ATI tries to downplay SLI

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: fsstrike

Originally posted by: Rollo
http://www.oc-zone.com/modules.php?name=Articles&rop=conteudo&id=65

The truth is that these kind of exotic arrangements are of interest to only a tiny minority of gamers. Almost all of the X800 boards that are sold will go into a standard PC. Putting several chips onto one board, or several boards into one machine makes the system very expensive and most people won?t go there.

Also note that the SLI system from NVIDIA is another example of an unbalanced design. It will draw an amazing amount of power (for most people that will necessitate a new power supply) and will generate a massive amount of heat and noise. As a technology demonstration it is interesting, but as a gaming setup - it?s crazy!

Hmmm. Apparently Huddy doesn't remember V2 sli. It was OBSCENELY expensive for it's time, but EVERYONE got one.

3dfx went out of buisness. If their SLI was such a huge success im sure it would have lasted longer than it did Not that it was voodoo2's fault, but if it was so good wouldnt it of been able to keep 3dfx alive much longer?

Voodoo 2 was by FAR the most successful gaming card of it's era, for almost two years if I remember right. 3dfx went out of business years later, not due to sli.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

the only way this may become anything resembling a viable option is if single card solutions will never get any faster than they are now, and that's quite unlikely.

No offense but that's terrible logic IMO. If the SLi mode extends to each new generation of cards then it logically follows you could, for a price, always have next gen performance now instead of waiting for that more advanced GPU to arrive.

Furthermore, since game devs have been playing catch-up with features nV and ATi offer I don't think there will be any worries that any substantial number of games will hit during your SLi setups useful life that will bring features you miss out on. PS2 is just now seeing a fair number of titles with support so precedence is not difficult to find for such a prediction on my part.

 

[nRollo]

I think this cycle's product launch is ample evidence of the need for sli. If you could buy readily available nV40 tech that comes close to performing as well as a R500, or wait for 5 months on a pre-buy list while ATI tries to figure out a way to build the thing, what are you going to do?

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: fsstrike

Voodoo 2 went out of buisness. If their SLI was such a huge success im sure it would have lasted longer than it did

Ok, some education needed here:

1) The company was called 3dfx.

2) They didn't go out of business due to poor sales of their cards. They went out of business because they didn't diversify. 3dfx sold cards to gamers only - not a high revenue area, since we are such a small portion of the market. When they screwed up on two launches in a row, they were done.

Now, Nvidia just screwed up on two launches in a row with the NV30 and NV35 parts. Yet, they hardly felt a tickle from it. Why? Diversity. Nvidia ships motherboard chipsets, workstation cards, budget cards, mainstream cards, PDA and cell phone graphics chips, and more, in addition to these fancy gaming cards we all make such a big deal out of.



You've probably heard the old adage about "diversifying your assets for security" - well, both ATi and NV have done it, which is why neither one is going anywhere soon regardless of how their high end parts perform.

it had little to do with diversification, and frankly their vodoo 3 line offered everythign from budget to high end. one could actually argue they diversified too quickly, buying up stb, their manufacturing plants, and trying to move from a chipset maker (as nvidia is) to a full manufacturer. this put them in a situation where their cash reserves were depleted, and the engineering delays causes cash flow shortages. their lack of vision regarding engineering - remember how everyone laughed at external power supplies, foot long boards with multiple chips, etc. while ati and nvida were offering more performance on smaller, simplier designs? this certainly did nothing for their image. add that to know cash reserves and no cash flow, and what do you get?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: fsstrike

Voodoo 2 went out of buisness. If their SLI was such a huge success im sure it would have lasted longer than it did

study your history

SLI was NOT the reason 3dfx went out of business . . .

ATI's "SLI" - radeon maxx SHOULD have been the reason ati went out of business (but it didn't)

:roll:

lol.. yea, they dropped sli long before they went out of business. why did they drop it? it was an expensive, cumbersome solution, and cleaner, more efficient solutions were required. not exaclty historical evidence in favor of sli.

part of the reason 3dfx failed was their failure to evolve into simpler, smarter, more efficient architecture. their "brute force" mentality only showed the lack of vision of their engineers. compounded by poor business decisions, it signaled the death of a company potential was once unlimited.

totally right!

SLI was not "right" for it's time . . . it IS "right" now as cost concerns are changing and we will no longer see close to double the performance with each succesive generation - do you think nv50 is going to have 444 million transistors?.

:roll:

Sli has become practical.

As to Power Supply requirements - when you add in SLI just figure the eXtra 60 or so watts for the additional card - that is all.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so you're saying you double the power requirements, but only require 30% more psu? i'll believe it when i see it


*other blabbering*

You missed the boat there.

You're not doubling the power requirements. Let me draw this picture once more:

Say you have a 480W PSU powering an Athlon FX system, Nforce 3 Mobo, gig of DDR400 RAM, and a 6800Ultra. The Ultra only pulls around 110 Watts - and this is peak load - were talking a looping 3dmark run. The FX-53 pulls around 170 Watts, yet again, peak. The mobo is minimal, probably not worth noting. The RAM...same as mobo, I'm not even going to bother calculating it since 4 gigabytes of DDR266 only pulls about 35-40 watts.


So all told, that system is probably pulling about 300-320 watts PEAK. Idle, probably more like 225. That leaves a HUGE cushion of about 160 watts to feed another video card, which is more than enough.

Again, note above that a brand-name 480W PSU can be had for ~$70 shipped, and most "high end enthusiasts" probably already have something at 450 watts or up.

SLI even for an Ultra would be no problem here, power-wise. Heat shouldn't be a problem either if the case is properly ventilated. Fan-noise, well, that's up to you, and a valid concern to some people.

Anyway, if it could be done with a 6800Ultra/FX-53/1gb PC3200 system with 480 watts and still have power to spare under peak load, I don't think anything else on the market will have trouble with it. It's hard to find a system with more beef than that.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: eastvillager
The high-end enthusiast market may be small, but its influence is out of proportion to its size.

People are always asking me what they should get in their next pc. Knowing that they could get a midrange nvidia card, and then move up to sli if they needed it is a point in the nvidia column.

Maybe you guys who think the high-end is so 'niche' should convince nvidia and ati to stop wasting their money on it, since you know so much more about how the market works. snicker.

the high end is a financial waste, but a marketing gem. that's how it works. sli might be a marketing win (and i believe it is), but it will never be anything but a niche solution as far as gaming goes, unless single cards have reached a limit in their performance.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
it had little to do with diversification, and frankly their vodoo 3 line offered everythign from budget to high end. one could actually argue they diversified too quickly, buying up stb, their manufacturing plants, and trying to move from a chipset maker (as nvidia is) to a full manufacturer. this put them in a situation where their cash reserves were depleted, and the engineering delays causes cash flow shortages. their lack of vision regarding engineering - remember how everyone laughed at external power supplies, foot long boards with multiple chips, etc. while ati and nvida were offering more performance on smaller, simplier designs? this certainly did nothing for their image. add that to know cash reserves and no cash flow, and what do you get?

Well, if you want to get down to the simple nitty-gritty, 3dfx died because they simply had nothing to sell. Nvidia was putting out faster cards more often, and 3dfx kept delaying launches of their new, slower cards.

If you fail to bring even an inferior product to market, you're in dutch.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: eastvillager
The high-end enthusiast market may be small, but its influence is out of proportion to its size.

People are always asking me what they should get in their next pc. Knowing that they could get a midrange nvidia card, and then move up to sli if they needed it is a point in the nvidia column.

Maybe you guys who think the high-end is so 'niche' should convince nvidia and ati to stop wasting their money on it, since you know so much more about how the market works. snicker.

the high end is a financial waste, but a marketing gem. that's how it works. sli might be a marketing win (and i believe it is), but it will never be anything but a niche solution as far as gaming goes, unless single cards have reached a limit in their performance.

Exactly, this is why I said:

Originally posted by: Insomniak
They're missing the point. The point is, the option is there if you want it, which is more than ATi can say, and it's not like it's costing Nvidia anything extra to make SLI happen. It is, as they say, icing on the cake.

Would anyone care to hedge bets that r500 will have an SLI copycat? I'm giving 2 to 1 odds.

No, SLI will not translate into huge sales, but it WILL translate into huge amounts of street credit for Nvidia. Gaming cards period don't mean much in terms of sales - high end enthusiast cards account for about 5% of the revenue of both ATi and Nvidia. What enthusiast cards do do is generate word of mouth, and recommendations from knowledgable people. The performance crown means nothing in terms of sales, but why do both companies pursue it so relentlessly? Exactly. Word of mouth travels fast.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: eastvillager
The high-end enthusiast market may be small, but its influence is out of proportion to its size.

People are always asking me what they should get in their next pc. Knowing that they could get a midrange nvidia card, and then move up to sli if they needed it is a point in the nvidia column.

Maybe you guys who think the high-end is so 'niche' should convince nvidia and ati to stop wasting their money on it, since you know so much more about how the market works. snicker.

the high end is a financial waste, but a marketing gem. that's how it works. sli might be a marketing win (and i believe it is), but it will never be anything but a niche solution as far as gaming goes, unless single cards have reached a limit in their performance.

Single cards HAVE reached near their limit - that is WHY nVidia is exploring sli as "cost-effective"

Again, do YOU think nv50 will have 400 million transistors? they're gonna need it to double the 6800u's performance . . . think hot and noisy with current technology (with watercooling a "stopgap" solution)

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHERNo offense but that's terrible logic IMO. If the SLi mode extends to each new generation of cards then it logically follows you could, for a price, always have next gen performance now instead of waiting for that more advanced GPU to arrive.

Furthermore, since game devs have been playing catch-up with features nV and ATi offer I don't think there will be any worries that any substantial number of games will hit during your SLi setups useful life that will bring features you miss out on. PS2 is just now seeing a fair number of titles with support so precedence is not difficult to find for such a prediction on my part.

none taken

but if it's terrible logic, then why doesn't everyone run out and buy a dcpu mb and add a second cpu, rather than upgrading the mb and getting a single (often expensive - price an fx or EE cpu) cpu?

why is the SFF market growing? because overall, the majority favor cleaner, compact, efficient designs over complicated, large, cumbersome solutions. people like performance, but favor simplicity and efficiency, which is a sign of good engineering.

you guys all seem to forget that not everyone is clamoring for faster, more expensive solutions. this is easily evidenced by the # of people in this forum alone who are still running nv3x/r3xx and later hardware.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: eastvillager
The high-end enthusiast market may be small, but its influence is out of proportion to its size.

People are always asking me what they should get in their next pc. Knowing that they could get a midrange nvidia card, and then move up to sli if they needed it is a point in the nvidia column.

Maybe you guys who think the high-end is so 'niche' should convince nvidia and ati to stop wasting their money on it, since you know so much more about how the market works. snicker.

the high end is a financial waste, but a marketing gem. that's how it works. sli might be a marketing win (and i believe it is), but it will never be anything but a niche solution as far as gaming goes, unless single cards have reached a limit in their performance.

Single cards HAVE reached near their limit - that is WHY nVidia is exploring sli as "cost-effective"

Again, do YOU think nv50 will have 400 million transistors? they're gonna need it to double the 6800u's performance . . . think hot and noisy with current technology (with watercooling a "stopgap" solution)

That is my belief too. Packaging tech for CPUs and GPUs is hitting a wall, until new packaging tech is brought to bear to solve the issues that are increasing with each die shrink+speed bump, parallel is the logical alternative to increasing performance.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
it had little to do with diversification, and frankly their vodoo 3 line offered everythign from budget to high end. one could actually argue they diversified too quickly, buying up stb, their manufacturing plants, and trying to move from a chipset maker (as nvidia is) to a full manufacturer. this put them in a situation where their cash reserves were depleted, and the engineering delays causes cash flow shortages. their lack of vision regarding engineering - remember how everyone laughed at external power supplies, foot long boards with multiple chips, etc. while ati and nvida were offering more performance on smaller, simplier designs? this certainly did nothing for their image. add that to know cash reserves and no cash flow, and what do you get?

Well, if you want to get down to the simple nitty-gritty, 3dfx died because they simply had nothing to sell. Nvidia was putting out faster cards more often, and 3dfx kept delaying launches of their new, slower cards.

If you fail to bring even an inferior product to market, you're in dutch.

hardly; nvidia offered little with nv30, but they survived. people still bought their low end and previous gen cards, as shown by only losing a few % of their marketshare. lack of cashflow can be overcome, but not if you're overextended and financially strapped.

3dfx was not only overextended and financially strapped, but too many people also didn't buy into their "vision" of large, hot, powersucking cards. the went for the simpler solutions - even ati who at the time really didn't offer anything dominating with their newly announced radeon line.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHERNo offense but that's terrible logic IMO. If the SLi mode extends to each new generation of cards then it logically follows you could, for a price, always have next gen performance now instead of waiting for that more advanced GPU to arrive.

Furthermore, since game devs have been playing catch-up with features nV and ATi offer I don't think there will be any worries that any substantial number of games will hit during your SLi setups useful life that will bring features you miss out on. PS2 is just now seeing a fair number of titles with support so precedence is not difficult to find for such a prediction on my part.

none taken

but if it's terrible logic, then why doesn't everyone run out and buy a dcpu mb and add a second cpu, rather than upgrading the mb and getting a single (often expensive - price an fx or EE cpu) cpu?

Because most software isn't written to USE multiple CPUs. However, SLI is a performance bump that's entirely hardware dependant. No changes to software needed.

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
why is the SFF market growing? because overall, the majority favor cleaner, compact, efficient designs over complicated, large, cumbersome solutions. people like performance, but favor simplicity and efficiency, which is a sign of good engineering.

Well, getting back to the basics, let's not forget that NV's single card solutions are every bit the best on the market, along with ATi's. You can't get better engineering at the moment. SLI is an option, not a solution. I think that's where the distinction lies. Now, whether or not it's a needed or useful option for most people is what we've been discussing here. Whilst multiple views can be taken on that issue, I think it's obvious that having the option available for the obscenely wealthy or those looking to get the best $$$ deal out of the midrange doesn't hurt.

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
you guys all seem to forget that not everyone is clamoring for faster, more expensive solutions. this is easily evidenced by the # of people in this forum alone who are still running nv3x/r3xx and later hardware.

I think you meant earlier.

I myself am running a GeForce 4 Ti. I specifically like the idea of SLI because it gives you the "faster" with the "expensive". I again refer to my example before of picking up a 6600GT, and then throwing in another for less $$ later down the line when you need the performance boost...it's more economical than buying a 6800GT now and hoping for future proof....

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Single cards HAVE reached near their limit - that is WHY nVidia is exploring sli as "cost-effective"

Again, do YOU think nv50 will have 400 million transistors? they're gonna need it to double the 6800u's performance . . . think hot and noisy with current technology (with watercooling a "stopgap" solution)

if that were true, then there wouldn't be an nv50 (or r500 for that matter). and you don't need to double transisters to double performance. you only have to look at r420 as proof.

also, not only does the performance rarely double from generation to generation, but doubling the performance is not required, as cpu (among other things) limitations apply, which we're seeing now with nv40/r420.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
lack of cashflow can be overcome, but not if you're overextended and financially strapped.

Uh, what exactly do you think makes companies financially strapped? Abundant cashflow?

Cashflow IS the bottom line. If you're not making money, you're not going to be in business very long. Witness the dot com bubble of the nineties, and it's subsequent popping.

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
3dfx was not only overextended and financially strapped, but too many people also didn't buy into their "vision" of large, hot, powersucking cards. the went for the simpler solutions - even ati who at the time really didn't offer anything dominating with their newly announced radeon line.

Ok...uh...you're...So their lack of cashflow is what did them in? This is what I'm getting by reading this.

In effect, you're saying "People bought other things because they were cheaper and better." Uh yes - and also, more available. Does anyone else not recall that the VooDoo 4s/VooDoo 5s had obscenely long development cycles? With Nvidia popping out new cards every 6 months that were faster, more feature filled, and most importantly, FOUND ON THE SHELF, yes, the VooDoo 4 and 5 were not appealing whatsoever.


......

 

[DAPUNISHER]

CaiNaM,

You are talking economics when you reference how many people use older hardware. That is exactly right too, but the workstation market isn't on a tight budget and as I've suggested to you before, it makes perfect financial and marketing sense to expand the number of potential markets for your technology. They will already be manufacturing the hardware so it is savy for them to push it into the high-end gamers market *a group that is growing rapidly despite your pronuoncements about it being a tiny niche'* and the "more money than brains" crowd.

Heck, look at what an Apple costs, yet they have a core group of users that helps keep them in business, high cost of ownership not withstanding. the PC market has a decidely larger group with the financial resources to enjoy the expensive high-end hardware. Alienware is a prime example of how to maintain a successful business model by catering to those who want the fastest and are willing to pay for it. Dell is now in the same game with AW not due to some hair brained idea, but because of extensive analysis and research pointing to it as a untapped market Dell can profit by targeting Dell sees the advisability of catering to the expensive high-end crowd, why can't you?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: apoppin
Single cards HAVE reached near their limit - that is WHY nVidia is exploring sli as "cost-effective"

Again, do YOU think nv50 will have 400 million transistors? they're gonna need it to double the 6800u's performance . . . think hot and noisy with current technology (with watercooling a "stopgap" solution)

if that were true, then there wouldn't be an nv50 (or r500 for that matter). and you don't need to double transisters to double performance. you only have to look at r420 as proof.

also, not only does the performance rarely double from generation to generation, but doubling the performance is not required, as cpu (among other things) limitations apply, which we're seeing now with nv40/r420.

you are still missing the point . . . performance doesN'T double with each generation - sli will "fix" this.

r420 is not the slightest bit impressive (compared with r300/350/360) in it's INCREMENTAL approach to performance.

OTOH, nv40 IS (comparted with NV30/35) . . . and they WILL have to (nearly) double transistors to double performance . . . that's why r300-r480 has run out of gas . . .

 

[DAPUNISHER]

RE: Apoppin's comment above:

Yep, ATi found one hell of a bread&butter tech but to paraphrase Bilbo "it's stretched thin, like butter over too much bread" It's tapped out and no amount of spin can hide that fact. nV is leading in tech innovation now after trailing ATi for a couple years, and ATi is adopting a stratgey similar to what Intel has used in the face of AMD doing the same to them. Wave off the tech as unneeded or too soon, that is until you can get your own version out the door, then, and only then, promote it like the 2nd coming.

Ati however, doesn't have the advantages Intel does of being a household name and dominating market share. Consequently they will find themselves hard pressed to win "hearts and minds" when the time comes.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
RE: Apoppin's comment above:

Yep, ATi found one hell of a bread&butter tech but to paraphrase Bilbo "it's stretched thin, like butter over too much bread" It's tapped out and no amount of spin can hide that fact. nV is leading in tech innovation now after trailing ATi for a couple years, and ATi is adopting a stratgey similar to what Intel has used in the face of AMD doing the same to them. Wave off the tech as unneeded or too soon, that is until you can get your own version out the door, then, and only then, promote it like the 2nd coming.

Ati however, doesn't have the advantages Intel does of being a household name and dominating market share. Consequently they will find themselves hard pressed to win "hearts and minds" when the time comes.

"bread & butter"
"it's stretched thin, like butter over too much bread"
"It's tapped out"
"promote it like the 2nd coming"
"win "hearts and minds"

WTF?

ROTFL

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: apoppin
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

SWEET JESUS!

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so you're saying you double the power requirements, but only require 30% more psu? i'll believe it when i see it


*other blabbering*

You missed the boat there.

You're not doubling the power requirements. Let me draw this picture once more:

Say you have a 480W PSU powering an Athlon FX system, Nforce 3 Mobo, gig of DDR400 RAM, and a 6800Ultra. The Ultra only pulls around 110 Watts - and this is peak load - were talking a looping 3dmark run. The FX-53 pulls around 170 Watts, yet again, peak. The mobo is minimal, probably not worth noting. The RAM...same as mobo, I'm not even going to bother calculating it since 4 gigabytes of DDR266 only pulls about 35-40 watts.


So all told, that system is probably pulling about 300-320 watts PEAK. Idle, probably more like 225. That leaves a HUGE cushion of about 160 watts to feed another video card, which is more than enough.

Again, note above that a brand-name 480W PSU can be had for ~$70 shipped, and most "high end enthusiasts" probably already have something at 450 watts or up.

SLI even for an Ultra would be no problem here, power-wise. Heat shouldn't be a problem either if the case is properly ventilated. Fan-noise, well, that's up to you, and a valid concern to some people.

Anyway, if it could be done with a 6800Ultra/FX-53/1gb PC3200 system with 480 watts and still have power to spare under peak load, I don't think anything else on the market will have trouble with it. It's hard to find a system with more beef than that.

So, you're saying that there's 160W extra (and you forgot to add HDD's, ROM drives, etc) on a 460W PSU for a 110W (peak) card to draw? That' not a huge cushion - that's hedging it down to the wire. And what about if you have a 350W or 430W PSU? You're pretty screwed then!

No PSU's, not even ones with "dedicated" lines can operate at their full rated Wattage- there is always inefficiency and each voltage rail has a maximum draw (and no system spreads it oud perfectly between the three main rails).

If you need 410W (peak), primarily from the +5V and +12V rails, for example, then most 460W PSU's are going to struggle or fail to meet the demand. Stability will most certainly be compromised.

Also, you linked to a Thermaltake PSU, which I've found is a cut below the competition (Enermax, Antec).

If I was running dual GPU's, I'd definately opt for an Enermax or Antec 550W PSU.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

WTF?

ROTFL

Considering you use fifty emoticons in every post, use caps so much it's painful to read, and reiterate the same point over and over, you might want to STFU now

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Insomniak

Originally posted by: apoppin
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

SWEET JESUS!

2 much time in OT

:roll:

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
So, you're saying that there's 160W extra (and you forgot to add HDD's, ROM drives, etc) on a 460W PSU for a 110W (peak) card to draw? That' not a huge cushion - that's hedging it down to the wire. And what about if you have a 350W or 430W PSU? You're pretty screwed then!

HDDs, OpticalDDs, would pull some as well, but there should still be enough there to cover your butt.

And yes, you're correct in that no one is going to be able to SLI Ultras on a 350w PSU, but anyone who tries that deserves what they get. One should know better.

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
No PSU's, not even ones with "dedicated" lines can operate at their full rated Wattage- there is always inefficiency and each voltage rail has a maximum draw (and no system spreads it oud perfectly between the three main rails).

Very true, but then very VERY rarely to components operate at peak draw either, and when they do so, it's only for a split second, and then things change, and then change again - there are no constant draws, to be honest about it.

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
If you need 410W (peak), primarily from the +5V and +12V rails, for example, then most 460W PSU's are going to struggle or fail to meet the demand. Stability will most certainly be compromised.

Actually it's primarly from the +12v rail. The power tests I've seen show that the new gen cards pull off the +5v basically the same as the previous gen.

If the draw is at peak constantly and the PSU is rather inefficient, then yes, there might be stability issues. But I doubt that would ever be the situation. I think it could be done, quite easily.

Also, bear in mind that my example was a "worst case scenario". Normally, anyone putting together that kind of system would opt for a 500W+ PSU anyway. The point was that with top end hardware and a 450W or so PSU, it would still be possible to SLI Ultras, so SLI-ing vanilla 6800s or 6600GTs, which is what most people are talking about, wouldn't be a challenge at all, especially if they're using processors that pull less wattage...

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024
Also, you linked to a Thermaltake PSU, which I've found is a cut below the competition (Enermax, Antec).

If I was running dual GPU's, I'd definately opt for an Enermax or Antec 550W PSU.

I have yet to see any evidence that TT is lower in quality than any other brand name. In fact, most of the reviews I've seen show them as every bit as good as Antec or Enermax, and less expensive to boot.

Of course, if you want the real story on any PSU, grab a voltmeter and start measuring....



In the end, yes, SLI-ing Ultras would be expensive and impractical. However, it could be done, and again, that speaks volumes for SLI-ing the mid range chips...