On my hardware, "em" in netmap mode does about 1.388 Mpps
on one card (on an Asus motherboard), and 1.1 Mpps on another
card (PCIe bus). Both seem to be NIC-limited, because
i have the same rate even with the CPU running at 150 MHz.
On the "re" driver the tx throughput is around 420-450 Kpps
on various (8111C and the like) chipsets. On the Rx side
performance seems much better, and i can receive the full
load generated by the "em" cards.
"igb" is untested as i don't have the hardware.
579a6e3c4e