Realtek 10 GbE USB Adapters might be on the way?
- Thread starter jerrythea
- Start date
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Okay, I have gotten the RTL8159 USB 3.2x2 adapter today (2 of them), after a week or so from aliexpress.
I connect a Windows PC with W11, to a Linux PC running Fedora 42 directly.
Each came with a USB C cable.
Testing first on a USB3.2x2 port.
Windows PC has a X670E Aorus Master, with a USB 3.2x2 port via chipset.
Linux PC has a X670E Carbon, with a USB 3.2x2 port via chipset.
I have not installed the driver itself, just let Windows and Linux auto install the driver.
Doing iperf from Windows to Linux with .\iperf3.exe -c 192.168.52.1 -t 10 -P 10:
Doing iperf from Linux to Windows with iperf3 -c 192.168.52.2 -t 10 -P 10
Doing both at the same time:
Windows to Linux:
[SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 5.67 GBytes 4.87 Gbits/sec sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 5.67 GBytes 4.86 Gbits/sec receiver
Linux to Windows:
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 10.8 GBytes 9.31 Gbits/sec 639 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 10.8 GBytes 9.28 Gbits/sec receiver
So maybe there's an issue without the Windows driver installed. Also 639 retries is quite a lot no?
Now I also tried via a normal USB 3.2 port, connected to the CPU directly instead.
Windows to Linux:
[SUM] 0.00-10.02 sec 5.59 GBytes 4.80 Gbits/sec sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.02 sec 5.59 GBytes 4.80 Gbits/sec receiver
Linux to Windows:
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 7.27 GBytes 6.25 Gbits/sec 0 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 7.24 GBytes 6.22 Gbits/sec receiver
Hope it helps! Not sure if I have to install an additional driver on Windows or Linux to make it work "better".
I connect a Windows PC with W11, to a Linux PC running Fedora 42 directly.
Each came with a USB C cable.
Testing first on a USB3.2x2 port.
Windows PC has a X670E Aorus Master, with a USB 3.2x2 port via chipset.
Linux PC has a X670E Carbon, with a USB 3.2x2 port via chipset.
I have not installed the driver itself, just let Windows and Linux auto install the driver.
Doing iperf from Windows to Linux with .\iperf3.exe -c 192.168.52.1 -t 10 -P 10:
Doing iperf from Linux to Windows with iperf3 -c 192.168.52.2 -t 10 -P 10
Doing both at the same time:
Windows to Linux:
[SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 5.67 GBytes 4.87 Gbits/sec sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 5.67 GBytes 4.86 Gbits/sec receiver
Linux to Windows:
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 10.8 GBytes 9.31 Gbits/sec 639 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 10.8 GBytes 9.28 Gbits/sec receiver
So maybe there's an issue without the Windows driver installed. Also 639 retries is quite a lot no?
Now I also tried via a normal USB 3.2 port, connected to the CPU directly instead.
Windows to Linux:
[SUM] 0.00-10.02 sec 5.59 GBytes 4.80 Gbits/sec sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.02 sec 5.59 GBytes 4.80 Gbits/sec receiver
Linux to Windows:
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 7.27 GBytes 6.25 Gbits/sec 0 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 7.24 GBytes 6.22 Gbits/sec receiver
Hope it helps! Not sure if I have to install an additional driver on Windows or Linux to make it work "better".
Hi panchovix
The best my computer can offer is USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). Is this product worth trying?
It should do about 970 MB/s on a 10Gbps port thats what NVME drives get
or 960 through a USB hub
This is a 10Gbps port through a USB hub for reference
Something interesting
My server that had a AQC113 in it PCIE 4.0 x 4 phyical running at 3.0 x 4
when the drives are spun down my power monitoring multi socket by tplink reported 65W
With the RTL8127 its reporting 68W
I only disabled aspm on the RTL8127 by using the no pm drivers
nothing else changed
i was expecting about 63W
My server that had a AQC113 in it PCIE 4.0 x 4 phyical running at 3.0 x 4
when the drives are spun down my power monitoring multi socket by tplink reported 65W
With the RTL8127 its reporting 68W
I only disabled aspm on the RTL8127 by using the no pm drivers
nothing else changed
i was expecting about 63W
I recently got in a RTL8127, the 1x pcie 4 variant. I tested it in an AMD 9700X system with an ASUS X870 tuf gaming motherboard, newest bios. I used the bottom slot (pcie 4.0 4x) for testing. The test system is connected to an unmanaged HiSource switch (4 2.5gb ports, 2 SFP+ ports) that is connected to a Mikrotik 8 port SFP+ switch which is connected to the rest of my house network. I used a generic Amazon sfp+ to RJ45 transceiver to connect the RTL8127 to the HiSource switch.
I booted the test system up in Debian SID, which is running kernel 6.17.8. The RTL8127 was recognized instantly and linked at 10gb. Running iperf3 to my main gateway box got consistent 9.5gb/sec with no dropped packets. Running speedtest to verify internet speed showed consistent 2.0gb/sec (the speed I pay for and my gateway gets on a normal basis).
Next, I booted the test system into Debian 13 running kernel 6.12.57. As expected, 6.12 did NOT see the RTL8127. I downloaded the latest drivers from Realtek's site, ran the installation scripts and the card came up and linked at 10gb. Performance testing gave the same results as above.
Finally I booted the system into Windows 10 LTSC IoT. Out of the box the OS did not see the card which was expected. I installed the latest drivers from Realtek's site and repeated the above performance tests and got the same results. I know the Windows Iperf3 client is not the most reliable, but in this case it gave me the same numbers and no dropped packets.
Conclusions - as I expected, out of the box driver support for the RTL8127 is poor/non existent unless you're running a very bleeding edge version of Linux. Fortunately Realtek's web site drivers do appear to work well. I'd really like to get my hands on a SFP+ variant of the card, and test it out on different transceivers and switches once they start showing up at reasonable pricing (currently I'm only seeing one for $60+ on Aliexpress and that's just not worth it currently).
I booted the test system up in Debian SID, which is running kernel 6.17.8. The RTL8127 was recognized instantly and linked at 10gb. Running iperf3 to my main gateway box got consistent 9.5gb/sec with no dropped packets. Running speedtest to verify internet speed showed consistent 2.0gb/sec (the speed I pay for and my gateway gets on a normal basis).
Next, I booted the test system into Debian 13 running kernel 6.12.57. As expected, 6.12 did NOT see the RTL8127. I downloaded the latest drivers from Realtek's site, ran the installation scripts and the card came up and linked at 10gb. Performance testing gave the same results as above.
Finally I booted the system into Windows 10 LTSC IoT. Out of the box the OS did not see the card which was expected. I installed the latest drivers from Realtek's site and repeated the above performance tests and got the same results. I know the Windows Iperf3 client is not the most reliable, but in this case it gave me the same numbers and no dropped packets.
Conclusions - as I expected, out of the box driver support for the RTL8127 is poor/non existent unless you're running a very bleeding edge version of Linux. Fortunately Realtek's web site drivers do appear to work well. I'd really like to get my hands on a SFP+ variant of the card, and test it out on different transceivers and switches once they start showing up at reasonable pricing (currently I'm only seeing one for $60+ on Aliexpress and that's just not worth it currently).
Proxmox 9.1.1 is currently on kernel 6.17.2-1-pve, so I'm guessing that has support oob.
Anyone with RTL8127 that can test and verify?
EDIT : it should work, support for RTL8127 was added in 6.16
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I've been using the SFP+ version I bought from Alibaba for a few days. Signing up for an Alibaba account took about 2 minutes and got me free shipping, so my total cost including taxes was ~$40. Can recommend!
The kernel driver doesn't support SFP+ cards yet, so I'm running the Realtek driver which, as you say, works perfectly.
Even with no airflow, the heatsink on the card is barely warm to the touch.
I'd order from Alibaba, but the import fee's are huge. On Aliexpress I don't get hit with the import fee's. I just need to wait a bit until there's more sellers on Aliexpress.
Look how cute this one is:
www.alibaba.com
Pcie 4.0 X1 10g Network Card With Realtek Rtl8127 Chip | Single Rj45 Port | High-speed 10gbase-t Nic - Buy Rtl8127 Nic 10g Pcie Card 8127 10g Network Adapter Product on Alibaba.com
Pcie 4.0 X1 10g Network Card With Realtek Rtl8127 Chip | Single Rj45 Port | High-speed 10gbase-t Nic - Buy Rtl8127 Nic 10g Pcie Card 8127 10g Network Adapter Product on Alibaba.com
Attachments
Mine arrived a few days ago. It's really tiny.Look how cute this one is:
Pcie 4.0 X1 10g Network Card With Realtek Rtl8127 Chip | Single Rj45 Port | High-speed 10gbase-t Nic - Buy Rtl8127 Nic 10g Pcie Card 8127 10g Network Adapter Product on Alibaba.com
Pcie 4.0 X1 10g Network Card With Realtek Rtl8127 Chip | Single Rj45 Port | High-speed 10gbase-t Nic - Buy Rtl8127 Nic 10g Pcie Card 8127 10g Network Adapter Product on Alibaba.com
I've ordered an m.2 adapter, extension cable and printed a mount. Hopefully attacking this lot with some hot glue will get it shoe-horned it into my HP mini. Total cost was ~$45.
EDIT:
Got the RJ45 extension today. It's the lowest profile I could find but it's still too tall. Fortunately attacking it with wire cutters did the trick. The cable is longer and thicker than I'd like too, but it looks like everything will squeeze in once the m.2 pcie adapter arrives. Photos so far:-
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Just as an update, got almost the 10GBps fully basically (on the USB adapter) after installing the driver from the Realtek page on fedora 42, from either windows to linux or viceversa.
Windows to linux
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate
[SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 11.5 GBytes 9.91 Gbits/sec receiver
Linux to windows
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 11.1 GBytes 9.54 Gbits/sec 44 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 11.1 GBytes 9.53 Gbits/sec receiver
Windows to linux
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate
[SUM] 0.00-10.01 sec 11.5 GBytes 9.91 Gbits/sec receiver
Linux to windows
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 11.1 GBytes 9.54 Gbits/sec 44 sender
[SUM] 0.00-10.00 sec 11.1 GBytes 9.53 Gbits/sec receiver
Cool please let us know if it works!
I want to do the same with a M.2 slot on the back of an ITX motherboard, easy way to turn a gen 3 M.2 on the back of a motherboard into a very useful upgrade with the AT version of this card! Probably won't even need the floppy power connector as the M.2 slot provides enough power?
As I understand it the m.2 slot only supplies 3.3V, while a regular PCIe card expects 12V (and probably 5V, too early in the morning to check the documentation to be sure) so you'd still need aux power unless you find an M.2 slot adapter with a boost converter on it.