Broadcom BCM57416 10Gbe vs Intel X550 10Gbe adapters?

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TXAG26

Active Member
Aug 2, 2016
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Does anyone know how the new Broadcom BCM57416 10Gbe network adapter compares to the Intel X550 series 10Gbe adapters? It appears Supermicro may only be listing the BCM57416 on their add-on networking card list (for 10Gbe adapters). There appears to be about a $50 price difference between the Broadcom and Intel based adapters.

Supermicro Broadcom BCM57416 Dual-Port 10Gbe Network Adapter (AOC-STG-b2T) $216
https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/datasheet-AOC-STG-b2T.pdf

Supermicro AOC-STG-B2T Wired


Supermicro Intel X550-T2 Dual-Port 10Gbe Network Adapter (AOC-STGS-i2T) $265
https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/datasheet-AOC-STGS-i2T.pdf

Supermicro AOC-STGS-i2T-O Wired
 

TXAG26

Active Member
Aug 2, 2016
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Curiosity got the best of me. I found an inexpensive used Broadcom BCM57416 based dual port 10GBe adapter and from what I can tell after testing tonight in my workstation computer, the Broadcom BCM57416 chipset is NOT supported in Windows 10. It seems that there are only Windows Server based (2012/2016/2019) drivers available for this card and I was not successful in getting Windows 10 (1903) to recognize any of those drivers from Supermicro, Lenovo, HPE, or Dell. I also had another ethernet card active and Windows was unable to locate/pull a drive from Microsoft or anywhere online.

I had high hopes that this might be an inexpensive 10Gbe option for Windows 10 workstations, but unless someone can point me to some actual Windows 10 drivers, I don't think it will pan out. :mad:

I should have time later in the week to throw it into an ESXI 6.7 U3 system to see how it works.
 

blinkenlights

Active Member
May 24, 2019
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No experience with the Broadcom, but my NAS has an onboard X550 and will be building a second server with the X722. If you are looking to use the cards for a firewall, lightweight virtualization, bare-metal server, or client, I expect they would perform the same (within a reasonable margin). The Broadcom is newer and supports more modern features for virtualization, SDN, and data center integration (DCXB) - those use cases would benefit from the Broadcom. It will also likely have lower power consumption, being a newer card. You also might want to look into what's available from Chelsio.

TL;DR - I use Intel for 10GbE networking, but would consider Broadcom if I had use cases that would benefit from the new(er) features.
 

TXAG26

Active Member
Aug 2, 2016
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Very helpful, thank you. Actually, the specs I’ve seen show the Broadcom using about 25% more power (~5w more) than the Intel X550 series.
 

TXAG26

Active Member
Aug 2, 2016
397
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I can confirm that the Broadcom BCM57416 based dual port 10GBe adapter works well in ESXI 6.7 U3. I'm using an HPE 535T dual 10GBe port adapter. Installation was seamless. It was auto-recognized by ESXI and ready to go. I upgraded the firmware on the BCM57416 within the ESXI command prompt. Performance-wise, I cannot tell a difference between the BCM57416 and X550 cards in ESXI. Granted, this server isn't hammered 24/7/365, but so far, so good. I'll report back any issues that crop up.