Realtek to Bring Affordable 10 Gbps Ethernet to the Masses Later This Year

[efikkan]

Only on paper. I know of exactly one 25GBase-T Switch from ALPHA that was officially presented, but AFAIK never became available. Apart from that, there has been zero 25/40GBase-T hardware for almost nine years. Because of that it is essentially dead and Cat.8-cabling is a scam.

But have there been any 25GBase-T Ethernet chips?
Because we can make do without switches, and it usually starts with Ethernet chips before switches.

Although all your points are valid ones, the simple fact remains that for the average joe/SOHO user, these types of cards are essentially useless until the money-grubbin ISP's loosen their iron-clad grip on bandwidth (and slow-assed modems) and give us the speeds that can utilize what these cards offer.....
Yea they would be nice for an internal network but just sayin

Internet speeds are the least relevant factor for choosing your LAN speed. High-speed networking is used between workstations and a server or between workstations. No normal residential grade Internet connection, nor most servers relevant to consumers are even close to saturating 1 Gbit/s sustained to a single user.

To be honest, I am more interested in 10Gbit switches becoming more affordable.
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The biggest roadblock to larger adaption, in my eyes at least, is the price of switches.
Even today, the least expensive 10Gbit switch I can find, with only two 10Gbit ports, is still over 100€, with four ports costing a minimum of 200€…

It would be great with an affordable 4x10Gbit + 8x1Gbit switch or so, because many homes have >8 total devices, and daisy-chaining unmanaged switches are generally not optimal. But an even bigger concern for me with 10G switches is the noise. As I don't have a home with a network closet yet, those are out of the question for now.

But I want to remind everyone that there is a very simple overlooked solution relevant to most of us; if you only have 2-3 machines which needs faster networking, just set up a separate "network" and run direct cables.
I would recommend the newer Intel X550 which uses x4 PCIe (most don't have free x8 slots without downgrading their GPU speed). If you need three computers, buy the T2 variant with dual NICs, which usually costs ~$65+ on Ebay, and for two computers the T1 variant is even cheaper.

Finally a g4x1 adapter for 10GbE NON-SFP? Only 2W consumption? MASSIVE Realtek W.
Single connection SFP model at a mere 1W? Another MASSIVE Realtek W.

If it was a priority, they could have done this years ago, I mean crating a ~1W 2$ 10G Ethernet chip. Meanwhile other non-networking cables are pushing massive bandwidths, like USB at 80 Gbit/s, although it's mostly a gimmick as most devices can't get close to their rated speeds.

The bigger question for buyers is whether they can make good use for faster network speeds. Remember, both ends needs fast enough storage (except when you just load into RAM), whether it's workstation to server or between workstations. A realistic RAID5/6 or ZFS setup will usually not be able to sustain speeds close to that, and even very "fast" consumer SSDs' speed drop off sharply. (This is the reason why I have held off upgrading to 10G yet, as my computers and storage needs an upgrade first.)

But if you are in the situation where you're redoing/upgrading your network, then you should look forward, as infrastructure should take into account what you will need in the next few years.

 

[Athlonite]

Although all your points are valid ones, the simple fact remains that for the average joe/SOHO user, these types of cards are essentially useless until the money-grubbin ISP's loosen their iron-clad grip on bandwidth (and slow-assed modems) and give us the speeds that can utilize what these cards offer.....

Yea they would be nice for an internal network but just sayin

In my part of the world we can get 8Gbps symmetrical (soon to be 10Gbps) and our ISP's provide top notch modem/routers to go along with those speeds

 

[bonehead123]

In my part of the world we can get 8Gbps symmetrical (soon to be 10Gbps) and our ISP's provide top notch modem/routers to go along with those speeds

Well, good for you !

Unfortunately, not all of us are so lucky

And FYI, I asked my ISP about moving us up to a faster connection....and they said "Absolutely" we can do that......

For an additional $300/mo + $300 installation charge + $200 one time charge for a new modem (which I believe are still crappy, based on the info they gave me about it).........

To which I politely replied "only in your wildest, pharma-induced dreams"

 

[efikkan]

And FYI, I asked my ISP about moving us up to a faster connection....and they said "Absolutely" we can do that......

For an additional $300/mo + $300 installation charge + $200 one time charge for a new modem (which I believe are still crappy, based on the info they gave me about it).........

To which I politely replied "only in your wildest, pharma-induced dreams"

And was it still "residential grade"? Or is there a separate commercial grade fiber network in your neighborhood?
I have a suspicion that they will just upcharge you for the same connection with some changed limits. And I would suspect it to cost a lot more to get a proper connection.
(My connection for instance achieves up to ~90 Mbps on a 150 Mbps line, not much use in paying more to get nothing.)

 

[bonehead123]

And was it still "residential grade"? Or is there a separate commercial grade fiber network in your neighborhood?
I have a suspicion that they will just upcharge you for the same connection with some changed limits. And I would suspect it to cost a lot more to get a proper connection.
(My connection for instance achieves up to ~90 Mbps on a 150 Mbps line, not much use in paying more to get nothing.)

There is a separate commercial system, but to get on that, I would have to pay ANOTHER $1800 upfront, on top of what I said above, and wait in line for the service, which currently has a 3-4 month backlog......Supposedly this money is to cover the cost of re-wiring everything from the street into & inside my house, as well as the OTN box thingy..

But of course, I gave them the exact same reply as before...

 

[Athlonite]

Well, good for you !

Unfortunately, not all of us are so lucky

And FYI, I asked my ISP about moving us up to a faster connection....and they said "Absolutely" we can do that......

For an additional $300/mo + $300 installation charge + $200 one time charge for a new modem (which I believe are still crappy, based on the info they gave me about it).........

To which I politely replied "only in your wildest, pharma-induced dreams"

Yeah sorry bout that but holy fuck that's expensive to get on decent fiber I am extremely lucky here in NZ the fiber connection cost nothing as the govt paid for it as part of the infrastructure upgrades to get everyone off of copper ADSL/VDSL and onto FTTH throughout the country

 

[Tigerfox]

But have there been any 25GBase-T Ethernet chips?
Because we can make do without switches, and it usually starts with Ethernet chips before switches.

Not to my knowledge, not even SFP28 to 25GBase-T Transceivers.

 

[RayneYoruka]

Mellanox will still be king. At least their drivers are quality tested. Lol.