Realtek 10 GbE USB Adapters might be on the way?

[jerrythea]

I periodically check the Realtek website for updated Linux (Unix) drivers for the 5GbE USB adapters (which cause major issues on Linux, even with source driver provided by Realtek).

So, the latest software driver for Unix is still from last November:

2.19.2

2024/11/05

I am also regularly checking kernel.org to see if the 8157 is ever mainlined into Linux kernel.

So, no good news on that front, no updated driver from Realtek, and still not mainlined into kernel.
--

However, I just happened to notice that we might be seeing 10 GbE USB NICs very soon.

Given that OWC just dropped the price of their Thunderbolt 10 GbE adapter to $150, maybe this all means 10 GbE USB 3.2gen2 dongles are on the way??

Realtek

www.realtek.com

Realtek USB 1G / 2.5G / 5G / 10G Ethernet Family Controller Software
Network Interface Controllers > 10G Gigabit Ethernet > USB 3.0
RTL8159
Network Interface Controllers > 5G Gigabit Ethernet > USB 3.0
RTL8157

 

[MountainBofh]

I noticed that too last night. Wasn't able to find any further info about them, but hopefully we start seeing more affordable and more consumer level friendly 10gb adapters soon.

Realtek needs to work on their USB drivers though for the 5gb cards, they're AWFUL at the moment.

 

[WhiteNoise]

This is gonna require at least USB 3 Gen 2 x 2 (20 Gbps). It's not a common port at all.
It's better if they jump to USB4 and start using pci-e over USB tunneling. It's gonna be more stable and they can recycle 99.9% of their pci-e native design.

 

[minionflo]

Hello, here are some images of a example board from realtek with the chip

 

[jmsq]

Looks like this is now getting wider coverage: Realtek to Bring Affordable 10 Gbps Ethernet to the Masses Later This Year and we may see retail devices by Q4.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I think the lineup is pretty solid, aside from the RTL8159 that uses USB 3.2 Gen2x2 instead of USB4,

It's not clear to me if the RTL8261C announced a new 10G PHY, because the Realtek RTL8261XYZ can be found already in plenty of Realtek based switches and SFP+ modules.

 

[jmsq]

I think the lineup is pretty solid, aside from the RTL8159 that uses USB 3.2 Gen2x2 instead of USB4,

There are already plenty of (expensive) TB3/USB4 10GbT adapters on the market. I think USB 2x2 is the right move here for much broader compatibility, and any pcie-compatible USB4 ports should be able to use this device without issue (aside from the usb latency/overhead penalty.) I have plenty of mobile devices without USB4/TB3 that could benefit from this device, even if they may not get perfect usage out of it without a 20gbps port.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I disagree with you on this. Unfortunately USB 3 Gen 2x2 is a pretty rare port. USB4 is not TB3. There are plenty of TB3 "USB4" controller who only do 10GB or 40GB.

 

[John T Davis]

I have plenty of mobile devices without USB4/TB3 that could benefit from this device, even if they may not get perfect usage out of it without a 20gbps port.

Likewise. I'm curious to see what sustainable speeds the RTL8159 USB adapters can hit on a 10 Gbps USB port.

 

[spuwho]

The RTL8157 sees 4.85Gbps on a USB4 port, and 4.92Gbps on a PCIe Gen 3 1x adapter. So I would expect about 9.5Gbps on an appropriate USB/TB port and about 9.85 on a PCIe adapter.

 

[John T Davis]

The RTL8157 sees 4.85Gbps on a USB4 port, and 4.92Gbps on a PCIe Gen 3 1x adapter. So I would expect about 9.5Gbps on an appropriate USB/TB port and about 9.85 on a PCIe adapter.

Wouldn't the overhead keep a 10 Gbps USB port from actually hitting close to 10 Gbps over ethernet? Not to mention the issue of full duplex communication...

 

[BackupProphet]

I want usb to SFP28, and RDMA support.

 

[blunden]

Wouldn't the overhead keep a 10 Gbps USB port from actually hitting close to 10 Gbps over ethernet? Not to mention the issue of full duplex communication...

Yes, I would expect so.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I want usb to SFP28, and RDMA support.

That's not gonna happen. I think you are gonna need enterprise gear and good one at that. Not even the new intel e610 has RDMA.

What I hope is that Realtek improves their hardware/driver with more hardware offloading even for simple client use.

 

[serverpanda]

This is gonna require at least USB 3 Gen 2 x 2 (20 Gbps). It's not a common port at all.
It's better if they jump to USB4 and start using pci-e over USB tunneling.

If it works with a slower speed port, it would be totally sufficient for me. I could use existing 10GE(not compatible 2.5/5) to connect my laptop and just use whatever speed it achieves.

 

[farsonic]

Just looking at a pre-release datasheet for one of these cards and it is pretty clear in stating it needs USB Gen-2 20Gbs. Doesn't state if that is USB3 though.

 

[joeribl]

Just looking at a pre-release datasheet for one of these cards and it is pretty clear in stating it needs USB Gen-2 20Gbs. Doesn't state if that is USB3 though.

Pardon Our Interruption

USB 3.2 Gen2 it states here.

 

[jmsq]

So the first model to market is now available on Alibaba: 10gbe Usb-c Ethernet Adapter Usb3.2 Type C 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Realtek/rtl8159 Support For Windows 11 - Buy 10gbe Ethernet Network Eealtek/rtl8159 multiple Network Speeds 10gbps 5gps 2.5gbps 1g 100mbps And 10mbps Usb3.2 Typec 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Product on Alibaba.com

I got pretty lucky on my way back from China through Shenzhen a few days ago, and they had one available in stock locally.

It appears the driver on Realtek's website doesn't contain the 8159 yet despite the website text, but the seller provided a driver for the device that contained the necessary device IDs (VID_0BDA, PID_815A) and shows up as "Realtek USB 10GbE Family Controller" in Win11 device manager. iperf3 to my NAS averages about 9.1-9.3 Gbps on a non-constrained Thunderbolt 4 port.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Can you do a bidirectional test? because 10GbE is bidirectional (that's why you need 20 Gbps USB, not counting protocol overhead).

 

[jmsq]

At least for the moment, iperf3 bidirectional (either built-in or with two server-client processes) does appear to tank performance in one direction. I'll also note that testing on an older Tiger Lake-based system only consistently got ~7.6Gbps either direction best case. First test was on a Meteor Lake-based laptop.