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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.'"
SLI (Scan line Interleaving) means that if you have two graphics cards in your computer then they can each draw part of the screen. So for a lot more money you get better graphics and a higher frame-rate.
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The lower-than-100% increase reflects the fact the cards aren't working together fully. As they said, it's still early days, and expect to get that figure to nearer 90%.
"For workstation users it is also a nice extra that with a SLI configuration a total of four monitors can be driven off of the respective DVI outputs on the graphics cards, a feature we'll undoubtedly see pitched as a major feature for the Quadro version of the GeForce 6800 series SLI configuration."
/., and I RTFA. ph33r.
Yes, it's
So I wonder how you can calculate the rating need for ths PSU?
Wonder no longer! Power Supply Article
SLI stands for Scan Line Interleave.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
That's all I am seeing here. You don't need to use the Ultra in your configuration of this. The article even states you can use a single slot GT, which would be greater than a single Ultra and cost you 200 dollars more for a great performance boost. Or you could even use basic 6800 cards which are under 300 dollars.
This is going to be great when it matures, and is one of the huge advantages to PCI-Express when that becomes the standard on future motherboards over AGP. Yes, I know Intel is making motherboards with this, but who the hell wants to pay all that money for such a small jump?
Since people seem to be lost on the nvidia cards, here goes a run down of what they are releasing and the price area:
300$ - nvidia 6800
400$ - nvidia 6800gt
500$ - nvidia 6800 Ultra
600$+ - nvidia 6850/6800 Ultra Extreme
The 6800 and GT are single slot cards with a signle Molex connector. Those can be used in the SLI configuration as well. Get the facts straight before you post flamebait and troll.
That's scary.
PCI-X != PCI Express
PCI Express is denoted by some of the following: PCIe, PCI-E, PCI-Ex, PCI-Express
PCI-X is just PCI with higher throughput thanks to a higher clock rate among other things. It kinda sucks that they ever settled on PCI-X as the name for PCI-X, it now causes confusion on a mass scale.
You don't need SLI for that. You just need two graphics cards with 2 outputs each. This is possible today. In fact, with a PCI geforce2 MX and almost any AGP geforce 3 or later you can drive 3-4 monitors. For a LOT less money.
Nah, these cards draw a LOT of power, but not anywhere near 400W. They DO draw over 150W from the 12V rail though so getting a PSU with 4 12V rails capable of handling in excess of 300W on 12V is going to be somewhat problematic. Run of the mill 550W PSU's supply max 24A @ 12V which is NOT enough for the cards, let alone cards plus motherboard. The biggest PSU I could find were capable of 36A @ 12V which gives you an overhead of under 100W for all other 12V devices in the case, this includes hard drive(s), motherboard, cd/dvd rom(s), etc. Guess you are going to need a server class case with multiple PSU's to run this kind of a configuration!
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Very well, but back then there were generaly only two, maybe three different Voodoo2 cards, namely STB's, Diamond's and Creative's. ...And Guillemont, and Hercules, and Canopus, and Obsidian, and Jaton...and so many more. You know, only a few...
There are very blatant reasons why SLI killed 3DFX as a company. And yes, their downfall began with the Voodoo 2.
The Voodoo 2 with SLI was so incredibly fast that they had no competitor, so every graphics company in the game was making 3DFX cards, and they were all reference designs (with the exception of Canopus and Obsidian).
All those players and 3DFX themselves overestimated demand for their extremely high-priced product. Even worse, they overestimated demand for the SLI add-on at the $300 pricepoint. 3DFX was losing a lot of sales because they didn't have a competitive low-end product until the Banshee, and by then Nvidia had made quite a dent in their marketshare.
All the vendors who used the reference design got bit in the ass once more because the market discovered you could mix Voodoo 2 cards in SLI, so you could buy ANY card (read: cheapest), so all those late upgraders got a sweet deal.
While I don't see SLI destroying Nvidia (they have the diversified product like that 3DFX was lacking), I do expect it to blow up in their faces and lose them money in the long run. The market couldn't bear a $600 graphics solution in 1998, what makes them think it can handle a $900 solution 5 years later?
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
It's not really your fault. Blame the idiots at PCI-SIG for giving PCIe such a similar name to an existing (but totally different) bus technology (PCI-X). PCIe used to be called 3GIO, I've no idea why they decided to change it.
For reference (not just for you), PCI-X is PCI on steroids, a faster, wider (64-bit) edition of the PCI bus which is used in high end servers and the Apple PowerMac G5.
PCIe (aka PCI Express aka 3GIO) is the brand new multi-channel serial expansion bus that will be appearing on consumer-level motherboards in the next few months and will eventually replace both AGP and PCI.