Question

Windows and Gigabit network utilization.

Asked by: 1cell

I'm involved in a debate at work about the value of a gigabit network upgrade with the opposing argument being that Windows does not take advantage of gigabit network speeds.  I can't find anything on the internet supporting either opinion.  Looking for definitive info one way or the other.

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Asked On
2007-07-18 at 19:39:56ID22706026
Tags

utilization

,

network

,

gigabit

,

windows

Topics

Windows Networking

,

Operating System Specific Networking

,

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
4
Points
125
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: warrenbucklesPosted on 2007-07-18 at 19:45:54ID: 19518901

Gigabit hardware will give you increased throughput on the wire side, no question.  

Yes, Windows does not handle all the bells and whistles of Gigabit, but much of the bottleneck is in device drivers and details of the PC architecture, not Windows per se.

Research your gigabit hardware choices carefully - there significant differences in performance between different host adapters, switches and routers.

wb

 

by: leewPosted on 2007-07-18 at 19:47:55ID: 19518909

Windows has very little to do with it.  I have seen Windows servers experience 200-400 Mbit throughput on a gigabit adapter.  Windows will use whatever speed it can get.  PERIOD.  BUT, things like the disk subsystem, fragmentation, DRIVERS for the NICs used, file sizes, NIC/Protocol settings, types of NICs, if the server is doing anything at the moment, number of users using that gigabit link at that moment, and I'm probably forgetting a few other factors as well.  When you start getting too far past 100 Mbit, your bottleneck ceases to be the network card and other factors come into play.

 

by: and235100Posted on 2007-07-19 at 00:00:59ID: 19519834

Some useful information here: http://www.dssnetworks.com/v3/FAQs.asp#Relation

 

by: armand278Posted on 2007-07-19 at 00:03:46ID: 19519843

Im the administrator on a network that is about 20% gigabit enabled, all our switches are gigabit with most of the users still using 10/100 lancards, i dont really see a performance increase networking wise on the machines that have 100/1000 lancards installed even though my switches are reporting that these connections are indeed connecting at gigabit speeds, i suppose that it still has a ways to go before there will be a true marraige between drivers, software, io subsystem, various hardware components and the various things that go along with data processing, i can see no advantage to it yet.

 

by: and235100Posted on 2007-07-19 at 00:26:43ID: 19519922

To take full effect of gigabit performance - you really need your servers operating at a higher network bandwidth - so that bottlenecks are not an issue.

i.e. - if you just want 10/100 clients - make sure that you have 1Gbps nics in your servers.

or - if you want 1Gbps clients - I would suggest having 10GbE nics in your servers... (and a 10GbE "backbone"switch)

 

by: armand278Posted on 2007-07-19 at 02:55:47ID: 19520537

ah interesting and235100 i will look into that thanks

 

by: and235100Posted on 2007-08-06 at 12:55:58ID: 19641084

Any update, armand278?

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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