Does the NIC im looking for exist?

Networking Networking Hardware
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I’ve been googling and i cant seem to find a product that solves my problem, I’m hoping maybe somebody here knows of one.
my current situation: i am using a machine with the asus prime x399-a motherboard to host many VMs. i am using transparent bridging with the motherboards built-in NIC to have the VMs interact with my network directly (as far as my DHCP setup is concerned).

my problem: my needs are outgrowing the 1Gb/s capabilities of the onboard NIC. i need to find a new (preferably 10Gbe) solution. a new motherboard would require so much reconfiguration that I’m not considering that an option.
i think switching to SR-IOV from transparent bridging would be ideal as i wouldn’t have to run any cables that dont already exist in my current setup, and it seems to be higher performance way to connect VMs to the network.

due to how many expansion cards are already in the machine, only a PCIe x1 slot remains unused.

TLDR: does there exist a 10Gbe network card with SR-IOV support, RJ-45 (8P8C) connectivity, that fits in a machine’s PCIe x1 slot? ( preferably an Intel card if they make one)
if not, is there a better solution i haven’t thought of? (downsizing my workload is not a solution)

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I’m no expert, but as far as I can see that’s a pci-e gen 2 port, so it has a max theoretical speed of 5Gbps (combined in- and outgoing traffic). Gen 3 is double that, which is still not enough for 10Gbps in both directions. So I reckon you’ll never find a 10gbe card with x1 lane unless it’s 4’th gen, and at that point I wouldn’t count on it being backwards compatible with gen 2 (don’t know could be wrong). Though an x4 card will function in a x1 port, at reduced speeds, it’ll only physically fit if you modify the port on the motherboard.

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There is the QNAP QXG-5G1T-111C, which is a 5GbE x1 card, but as you’ve pointed out, that slot’s PCI-e 2.0, so performance could be borked. QNAP also make the QNA-UC5G1T, which is a USB 3.2 gen 1 to 5GbE adapter.

They use the AQC111C and AQC111U controllers, but I can’t find any info on SR-IOV support.

If you really wanted near 10Gb throughput, you could definitely bridge the two…

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it seems I’ve overestimated the capabilities of PCIe x1.
looks like 10gbe is out of the question. even though i cant have 10Gbe, there should still be a way to far outperform the onboard NIC. right?

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So obviously, you can always but a larger Card into an x1 Slot if its open at the end. It just will be protentially slower. As far as I know, all PCIe-Standards (V1.1 upto V4) are compatible with each other.

If you want to go really yanky, you could use your USB-C port and attach this RJ45 10G adater. Though i’m pretty sure it doesnt have SR-IOV. Search for QNAP QNA-T310G1T

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That adapter won’t work, as the USB-C isn’t a Thunderbolt port.

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As @Zumps already touches on:

PCIE x1, even at PCIE Gen 3 would be limited to 8Gb:

1x slots also suffer from a much smaller power budget, so slapping in a card designed for a 4x or 8x slot would probably not work:

The QNAP card, being limited to 4Gb per the PCI-E 2.0 spec, seems like a decent option if you understand and are willing to accept 4Gb performance.

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im fine with 4Gb performance, but i absolutely need SR-IOV.

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If 4gb performance is enough, then you don’t need sr-iov.

Any threadripper should be able to hit 4gb without using SR IOV (or VMQ for that matter).

If nothing else on your LAN is faster than 1gb you might also be better off using an additional 1gb nic on the PCIE 1x slot and using teaming, switch independent or otherwise.

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i want SR-IOV to simplify my VM networking. and to be able to more directly interface my VMs to the external network.

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Since I couldn’t see a concrete answer: Intel X550-T2 dual 10 GbE ethernet adapters support SR-IOV and they come with low-profile form factor.

This way you can mount the card with its short bracket in the full-height slot of your computer case and use a PCIe x1 to x16 active riser for the ethernet adapter.

You’ll be limited to a little less than 5 Gb/s due to PCIe 2.0 x1 but you shouldn’t have any software/driver/compatibilty issues.

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