Nvidia Reintroduces SLI with GeForce 6800 Series

An anonymous reader writes "It's 1998 all over again gamers. A major release from ID software, and an expensive hotrod video card all in one year. However, rather than Quake and the Voodoo2 SLI, it's Doom3 and Nvidia SLI. Hardware Analysis has the scoop, '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. First off you'll need a workstation motherboard featuring two PCI-E-x16 slots which will also use the more expensive Intel Xeon processors. Secondly you'll need two identical, same brand and type, PCI-E GeForce 6800 graphics cards.'"

Comments

When

[instanto]

All great news.. but WHEN can I find it available in the stores, that would be NEWS.

nVidia boys don't cry!

[Anonymous Coward]

note: I'm only jealous, I made a booboo and bought an fx5900 :(

Don't be sad, with the next nvidia driver release 3DMark will run 1-5% faster!! You've never run a benchmark as fast before!

Of course, it won't help your games, but it does sell nvidia hardware so...

Is it coincidence?

[ThoreauHD]

SLI/Scan Line Interleave is just a method of making your slow ass gear go faster by splitting up the lines each card has to draw on the screen.

As I recall, Voodoo released this card(24 MB version) which I bought, right before they realized they had nothing faster left to put out there. And that's where Nvidia came in and put their foot up their ass with a Single card solution that didn't need an external power supply(for the later voodoo card).

So, what does this mean..? I hope Nvidia can muster some American inventiveness to get passed their tech barrier- because ATI is biting at their heals now. Not really sure if Nvidia has any American's though, but if not, they better find some. Cause chinese can't invent dick. Good luck Nvidia!

Re:For Rich Folks Only

[That's Unpossible!]

I know this is gonna blow your mind.

But there are people out there that have these things called jobs. And these people make money at these jobs, and they are able to save that money and spend it on certain things. Some people like to buy Hondas, large mufflers, and spoilers. Some people like to buy SLI video cards and expensive motherboards.

Some people even buy this stuff called... food.