Subsystem Testing Continued
LAN Speed Test software was used with the Windows Task Manager to determine the performance levels of the onboard network interface. LAN Speed Test was used to measure bandwidth and transfer speeds, while Windows Task Manager monitored CPU utilization on the test system. For the testing, an 800MB file test was used with the default packet configuration for the application. The test was run three times with the middle result chosen. Results were captured for the low, medium and high transfer rates. The test was performed using a plenum rated category 5e crossover cable to bypass any traffic, routing or other transfer issues and possible packet loss or corruption that can be caused by a router/switch or hub. The cables were connected between two test machines, one using the onboard NIC(s) of the board being reviewed and the other is an Intel X540 Converged Network adapter. It supports 10/100/1000/10000Mbps speeds.
Wireless network testing, if applicable was performed using a connection to an 802.11/AC enabled wireless router and then sent to a test machine connected to the same router via a RJ-45 LAN connection. The target system network adapter is an i219v PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet controller integrated into an ASUS Maximus XI Formula motherboard. The network settings for both network controllers and the router are all at their defaults and the 802.11/AC router has no other devices connected to it.
Wired Networking
For its wired networking, GIGABYTE opted to integrate a Realtek RTL8118 GbE LAN controller. This isn’t a high-end controller, but again, this is an inexpensive option and it works fine for most people. It will handle general use needs and even gaming. However, people who have more advanced usage scenarios may want to opt for an add-in card for your networking needs.
All said and done, we saw far better performance than we could have imagined for this controller. For the average throughput in the write test, we saw a result of 87.54MBps. For the read test, the GIGABYTE X570 Gaming X achieved an average result of 96.23MBps.
The maximum write speed was 90.83MBps while the read speed topped out at 103.49MBps. In contrast, the minimum write speed was 85.92MBps and the minimum read speed was 60.01MBps. CPU utilization was 4% in the write test and 3% in the read test. Again, very surprising performance out of a Realtek controller. I have no explanation for why it worked so well as these types of controllers are usually underwhelming.