Dual Video Cards Return

Kez writes "I'm sure many Slashdot readers fondly remember the era of 3dfx. SLI'd Voodoo 2's were a force to reckoned with. Sadly, that era ended a long time ago (although somebody has managed to get Doom III to play on a pair of Voodoo 2's.) However, Nvidia have revived SLI with their GeForce 6600 and 6800 cards. SLI works differently this time around, but the basic concept of using two cards to get the rendering work done is the same. Hexus.net has taken a look at how the new SLI works, how to set it up (and how not to,) along with benchmarks using both of the rendering modes available in the new SLI." And reader Oh'Boy writes "VIA on its latest press tour stopped by and visited in the UK and TrustedReviews have some new information on VIA's latest chipsets for AMD Athlon 64, the K8T890 and the K8T890 Pro which supports DualGFX. But what has emerged is that DualGFX after all doesn't support SLI, at least not for the time being, since it seems like nVidia some how has managed to lock out other manufacturers chipsets from working properly with SLI. VIA did on the other hand have two ATI cards up and running, although not in SLI mode."

Comments

New trend ?

[FiReaNGeL]

Dual video cards... soon dual-core CPUs, is it a sign that we're slowly approaching the Moores Law limit? The 'dual' strategy allow for further performance gains.... but I can't see myself using more than 2 video cards (hell, I can't even see myself using more than 1), so that will be a very temporary solution.

And we're not even speaking of how much power (wattage) these 'dual solutions' consume...

Re:New trend ?

[Scoria]

The 'dual' strategy allow for further performance gains....

Eventually, barring any further technological advances, perhaps we'll even result to modular clustering. Once again, the enthusiast's computer will be larger than a refrigerator! ;-)

Re:New trend ?

[GreatDrok]

Dual video cards... soon dual-core CPUs, is it a sign that we're slowly approaching the Moores Law limit? The 'dual' strategy allow for further performance gains

I don't think so. Quoting from Intel's web site: "Moore observed an exponential growth in the number of transistors per integrated circuit and predicted that this trend would continue." Many people assume Moores Law states that speed of processors will double every 18 months and that the fact that it is becoming difficult to increase clock speed now means that Moores Law is finished. However, increasing speed is a consequence of higher clock speeds and higher transistor counts. Dual cores means you can increase the number of transistors per IC more and actually use them to do real work rather than simply adding a huge cache (as was done with the latest Itanic). End result, more speed, higher transistor count, and Moores Law still fine. In fact, dual cores could mean that the transistor count increases at greater than Moores Law in the near term. Of course some might question whether a siamesed pair of processors actually constitutes a single IC.....

Looks better on SLI Voodoo2's than on my Rad 9800.

[Lostie]

...because you can see more than 1 colour (black).

Who to Trust

[superpulpsicle]

Every review I have seen has claim SLI to be the wave of the future giving you ridiculous speed boost. But don't all video card reviews do that now? Last I checked on some of the older Tom's hardware, anantech reviews, my hardware should be polling in 70 fps for some games. I'd be lucky to hit 35 consistently... that's reality.

Intel & SLI

[DeadBugs]

It is worth noting that NVIDIA will be bringing SLI to the Intel platform according to this press release:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_17070.html

I'm looking forward to a P4 NForce board.

AlienWare

[Spez]

You can already buy from the alienware luxury collection some gaming systems featuring SLI

http://www.alienware.com/ALX_pages/choose_alx.aspx

SLI != SLI

[Jahf]

First it is mildly interesting to note that SLI from Voodoo was "scan-line interleaving", as in every other line was alternated between the 2 cards. Nvidia SLI is "scalable link interface" and instead renders the top half of the image on one and the bottom on the other.

It does make me wonder if the technology is capable of truly scaling ... ie ... more than 2 cards? Could be useful for scientific simulations or even getting closer to the idea of "ToyStory in realtime" (and no arguments here ... using the same shaders as Pixar used in the movies in realtime is not feasible today ... cheap tricks to get close, maybe).

However, given the cost, and looking at what the 6800 can handle by itself, and comparing -those- to the evolution of games it appears to me that it will be no more costly to simply upgrade to a 6900/7000/whatever when it is required, as I can easily get by for the next year or two on a 6800 Ultra especially if including the fact that I would need a new computer to run it on since I don't have PCI-E (though I do have PCI-X, but not for gaming needs). And will be saving on electricity and mean time to failure (though that doesn't seem to be an issue much with video cards).

Not saying I don't see the attraction, but I don't get anywhere NEAR interested in 3D gaming enough to be spending that kind of dough.

Re:SLI != SLI

[Linuxthess]

Could be useful for scientific simulations or even getting closer to the idea of "ToyStory in realtime"...

I propose a new acronym, TSIRT which will be the standard of rendering performance, similar to the "LOC" (Library Of Congress) reference when comparing download speeds.

Re:SLI != SLI

[ArsonSmith]

I created a top notch 3d rendering engine and all I got was this TSIRT.

Double The Money

[Squeebee]

So the guys at Nvidia were sitting around when in walk the PHB and says "Guys, we need to make more money". And flunkie one says "Hey, let's release a new card, all the fanboys will rush out and buy it!" PHB says "Well that's ok, but we do that enough already". Flunkie two says "I know, let's convince the users that the one overkill video card they buy is not enough, let's convince them that the need to buy TWO!" And the rest my friends, is history! Stay tuned for the new quad-card cash-vacuum, coming soon.

Re:Double The Money

[Raptor CK]

More like, "Hey, the last generation videocard is now obsolete, and no one wants it! How do we fix this next time?"

"I know, let's make it so that if you buy a second one a year later, it'll work WITH the first one!"

No one needs to buy two right off the bat. One is usually more than enough for any modern game. But one for a few hundred now, and the other for less than $100 later? That's a bargain basement upgrade, and one that's far more sensible than getting the new mid-range card now, and the new mid-range card a year from now.

Now, if someone *wants* to buy two top of the line cards today, more power to them. They want the ultra-high-resolution games with all the effects cranked up, and they have the money. It makes their games look nicer, while my games run well enough. We both win, and Nvidia no longer sits on piles of unused chips.

Should have invested in...

[vasqzr]

Dual webservers. Would have delayed the Slashdotting.

Re:TWO Cards!

[Rew190]

TWO Cards! (Score:-1, Redundant)

I think that's the first time the actual moderation of a post has made me laugh more than the post itself.

Ironic?

[goldspider]

I find it funny that some of the people who lamented the $15/mo. for WoW in the last article are probably the same people who will go out and drop $600 for a top-notch SLI video setup.

Re:this is sweet

[stratjakt]

No, it doesn't work that way.

Each card renders half of the same image. So each card needs access to the full texture set.

So 2x256 cards still only gives you 256 megs for your textures.

Buy the second a year later

[PIPBoy3000]

The real benefit, from my perspective is that it's a low-cost way to upgrade your video card in between new computers. I bought my first Voodoo 2 for $300. My second cost $30.

Re:SLI?

[Gates82]

Hate to reply to my own post but here is a link. Nvidia SLI SLI = Scalable Link Interface

--
So really, who is hotter? Alley or Alley's sister?

Power consumption

[Hoi Polloi]

And we're not even speaking of how much power (wattage) these 'dual solutions' consume...

SLI power consumption can be significant!

Re:why so little support for gamers?

[meestaplu]

Right now, the answer is pretty simple. If you want a game to use multiple processors at the same time, you need to include more than one execution thread--the programmer has to divide the work in such a way that two or more processors can do it. It's quite hard to build a multithreaded game; there was some SMP support in Quake III, but it wasn't very stable and didn't provide a huge performance boost.

With a multithreaded application, you have to guard against strange bugs that are very, very hard to fix. If your multithreaded application runs into a deadlock every hundred thousand frames or so, it will be next to impossible to isolate, and production will end up being slower than it already is. While I'm sure that writing multithreaded games will happen in the near future, I don't think it will catch on very quickly.

Re:32x

[harrkev]

Ummmm... Ray tracing does NOT depend on the video card. If all you are doing is ray tracing, get an old Voodoo 2 or something for $10 from eBay.

Ray Tracing uses the CPU to do all of the work. Video chips are optimized to do a lot of "shortcuts" and "tricks" to render a scene, and the math is completely different. Trying to make them do something else is like trying to strap fins on a donkey and turn it into a fish.

A dual-core CPU, on the other hand, would work wonders on a ray tracing.

I Feel Another Commercial Coming On

[Greyfox]

3.4 GhZ P4 with a gig of RAM: $3000
2 nvidia SLI cards: $600
Getting 4 FPS anyway because 40,000 people are on the same server as you: Priceless.

Err you aren't trying hard enough.

[Charcharodon]

You obviously don't have much imagination if you can't think of a use of more than two video cards/monitors.

As a lover of flight sims I'll be first in line to buy a mother board that can support 10 video cards. Along with an array of cheap monitors I will finally have a wrap around view of the sim world. This can apply easily to any game.

First person shooters could finally have peripheral vision (one center and two on the sides) along with a inventory and map screen. Brings the grand total to five.

Driving games could finally have a true perspective instead of the stupid 3rd person or 1/3 screen in car view. So at least three monitors.

RTS resource monitors, sat view, and ground maps. Well that could become quite the array depending on how much you wanted covered. Say anywhere from 3-12 monitors.

Same for Massive Multiplayer Online Games. I could see a use without trying hard that would require at least six monitors.

You could double, tripple or even quadruple up on the number of required cards for any one monitor that would require higher end graphics. There are always those twisted monkeys that come up with graphics that won't run on any one GPU these days. For example those lovely to the horizon maps that show up in various games that add about 100meters of high detail every year. I see another scenario where people boost their systems performance by picking up cheaper versions of cards they own to keep their graphics improving without breaking the bank. (We can all remember when GF 2 cards cost $400 each, that'll buy you 50 of them these days.

Who could afford all this you ask? Well just about anyone these days. I've got a stack of 17inch CRT monitors in the garage I picked up for $5 a piece that are just begging to be used. With the advent of sub $100 video cards and CRT monitors, and the fact that not every output would have to be super hi rez. Perpheral views, 2d maps, and inventory lists would be just fine on something to the equivalent to a GeForce 4 MX ($32 new). You could seriously enhance your gaming machine for the price of one top of the line latest and the greatest video card from ATI/Nvidia.

So you keep your two monitor display, for me I'm going to check to see if the wiring in my computer room can handle the extra 10 monitors I plan on adding.