High-speed data streams are the lifeblood of the modern world, supporting vital functions in every industry and fueling the apps and services that many of us rely on throughout the day. Ubiquitous dependable data is only possible because of high-performance network infrastructure, including backend network controllers that deliver fast, consistent transfers across a wide spectrum of bandwidth demand. For organizations in the market for new data center networking solutions, it’s important to choose gear that delivers speed and consistency under varying loads.

In our data center, we compared the networking performance of two Dell PowerEdge R750 network interface controller (NIC) configurations: one with a single 100Gb Broadcom 57508 NIC and the other with four 25Gb NICs. We used the iPerf tool to measure each solution’s average bandwidth rate and consistency—demonstrating general network performance—and the Frametest tool to record each solution’s frames per second (FPS) rate and consistency—highlighting video-related network performance. On both solutions, we tested with multiple numbers of instances, or data streams, to represent both lighter and heavier workloads.

In our tests, the solution with a 100Gb Broadcom 57508 NIC delivered higher and more consistent throughput rates than the solution with four 25Gb NICs. It also delivered higher and more consistent FPS rates than the four-NIC solution across all the instance counts we tested. This better, more consistent bandwidth makes the PowerEdge R750 server with a 100Gb Broadcom 57508 NIC a sound choice for organizations looking for speedier, more consistent networking performance.

For more details about our Dell PowerEdge R750 with Broadcom 57508 NIC network performance tests, check out the reports below.