Even the cheap 10Gbase-T NICs are getting better. We purchased the Gigaplus Marvell AQC113 Adapter for only $67.50 after a promotional code on Amazon. We have seen a few other adapters with a similar chipset, but this one is just a bit more interesting. It is time for a review.
Cheap Gigaplus 10Gbase-T Adapter with Marvell AQC113
Looking at the adapter, this is a low-profile card with a PCIe x4 connection and a branded heatsink.
Looking at the 10Gbase-T port and the full height bracket the driver link is printed on the bracket, which will be important later. There is a QR code. We did not use the QR code becuase you just never know.
On the back of the card, we see that it passed quality control.
Pulling the heatsink off, we can see the Marvell Aquantia AQC113 chip. This is a newer version printed with the Marvell logo.
Just for some sense of how much is going on here, let us quickly compare this to the NICGIGA 10Gbase-T Adapter and you can easily see the difference. The Gigaplus card has a lot more going on. Something also to keep in mind is that the Aquantia NICs are designed to be installed on motherboards with relatively low impact.
The Gigaplus also came with a low profile bracket.
Something worth mentioning is that the card did not work out-of-the-box with our test Dell system. Instead, we needed to install the Aquantia drivers that we downloaded from Marvell’s website.
That was the key to getting everything working.
Cheap Gigaplus 10Gbase-T Adapter with Marvell AQC113 Performance
Overall, we got 10Gbase-T speeds as we would expect using iperf3:
This is a fairly well-known consumer NIC and performance was fairly good.
Final Words
On one hand, many will be frustrated by needing to install drivers for a card like this. We can see the standard Marvell drivers in the Windows Device Manager after doing this. Other OSes may have drivers, but the Aquantia NICs prioritized Windows desktops. That will also be frustrating.
At $67.50 this is far from the cheapest PCIe 10Gbase-T adapter. A big benefit, however, is being able to add 10GbE networking to most systems with a PCIe slot. That includes many smaller systems with low-profile slots. If you just need faster networking, and have an extra slot, this worked reasonably well for us over the past few weeks.
Where to Buy
We purchased our unit from Amazon. Here is an affiliate link.
Note we participate in a number of affiliate programs, so we may earn a small commission if you buy one through this link. That helps us purchase more cards to review.
Does this card link at PCIe gen4 in a x1 slot? I’ve tried several AQC113 and so far only an OWC AQC113 will run at gen4, providing a full 10Gb/s in an x1 slot.
Dustin, the Nicgiga does run at gen4 x1 we discussed it over on level1techs forums and I have it running right now in my desktop
I would like to see a sfp+ card that does gen4 x1 but maybe that’s asking for too much
What’s the point ?
25GbE with Intel’s E810 and dual ports is about twice that and it can run cirles around this crap.
It has PFC, RDMA etc etc etc…
I don’t think the point of this is to add 25gbe over SFP28 and a higher consumption Onsigma. I think you’re getting this because you need 10gbase-t
Isn’t the PCIe g4 x1 related to the AQC113 not the actual card? The card only provides the connection to the PCIe root host, power, and a physical port and link to the port
@Onsigma Blue
True, but that’s a SFP28 card which will require media converters in order to connect to an existing RJ45 10G network, so it’s not really a contender for this card.
@Jose Garcia
The PCB has to be of higher quality with proper signal routing in order to support 4.0 speed. If it’s not then it’ll negotiate slower during device initialization.
@Onsigma Blue “Why did you get a Volvo V60 when a Mercedes E63 AMG is just twice the price?”, i can’t find an ounce of logic in your comment. 1) Maybe people are on a limited budget, so then “only twice as much” is out the window. 2) Plugging into existing infrastructure (ethernet). 3) Plugging into existing infrastructure (10Gbe switches) etc etc etc etc. You comment make zero sense
The fact that no one makes a pcie 4.0 10gb nic with an x1 slot is mystifying.
So many x1 slots that people can’t use with anything higher than 2.5gb are going to waste.
Plus, 10gb support is way more ubiquitous, as just now 2.5gb is starting to become popular, while 5gb is basically nowhere. 10gb has been around forever.
@David
Manufacturers are mostly afraid of support costs for such a design.
It’s the same as GPUs with x1 slots. I have one from Zotac and it simply doesn’t work in some motherboards when plugged into x1 slots while it works in others. A chicken-and-egg problem making motherboard manufacturers not test if such a configuration is even working in the first place.
What is more getting an x1 slot with PCIe 4.0 is quite rare even for most recent tech. I took the first motherboard from ASUS’ site that had a x1 slot – ROG CROSSHAIR X870E APEX, and its x1 slot is just PCIe 3.0. Quite shocking considering it’s a very expensive board.
Personally I’d love to see 10G designs on x1, but I doubt it’s going to happen.
The same company does a 2 x 10Gb card with an Intel X540 Controller chipset for £10 less in the the UK version of Amazon. though that requires an PCI x8 slot rather than the x4 slot this one requires, still seems some odd pricing though.
there is also a 10% discount coupon currently if it fits your requirements
GPUs not working in X1 slots may be due to strict PCI-SIG compliance about slot power. Its limited for x1 and x4 slots, but x8 and x16 have a higher budget. If I recall its 25W vs 75W.
@Daniel
It’s a basic GPU with a passive heatsink so I doubt it. It’s more likely related to x1 being connected via the chipset and GPUs having more advanced requirements in terms of initialization or the chipset PCIe root not supporting all that’s required for them.
On some motherboards the computer starts and the GPU is functional in the OS while not available for pre-boot environment when in x1 slot but when in x16 slot it works in both.
As I wrote, it’s a support nightmare because x1 advanced devices are so rare.
@Lorribot
X540 is 13 years old, it’s power hungry due to old manufacturing process and lack of Energy Efficient Ethernet support, and is only 10G/1G/100M so no 2.5G and 5G like this Marvell chip. But… it’s dirt cheap so there’s still new designs with it.
Anyone know what the extra components on the Gigaplus card do, compared to the more naked Nicgiga card? I have the Nicgiga and wonder what’s missing, if anything. Gigaplus is slightly cheaper too.
What’s power consumption of this card?
I’ve got two cards from a brand called “Fenvi” on amazon that are similar to this and use the same driver. They have been running great since November. I went with that because the heatsink was a bit larger and overall seemed like a better physically built card. I get better speeds over the card than I do through the 10gbe onboard networking of my x870e godlike.
@Kyle:
Yes, you need QSFP, but that is minor issue.
@Jesper:
Bullshit.
With network, people aither use ti for 99% for web browsing or for RPC, file transfer etc.
In the first case, you are good with existing 1G.
In the second, you need to invest in upgrade. So, if one is going to go that route, why not pay some more in WAY more capable equipment (and future proof!) that is meant for that use ?
In testing, the adapter achieved 10Gbps speeds as expected, providing stable and reliable network performance.
I think that its important to remember that this is “SERVE THE HOME” and not necessarily always enterprise-focused with enterprise budgets. What is a good choice for the datacenter isn’t always a good choice in the home.
What is the use case for 100Gb in the home? I think even 10Gb is laughable for most use cases, but as its price drops its hard to ignore. Future proofing for 25/100Gb isn’t really worth the extra cost now, when these prices will crash as new hotness is released and these become too old for the datacenter.
@Onsigma Blue:
It’s not a “minor issue”. Media converters are an added cost to the already more expensive NIC/switch, and the media itself is also way more expensive than running RJ45. I can make a RJ45 cable that will run 1/2.5/5/10G by hand with simple tools.
Your choices for QSFP-compatible media are expensive copper direct attach cables that top out at 10m or fiber. Fiber is fragile (bending, crushing), easy to damage (a speck of dust in the connector can break it), hard to maintain (cleaning requires special tools), and most importantly impossible to create runs by yourself.
You either have to buy exact length fiber runs, pay someone to create the runs with specialized tools or buy the tools and training to do it yourself. Accidental damage to the end connector? That’s going to be a very expensive repair in contrast to just crimping a new RJ45.
When you think about it, the total cost of running with your idea vastly exceeds the gains for over 95% of use cases. I know it first hand since I have fiber runs in my property, but end devices are mostly still running on RJ45.
How are both of these cards AQC113?
The gigaplus picture without the heatsink looks VERY strange, the chip is an irregular blurry black shape inside the clear white rectangle and literally 4+ times larger.