Bigfoot Networks, the guys behind the Killer NIC, put out a press release today saying that they have shown their network card improves play more in Windows Vista than it does in Windows XP. Bigfoot Networks says that Vista’s networking stack performs worse than the stack used in Windows XP. If true that would mean that in online games like WoW or Battlefield 2142 Vista machines will have more lag than XP machines.

As a player of Battlefield 2142 I can tell you that lag can really crap your style. When lag occurs you can’t control your game any longer. This is really bad if you are in the lead and the game gets laggy which can easily leave you dead. I have blown my self to bits more than once while flying in Battlefield 2142 thanks to lag. I have also lost death matches in games like Unreal Tournament when lag popped up. Several independent reviewers have said that the Killer NIC actually works. I haven’t got my hands on one and the worst thing I can say about the card is that my machine has no room for it. I need my sound card and my SLI set up more than I need a network card right now. Bigfoot Networks should make one of these in a PCIe form factor then we can talk. As it stands now Bigfoot says the Killer NIC reduces ping times anywhere from 7% to 41% on Vista and improves frame rates from 5% to 40% depending on the game. Those are some big claims and I would like to put them to the test myself.