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Gigabyte's Dual-GPU Graphics Card
kamerononfire writes "Tom's Hardware has an article on a new dual-GPU graphics card, to be released Friday, by Giga-byte: "According to sources, the SLI card will lift current 3DMark2003 record revels by a significant margin while being priced lower than ATI's and Nvidia's single-GPU high-end cards.""
So, the question will be: Can we get drivers for this card that will work in Linux or OS X? It is based in Nvidia technology, so presumably one could write drivers for this card unless Gigabyte is keeping their stuff proprietary.....
It looks interesting and I would certainly be more than interested in plugging one into my dual G5, but I don't have time (or the interest) to write my own drivers.
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They are coming out with a card that includes a gpu, cpu, hard drive, ram, motherboard, ethernet, sound AND it's a nuclear powered plus it will fit in your back pocket and transmit the monitor images straight to your visual cortex all the while making your breakfast and cleaning your basement.
That makes a lot more sense, store the textures once in shared memory instead of storing it twice as you would have to do in a two card solution.
Makes me wonder if Nvidia will have dual core gpus in the future.
eom
I bought my dual GPU 3DFx Voodoo5 around this time 4 years ago. . . and then the company was bought, support disappeared, and my fancy video card became worthless even quicker than it should have . . . I don't recollect seeing another 'dual gpu video card that will slay the market' announcement since . . .
As I recall, 3dfx used multi-GPU chips for its Voodoo 4 and 5 lines, and didn't do so well. Is there anything to indicate that this card will do better? After all, sticking with SLI and multicore technology after its prime was what killed 3dfx and allowed Nvidia to take its place; it'd be rather ironic to see Nvidia go down the same path.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
The article title at Tom's Hardware is a little misleading. This is certainly *not* the first graphics card with two chips on it- back in the days of the ATI Rage chips, ATI had a Rage Fury MAXX that used two chips to render alternate frames.
The ringing of the division bell has begun... -PF
Not based on actual data. Tom's Hardware has NOT run any tests yet. Take what you read with a grain of salt.
"Sources told Tom's Hardware Guide..."
"Tom's Hardware Guide's test lab staff will run the 3D1 through its benchmark track, as soon as the card becomes available."
IMHO, this is a PR coup by Gigabyte to get something into Tom's Hardware. But more importantly, why post this on Slashdot now? Let's see some data first. Let's see the results of the tests.
How to Download YouTube Videos
You will need two such cards to play Doom4 in 640x480 at 25 fps :)
You can defy gravity... for a short time
this reminds me of the voodoo2 cards. clearly we have hit another speedbump in video technology development, and if history serves as a good model we'll have to see a real revolution in architecture rather than speed before we can start moving away from brute-force improvement again.
Unfortunately, it's only available in Asia.
Why bother.
... the following Slashot community concerns:
1) Does it run under Linux?
2) Even better, can I install Linux on it?
3) Does it increase Firefox's market share?
4) Does it make Bill Gates look bad?
5) Is it in any way related to Star Wars?
6) Will it make my porn look better?
Prompt reponses will be greatly appreciated.
-Slashdot
And what are the chances of a dual GPU pci-express card coming out after this, with the compatibility to be run DUAL SLI mode with a 2nd Dual GPU card? ~CYD
//Nothing to see here, please move along.
Oh I see that these latest cards are finally taking the modder's advice and adding integrated blue LEDs, for that extra burst of raw rendering power.
I know that people are cutting holes in their cases so people can admire their wiring, but I'd like to pay a bit less and save the R&D costs on the appearance-enhancing design. Plus, if this is a budget card, will appearance matter as much? It's like putting nice rims on a Yugo, I see the point but you're not fooling anyone.
For the Bitboys card I pre-ordered.
Slashdot UIDs less than six digits are old and busted.
Six digits plus is the way to go now, and yes, I am taking the piss out of your comment.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I had one. It had no triangle setup. Nvidia was the first to come out with on-board triangle setup.
Watch your mouth, son....
darn younguns, with their crazy slashdot comments. Back in my day......blah blah blah...gosh durnit.
Why read the article when I can just make up a snap judgement?
Gotta second that, the GA-KNSNXP-939 was nothing but trouble, would refuse to run paired DDR 400 sticks at anything higher than 333, single-channel.
Damn thing also didn't support Cool 'N Quiet properly.
The sad thing is a board that was $50 cheaper ended up doing all of the above without batting an eye, and now I'm happy with my Asus A8V.
I sure hope Gigabyte makes better video cards...I personally wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
If your gaming rig is running linux, then you will already know that the Nvidia 6629 already supports SLI
I strongly advise you to not do business with Gigabytes Technologies.
Dealing with them on a bad motherboard (brand new) proved to take me nearly 3 months. Meanwhile _none_ of my emails or phone calls were _ever_ returned. They only took progressive action when I called them and waited to be spoken with. The support person even hung up on me once when the conversation became heated over the long wait time. They refused to send me a replacement/loaner motherboard and had no other alternatives for me but to sit and wait for the one I mailed to them via RMA to be repaired. Oh, and to even get the RMA I had to fax three different forms back to them and wait for approval, the process to get an RMA took about 4 days. Usually I can get an RMA over the phone, not with Gigabytes you won't.
The board still does not work 100%, it only boots off whatever is plugged into the primary ide controller, even though the bios has many other options.
This is a true story I swear.
And Gigabytes, if you're reading this, I told you I would spread the word, and I am..
Oh, jeez... here we go again...
CmdrTaco will always win this UID pissing match.
HSJ$$*&#^!#+++ATH0
NO CARRIER
Shit: you're still alive? I thought I was old.
"The card is cooled by two on-board fans." Suuuper. Really cool. Statistically, one out of two fans will fail twice as often as a single fan. In other words, the MTBF is halved, while the noise is raised by 3 dB. And the assembly doesn't exactly look like you can easily replace the fans by aftermarket fans. I wonder how this spiffy card performs when one of the GPUs blows up. But maybe the PCB has some predetermined breaking points to punch out a blown GPU. This will also reduce the blue light by 3 dB. Bad for gamers.
open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;