2006-10-17 Gigabit network cards

At work, Tiemen Schut tested the performance under Linux for two Gigabit network cards, a D-Link DGE-550SX (optical) and an Intel Pro/1000 GT (standard Cat5e).

While the throughput is the same, the CPU usage is a major difference. Both Linux drivers allow setting some parameters for generating as little interrupts as possible. The difference:

To recreate the test:

• Start ksysguard
• Create a new tab
• In the left pane, click open Localhost > CPU Load > Interrupts
• Drag the 'Total' to the new tab
• Start a heavy network session, perhaps FTP'ing a large file