ATI tries to downplay SLI

[klah]

Did anyone watch the NV press conference from QuakeCon? They said they were working on future SLI solutions using 3-4 cards in a single system.

 

[Rage187]

When Voodoo did it, you didnt need a new motherboard.
Wrong to some degree, I had to eventually move up to a mobo w/ an AGP slot (1agp for the sis, pci x2 for the V2's)

When Voodoo did it, you didnt use up potentially four slots.
Damn near close to it

When Voodoo did it, you didnt have to worry about possibly needing a new PSU.
Back then it didnt matter as the draw from components was not even close to what it is today

When Voodoo did it, the cards were not so close, and they could breath.
Back then they didnt have fans on top, so its amute point. Its not like Nv is doing something wrong, its just the way things are.

 

[Drayvn]

Originally posted by: Rage187
When Voodoo did it, you didnt need a new motherboard.
Wrong to some degree, I had to eventually move up to a mobo w/ an AGP slot (1agp for the sis, pci x2 for the V2's)

And nowadays its different as there are sooooo many different mobos out there and the fact that weve stayed on AGP for a long time also...

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: Drayvn

Originally posted by: Rage187
When Voodoo did it, you didnt need a new motherboard.
Wrong to some degree, I had to eventually move up to a mobo w/ an AGP slot (1agp for the sis, pci x2 for the V2's)

And nowadays its different as there are sooooo many different mobos out there and the fact that weve stayed on AGP for a long time also...

its evolution, you cant stay at one thing forever.

So arguing that you have to buy a new mobo is nonsense.

 

[RussianSensation]

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.

Well ATi might be downplaying the importance of SLI, because they dont have this technology yet. But SLI WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE till December (with the cK8 chipset)

Secondly, since maybe 10% of all the consumers buy 6800GT/x800pro and x800xts, buying 2 of those cards for SLI will surely be 1% of the market. In terms of profits it will do 0 for the company. Just like the Porsche Carrera GT and Dodge Viper, SLI is simply bragging rights to enhance the brand and be able to say that Nvidia is the most technologically advanced, and powerful graphics card company. This marketing will hopefully enhance the company's brand image and help to trickle down its whole lineup. Also there are rumours that 2 6600GTs in SLI are still slightly slower than the cheaper 6800GT, so SLI as a mainstream offering is still not feasible at the moment.

After last generation ATI had 75-80% of the high-end market share. Everyone keeps saying ATI lacks PS3.0 support, doesnt have a response to SLI, their x800xt pe is hard to find (well just search pricewatch and you'll find plenty at the same price and availability as the 6800ultra).

But has anyone actually looked who controls the high-end and mainstream market? Anyone care to search and provide the hard numbers?

Also wait, even if Nvidia is faster with SLI but card A from ATI is faster than card B from Nvidia for the same price, would a knowledgeable person still recommend the slower card B even if Nvidia's fastest setup was ultimately faster? NO. Everyone knows A64 rocks, but XP is slower than equivalent P4 processors, so you cannot simply say "Dude if you want a fast gaming rig, go with anything AMD."

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: Rage187


Man, your a tard.


Take 5mins and read what you just posted.

(fondly remembering spending $700 on my 2 Creative Labs Voodoo2 12mb + 8mb SIS 6326)

Internet rule #1 about insulting someone;

1. When calling someone a retard, make sure you at least know how to spell in the post.

I dont know where you get $700, $200 was retail for the 8meg's. I had the 12meg version pre-ordered, but because the 8meg version came out about a month before the 12meg version did, I got it. I couldnt wait.

 

[nRollo]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the pictures I saw, the Ultra's were litterally 1/4" apart. The top card is getting NO air.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



In my case the top card would have a 80mm fan venting air in from outside the case <shrug>

In my case, the cards would have to 80mm fans above them drawing air past/out, 2 80mm fans next to them pulling air past/out, and 1 80mm on top of case blowing out the warmed air, with 2 80mm in the front bringing in cool air. I also have a 120mm(?) slot fan to blow directly onto my card(s).

Edit- Rollo


quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That some of us have pretty chilly cases already? (XaserIII here)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Me too- V1000A here(Black), what model you have?

I have the V2000A Silver, like it a lot. :beer:

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Maybe he cant count!?

Two 6800NU's in SLI are more than a match for an X800XT IMO. Yeah makes more noise but will ultimately be a better solution in the long run because you buy a card now, then in the future when the 6800NU's are dirt cheap buy another and get close to double the performance. Not saying the X800XT is slow by any means im just saying the 2 6800NU's will surely win.

-Kevin

You do realize that 6800NU is 100%+ slower in most games than a 6800GT at 1600x1200 4AA/8AF right? Most ppl buy high end cards to play with AA/AF at high rez. Except for Doom 3, the 6800nu simply blows at this setting and x800xt doubles or tripples its performance in shader intensive games at those settings. So all this talk about 6600GT which are slower than 6800nu is very questionable. (I would say 1 6600GT would be a good deal if it was faster than 9800Pro cards) Now put those 2 in SLI, who needs 1000 frames in Quake 3? or 500 in call of duty?

Sure it will double performance when there is no need for it, and in intensive games when it will double the performance, x800xt will still be fast(er) because 1 6600 GT only has 8 pipes with 2 having 16 - same as ATIs. Besides by the time SLI comes out, ATI and Nvidia will have refresh products (this december/jan), which means x800xt wont cost $500 US anymore and will cost more like $400. In 1 year's time when everyone talks about planning to upgrade to add another 6600GT, X800xt will be like $200 and much much faster cards will be out eliminating the need for SLI. NV50 will have more features like DX10 perhaps and PS4.0 so for the same price as 2 6800GTs in SLI NV50 will still probably be better as well. Then there is the fact that Nforce 4 SLI board will probably cost at least $150US and a good AMD board is around 80-100 right now.

On another note, the heat and power supply issues - not that big of a deal in my opinion.
In fact The GeForce FX 5950 Ultra has the highest power consumption among all the tested graphics cards, with GPUs both from NVIDIA and ATI, in the Burn mode! .

Also based on These Measurements, the power consumption of 2 6800nu will be roughly the same as of 1 5950 Ultra card; so I doubt this aspect of SLI will create much a problem as most power supplies handle 1 5950 card with ease. It can also be concluded that since in a common computer, power consumption is directly proportional to heat output, based on the above data, this will also hardly pose a threat.

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Klixxer

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Klixxer
90% is pure BS, first of all you will need to have a system that can saturate the bus up to where your SLI config can take care of it, secondly you need to use the same bus for the communication between the cards, in reality this means that a SLI configuration will offer around 15-30%'s increase in performance at best and none whatsoever at worst (which, not surprisingly, is about the same that you got with V2's SLI config).

I realize the good points about it, but i sincerely doubt that it will be a very effective solution.

i think you are understating it . . . even the Radeon MAXX had better than 15-30% improvement over a single GPU (in win98, of course) . . . of course where the CPU is the bottleneck, you aren't gonna get much improvement - i'd guess SLI would really benefit those running over 16x12 with max aa/af.

The Radeon MAXX solution isn't comparable to an SLI solution on two cards, for obvious reasons.

To have an onboard controller that controlls what goes to which controller and to what memory (in this case you use shared memory) with full speed between controller, both GPU's and memory is extremely different from the SLI solution.

If you want to compare it to something similar, compare a cluster to an SMP system.

The point of my argument regarding saturating the bus isn't just what the CPU can handle, it is how it is handled in a system with two single GPU cards on a high speed bus, if you COULD saturate the bus fully you would run into problems with the communications between the cards, so it really wouldn't help.

Besides that, you have to realize that even this high speed bus is extremely slow when compared to the native GPU-GPU bus on a dual GPU card.

15-30% is a relatively safe number but at times it will be 0% and at other times it might go as high as 40-50%.

point taken on the maxx and i am not familar enough with the old 3dfx SLI system to comment .

i read what you are saying about sli's theoretical possibilities . . . however, in practical testing, it appears to be averaging well over 50%

your zero times will be when the CPU is bottlenecked - not so likely with hi res and max aa/af; however where the GPU is the sole reason for the slowdown it approaches 90%.

until sli is really available, we are speculating . . . i just think your numbers are unrealistically low.

anyway, i am still undiscouraged and eager to get my hands on an Nforce4 Sli capable board (and a dual-core a-64, nv50(s) and longhorn . . . oops, forget longhorn i'm
getting 'carried away' here)

In practical testing outside of the optimal box are far from known yet, we'll see what the future brings us.

Zero times will be when the CPU OR the bus is the bottleneck, actually, a memory transfer could mean a negative, these things are not entirely clear as we can't get the entire spec on paper.

I was thinking that my numbers were somewhat high considering the speed of the bus and the speed of transfers from memory-memory and from GPU-memory but time will tell.

On that config, heh, well, nothing will be slow anywayz, but i would still get a better card instead of two older ones.

 

[Rage187]

I dont know where you get $700, $200 was retail for the 8meg's. I had the 12meg version pre-ordered, but because the 8meg version came out about a month before the 12meg version did, I got it. I couldnt wait.

The 12mb voodoo 2's were $300 when they first came out. soooo 300x2=$600 + the cost of the the 2d card.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Ackmed
Im astounded at why people think this is the same as when Voodoo did it. Its not even close.

When Voodoo did it, you didnt need a new motherboard.
When Voodoo did it, you didnt use up potentially four slots.
When Voodoo did it, you didnt have to worry about possibly needing a new PSU.
When Voodoo did it, the cards were not so close, and they could breath.
etc, etc, etc.

Errr, Ackmed, some of us upgrade our motherboards annually anyway? Don't have little puny psus? Wouldn't mind buying a real psu? etc.etc.etc.?

From the pictures I saw, the Ultra's were litterally 1/4" apart. The top card is getting NO air. That makes for an already very hot card, extremely hot. I dont want to give up 4 slots in my mobo. I have a Audigy2, and plan to get ATi's HDTV Wonder.

So buy GTs Eeyore. For Christ sake, no one is telling you that you have to buy 2 Ultras and sli them? You ever think designers might take card width into account and space them? Asus makes a single slot Ultra already? That some of us have pretty chilly cases already? (XaserIII here) That some people would use onboard sound to have this power available to them?

Dont get me wrong, I would love to have SLI'd 6800U's, or even GT's. But its not going to be as easy as when Voodoo did it. When they did it, I just popped them in my old BH6, nothing new needed. They didnt run hot, they didnt use 4 slots, and they didnt make me upgrade my PSU.

I truly don't believe this reading this post. Gee, no it's not as easy as when we all bought V2s, but it's better than not being able to do it at all like ATI? For the time V2s were very hot. They didn't OC because you could already melt steel on them.

When Voodoo did it, it wasnt "OBSCENELY expensive" as has been claimed. Not even for its time. You're forgetting how much CPU's costs back then. They were a lot more than any video card out, or any other hardware. Now the video card can easily be the most expensive part of any system.

It was exactly the same expense then as now ATI Ackmed. The V2 was the most expensive gaming card. When you SLId it you multiplied the cost of your video card by 2?

Im also amazed at why some people go on to say how they can "have 24 pipes for $400, versus 16 pipes for $500+". Do you people really think the XT/PE will be $500+ by the time the SLI option is available?

Yes. I haven't seen ATI produce any XT PEs for sale, and don't know if they will by the time this is an option. Supply may well still be very low, demand high. What your silly statement also forget is that if the price of the top end cards comes down by the time this is available, the price of the NUs you seem to be referring to will have come down as well. If 6800Us are down to $400, GTs won't still be $400. The ratio will be maintained.

I dont know why people get upset at the PR statement. Everything he said was factual. PR is apart of our daily lives. Its their job to play down the competition, and make their products look better. If you dont like it, well, you're just going to have to get over it. Its everywhere.

No, it wasn't factual. Do you think the doofus's spending $800 on X800XT PEs on Ebay wouldn't have paid that for two GTS that would mop the floor with XT PEs? Do you think the guys who spent $550-$600 on Ultras wouldn't have spent that on two NUs if it's faster?
Do you think it's "fair" that spin Dr. said the main failing of the 5900 series was it's poor performance in DX9 games and then that the reason ATI needs no SM3 is lack of games? When there will surely be many more SM3 games launched within a year of the 6800s launch (6/04) and more than that if you consider SLId 6800s will probably have a two year usable life span?

Ackmed, what you say here makes no sense to me.

Yes, some people do upgrade their mobo every year. But not everyone, not even close to everyone does. The simple fact is, you didnt have to when Voodoo did it. Now you will. That being said, Im on my 3rd mobo so far this year. THe PSU is just another thing to worry about, that you didnt have to with the V2's.

Yes you could get GT's instead of Ultra's (I already said this), which take up one slot. Forcing me to use onboard sound is not an option I would like. Especially since they all suck in comparision to a dedicated sound card, except for the Soundstrom.

Yes, I too agree that its better to at least have the option, than to not have it. My V2's overclocked pretty well. The heat output now though it a tremendous amount more than it was back then. My GT gets up to 87c under full load.. and it raised my case temp 3c overall. Putting two of them in one case is going to be hot.

It is not the same back then, they were not, "OBSCENELY expensive". I see you ignored my point about the CPU's pricing back then. An Intel CPU a lot more than it does today. Typically debuting at 1k. Why? They had no competition. As I said, the CPU was EASILY the most expensive part of the system, if you got on of the latest. Yes SLI V2's were $400, but the CPU could easily double that. Today CPU's prices have dropped overall, and video card prices are more than 200% than they used to be. They have flip-flopped. Ram also costed an arm and a leg back then, more than many video cards.

Havent seen any XT/PE's for sale? People have them, obviously they have been for sale. Do you really think the XT/PE will still be $500, while the Ultra will be $400 as you claim by the time this is available? I was using the "$400 24 pipe" statement because someone used it a few pages back.

His statement was factual. Show me one thing in the quoted part of your post that is wrong.

Yes it fair to say that the 5900's poor performance was due to slow DX9 perfromance. Its the truth, many reviewers have said the same thing. So far it has been true about lack of games for PS3.0. Currently there is no retail game out yet that supports it.

Im not against SLI, I would much rather have the option, than not. All I am getting at is its not going to be as easy, and its not the same as it was back then. I do believe we are much better with it though, but the simple fact is, only a very small percentage of people will buy it. But at least it will be an option.

 

[nRollo]

Russian Sensation:

Well ATi might be downplaying the importance of SLI, because they dont have this technology yet. But SLI WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE till December (with the cK8 chipset)

You have no way of knowing this, this is idle speculation, meaningless. Can you say with 100% surety no one will put out a dual PCIE motherboard in November? October? If so, where does your info come from?

Secondly, since maybe 10% of all the consumers buy 6800GT/x800pro and x800xts, buying 2 of those cards for SLI will surely be 1% of the market.

More meaningless idle speculation. How do you know it won't be 2%? 5%? What about those who sli cheaper 6600/6800NUs? What percent will they "surely" be?

After last generation ATI had 75-80% of the high-end market share. Everyone keeps saying ATI lacks PS3.0 support, doesnt have a response to SLI, their x800xt pe is hard to find (well just search pricewatch and you'll find plenty at the same price and availability as the 6800ultra).

So what? That was then? I'd be interested to see now too- know why? All over the web I see people buying 6800GTs and mainly avoiding X800Ps. ATI has nothing opposite 6800NUs. X800XT PEs and and 6800Us probably are about equal. So do honestly think ATI is selling more X800Ps than nVidia is selling 6800NU/6800GTs? Sure they are, in their troubled dreams at night.

Also wait, even if Nvidia is faster with SLI but card A from ATI is faster than card B from Nvidia for the same price, would a knowledgeable person still recommend the slower card B even if Nvidia's fastest setup was ultimately faster? NO. Everyone knows A64 rocks, but XP is slower than equivalent P4 processors, so you cannot simply say "Dude if you want a fast gaming rig, go with anything AMD."

This makes no sense. People usually do say if you want a fast gaming rig, go AMD. LOL my A64 3000+ that I paid $250 for last Christmas still outperforms a P4 3.2EE that cost over $900 now at newegg. Yeah, they're saying "Go Intel for gaming! Don't forget to grab your ankles!" :roll:

 

[Rage187]

"Yes you could get GT's instead of Ultra's (I already said this), which take up one slot. Forcing me to use onboard sound is not an option I would like. Especially since they all suck in comparision to a dedicated sound card, except for the Soundstrom."

I use an Audigy 2 NX, usb. So on board sound is not forced.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: Rage187

I dont know where you get $700, $200 was retail for the 8meg's. I had the 12meg version pre-ordered, but because the 8meg version came out about a month before the 12meg version did, I got it. I couldnt wait.

The 12mb voodoo 2's were $300 when they first came out. soooo 300x2=$600 + the cost of the the 2d card.

And you're trying to debunk my point about it not being "OBSCENELY expensive" with that? You already had to have a 2d card, and if you paid $100 that was too much anyways. So take off that, and if could be done for $400, 2x$200 for the 8meg version. With the cost of the other hardware parts at the time, it wasnt that much.

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: Rage187

I dont know where you get $700, $200 was retail for the 8meg's. I had the 12meg version pre-ordered, but because the 8meg version came out about a month before the 12meg version did, I got it. I couldnt wait.

The 12mb voodoo 2's were $300 when they first came out. soooo 300x2=$600 + the cost of the the 2d card.

And you're trying to debunk my point about it not being "OBSCENELY expensive" with that? You already had to have a 2d card, and if you paid $100 that was too much anyways. So take off that, and if could be done for $400, 2x$200 for the 8meg version. With the cost of the other hardware parts at the time, it wasnt that much.

You are just too thicked headed.

Enjoy your ATI.


One more thing; you dont seem to realize that 6 years ago $600 was worth alot more than it is today.

So in essence today's solutons are rediculously cheap compared to 6+ years ago.

 

[fsstrike]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: fsstrike

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

So, even being the most "successful" gaming card of its era, it was still cancelled? Usually when a product is very popular and successful, companies usually keep it around as long as possible. Obviously 3dfx did not do this, which makes you think "mabye it wasnt such a huge success as everyone thought?" Whether or not it was a success is not the point, the point is, it wasnt able to keep 3dfx alive, so it couldnt of been THAT good.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: Rage187
"Yes you could get GT's instead of Ultra's (I already said this), which take up one slot. Forcing me to use onboard sound is not an option I would like. Especially since they all suck in comparision to a dedicated sound card, except for the Soundstrom."

I use an Audigy 2 NX, usb. So on board sound is not forced.

I have the Philips Aurilum 24-bit external USB sound card on my daughters PC. USB sound cards take a huge hit of the overall frames per second. Its not a very wise move using one on a gaming machine. But yes, you can do it. I would be counterproductive to have to use one, when trying to get more frames by adding a second video card though.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: Rage187

Originally posted by: Ackmed

Originally posted by: Rage187

I dont know where you get $700, $200 was retail for the 8meg's. I had the 12meg version pre-ordered, but because the 8meg version came out about a month before the 12meg version did, I got it. I couldnt wait.

The 12mb voodoo 2's were $300 when they first came out. soooo 300x2=$600 + the cost of the the 2d card.

And you're trying to debunk my point about it not being "OBSCENELY expensive" with that? You already had to have a 2d card, and if you paid $100 that was too much anyways. So take off that, and if could be done for $400, 2x$200 for the 8meg version. With the cost of the other hardware parts at the time, it wasnt that much.

You are just too thicked headed.

Enjoy your ATI.


One more thing; you dont seem to realize that 6 years ago $600 was worth alot more than it is today.

So in essence today's solutons are rediculously cheap compared to 6+ years ago.

First off, I have a 6800 GT, so nice try. Why do you stick to the $600? You DIDNT have to spend that much to get SLI, $400 was the cost of two 8megs. Inflation is not near what you claim it to be. How much were new games back then... ? $40-$50, same as it is now. People do not make 2x what they did 6 years ago. (high end video cards are more than twice what they were 6 years ago)

 

[Rage187]

I PAID FOR 2 12mb VOODOO2'S


it was $600


"People do not make 2x what they did 6 years ago."

I easily make x3's what I did back then. Not saying everyone else has, but I only matter in this equation.

 

[Ackmed]

And you called me thick headed? Haha.

 

[Rage187]

no, I understand your point. You didnt have to spend $600 on an SLi setup.


Guess what?


You dont have to now.

the 6600gt's are retailing at $199

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: fsstrike

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: fsstrike

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

So, even being the most "successful" gaming card of its era, it was still cancelled? Usually when a product is very popular and successful, companies usually keep it around as long as possible. Obviously 3dfx did not do this, which makes you think "mabye it wasnt such a huge success as everyone thought?" Whether or not it was a success is not the point, the point is, it wasnt able to keep 3dfx alive, so it couldnt of been THAT good.

WTF? The V2 was never cancelled, the market grew out of it and 3dfx had problems producing a competitive chip, in the end Nvidia bought 3dfx.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Rage187
no, I understand your point. You didnt have to spend $600 on an SLi setup.


Guess what?


You dont have to now.

the 6600gt's are retailing at $199

you don't have to now cause you can't.

even if you could, would this more expensive setup outperfrom a gt? while you certainly wouldn't have the power/heat issues with the 6600, you probably won't have the performance either.

these arguments are asinine as we can't get sli. we have no idea what the performance is, other than what nvidia tells us. review sites haven't even seen these. all you can do at this time is either buy into the hype or not, plain and simple.

the only hard facts are this:

- you can't get it yet
- when/if it does come out, it will give consumers another option
- it will be faster the a single (same) card, but we have no idea by how much
- if you already bought an nv40, you'll still need to buy 2 more.
- you'll need to buy a new mb (whether you plan to upgrade to pcie or not)
- the chipset you will need for fully functional dual pcie is not yet available
- the mb you will need for fully functional dual pcie is not yet available
- it will require more power (which may/may not be handled by your current psu)
- it will generate more heat (which may or may not affect system performance)

if anyone else has anything factual to add, feel free to do so!

 

[Klixxer]

Originally posted by: Rage187
I PAID FOR 2 12mb VOODOO2'S


it was $600


"People do not make 2x what they did 6 years ago."

I easily make x3's what I did back then. Not saying everyone else has, but I only matter in this equation.

Try less than half of what they made back then, the R&amp;D of today is a lot more expensive.

 

[Rage187]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM


the only hard facts are this:

- you can't get it yet
- when/if it does come out, it will give consumers another option
- it will be faster the a single (same) card, but we have no idea by how much
- if you already bought an nv40, you'll still need to buy 2 more.
- you'll need to buy a new mb (whether you plan to upgrade to pcie or not)
- the chipset you will need for fully functional dual pcie is not yet available
- the mb you will need for fully functional dual pcie is not yet available
- it will require more power (which may/may not be handled by your current psu)
- it will generate more heat (which may or may not affect system performance)

if anyone else has anything factual to add, feel free to do so!

correct
correct
correct
correct
correct
same as above
from the xbit labs PSU/watt/vid card roundup I think we should be alright as long as you have a name brand 400+
Hopefully if you are a graphics card enthusiast, you have adequate cooling.