2.5Gb PCIe Network Card with Intel I226-V Chip, 2.5GBase-T Network Adapter NIC, PCIe 3.1 X1, PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Card for Windows 10/11, Linux Kernel 5.16.18/RHEL8.6, VMware ESXi8.0

I needed an Intel based NIC because the Realtek 2.5gbase-t chips aren't supported by the built.im FreeBSD drivers. This is about the same cost as the Realtek based cards. I added this to my FreeBSD server and direct connected it to my Windows 11 desktop which has a Realtek chip and it works fine so far. I get about 2.37 Gbit/s in iperf3 in both directions simultaneously.

Detected fine in an Asus AMD x570 motherboard. No windows 10 drivers automatically found. Unfortunately Intel's website makes it a bit harder than it should be to find drivers. Search for "Intel Network Adapter Driver for Windows 10". Version 29.1 installed without issue. I ordered a second one and will update review if there are any problems.Edit: Also working fine on another ASUS AMD x570 motherboard on windows 11, a Gigabyte A520 board on windows 10, and an ASUS Intel H770 board running Debian Linux.2.5 GB link throughput:[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 284 MBytes 2.38 Gbits/sec[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 283 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec[ 5] 2.00-3.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec[ 5] 3.01-4.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 5] 4.01-5.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec[ 5] 5.01-6.00 sec 279 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 283 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec[ 5] 7.00-8.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec[ 5] 8.01-9.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 5] 9.01-10.01 sec 284 MBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate[ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec sender[ 5] 0.00-10.02 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec receiver1GB link throughput:[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate[ 5] 0.00-1.01 sec 115 MBytes 962 Mbits/sec[ 5] 1.01-2.01 sec 107 MBytes 893 Mbits/sec[ 5] 2.01-3.01 sec 113 MBytes 943 Mbits/sec[ 5] 3.01-4.01 sec 113 MBytes 942 Mbits/sec[ 5] 4.01-5.00 sec 111 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec[ 5] 5.00-6.01 sec 112 MBytes 940 Mbits/sec[ 5] 6.01-7.01 sec 111 MBytes 929 Mbits/sec[ 5] 7.01-8.01 sec 112 MBytes 941 Mbits/sec[ 5] 8.01-9.01 sec 112 MBytes 941 Mbits/sec[ 5] 9.01-10.00 sec 111 MBytes 944 Mbits/sec- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 1.09 GBytes 938 Mbits/sec sender[ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 1.09 GBytes 936 Mbits/sec receiver

This card reports the connection speed as 2.5Gbps, but it performs close to 100 Mbps.See the iperf3 results:[ 5] 0.00-1.01 sec 7.50 MBytes 62.6 Mbits/sec[ 5] 1.01-2.01 sec 11.5 MBytes 96.5 Mbits/sec[ 5] 2.01-3.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.7 Mbits/sec[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.3 Mbits/sec[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 11.4 MBytes 95.2 Mbits/sec[ 5] 5.00-6.01 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.3 Mbits/sec[ 5] 6.01-7.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.4 Mbits/sec[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 11.1 MBytes 93.5 Mbits/sec[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.5 Mbits/sec[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 11.2 MBytes 94.3 Mbits/sec- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 109 MBytes 91.4 Mbits/sec sender[ 5] 0.00-10.05 sec 109 MBytes 90.6 Mbits/sec receiverA different card on the same computer and the same switch perform as expected.[ 7] 0.00-1.00 sec 283 MBytes 2.36 Gbits/sec[ 7] 1.00-2.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 2.01-3.01 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 3.01-4.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 4.01-5.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 5.01-6.00 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 6.00-7.01 sec 281 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 7.01-8.00 sec 279 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 8.00-9.01 sec 282 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec[ 7] 9.01-10.01 sec 280 MBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate[ 7] 0.00-10.01 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec sender[ 7] 0.00-10.01 sec 2.74 GBytes 2.35 Gbits/sec receiver

I bought this to upgrade the network card in my home media server to connect to the 2.5Gb switch. I wanted the Intel card over the other 2.5Gb cards and wanted the 226 one over the 225 due to known issues with the 225.Installed the card and configured it in the system and set it as the default, left the trunked pair as a backup to this card and now transfer speeds to the server are almost 3 times as fast as with one 1Gb nic

This eventually worked quite well once I figured out a few things. For starters, when plugged into my PCIe X1 port, the lights went on but Windows never detected a device at all. I thought it was defective, but U moved it to an X16 port and suddenly Windows detected the device. However, Windows still had no idea what type of device it was and did not automatically download drivers even though I had my original network card/connection still available. It was simply an exclamation point "Unknown network device". Since the product comes with zero drivers or even much in the way of documentation, I had to go hunting for the chipset and compatible Intel I226-V drivers. Once that was installed, all worked as expected and speed tests show a nice bump.The only problem I have with this card is that it has VERY bright lights that flash constantly. Even when the computer is OFF! I've turned off Wake from LAN but it still stays flashing away while the PC is off. Very annoying.

Great network card, connect very fast to internet.

Great product and price. Works at advertised speeds.Cons.A bit tricky to locate the drivers on the intel website.