Consumer small PCIe5 25/50/100GbE NICs - are they coming?

Hardware Hub Networking
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Looks like the stage is set - switches are already here.
Only thing missing are NICs.

All that is on the market is either ooold (Intel x710/810, Cx4/5 etc) or insanely expensive (Cx6/7 etc).

Those are tailored for datacenters, which go for the leading edge.
SO, if one wants 25GbE, s/he has to reach deeply in the past (old models) when 25GbE was interesting to those crowds.

Which means old chips, high power and old PCIe (typically PCIe3), and high prices, often with “retro tax”.

Is there something in the pipeline for 25GbE like what Acquantia did for 10GbE ?

I’m sure it would sell well and open new markets.

Given that even PCIe5x1 could easily carry 25GbE with plenty of room to spare and 100GbE would fit equaly neatly within PCIe5x4 (M.2 stick etc), these could easily retake advanced user/SOHO networking off of existing 2.5GbE and 10GbE copper based stuff.

While switches are there, NICs are nowhere to be found.

For a while I was hoping that Intel might do something with their E830 line.

But now all went quiet on that front.

Then ServeTheHome started hinting about Chelsio and “something big” that is to come out one of these days.

Well, their S7/T7 chipset isn’t exactly thin NIC, but if it’s affordable, I’d take it.
Problem is, they’ve been quiet, too.

SO, is anything expected to happen on that front ?

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I thought AMD would do more than only high-end with Pensando, but unfortunately the lower limit now seems to be 200Gb.
Quiet 25Gb switches would certainly help generate more interest.
My Microtik CRS510 needs a Noctua mod, and that probably isn’t even enough if all ports are occupied.

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Considering how long it took for the AQC113 (PCIE Gen4) to be available (2021) vs 10GBaseT spec (2006), it will be a long wait for a ≥25G consumer NIC. Realtek only started selling its RTL8127 chips this year. We even have people questioning if ≥1G connectivity is needed. :smiling_face_with_tear:

25G spec has been available since 2016. 25/40 GBaseT are effectively dead so ≥25G requires fiber infrastructure, which makes those speeds even less common for consumers.

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I was also very enthusiastic about the cheap 10G NICs:

But what most people pointed out is true: we are a niche bubble!

Consumers don’t care about more bandwidth, they don’t want to lay Ethernet cables, and even less so fiber cables.

I still have some hope for 10G, but I also think that having more than two Ethernet cables at home will become, or already is, a “nerd” thing.

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Why ? Short reach fiberoptic is much cheaper than it sued to be, especially for 25GbE. And it ain’t that power hungry.

It will inevitably become much more common as fiber goes to the chip die directly.
Trickle down will inevitably drop prices of existing SFP28 stuff into ground.

Yes, pulling fiber still has its costs, but once drawn, it can be used through many generations.
It’s also insensitive to EMI and has mush better reach than copper.
Cheapest transceivers can go 300m with no problem AFAIK.

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Why ?
Every John Doe can have a M.2 stick in his box that can do 6GB/s without a problem and often much more, but suddenly he doesn’t care if he has to copy stuff from it to his NAS at friggin 1/100 of the stick’s speed ? :roll_eyes:

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The point was that the regular joe has a iPhone with a iCloud subscription and the only thing they care about is „good wifi“, but with mobile carriers pushing 5G and the declining notebook market they might even just care about cellular reception.

Don’t get me wrong I would love to see pronsumer 25/40G NICs, but my gut feeling is that there isn’t a big enough future market for these to at least be cheap.

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I don’t believe in 25GBase-T within the next 10 years, so 25Gbit Consumer NICs are not realistic.

Intel recently released new NICs and the low-power 10Gbit and 8-lane Gen5 100Gbit NIC are really good stuff for people like us.

The problem isn’t the availability of NICs, it’s people wanting to use their x1 and x4 slots. And there are a bunch of boards with on-board 25Gbit NICs now too…

I use my super cheap ConnectX-4 in my x4 slot in my daily driver. 25Gbit for the people

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Intel E830 was only announced a few months ago and then just released like a month ago. $550 msrp for 200gb NIC, using only 14-25w maximum power optics included:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/239775/intel-ethernet-network-adapter-e830cqda2/specifications.html
edit, here is a link to the NIC for sale at almost msrp: PROVANTAGE: Intel E830CQDA2M Intel Ethernet Network Adapter E830-CQDA2, Multi
The “gatchya” with the new NIC being so low priced is that it has a maximum throughput of 200gb, so you can use either both ports in 100gb mode or a single port in 200gb mode. Still a great NIC for the price though and very low power for what it is.

And the new 25gb model, using 9.5-11.5watts:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/241942/intel-ethernet-network-adapter-e830xxvda2/specifications.html

Though ConnectX-4 is still very good and supports the majority of modern features, and still only uses 11.1w power which these newest NICs just finally achieved. Its nice that you can get them for $40 used and Nvidia still has driver support for them so they arent EOL yet.

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But the data sheet seems to state there is no RDMA support, either through iWARP or RoCEv2.

WTH ?

Maybe it means that it supports only RoCEv1 ? :roll_eyes:

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How strange. Perhaps contact Intel and ask for clarification on if that is an incorrect listing on their website? On the 25gb model it says it supports iWARP and ROCEv2, and the product brief says this:

All Intel® Ethernet E830 Adapters offer these
key features:
Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA)
Both RoCEv2 and iWARP protocols are offered,
and for added flexibility, RoCEv2 and iWARP can
run concurrently.

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Over Copper:

  • 1G was quite the achievement in PHY quality and capability back when.
  • 10G is essentially a big ass PHY and error correction doing an incredible job at getting the job done somehow
  • 25G is a moon shot, if it was twin-coax similar to SDI, maybe, but I don’t think so
13

I always found it odd the intel floods the market with CPUs but then only refreshes other products like nics every feels like 5 years. I don’t see it coming on the consumer market tho. Too much effort adding in fiber optics to a market where most don’t have it. Not too hard to add in businesses in modern buildings, which is probably why 25/100gb switches and nas’s are a thing.

But there still isn’t great ways of connecting <10gbe to a 25/100gbe network in a home or old building. In the US especially, if you live in an older home, you have to go into walls/ceilings. Quite a bit of work involved and not insignificant cost, especially if you dont have an easy direct run and need to go in multiple directions. Sometimes you’re even stuck with old non standard thickness walls/ceilings that don’t offer enough space for cable channels.

I also doubt anything more than 10G will be done. Unless POE is needed for like a wifi 15 AP. Only reason I know anyone has even gone to 5G was for 10gbe wifi 7 APs (not sure why 5gbe, but I assume it was because the cat cable was old).