Quad SLI news

[nRollo]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22151

Well, it's the Inquirer, but pretty cool news if it's true. Two of those dual 6800U cards would brew up a lot of rendering power with 64 pipelines and 24 vertex processors.

 

[RussianSensation]

Cost of motherboard?
Cost of powersupply? (How powerful will it have to be?)
Heat and noise of 4 videocards? (not as big of an issue but still)
$2000 cost of 4 6800Us????
Actual purpose of 4 6800Ultra unless you play at 2048x1536 4AA/16AF?

Also, it would be much better to have dual-gpu 6800U with 512mb of ram, or quad-6800U. Multi-GPU is the way to go for videocards, not 4 SLI cards. The idea of SLI is a not a bad one for now, but I just dont see it becoming more mainstream than 1-2% of the gaming market.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Cost of motherboard?
Cost of powersupply? (How powerful will it have to be?)
Heat and noise of 4 videocards? (not as big of an issue but still)
$2000 cost of 4 6800Us????
Actual purpose of 4 6800Ultra unless you play at 2048x1536 4AA/16AF?

Also, it would be much better to have dual-gpu 6800U with 512mb of ram, or quad-6800U. Multi-GPU is the way to go for videocards, not 4 SLI cards. The idea of SLI is a not a bad one for now, but I just dont see it becoming more mainstream than 1-2% of the gaming market.

Nobody said that you should run out and buy it as soon as it hits the shelves did they?
Are you pre-programmed to rage against the technology machine? That was the fastest negative response I have ever seen in these forums.

I believe it was worth mentioning for the coolness factor alone.

 

[McArra]

64pipelines and 24 VS :Q :Q :Q

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: McArra
64pipelines and 24 VS :Q :Q :Q

It would be a graphics Juggernaut wouldn't it?

 

[Lonyo]

Wow, SLI can work on more than 2 cards, what a revalation(!). The Inq is really on the ball this time.
Scalable link interface works with more than 2 cards, so it like, scales then? Wow, great catch Inq. (And I'm fairly sure I posted it would work with more than 2 cards in some oooold threads)

I think that this is more than a "Wow, kewl bragging rights PC" thing though.
There are also other applications, such as workstations/rendering systems in which this could be useful. (Much like the multi-R300 systems that are used in flight sims).

 

[AristoV300]

NOw that would be some serious gaming FPS. Just have to trade in my car to pay for it all

 

[Creig]

I guess anything is possible, but the Inquirer is a bad source for real info.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
The idea of SLI is a not a bad one for now, but I just dont see it becoming more mainstream than 1-2% of the gaming market.

SLI was never meant for the mainstream market. Nvidia knows what market they are targeting, and I'm sure they are reaping in the rewards.

 

[James3shin]

all i can say is "wow"

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Nobody said that you should run out and buy it as soon as it hits the shelves did they?
Are you pre-programmed to rage against the technology machine? That was the fastest negative response I have ever seen in these forums.

I believe it was worth mentioning for the coolness factor alone.

I have nothing against technology. But it's like putting 4 turbos in a car. After a certain point, it's just overkill.

 

[hans030390]

thats partially true...either way, it's still an alternative to the R520, BUT SLI is still rather buggy from what i have heard....

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Nobody said that you should run out and buy it as soon as it hits the shelves did they?
Are you pre-programmed to rage against the technology machine? That was the fastest negative response I have ever seen in these forums.

I believe it was worth mentioning for the coolness factor alone.

I have nothing against technology. But it's like putting 4 turbos in a car. After a certain point, it's just overkill.

Tell that to the 1001HP Buggati 16.4 Veyron

 

[xtknight]

if you already made two cards work, four cards is going to be a lot easier (than designing from scratch again). imagine optimization problems though. at a certain point, there's just no more optimizations to be had (for GAMES). i'd rather them spend all their engineering power on getting new generation cards out the door than this, wouldn't you? no, im not bashing SLI. there's no doubt you get good performance but you'll pay for it. but I would never SLI together FOUR current-gen cards. the most I'll ever do is SLI two this generation, then SLI two next generation because that makes a lot more sense to me. plus it would be more efficient, economical, and usually more future-proof.

one practical usage is workstations, but that should have been developed a while ago (like the Evans and Sutherland implementation) because the current speed of rendering is never enough.

 

[TStep]

Hmmm, interesting...Still need the card-to-card connector?

 

[Regs]

Wow, I thought Dual 6800's were steep. Quad 6800's is really stretching it though. But hell - if you can afford spending 2-3k (maybe even 4k) a year upgrading a SLI set up, who am I to argue with you? lol.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Nobody said that you should run out and buy it as soon as it hits the shelves did they?
Are you pre-programmed to rage against the technology machine? That was the fastest negative response I have ever seen in these forums.

I believe it was worth mentioning for the coolness factor alone.

I have nothing against technology. But it's like putting 4 turbos in a car. After a certain point, it's just overkill.

ahh the Bugatti EB110, i wish i was at the meeting when they decided that 4 turbo chargers was a good idea. damn quick car though

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: McArra

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Nobody said that you should run out and buy it as soon as it hits the shelves did they?
Are you pre-programmed to rage against the technology machine? That was the fastest negative response I have ever seen in these forums.

I believe it was worth mentioning for the coolness factor alone.

I have nothing against technology. But it's like putting 4 turbos in a car. After a certain point, it's just overkill.

Tell that to the 1001HP Buggati 16.4 Veyron

thats gonna have 4 turbos too? lol guess 16 cylinders just aint enough for some

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: otispunkmeyer

Originally posted by: McArra

Originally posted by: RussianSensation

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Nobody said that you should run out and buy it as soon as it hits the shelves did they?
Are you pre-programmed to rage against the technology machine? That was the fastest negative response I have ever seen in these forums.

I believe it was worth mentioning for the coolness factor alone.

I have nothing against technology. But it's like putting 4 turbos in a car. After a certain point, it's just overkill.

Tell that to the 1001HP Buggati 16.4 Veyron

thats gonna have 4 turbos too? lol guess 16 cylinders just aint enough for some

Yeah, but somehow driving a 1001 hp car just seems like it would be a lot more fun than running a game at 300fps.

 

[nRollo]

Yeah, but somehow driving a 1001 hp car just seems like it would be a lot more fun than running a game at 300fps.

Maybe. However, if you casually mention to the hottest girl on campus that you just ran Doom 3 at 16X12 8X16X on your quad 6800U SLI rig, she's going to reply,"I want you now- can I bring a friend?"








Errr...well maybe not. It would still be pretty cool though.

 

[fstime]

Unless your running a really high res WITH aa/af, I find sli useless. This is even more way overkill. Who can tell the differance from 80 fps to 180 fps. I dont.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
Unless your running a really high res WITH aa/af, I find sli useless. This is even more way overkill. Who can tell the differance from 80 fps to 180 fps. I dont.

I would think that the only people who would consider this type of setup are the ones who are thinking of running a really high res and maxxed out settings. So yes, we understand why you would find SLI useless as you have no interest in having the ability to do so. There is no such thing as overkill for some people (true enthusiasts) and will go to lengths to make absolutely certain they aren't missing out on a single thing.

 

[Genx87]

This could be useful in the professional rendering markets.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: BouZouki
Unless your running a really high res WITH aa/af, I find sli useless. This is even more way overkill. Who can tell the differance from 80 fps to 180 fps. I dont.

the bennefit would most likely for the Quadro line. Getting 4 Quadros together would definately be a rendering beast, and the cost of the setup would be chump change for those who would bennefit from it as they pull down quite a commanding price for the work they do.

 

[Regs]

It's kind of amazing if you think about it.

Like how servers were and are now. Multiple towers and multiple stations to feed the high demand of bandwidth and data transfers. Instead of server towers, we will have multiple video cards which are like smaller computers in it of themselves. I can only imagine the size of microsoft.com's network.

Problem with that analogy is that we don't have enough desk top software to fit that demand and likely never will from a marketing and economic stand point except for what Genx87 mentioned above.

I would be hard to fathom that any software developer, like Epic, would design an engine with a Quad SLI set up in mind. Maybe next generation hardware. Like we saw when Far Cry and D3 came out and the 9800pro and 5900 Ultra's were only on "par" until the 6800's and x800's arrived at a "convenient" price.

I guess I just like stating the obvious.