Why has there been a lack of gaming/gamer oriented RAID cards?

[pparks1]

Why has there been a lack of gaming/gamer oriented RAID cards? As the gaming community keeps wanting to push the boundaries of computers why has hardware manufactures met the demand for fast raid controllers that are dedicated and have there on CPU and on board RAM. You would think that someone would want to get into this such as Asus brand “Republic of Gamers.” Any thoughts?

Well, because the gains from an elaborate RAID setup in regards to gaming aren't spectacular. RAID setups, provide redundancy of data...unless of course you are talking about a RAID0 stripe which provides no data protection whatsoever.

Earlier people who were drawn to running RAID 0 arrays with Raptors and such were attempting to max out their sequential read/write speeds. And they simply didn't have many other choices at their disposal.

Real RAID cards are very expensive. And far less expensive SSD's make the RAID setups questionable at best. With SSD, you not only get 300+ MB/sec sequential read speeds, but you get 0.1ms access time to your files <---This right here is the key to great performance, very low random access times. You don't get nearly that low with RAID setups.

 

[Beta]

I just want to have everything of the MB that could slowdown the computer is anyway. What would be wrong with 4 Sata III SDD drives in Raid? They would be quick and you would see a read speed of around 1600 to 1800 MB/sec.

 

[stormy13]

Large expense for next to zero gain. You may end up being the first on the server with a setup like that, but if you were getting 60 FPS before adding the RAID you'll still be getting 60 FPS after.

 

[pparks1]

Lets say you get a raid array with SSD and you hit 1500mb a second. Lets then say when you launch your game, the computer loads 400mb of data to get to menu. With a std hard drive at 100mb a seond, its a 4 second wait. A standard ssd at 300 mb a second loads it in just over 1 second. Your raid setup, finishes in .3 seconds. Well., if .7 seconds blows your mind then by all means, spend the money id instead save 1000 and deal with fractions of a single second.

 

[Beta]

Thats not what I am going for. I just want to see manufacures push themselfs and the first people they always market to is the gamers.

 

[pparks1]

Mfg's aren't going to waste their time and build products like fancy RAID adapters geared towards gamers because at the end of the day the tech community will realize the miniscule gains and thus the cards won't sell to anybody but the foolish or the person who is obsessed with the absolute highest benchmark with no regards to cost. This isn't the ideal market for a product like this.

If there was a market and potential for income, these companies would be doing it.

 

[stormy13]

thus the cards won't sell to anybody but the foolish or the person who is obsessed with the absolute highest benchmark with no regards to cost. This isn't the ideal market for a product like this.

Sort of like the KillerNIC.

 

[pparks1]

Sort of like the KillerNIC.

Exactly, had a friend buy one of those. When he bought a new PC, he didn't buy another one.

 

[Beta]

I have a VisionTek Bigfoot Killer 2100 Gaming Network Card. Just look at my system specs. I love the card.

 

[stormy13]

$130 of pure marketing. The conclusion here sums it up well,

Killer 2100 Performance Analysis and Conclusion | bit-tech.net

It says a lot that it was so difficult for us to see any tangible difference from the Killer 2100 despite our best efforts to test in a scientific and consistent way. Even in our theoretical tests where we could control the variables of our local, private network we saw little benefit from the Killer 2100.

When gaming we saw little difference between our (free) on-board network controller and the Killer 2100 in terms of ping and frame rate. The only advantage we found was that the Killer 2100 allowed us to download in the background while gaming - possibly handy if you buy loads of games via download services but haven't the patience to wait for those downloads. This makes it very difficult to recommend the Killer 2100 as, at the end of the day, everyone wants some kind of tangible benefit for their £68

That card wasn't worth the money when it came out in 2006, and it still isn't worth it now.

 

[Beta]

I paid $35 with free shiping. I saw less lag in some games but not all. BFBC 2 saw the best improvement in ping. I wanted a good standalone card and I saw this a a daily deal on Newegg around Xmas last year and bought it. I will say that it would be a bad thing to buy at full price.

I like to see how fast I can get with my computer and I don't think I will ever stop.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I like to see how fast I can get with my computer and I don't think I will ever stop.

The trick to this line of thinking is to understand the hardware enough to know why RAID and gaming have nothing to do with each other. That's the point you are missing. No one is going to fault you for wanting the fastest computer possible...but if you have no understanding of how the components relate to the various software uses, you will just be wasting your time...and money.

 

[Beta]

I understand that a Raid Card will not give me more FPS. With a raid card you can make up for MB manufacturers not providing more then 4 Sata III ports. It would help people like me with all of the HD I have because I have a dual boot with Mac OS X Lion and Windows 7 (On different HD's). With a solid Raid Card I could use more of the on board ports for the Mac since making it see the raid card would most likely not be possible.

I just want some thing that does not feel like it cost 0.50 cents to make and not something that costs $400.00. Like this from Asus. However it does not have raid.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Accessories/U3S6/

 

[DeaconFrost]

It sounds like you just need a PCI-E SATA card, and not a RAID card. This goes back to what I was referring to. Given what you've just said, that has nothing to do with gaming. A good system builder understands the needs and uses of the computer and it's user...and then chooses hardware to best accomplish that goal. If you want a gaming system, put your money towards gaming hardware, such as the CPU, memory, and GPU. If you just want extra SATA ports, you can add in a card, or buy a motherboard with more ports already onboard.