HOLY CRAP!! NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra PCI-E.........S L I!!!!!!!!

[Czar]

looks just like the Alienware implimitation

 

[Insomniac]

Seems kind of odd they are load balancing with software. If they used 3dfx's way of rendering odd or even lines, there wouldn't be much need to load balance since the odd and even lines are next to each other and wouldn'tbe much different. They bought all the 3dfx tech, and I though they were finally putting it to use. I guess not. :/

 

[Carbonadium4]

Originally posted by: Czar
looks just like the Alienware implimitation

maybe alienware got it from them.. alienware assembles pcs right ? unless they're making their own video cards now...

also didn't nvidia bought out 3dfx's technology ? so they can use it.. hopefully it wont be a flop

EDIT:
Exact performance figures are not yet available, but Nvidia's SLI concept has already been shown behind closed doors by one of the companies working with Nvidia on the SLI implementation. On early driver revisions which only offered non-optimized dynamic load-balancing algorithms their SLI configuration performed 77% faster than a single graphics card. However Nvidia has told us that prospective performance numbers should show a performance increase closer to 90% over that of a single graphics card. There are a few things that need to be taken into account however when you're considering buying an SLI configuration

Shown closed doors by one of the companies.. can that be alienware ?

Also this is totally what I needed.. and what my previous messages had indicated.. using 2 cards gets me 4 video out.. would be nice to have a third x16 slot for 6 monitors

 

[ROcHE]

You'll need a 1200watts power supply to run that thing

 

[ISAslot]

Garrrr

I misread Anand's post thinking it was 2AM instead of 2PM now i gotta wait longer!

 

[Tostada]

Originally posted by: Ryoga
The effective results -- each card renders only half the screen -- are the same, but it's not clear what kind of performance difference there is between each method.

Originally posted by: Insomniac
Seems kind of odd they are load balancing with software. If they used 3dfx's way of rendering odd or even lines, there wouldn't be much need to load balance since the odd and even lines are next to each other and wouldn'tbe much different. They bought all the 3dfx tech, and I though they were finally putting it to use. I guess not. :/

3dfx's implementation was obviously less efficient than having one card render the top half of the screen and the other card render the bottom. If you interleave, each card is rendering the full screen at half the resolution. If you split the screen, each card only renders half of the vertices.

FSAA is also pretty much impossible with 3dfx's SLI.

 

[JBT]

OMG now that is some GPU power right there.

 

[JackBurton]

It's been quite a while since I've seen the CPU become the bottleneck this bad.

 

[KDOG]

Good grief!!! I guess there will be no SFF pc's for that setup!!!

 

[RanDum72]

HOLYCRaPOLABATMAN!

4 DVI outputs, I wonder if it supports something like Matrox's stertching of a game across all monitors...

But I'm not too happy about the 4 slot requirement. Somebody has already mentioned the power requirements. And how about the NOISE LEVELS??! Only one of those blowers is enough to have you cringe.

 

[webmal]

Nforce 4 dual PCI express socket 754/939 ready and socket 940 compatible chipset.

"One day, a company (ATI) can be top dog, the next it's just a footnote in the history books..." - THG

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: webmal
Nforce 4 dual PCI express socket 754/939 ready and socket 940 compatible chipset.

"One day, a company (ATI) can be top dog, the next it's just a footnote in the history books..." - THG

WOW. Probably more performance, SOUNDSTORM, 2x pcix16.. That's utterly fantastic. FX-55+2 6800 (or probably a refresh by xmas) = gaming goodness

This really does make Alienware look like they have pie on their face, using a 3rd add on card rather than the core of the GPU itself (not like Alienware could have developed that, of course). They couldn't have known, unless there are benefits to using ATi cards with the add on. This is real fun now :beer:

 

[Finnkc]

ROFL ...

when does it end?

 

[webmal]

"And I have to say, if I were about to pull the trigger on a new ATI video card purchase that I knew would be for a long-time install, this NVIDIA SLI technology would certainly make me stop and rethink my position." - ATI no 1 fan

 

[Carbonadium4]

Guess its not alienware...

It?s also important to keep in mind that NVIDIA SLI isn?t Alienware?s previously announced X2 video array technology. While the underlying technique is somewhat similar, the execution is different. Alienware?s X2 requires a third external card, the video merger hub, to communicate between both cards, and works for both ATI and NVIDIA hardware, including the GeForce PCX 5900.

Alienware requires a thrid card... so either way, you're gonna lose slots left and right..

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Carbonadium4
Alienware requires a thrid card... so either way, you're gonna lose slots left and right..

Who cares? With so much integrated goodness on today's new motherboards how many people actually use all their expansion slots? I use one for my Leadtek TV2000XP Deluxe.

Wait, wait, wait... I can already see a handful of people listing all their PCI cards and saying how they wish they had more. To this I say, welcome to the rare group of <1% of computer users who use many/all of their expansion slots. You do not represent the majority (nor a large minority) of users.

 

[Snooper]

Originally posted by: Tostada

3dfx's implementation was obviously less efficient than having one card render the top half of the screen and the other card render the bottom. If you interleave, each card is rendering the full screen at half the resolution. If you split the screen, each card only renders half of the vertices.

Ok. I HAVE to ask: If you only render every other line, wouldn't that lead to each card rendering 1/2 the vertices??? It doesn't matter if you divide the screen into two large chunks or 1000 small chucks and have each card render 1/2 of them, either way each card is rendering 1/2 the display. That "obviously less efficent" comment was particularly amusing.

I have a feeling that the reason that 3dfx and NV implemented the dual video card method differently has more to do with HOW it was implemented: 3dfx was very much a hardware solution and interleaving the lines was very easy and led to natural load balancing. The drivers really didn't have a whole lot to do with it. NV is going for a strong software approach. It won't even work at all with out the right drivers. But as Tostada did mention, some effects do require knowledge of the adjacent pixel results to complete the calculations for the pixel you are working on. If they did SLI the way 3dfx did it, there would be a HUGE amount of traffic between each card that would hurt performance. When 3dfx came out with SLI, those effects did not really exist.

 

[Sid59]

interesting. will have to read when the NDA releases.

 

[Insomniac]

Originally posted by: Tostada

Originally posted by: Ryoga
The effective results -- each card renders only half the screen -- are the same, but it's not clear what kind of performance difference there is between each method.

Originally posted by: Insomniac
Seems kind of odd they are load balancing with software. If they used 3dfx's way of rendering odd or even lines, there wouldn't be much need to load balance since the odd and even lines are next to each other and wouldn'tbe much different. They bought all the 3dfx tech, and I though they were finally putting it to use. I guess not. :/

3dfx's implementation was obviously less efficient than having one card render the top half of the screen and the other card render the bottom. If you interleave, each card is rendering the full screen at half the resolution. If you split the screen, each card only renders half of the vertices.

FSAA is also pretty much impossible with 3dfx's SLI.

I don't recall it working that way. I thought that each card would render the full scene, but throw away either the odd or even (depending on which card) rows of pixels well before the rendering got far down the pipe. Not quite 2x the performance but pretty close. As far as FSAA goes, 3dfx was easily able to do FSAA and SLI. Their method was to render the full scene X number of times and blend those images together. They has FSAA and SLI on the Voodoo 5 and 6 lines.

 

[Carbonadium4]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: Carbonadium4
Alienware requires a thrid card... so either way, you're gonna lose slots left and right..

Who cares? With so much integrated goodness on today's new motherboards how many people actually use all their expansion slots? I use one for my Leadtek TV2000XP Deluxe.

Wait, wait, wait... I can already see a handful of people listing all their PCI cards and saying how they wish they had more. To this I say, welcome to the rare group of <1% of computer users who use many/all of their expansion slots. You do not represent the majority (nor a large minority) of users.

I wasn't complain, this is in response to the guys on top claiming they'll lose 4 slots

I'm saying with either dual card solution, you will be losing slots.

 

[KristopherKubicki]

1 Hour

Kristopher

 

[jhu]

for the price of that sli setup, you could probably buy 10 computers and cluster them

 

[jim1976]

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!!!!!!!! :shocked:

 

[addragyn]

Hmmm and Apple just droppped a 30" LCD today.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

This is all great and dandy, but don't tell fans to "wait" for it. We won't see PCI-E boards on Newegg until later this year, let alone the 6800U SLI version.
I get tired of reviews telling fans to wait. Let's be serious here, this is another vapor release, with no hardware in the hands of reviewers. I'm happy for it all, believe me I'm thrilled. Just be honest with the estimated release dates, and tell fans it will be ready in 2005. Don't tell us to wait that it's "just around the corner."