What’s an e1000? The e1000 is the Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller . VMware offers an emulated version of this controller. Most operating systems are shipped with a 82545EM driver. The 82545EM driver sucks! That’s why Intel replaced it with e1000e aka 82574L What’s an e1000e? The e1000e is the Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller. In vSphere 5 (HW8), VMware offers an emulated version of the e1000e. Windows 7 and Windows 2008 are shipped with drivers for the 82574L. The 82574L is cool, but is it faster than an VMXNET3? What’s VMXNET3? The VMXNET3 adapter is the next generation of Para virtualized NIC designed for performance. The VMXNET3 network adapter is a 10Gb virtual NIC. Drivers are shipped with the VMware tools and most OS are supported. VMXNET3 is much faster than e1000 or e1000e. VMXNET3 has less CPU overhead compared to e1000 or e1000e. VMXNET3 is more stable than e1000 or e1000e

1. E1000 is faster than VMXNET3

2. What’s an e1000?
• The Intel 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
• VMware offers an emulated version of this controller
• Most operating systems are shipped with a 82545EM
driver
• The 82545EM driver sucks! That’s why Intel replaced
it with e1000e aka 82574L

3. What’s an e1000e?
• The Intel 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
• In vSphere 5 (HW8), VMware offers an emulated
version
• Windows 7 and Windows 2008 are shipped with
drivers for the 82574L
• The 82574L is cool, but is it faster than an VMXNET3?

4. What’s VMXNET3?
• The VMXNET3 adapter is the next generation of Para
virtualized NIC designed for performance
• The VMXNET3 network adapter is a
10Gb virtual NIC
• Drivers are shipped with the VMware tools and most
OS are supported

5. The Laboratory

6. The tools
• UDP 1024 Bytes
• TCP 1024 Bytes
• UDP 16 Kbytes
• TCP 16 Kbytes

7. TCP 16K - What’s faster?
VMXNET3
e1000e

8. UDP 1024 Bytes - What’s faster?
VMXNET3
e1000e

9. Myth Busted
• VMXNET3 is much faster than e1000 or e1000e
• VMXNET3 has less CPU overhead
compared to e1000 or e1000e
• VMXNET3 is more stable than e1000 or e1000e