Gigabit Ethernet Speeds

whardman · 03-17-2007, 03:55 PM

What would the normal speed for gigabit Ethernet be? I just bought a new Gigabit switch. Two of the computers have on-board Gigabit and one has a gigabit PCI card. I tested the speed between all of them and the highest speed I got was 200 Mbps.

I tried testing it by transferring files and programatically (raw throughput of data). This seems kind of low to me for gigabit. I tested 100 Mbps and got a thoughput of ~90Mbps. I would have expected speeds closer to 800-900Mbps with gigabit.

Let me know if you want specs of each computer. One of the specs is in My System.
Thanks.

**TheMatt** · 03-17-2007, 10:00 PM

Hi wardman,

Gigabit (1000 Mb/s or 125 MB/s) is only as fast as the data is going through it. If you are accessing data from a disk drive, it will be slow and will be the bottleneck on your network.

whardman · 03-18-2007, 06:34 AM

2 of the drives are SATAII. I also tried using a program which sends data through the network without accessing the hdd at all, and only got speeds of around 200Mbps.

**TheMatt** · 03-18-2007, 04:47 PM

What kind of cable is it? It should be CAT 5e or CAT 6. Look on the cable, it will say.

Hard disks will be slow, so you will want to test something loading off the RAM. If that only gets 200 Mb/s, then the cable is the problem.

whardman · 03-18-2007, 05:28 PM

20-30' of Cat6 > 2' CAT5e
4' CAT5e
2' CAT5e

I had one cable that may have been CAT4 (it didn't say) but I got the same speed after replacing it with CAT5e. I am using NetCPS, slightly modified, which pumps raw data, not using the hdd at all. The highest I've gotten is a peak of 250Mbps.

By the way the switch is Netgear GS605. I have a WAP and another computer both connected at 100Mbps. That shouldn't make a difference should it?

03-17-2007, 03:55 PM	#1 (permalink)
whardman Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Posts: 617 OS: Windows XP My System	Gigabit Ethernet Speeds What would the normal speed for gigabit Ethernet be? I just bought a new Gigabit switch. Two of the computers have on-board Gigabit and one has a gigabit PCI card. I tested the speed between all of them and the highest speed I got was 200 Mbps. I tried testing it by transferring files and programatically (raw throughput of data). This seems kind of low to me for gigabit. I tested 100 Mbps and got a thoughput of ~90Mbps. I would have expected speeds closer to 800-900Mbps with gigabit. Let me know if you want specs of each computer. One of the specs is in My System. Thanks.

03-17-2007, 10:00 PM	#2 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Gigabit Ethernet Speeds Hi wardman, Gigabit (1000 Mb/s or 125 MB/s) is only as fast as the data is going through it. If you are accessing data from a disk drive, it will be slow and will be the bottleneck on your network. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

03-18-2007, 06:34 AM	#3 (permalink)
whardman Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Posts: 617 OS: Windows XP My System	Re: Gigabit Ethernet Speeds 2 of the drives are SATAII. I also tried using a program which sends data through the network without accessing the hdd at all, and only got speeds of around 200Mbps.

03-18-2007, 04:47 PM	#4 (permalink)
TheMatt Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,693 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Re: Gigabit Ethernet Speeds What kind of cable is it? It should be CAT 5e or CAT 6. Look on the cable, it will say. Hard disks will be slow, so you will want to test something loading off the RAM. If that only gets 200 Mb/s, then the cable is the problem. __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

03-18-2007, 05:28 PM	#5 (permalink)
whardman Registered User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Cincinnati, Ohio Posts: 617 OS: Windows XP My System	Re: Gigabit Ethernet Speeds 20-30' of Cat6 > 2' CAT5e 4' CAT5e 2' CAT5e I had one cable that may have been CAT4 (it didn't say) but I got the same speed after replacing it with CAT5e. I am using NetCPS, slightly modified, which pumps raw data, not using the hdd at all. The highest I've gotten is a peak of 250Mbps. By the way the switch is Netgear GS605. I have a WAP and another computer both connected at 100Mbps. That shouldn't make a difference should it?