Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Dual GeForce 7800 GT SLI Single Card Performance

Posted by Hemos on

Maximus writes "Asus is this first board partner out of the block with a single board, dual GPU design based on NVIDIA's GeForce 7800 GT graphics chip. The Asus Extreme N7800 GT DUAL essentially takes a dual board SLI setup and packs it all into a single PCI Express based card. HotHardware has a performance preview posted that shows this card can even compete in some cases with an GeForce 7800 GTX SLI setup, due to improved latency characteristics with respect to inter-GPU transactions, that are inherent to a single board design . This board is a bit pricey though for sure so only gaming speed freaks need apply."

10 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Gaming freaks indeed. by Inoshiro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "This board is a bit pricey though for sure so only gaming speed freaks need apply."

    I'm really, really curious about the high-end sales for ATI and nVidia. What kind of people honestly go out and spend almost 1,000$ USD on a card every year? What benefits are there? Despite the fact that these hot, sexy cards come out, I don't see any real push to get software out that uses them. Windows Vista isn't out. Linux still doesn't have X rendering done via OpenGL. Mac OS X is the only OS that uses 3D everywhere.

    Beyond that, what games push the card? WoW? Doom 3? Half-life 2? Add in Far Cry and UT, and that's pretty much it for 3D games. If you spend that same amount of money on any console, you can buy more than double those number of games.

    What niche does this represent? I'm really curious as to the people that buy this kind of stuff.

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
    1. Re:Gaming freaks indeed. by utuk99 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Speed freaks. The computer equivilent of the people who buy sports cars to go 20 miles an hour on the freeway. It doesn't matter that you can't use it for anything, just that you have it. Anyway, these function as previews for what normal gamers will be able to buy for $100-$200 in a year or so after the next couple uber video cards come out. The company gets a few sales to the freaks. We get to see whats next. Everybody wins.

    2. Re:Gaming freaks indeed. by freidog · · Score: 4, Interesting

      the same market that won't buy a console because they think the graphics suck right now. Or that the ~500 lines of resolution on a TV is woefully insufficient to render the 'proper' graphical detail they desire in their games.
      Or of course, the rich yet clueless. (note: those two are not mutually exclusive...)

      Personally my 9600XT is plenty good for my gaming needs, I'd like to be able to run everything at 1280x1024 (native res for my LCD), but I'm not complaing about 1024x768 or even lower, they look just fine to me. Which is why I'm deffinately not the target audiance for SLI.

      Right now it's deffinately uneeded, but a year from now we may seem games wher 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 bring a 7800GT / GTX to 'marginally' playable frame rates (say about 30 FPS), you already saw Splinter Cell: Chaos theory was brought under 40 FPS at 1600x1200 AA and AF enabled. It's certainly not unreasonable to expect far more graphically demanding games over the next few years.

    3. Re:Gaming freaks indeed. by Fweeky · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Soft shadows in games like Chronices of Riddick and FEAR really take it out of my 7800GTX, especially at my TFT's native resolution (1600*1200). SLI's probably pretty much the only way to play at such high settings reasonably. Complex maps/situations in other games can also make it chug, and I'm sure it only gets worse at higher resolutions and AA levels (I normally play with 4X AA, an SLI user will probably be breezing along at 16X).

      Then of course there's the people who use 3D hardware as part of their job; CAD, 3D artists, level designers, game engine developers; one of the first SLI forum threads I read was by a guy involved in medical imaging. SLI is also laying the groundwork for future multicore cards; in much the same way that SMP has been the realm of rich bastards and high end professional users until multicore consumer level CPU's, SLI will probably remain in the realm of the same sort of people for a year or two until we start seeing multicore NV chips.

  2. Re:Cooling? by FidelCatsro · · Score: 4, Funny

    Looking at the price , I believe a Small cottage in Siberia is included , Early orders also receive a free flight .
    Which should amply handle the cooling

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  3. Naa... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The Radeon 9200 in the Mac Mini should be anough for anybody.

  4. Nvidia 2D quality compared to ATI? by blankoboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not looking to create a flamewar between ATI and Nvidia folks here. I am currently putting together my parts list for a new PC and am down to deciding what to do about a VGA card. The two options on the table at the moment, are: - Nvidia 7800 GT (probably going with Albatron as it is the best price) - ATI X1800XL (would most likely be Sapphire) My question is with regard to.... 2D quality...SUPRISE! Back around 3 or so years ago when I was upgrading my PC it was a toss between a Geforce 4400Ti and a Radeon 9700 Pro. I initially bought the Geforce and was horrified by the 2D quality. The store was kind enough to allow me to switch over to the Radeon 9700 Pro which has been serving me well ever since. I know ATI has always had superior 2D quality in the past but is this still the case? Has Nvidia improved in this area? Thanks and I look forward to your objective and knowledgeable opinions!

    1. Re:Nvidia 2D quality compared to ATI? by FidelCatsro · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you want to use Linux , don't buy ATI.
      Nvidia's 2d quality is excellent these days (under Linux and OS X at least , not sure about Windows ) and certainly on par with ATI, it does not really compare to Matrox cards (in my opinion) though.
      Looking at recent benchmarks , if you want the best performance then you should go with Nvidia ,if you want to have good cross platform support Again Nvidia , If you want a fancy 3D mark score then ATI is a good option .

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:Nvidia 2D quality compared to ATI? by Scorchmon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The Geforce 4s were known for using a certain low quality 2D filter setup in their circuitry. There were user mods to improve the 2D quality with minimal effort. I don't know how their current tech is, but I just wanted to let you know that your previous experience was tarnished by lackluster design. Whether or not this practice continues with the current generation, I can't say.

  5. external power supply by rathehun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    has anyone else noticed that this ships with an external power supply? This might then be a decent card for systems with only a 350/400 watt SMPS.