Is 4 card SLI possible at some point?

[Paktu]

I know it isn't available now, but is SLI inherently limited to 2 cards? Could a later revision of SLI support 4 (or more) video cards at some point?

 

[Justin343563611]

maybe if that gigabyte 3D1 had an sli adaptor link on it get another one of them it could happen.

 

[jabronidan89]

Originally posted by: Paktu
I know it isn't available now, but is SLI inherently limited to 2 cards? Could a later revision of SLI support 4 (or more) video cards at some point?

What I would think many people would say is "anything is possible." Who really knows?

 

[Malak]

The future is multiple GPUs, not multiple cards. There wouldn't be room on a mobo to fit 4 cards.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Paktu
I know it isn't available now, but is SLI inherently limited to 2 cards? Could a later revision of SLI support 4 (or more) video cards at some point?

Since the S stands for scaleable, I would go with yes, the future does look like more than 2 cards/GPU's.
I would guess that it would mainly be a niche thing tho, for workstations or situations where rendering is needed to be done quickly.

 

[TourGuide]

Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

 

[zakee00]

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

 

[ddviper]

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

truer words have never been spoken

 

[TheOasis]

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

actually SLI saves you money in the long run. it depends on how you spend it. for instance if you buy 2 6800 ultras now for sli then that is spending a lot, but if you buy 1 6800GT now, and get another one 6 months from now when they are $250, then thats a good deal in my book.

but anyway, dual GPU cards are the future just like dual core CPU's, not quad gfx cards.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: TheOasis

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

actually SLI saves you money in the long run. it depends on how you spend it. for instance if you buy 2 6800 ultras now for sli then that is spending a lot, but if you buy 1 6800GT now, and get another one 6 months from now when they are $250, then thats a good deal in my book.

but anyway, dual GPU cards are the future just like dual core CPU's, not quad gfx cards.

but then, when thw 7800s come out, you will be just as fast but wont have say, ps4.0 or dx10 support or something.
faster? yes
features? no

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: TheOasis

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

actually SLI saves you money in the long run. it depends on how you spend it. for instance if you buy 2 6800 ultras now for sli then that is spending a lot, but if you buy 1 6800GT now, and get another one 6 months from now when they are $250, then thats a good deal in my book.

but anyway, dual GPU cards are the future just like dual core CPU's, not quad gfx cards.

but then, when thw 7800s come out, you will be just as fast but wont have say, ps4.0 or dx10 support or something.
faster? yes
features? no

Ooo, another good point I hadn't thought of. Damn, SLI 0 Logic 10

 

[TheOasis]

isnt DX10 not due out untill mid 2006? and PS3.0 isnt even close to mainstream yet. i'm willing to bet the GF7 series will be DX9.

 

[zakee00]

Originally posted by: TheOasis
isnt DX10 not due out untill mid 2006? and PS3.0 isnt even close to mainstream yet. i'm willing to bet the GF7 series will be DX9.

for sure

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: TheOasis

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

actually SLI saves you money in the long run. it depends on how you spend it. for instance if you buy 2 6800 ultras now for sli then that is spending a lot, but if you buy 1 6800GT now, and get another one 6 months from now when they are $250, then thats a good deal in my book.

but anyway, dual GPU cards are the future just like dual core CPU's, not quad gfx cards.

but then, when thw 7800s come out, you will be just as fast but wont have say, ps4.0 or dx10 support or something.
faster? yes
features? no

There's no indication yet that NV5x will be faster/slower than a SLI capable system. SLI is good only for the "no brainers" who MUST spend money to see higher 3dmock scores.
Nevertheless it's grantedthat NV5x won't have any SM4.0 capabilities (so that's not an issue to consider).Actually that won't happen till WGF2.0 or later.
Oh and ppl should stop reffering to the next GUI of Microsoft as DX10. Longhorn will be released with the codename WGF1.0 then it will follow WGF2.0 and then we will see.

 

[TheOasis]

SLI is good for 2 people, people who, like you said, want the 2 cards for better 3dmark scores. the other person is the one who wants to buy 1 card now, then down the road, double their performance for 50% of the price. the latter is perfectly logical.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: zakee00

Originally posted by: TheOasis
isnt DX10 not due out untill mid 2006? and PS3.0 isnt even close to mainstream yet. i'm willing to bet the GF7 series will be DX9.

for sure

yeah, but leave it up to the nv and ati guys to cook up something to hype over in the next gen cores. trust me. something will come out. it wont be too major but eventually, it'll add up. i mean, if the x800xl and 6800gt were the same price and same performance which would you pick? 9.0b,sm2.0 or 9.0c and sm3.0?

6800gt now, $425(lowballing it)
6800gt, 1 year form now, ($250)[maybe a little tiny bit slower, but will support all new gfx settings.)
total: $700
or
6800oc now($300)
7800oc later(300)
total:700

id just hate to see my rig pumping out more frames than i need with max settings and still unable to turn on the newest eyecandy. besides, i dont play any higher than 1024x786. no real need.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: TheOasis
SLI is good for 2 people, people who, like you said, want the 2 cards for better 3dmark scores. the other person is the one who wants to buy 1 card now, then down the road, double their performance for 50% of the price. the latter is perfectly logical.

And who can guarantee you that SLI won't have worse results than a single NV5x? Or that it won't be memory/bandwith limited???
Most of all who told you that in most cases you can double your performance. There are other issues to keep in mind for the perf to increase.Things aren't so simple as you consider them

 

[BenSkywalker]

I know it isn't available now, but is SLI inherently limited to 2 cards? Could a later revision of SLI support 4 (or more) video cards at some point?

SLI as it is now is capable of supporting 4 chips easily, although it hasn't been implemented yet.

There's no indication yet that NV5x will be faster/slower than a SLI capable system. SLI is good only for the "no brainers" who MUST spend money to see higher 3dmock scores.

Odds are also pretty good that the GeForce 9200 will be faster then the X850XT PE and considerably cheaper. So why not just wait for that? You can always make the argument that something faster and cheaper will be coming in the PC market for anything, spending a lot now for the highest performance can always be considered illogical on any level- regarding SLI or any other element. The overwhelming majority of the public will consider spending $300 on a graphics card absolutely assinine.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
[
Odds are also pretty good that the GeForce 9200 will be faster then the X850XT PE and considerably cheaper. So why not just wait for that? You can always make the argument that something faster and cheaper will be coming in the PC market for anything, spending a lot now for the highest performance can always be considered illogical on any level- regarding SLI or any other element. The overwhelming majority of the public will consider spending $300 on a graphics card absolutely assinine.

I do agree with your logic. Hardcore is hardcore But even for a hardcore gamer to have a SLI 6800U system in most of the cases it means that he has to buy:
1. the best cpu out there. Don't you agree?
2. Swap mobo
3. 2 Ultras

Now if we are talking about a guy that upgrades right now afer a significant amount of time my previous argument holds. Then again this guy isn't a hardcore gamer which means that this is not the best way to go IMHO.
It's one thing to pay 500euros for an Ultra and play everything maxed out perfectly and another to pay 1500+ to get a SLI system and in 5-6 months NV5x may be better.
If I was opting for the great perf right now I would get X850XTPE which is more than enough for anything out there and cost me so much less. Even hardcore must have its limits granted that SLI in many cases can offer you nothing.

 

[Boze]

I'm a little confused here about people's opinions of SLI. I didn't ever kid myself into thinking that SLI would save me money somewhere down the road. SLI was designed from the ground up for people who value performance above all else. Right now the only reason I'm using a 6600 is because for the past two months I wasn't able to find two 6800 Ultras in PCIe less than $1200 combined. Now that the 6800 Ultras in PCIe are somewhat more reasonable, it is now so close to spring refresh that I will be waiting to see Nvidia's offerings, and if they are better than ATIs, then I'll be picking up two of them when availability (should) be fairly good. Later when PS 4.0 and DX10 are released along with the cards to support them I'll pick up two of those and put whatever I get up on the auction block here at Anandtech...

I really don't believe SLI was designed for 'saving money' - I think it was designed for maximum performance without regards to cost.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: ddviper

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!
SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

truer words have never been spoken

Yeah, I really don't feel like getting "exploited" TWICE, having to pay an exhorbitant price for TWO higher-end video cards, just to play current games at reasonable frame-rates, because that is what the software developers have targeted for a platform.

Why do I feel like NV has set the video-card market back 4 years.

(The 'Ghost of 3Dfx' indeed.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Boze
I'm a little confused here about people's opinions of SLI. I didn't ever kid myself into thinking that SLI would save me money somewhere down the road.
(...)
I really don't believe SLI was designed for 'saving money' - I think it was designed for maximum performance without regards to cost.

Wow... someone who "gets it".

SLI was designed as a way that NV could drain your wallet - twice as fast!

Seriously though, one of the prior posts had a very good point - speed isn't everything, features and compatibility are too, for devices that are still as hard-wired in function as GPUs are. Remember back in the day, when you had to pay $300 for a V2 SLI-capable board? And then, some months later, the TNT came out, roughly equivalent to two V2s (IIRC), but also capable of rendering 3D and displaying 2D in 32-bit color! So if you were a V2 owner, when the TNT came out, you had two choices - dump your expensive V2 SLI-capable card, and buy another expensive TNT card to replace it, thus obtaining the speed required by current games, and the benefits of 32-bit color rendering, or you were forced to shell out for another V2 card and SLI them. Combined, they were as fast as a TNT, and buying the second SLI card was slightly cheaper than the first, and cheaper than a TNT, but you were still limited in features, and couldn't take advantage of newer game features like 32-bit color.

So you may think that you are potentially saving some money in the future, but at the same time, you are trading off the loss of potentially-new features (standing still in terms of GPU feature-set) along with that. Is it really worth it?

In the preceeding example, with an SLI'ed pair of V2s, you've spent "expensive" + "slightly less-expensive", in order to end up with something that is the same performance as only "expensive", but with a lesser feature-set as well.

Something to consider, and the primary reason why I don't feel that SLI is price/performance effective for the consumer market.

 

[ribbon13]

Any ultra high-end 4 gpu setup would be likely to be aimed at workstations, and be out of the reach of a consumer. Possibly $4000 for a 2card 4gpu setup.

Of course if 3DLabs comes out with something like the Wildcat Realizm 800's but SLIable, I'm sure the workstation market would be sold.

I've been thinking that an absolutely awesome name for a 4-gpu setup would be "Crosshair" because of the way the screen would be divided among the GPUs

 

[swatX]

Originally posted by: TourGuide
Sh*t NO! Let's all hope not!!

SLI already costs an arm AND a leg - I'd like to keep my right nut thanks.

yea same here but i would like to keep both of my nuts.






kthxby

 

[TStep]

If you has $20,000 two years ago you could have 4 9700 gpus

SimFusion

Announced in December 2002, the SimFUSION OpenSim 600Q was based on 4 Radeon 9700. Its price: approximately $20 000. Two years later and, two GeForce 6800 GT (20 times cheaper) are able to reach higher performances.

Do you think it gets hot??