For years, installing a dedicated network card in your PC was a must for performant and reliable network connectivity - whether on Wi-Fi or using Ethernet. But times have changed, and modern motherboards now come with highly functional built-in networking capabilities, rendering most network cards obsolete for many users. So how come you can still buy third party network cards, and should you be using one?

What are network cards?

A relic of the past or still in use?

A network card (sometimes called a NIC - or network interface card) is a dedicated bit of hardware designed specifically for connecting to a network. This can be over Ethernet (RJ45) or Wi-Fi, and different cards might have different hardware on board to support different use cases. Some might support external antennas or contain multiple interfaces (i.e. multiple Ethernet jacks), or have dedicated hardware on board to support very high throughputs or specific types of networking workloads.

Networking cards are now largely obsolete, as most modern PCs and laptops come with the same networking features integrated into their mainboard or motherboard. However, dedicated NICs are still relevant for certain users seeking higher performance, stability, or specific features like multiple interfaces.

Do you need one for your computer?

Maybe for a Wi-Fi upgrade, but probably not

For the vast majority of users, the answer here is no. The networking features built into your motherboard are likely more than sufficient for a day-to-day use case, and the extra expense, power expenditure and clutter in your case is unlikely to provide you any real benefit (other than looking a little cool). There are, however, still some cases where a network card can be useful, especially if you're stuck using your onboard Wi-Fi.

Network cards can provide 10Gb connectivity

One example of where a network card is still useful is where a 10Gb connection is needed but unavailable on your motherboard. In this case, 10Gb capable consumer-oriented cards can be picked up for under $100, and are generally widely supported. This won't apply to most users, but can be an important use case if you're working with very large data files (like video or AI/ML training data, for example) directly from a NAS or other high-speed storage on your network.

Many modern motherboards are now starting to support 10Gb natively, but it's still a premium feature.

Improved Wi-Fi performance

While most people think of a network card as an Ethernet card, Wi-Fi cards also fall under this umbrella. While many motherboards now support onboard Wi-Fi, it often isn't the best, and the antenna being inside a metal box isn't great for signal strength either. Many third party Wi-Fi cards support an external antenna connection, which can help boost your signal, and are often of much higher quality than their onboard rivals.

If you're struggling with bad Wi-Fi on your computer, picking up a third party Wi-Fi card might not be a bad option. There are also some USB-based Wi-Fi dongles, though they may not be as fast.

Redundancy and customization

A third and final reason you might want to put an additional network card in your computer is for redundancy. You might want to make use of an additional interface to provide a dedicated connection to a specific virtual machine, run redundant or separate internet or LAN connections, or set up a dedicated connection for streaming or backups.

This also applies to your homelab — you might make use of a custom network card to provide a dedicated interface to your Plex server, for example, or your VPN, so that high-load traffic from those virtual machines doesn't distrupt operations elsewhere on the network.

Are network cards good for gaming?

An Ethernet network card is unlikely to improve your gaming performance

You might be tempted to pickup a network card to improve your connectivity while gaming, and while this might help if you're on Wi-Fi, we wouldn't recommend it for most people. If you're having Wi-Fi issues, and don't have an easy way to run Ethernet, a mesh network or use powerline adapters, then a better Wi-Fi card might help improve your overall connection stability and speed. It won't improve your ping however, and if you have connection issues on your internet line in general, then improving your Wi-Fi won't solve that.

An Ethernet card is unlikely to make any difference to your experience gaming, and we wouldn't recommend getting one with that in mind.

Custom routers can still make use of network cards

There is still one essential use of network cards in 2024 though. If you're building a custom router or firewall, you'll want to install a custom network card that's got at least two interfaces - one LAN and one WAN. This makes your life a lot easier for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, while it's possible to configure a router using just one interface, it can be tricky and we wouldn't recommend it. Misconfigurations can also end up exposing your devices publicly, potentially bypassing your router or firewall.

Multi-interface network cards also allow for a host of more advanced configurations, like load balancing and link aggregation, while maintaining the highest possible performance. High quality network cards keep the processing for high bandwidth connections away from your CPU, and can help improve overall speeds.

If you're really getting into more advanced stuff, support for features like VLAN tagging, network segregation or even RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) can be fun to play around with — if a little tricky.

Should you buy a network card in 2024?

The answer here is probably not. The most common use case for a dedicated network card is to improve your Wi-Fi connectivity, and these cards have a place and purpose (although there are plenty of other good options to explore as well, such as improving coverage with a mesh network).

If you're looking at building a homelab on a single machine, running some very high throughput services or building a custom router, you might also want to consider a multi-interface NIC. However, for most normal gamers and day-to-day uses, don't expect a network card to noticeably improve the experience over your onboard motherboard components.