killer's traffic management can make a significant difference when prioritization is disabled.
**Re-Enabling Advanced Stream Detect**
We'll now re-enable advanced stream detect and observe its impact on latency. As expected, our ping starts to climb back down from 114 milliseconds to just above 80 milliseconds. The averaging effect of the prioritization feature is noticeable, as it helps regulate latency fluctuations caused by random background tasks.
**Conclusion**
Killer's traffic management features can make a significant difference in maintaining smooth gameplay, especially when prioritization is enabled. While the test results show some minor variations, they demonstrate the importance of Killer's technology in managing network traffic and optimizing performance. To learn more about our full review, visit h hardware.com and check out the link in the description below.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhow's it going everyone this is Chris getting for hot Hardware today we're taking a look at rivet Network's brand new killer E2500 Nick onboard msi's z170a gaming M6 motherboard killer Nicks aim to kill lag caused by background Network activities on your computer through Superior packet prioritization and a few other clever tricks we're going to step the killer E2500 through a few quick tests to see what improvements it offers in real world testing the demonstration will be performed with my router limited to 15 megabits per second approximately the national average in the US so let's jump into Counterstrike go and queue up an arms race game and we'll look on the right side at the killer control center so this is going to show us all the applications that are currently using network traffic um these are ranked in order of priority which killer assigns by default um depending on how sensitive to latency the application is or just generally do people want it to not lag so at the top we have Counter Strike go as expected um this is a priority One application and below this we have a few priority 4 applications like steam which is where most programs are going to fall um and at the very bottom we have priority six programs like uTorrent or Windows updates um overall our download speeds are pretty much non-existent we have Counter-Strike GO using about uh half a megabit or so and on our upload speed again it's the same story with even less being used so as we jump into the game we'll see our latency is going to hover right around 62 Ms and we'll see how this holds over just a second and then we're going to disable the prioritization features and it looks like that is holding steud so let's jump off and turn off Advanced stream detect um and we can see that our Laten isn't really going to change because there's nothing competing with Counter Strike for bandwidth right now so we're at 63 Ms and that's pretty much going to be the story um we'll add in a background activity now so we'll queue up this YouTube video and it is running at 1080p so we will have that running and see if that interferes at all and we're going to find there's going to be maybe a mild kick up of a couple milliseconds for latency but I don't think it's anything that anyone's really going to notice um again 66 Ms we'll turn back on Advanced train detect so we can actually watch the traffic profile of YouTube and we'll see that it'll burst up a little bit to build its buffer and drop back down to zero which is why it's not really showing much of an impact here um YouTube does play fairly well with other programs provided you do have sufficient bandwidth and watching again we're still in the mid low 60s for latency so now let's actually pause this for a second and I've got some torrent queued up for some Linux distributions and we will launch those and as the seeds start up we'll see the bandwidth Skyrocket for urrent in the killer control center um but our latency I mean it is going to jump up a little bit because there is a full pipe of traffic going through but it's not a whole significant amount it's maybe 20 milliseconds here and we'll see it's going to hold steady um we'll just keep an eye on it for a few more seconds looks like yeah it's around right around 80 so a jump up from around 65 Ms to around 80 Ms um that's with full bandwidth saturation from mutorrent and it looks like something going on with host processes um not exactly sure but overall it's not impacting our game too much so now we will jump into settings and we will disable the advanced string detect again and now we're going to see the latencies really start to Skyrocket they're already up to 130 Ms more than doubling what we started 150 and it's you can see characters are starting to skip around the screen a lot and this could be Torrance it could be Windows updates it could be something downloading in your browser um a number of things that just aren't going to play nice without qos lap 200 ping and climbing and that's just because we have the prioritization turned off this is like how every other Nick works on the market um and then we'll jump back and we'll turn our Advanced train detect back on and we'll see this ping in just a moment start to climb back down um it seems there is a little bit of averaging of the latency going on which is why we don't see a sudden climb and sudden drop off um but already we're down to 114 and it is still descending just by having that prioritization in place it hasn't changed our traffic at all we still have our torren running we still have host process doing whatever it's doing um and those are the kinds of random background tasks that you don't always have control over and we can say especially with Windows 10 but killer can make the difference to keep your gameplay smooth no matter what now if you want to check out our full review it'll be over at h hardware.com and we'll have a link down in the description below but until then we'll see you next timehow's it going everyone this is Chris getting for hot Hardware today we're taking a look at rivet Network's brand new killer E2500 Nick onboard msi's z170a gaming M6 motherboard killer Nicks aim to kill lag caused by background Network activities on your computer through Superior packet prioritization and a few other clever tricks we're going to step the killer E2500 through a few quick tests to see what improvements it offers in real world testing the demonstration will be performed with my router limited to 15 megabits per second approximately the national average in the US so let's jump into Counterstrike go and queue up an arms race game and we'll look on the right side at the killer control center so this is going to show us all the applications that are currently using network traffic um these are ranked in order of priority which killer assigns by default um depending on how sensitive to latency the application is or just generally do people want it to not lag so at the top we have Counter Strike go as expected um this is a priority One application and below this we have a few priority 4 applications like steam which is where most programs are going to fall um and at the very bottom we have priority six programs like uTorrent or Windows updates um overall our download speeds are pretty much non-existent we have Counter-Strike GO using about uh half a megabit or so and on our upload speed again it's the same story with even less being used so as we jump into the game we'll see our latency is going to hover right around 62 Ms and we'll see how this holds over just a second and then we're going to disable the prioritization features and it looks like that is holding steud so let's jump off and turn off Advanced stream detect um and we can see that our Laten isn't really going to change because there's nothing competing with Counter Strike for bandwidth right now so we're at 63 Ms and that's pretty much going to be the story um we'll add in a background activity now so we'll queue up this YouTube video and it is running at 1080p so we will have that running and see if that interferes at all and we're going to find there's going to be maybe a mild kick up of a couple milliseconds for latency but I don't think it's anything that anyone's really going to notice um again 66 Ms we'll turn back on Advanced train detect so we can actually watch the traffic profile of YouTube and we'll see that it'll burst up a little bit to build its buffer and drop back down to zero which is why it's not really showing much of an impact here um YouTube does play fairly well with other programs provided you do have sufficient bandwidth and watching again we're still in the mid low 60s for latency so now let's actually pause this for a second and I've got some torrent queued up for some Linux distributions and we will launch those and as the seeds start up we'll see the bandwidth Skyrocket for urrent in the killer control center um but our latency I mean it is going to jump up a little bit because there is a full pipe of traffic going through but it's not a whole significant amount it's maybe 20 milliseconds here and we'll see it's going to hold steady um we'll just keep an eye on it for a few more seconds looks like yeah it's around right around 80 so a jump up from around 65 Ms to around 80 Ms um that's with full bandwidth saturation from mutorrent and it looks like something going on with host processes um not exactly sure but overall it's not impacting our game too much so now we will jump into settings and we will disable the advanced string detect again and now we're going to see the latencies really start to Skyrocket they're already up to 130 Ms more than doubling what we started 150 and it's you can see characters are starting to skip around the screen a lot and this could be Torrance it could be Windows updates it could be something downloading in your browser um a number of things that just aren't going to play nice without qos lap 200 ping and climbing and that's just because we have the prioritization turned off this is like how every other Nick works on the market um and then we'll jump back and we'll turn our Advanced train detect back on and we'll see this ping in just a moment start to climb back down um it seems there is a little bit of averaging of the latency going on which is why we don't see a sudden climb and sudden drop off um but already we're down to 114 and it is still descending just by having that prioritization in place it hasn't changed our traffic at all we still have our torren running we still have host process doing whatever it's doing um and those are the kinds of random background tasks that you don't always have control over and we can say especially with Windows 10 but killer can make the difference to keep your gameplay smooth no matter what now if you want to check out our full review it'll be over at h hardware.com and we'll have a link down in the description below but until then we'll see you next time\n"
