UPDATE-2014 driver now available! (Driver number will be different than what is in this article!
If you have the Realteck PCIe GBE Family Controller adapter and are experiencing performance issues on your network, download the latest driver. The driver (Version 7.65) is far superior to other Realteck PCIe GBE Family Controller drivers. The driver is shown as 7.065 on the website.
Our performance issue involved ApplicationXtender an archive system that uses Microsoft SQL to scan documents. This type of application is dependent on a reliable network and speed.
Old Driver
Average open time – 2 mins 30 secs (if the end user did not click the application, causing a hang)
Query time – 45 secs to – query box
Query process time- 1 min 10 secs – display document
New Driver
Average open time – 1-2 secs
Query time – 1-2 secs to – query box
Query process time- 1-2 secs – display document
Navigate to http://www.realtek.com/downloads/ to obtain the latest driver.
Click on Communications Network ICs – Network Interface Controllers –
10/100/100M Gigabit Ethernet – PCI Express – Software (Select your OS – we are updating the Windows drivers)
The US sites at the time of this writing produced a popup window that began the navigation over on Realtek’s site. The UK site produced the download.
The driver will be Driver_Win7_7065_11212012.zip.
You will notice that the 7.065 driver is really the 7.65 driver once it is installed (at the time of this writing).
Old Driver
Go to the Advanced Tab and disable everything but Flow Control.
Remember when working with network card drivers, you will lose connectivity during the installation of drivers.
TCAT Shelbyville - ITIM 
Can I ask..what is the reason for disabling everything but Flow Control? Just curious. I’ve had issues with my Realtek controller since 2011, when my current PC was brand new. It disconnected all the time and/or the cable wouldn’t be recognized so i couldn’t connect. I finally gave up using the Ethernet connection and switched to Wireless (I have a wireless adapter in my PC as well). I wanted to get a stronger Internet connection, so I decided to switch back to the Ethernet cable yesterday–but I’m already experiencing the same issues I did from the start. I thought maybe a driver update was in order (even though that didn’t help in the past), but I don’t want to bother with it if it’s not going to work. I found your post with a Google search and after reading it I thought maybe the driver update couldn’t hurt–but I wondered about that Flow Control thing.
Thanks in advance for any info.
Ethernet flow control, or 802.3x, is a way for a network device to tell other devices that it is overloaded with data. With the mix of devices we have today from smartphones, smartTVs, netbooks, tablets, gaming stations and other devices, Flow Control can help your network. It in its basic form it allows a device that is receiving data faster than it can process to pause.
In other words, an overloaded device will send out a pause frame, that asks the device on the other end to stop sending data temporarily.
Did you notice any improvement?
Thanks, mate. I disabled everything in network adapter setting and get transfer speed doubled. This is after hours of investigation…
Thank you! Win 7 machine with Realtek GBE Family drivers. were running 4-6 times slower than XP machines. Disabled all advanced settings except flow control and Voila! Much faster. Thanks again.
The Realtek GBE Family driver version is now version 7.86.508.2014,in which I have now have installed the latest version on my Win 7,with no conflicts that I can tell,so does the same apply to this version too,to disable all but flow control,because when going through the advanced settings options,not all can be disabled,so do I just disable all the options I can disable still ?
Thanks in Advance !!!
Yes
I would like to keep the WOL setting Enabled. What problems would cause?
None – you should receive a performance increase in your network.
Your switch also has to be a Gigabit switch.
Thank you so much TCAT. after hours of scouring the interwebs, your advice to disable the settings except “Flow Control” has helped a huge bunch. i was capped at 5Mbps and after doing what you said, then BAM i am now receiving what im paying my ISP for which is 12Mbps. Thank you so much
Thank you for your post! When today I inaugurated my new Netgear gigabit switch I was extremely dissatisfied with the Realtek speed, first thinking it was the new switch to be blamed. But after reading your article, I tried all options of the driver and found that in my case it is only the “Energy efficient Ethernet” option that needed to be disabled. Obviously Switch and NIC negotiate wrong power levels or whatever. With my old (100MBit) cheapo-switch which did not support any “green” features, speeds were better, reaching about the limit of 100MBit, so I guess it is not only the driver, but the driver-switch interplay that causes the problem.
EDIT: Also the “Green Ethernet” option needed to be disabled. Reading a little bit in the internet about the two otions I found that they send the NIC into a “sleep” mode during low activity. Obviously the “Wake up” signal is not bringing back the NIC into full speed… I will try around a little bit with driver and switch options – perhaps I can get the “Green” options running properly. I’d like to use these power saving features!
If you’re running a small >10 wired network PCs you likely wont see any real cost savings with Green Ethernet enabled. Although it does have other benefits such as reducing heat which in turn leads to longer product life and less energy required to keep a cool environment. Data centers and enterprise-class networks benefit the most from energy efficient ethernet.
THANK YOU, you are a life saver, i rely on internet to work and it recently just slowed down to kbps, but now i’m back in business!