"The Intel Killer E5000 turns out to be just a re-branded Realtek RTL8126 5GbE Ethernet adapter. "
“While such rebrands are nothing new, it is still amusing thinkin of the Intel vs Realtek LAN debate in the past. Realtek seems to be good enough now that even Intel adopts them.”
There’s no debate that Realtek NICs and drivers are good enough for browsing the Web and gaming. The issue is behaviour as a server under heavy load to multiple clients.
There’s also no debate that Realtek hardware is cheaper (that’s all its point). So Intel may find a benefit in rebranding—plus catering to the gamer crowd with the silly naming.
The convention is perfect: It signals that this hardware is not for me.
Have fun! But remember that the NIC wisdom of today is: “Avoid any 2.5G NIC, including Intel.”