Hands On Tripple SLI Test

[BFG10K]

Firingsquad review.

 

[taltamir]

thats three 8800ultra cards... thats 2250$ just for the video cards at the LOW end... 3000$ at the high end (evga black pearl.)

They do get 45fps on a crysis at max everything on 2600 resolution though...

 

[Cookie Monster]

Originally posted by: Mr Fox
But when it comes to Multi Card HD 3870 in X-Fire, Two $300.00 Cards will soundly defeat a $1000.00 Pair of GTX's....

Did i read something wrong, but GTX SLi soundly defeated by dual 3870 CF?

Maybe you meant, dual HD3870 beats the GTX on several benchmarks (depends on how well crossfire scales which isnt very good compared to SLi).

 

[nubian1]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

Triple SLI becomes reasonable because you don't have to buy all 3 cards at once. You can get one card now, go SLI in a couple of months and then go TriSLI after a while if you still want more performance.

This reasoning is even more nonsensical than the classic SLI "buy one card now, get one later" reasoning.

When the next generation video card comes out who on earth will run out and buy a pair of obsolete previous generation cards?

Also you can't just throw three video cards into a system; you need a motherboard with three PCIe, a beefy PSU and a hell of a good case to stop them overheating.

After all that why not just get a single next generation GPU and sell your existing previous gen GPU?

Kinda what I was getting at. Tripple SLI or tripple anything requires a lot more investment and forethought than just adding an additional card. Someone used the analogy of cars.

Well it's like my Toyota Supra. You get the great performance at a steep price premium but that isn't all. It only uses Super Gasoline plus maintaining the thing is in a league by itself.

For all the 3/sli or 3&4/CF systems to work it will require more forethought and investment than just adding cards as the consumer sees fit.

Still the technology is interesting but I personally won't bite.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Triple*

My bad. Carry on fellow ATers

 

[taltamir]

and you think you can put 4 cards in CF without the same level of maintenence? Those 4 cards will probably take more power combined then the 3 nvidia cards... and produce more heat... yea the draw per card is less, but you have 3 vs 4 card here... Anyways the differences will be marginal in this regard.

I Wouldn't get any of that crap anyways. not with GF9 in less then two monthes.

 

[nubian1]

Originally posted by: taltamir
and you think you can put 4 cards in CF without the same level of maintenence? Those 4 cards will probably take more power combined then the 3 nvidia cards... and produce more heat... yea the draw per card is less, but you have 3 vs 4 card here... Anyways the differences will be marginal in this regard.

I Wouldn't get any of that crap anyways. not with GF9 in less then two monthes.

I did mention that the same issues exist with either SLI or CF when more than 2 cards are used.

Like I said I will not get either of those setups. Marketing has taken over from common sense it seems.

 

[Mr Fox]

Originally posted by: Cookie Monster

Originally posted by: Mr Fox
But when it comes to Multi Card HD 3870 in X-Fire, Two $300.00 Cards will soundly defeat a $1000.00 Pair of GTX's....

Did i read something wrong, but GTX SLi soundly defeated by dual 3870 CF?

Maybe you meant, dual HD3870 beats the GTX on several benchmarks (depends on how well crossfire scales which isnt very good compared to SLi).

You obviously did not look at the data, and that was using the older drivers.. the latest drivers improve single card, and Multi-GPU even more. And this is in 3D marks 2006.. it is kind of universal.. Of course individual applications will vary.. but that was not the discussion...

It was how increasingly on a daily basis SLI is becoming INSIGNIFICANT....

Triple SLI on 3D Marks the score actually went backwards... that really justified that $600.00 card in the middle that will be Toast in a hell of a hurry......... don't ya think ?

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: nubian1

Originally posted by: taltamir
and you think you can put 4 cards in CF without the same level of maintenence? Those 4 cards will probably take more power combined then the 3 nvidia cards... and produce more heat... yea the draw per card is less, but you have 3 vs 4 card here... Anyways the differences will be marginal in this regard.

I Wouldn't get any of that crap anyways. not with GF9 in less then two monthes.

I did mention that the same issues exist with either SLI or CF when more than 2 cards are used.

Like I said I will not get either of those setups. Marketing has taken over from common sense it seems.

thats pretty much the crux of the matter... the entire multi GPU push is about marketing ATTEMPTING to defeat logic and common sense on an EPIC proportion... I mean, I know most people make business decisions emotionally... but this is just too flimsy.