Intel® Ethernet Adapters and Devices User Guide

ID Date Version Classification
705831 11/23/2025 Public
Document Table of Contents

Receive Buffers

This setting defines the number of Receive Buffers, which are data segments. They are allocated in the host memory and used to store the received packets. Each received packet requires at least one Receive Buffer, and each buffer uses 2KB of memory.

You might choose to increase the number of Receive Buffers if you notice a significant decrease in the performance of received traffic. If receive performance is not an issue, use the default setting appropriate to the adapter.

To change this setting:

This setting is found on the Advanced tab of the device’s Device Manager property sheet or in the Adapter Settings panel.

To change this setting in Windows PowerShell*, use the Set-IntelEthernetSetting cmdlet. For example:

Set-IntelEthernetSetting -Name "<adapter_name>" -DisplayName "Receive Buffers"
-DisplayValue "256"

Possible values for this setting are:

  • 128-4096, in intervals of 64, for all adapters

We recommend the following values:

  • Teamed adapter: 256

  • Using IPSec and/or multiple features: 352