2.5 Gbps Ethernet going Mainstream? Realtek launching RTL8125 mobo chip
I've been evangelizing faster Ethernet for a year or so now. In the years to come, we will slowly transition to faster Ethernet as 1 Gbps is getting out of fashion. There's a move coming though, Realtek will be releasing three new 2.5 Gbps Base-T Ethernet controllers.
While Quantia already offers up-to 10 Gbit/s solutions, steps are always small in the world of mainstream technology. And yeah, 2.5 Gbps in theory roughly 325 MB/sec in PHYs that is going to make its way into motherboards. Basically, in the initial launch wave, you're going to notice the RTL8125, RTL8156, and RTL8226. The RTL8125 is the chip to get and will be embedded onto motherboards and is based on a PCI-Express 2.0 x1 host (has 5 Gbps bandwidth, not to confuse with the 2.5 Gbps link).
The RTL8156 is designed for USB dongles over USB 3.1 gen 1 (5 Gbps) and then the RTL8226 is a chip that will end up in routers and switches. We think you'll see the new 2.5Gbps implementations real soon, even on some new Z390 motherboards. The standard is obviously backward compatible at 1 Gbps / 100 / 10. For 2.5 Gbps to work, obviously your network infrastructure will need to be updated as well, that means your switches. Cabling will be fine though, even CAT5e can easily reach 5 Gbps.
If you like to have a taste of what super-fast ethernet brings to the table, might I steer you to these two reviews I made (here),(here)?
Senior Member
Posts: 1465
Joined: 2008-07-16
Not "Meh" at all.
The point of having wired Ethernet in the house is to transfer stuff to/from main computer towards secondaries (NAS, FileServer PC, Mom's PC, Dad's Laptop, etc.)
(Beside having a stable connection for gaming and such)
Today, even a basic cheapo HDD is faster than 1gbps (~95 MB/s), meaning the network is now the bottleneck in all possible conditions.
I'm quite sure all NAS users will be extremely happy to upgrade their network cards to something faster than 1gbps once prices are acceptable.
p.s.
And don't say "Wifi 6" because as soon as you move past to one single wall, wireless speeds drop into the stone age. The theoretical max speeds only work with direct line of sight between the antennas, and on short distances... basically in the same room.
+ spectrum congestion. Yuck.
Junior Member
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Joined: 2018-10-06
There's a disturbing amount of the misinformation here.
The standard is known as mGIG, and the whole point is you can hook up regular ethernet cable and it will negotiate up to as fast as it can support on that cable, so when hardware is replaced the new performance is basically free.
If you want to 10 gigs you can go on eBay and buy a mellanox connector for 60 bucks, switches are more expensive but I've seen them below $500. eBay is great for used server hardware, and the wattage is listed clearly online so you can see how many lightbulbs each piece would equate to.
LTT is also running behind the curve hardware, as 200GE is already in the Dual port Connect-X 6.
They are decent on home hardware but the more they try to play in the enterprise space the more obvious it is that the talent levels there are prosumer at best.
Which totally makes sense, there's no way they'd be able to afford an Enterprise Architect on YouTube money year after year.
Member
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Joined: 2013-10-13
...As long as ISPs are on board! Sure, 'ALL HAIL FASTER SPEEDS' -- for an arm and a leg, of course.
Senior Member
Posts: 3181
Joined: 2006-04-25
I really only need one or two lanes of my 100 lane highway but now it becomes 250 lanes (probably a terrible simile). I dream of the day I could saturate just my 1gb connection with web traffic. But I live on a mountain just west of nowhere. It's still nice to see progress at the consumer level.
Senior Member
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Joined: 2017-02-16
None of this means a thing if there aren't cheap switches to go with it. There's no indication that there's anything under $500 that's more than a 2-port trunk attached to a standard 1gbe switch coming anytime soon.