When Intel uses “V” (as in “Value”) in the model name, the NIC is targeted at the consumer segment, and advanced features such as SR-IOV, large buffers, etc. are left out.
ok, but I don't need sr-iov because I don't need to split the card between VMs etc, i'll just PCIe passthrough. I don't generally want oversized buffers because i'm not using these for 'lan' uses that are tollerant of oversized buffers.
The main purpose of going this route is higher end CPUs to do fq_codel or cake on each port, and 2.5G ports paired with the good CPU.
I'd just stick to mikrotik hardware but there are no decent CPUs paired with 2.5G ports available.