Visiontek, a well-known supplier of graphics cards from the U.S., on Wednesday introduced the first graphics card with integrated Ethernet processor which speeds up traffic generated by video games and thus minimizes latency. While the graphics card seems interesting, its price may become a limiting factor for its success.

The Visiontek Killer HD 5770 graphics card is based on ATI Radeon HD 5770 "Juniper" graphics processing unit, 1GB of GDDR5 memory as well as Bigfoot Networks Killer 2100 network processing unit clocked at 400MHz. The graphics board is aimed at hardcore network gamers who play action first-player shooter games and require highest-speed response possible.

Killer 2100 network processing unit detects game traffic as it is generated and prioritizes it over all other network traffic. As a result, gamers get minimum possible ping and lowest possible response time.

"With the Killer HD 5770, players with mainstream PCs can turbocharge their systems at a fraction of the cost of a new PC. Bigfoot Networks pursues strategic initiatives with companies like VisionTek because of its shared commitment to offering unique, intelligent products to demanding gamers," said Michael Howse, chief executive officer of Bigfoot Networks.

ATI Radeon HD 5770 operates at 850MHz, features 800 stream processing units, 40 texture units, 16 render back ends and uses 4.8GHz GDDR5 memory that connects to the chip using 128-bit memory bus. The GPU fully supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 3.2, hardware-accelerated HD video decoding and post-processing, ATI Eyefinity technology and other innovations.

The price of the Visiontek Killer HD 5770 is $199. At the same price-point end-users can get GeForce GTX 460 768MB graphics card with nearly two times higher performance compared to the 5770 or the Radeon HD 6850, which is also much faster. While network accelerator does add value to the product, it does not seem that demanding gamers will buy an already outdated and not so fast graphics board in order to slightly improve network performance during online gameplay.

Tags: VisionTek, Bigfoot Networks, Killer, Radeon, ATI, AMD, Juniper