SLI Benchies out

priyajeet · Nov 23, 2004

looks like today is SLI day. Websites are coming out with their SLI numbers slowly.

<A HREF="http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041123/index.html" target="_new">THG</A>

<A HREF="http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njk2LDE=" target="_new">[H]</A>

These above two guys do compare it with Ati.

<A HREF="http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD05MTY" target="_new">Hexus</A>

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2284" target="_new">Anandtech</A>

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new">Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.</A> :tongue: Edited by priyajeet on 11/23/04 02:47 PM.

rx7000 · Nov 23, 2004

Are they crazy, "plenty of breathing space between the cards"....

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTEwMTE2NjQxOFVLcTZHRGVYNGNfMV8xMl9sLmpwZw==

Plenty of space my ass, thats like 2 centimeters, and you have to eat a pci slot that leaves you with 2 slots on that board. Id be scared to have two ultras that close together, that will likley go thermal unless you put your pc in a wind tunnel. I had grand visions of SLi, but they just died after seeing those pics.

Okay the GT's look a little more realistic... Id still avoid running two ultras like the plague.

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel Level II V2,Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GTEdited by Rx7000 on 11/23/04 01:59 PM.

sweatlaserxp · Nov 23, 2004

Brent made an interesting comment:

Remember that the DOOM 3 engine will likely power more games than any single engine we have every seen in gaming history, so certainly your SLI decision will likely have an impact for a good while.

<A HREF="http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/landing/landingIndex.jsp?id=dumb01&mature=accept" target="_new">DumbLand</A>

priyajeet · Nov 23, 2004

Well, HL2 source engine will be powering a lot of MODS for sure. We still know that HL is a modders paradise. And I think brent might be right, atleast the past says that he is. Quake2 engine was used a lot - including original HL.
The 3rd competition is due in ~1 years - UE3.0 which will be called a killer, just as Unreal engine was called w.r.t. Quake2/HL originally when it came.

Will have to wait and see.
As for SLI, it wont be getting popular till another 6 months or so. Will love to see what ATi has to offer in the mean time.

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new">Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.</A> :tongue:

TheGreatGrapeApe · Nov 24, 2004

That may be true, but it is unlikely that anywhere near the majority of those games will be similar to D3 in their implementation of that engine. For SLI though it's a question of techniques for load balancing, etc, not just the game itself and D3 and HL2 share that (AFR). And that's the thing to keep in mind for this stuff IMO.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

pauldh · Nov 24, 2004

SLI does interest me for the future. Nice benefit to having a PCI-e 6800GT in thinking about grabbing another one someday when prices come down and my games need it.

I am curious how two 6800GT's or U's for $750-1000 will compare performancewise to the X850XTpe. Since according to the inq: "ATI claims that X850 XT Platinum edition will end up twenty per cent faster than Geforce 6800 Ultra in 3Dmark05, almost forty per cent faster in Far Cry and around 55 per cent faster in Unreal Tournament 2004. Those numbers come from ATI."

ATI's claims there don't mean much without knowing the settings. I suppose it has to be High res with AA/AF so cpu doesn't curb results. But looking at SLI numbers from today, I would guess that the X850XTpe could come pretty close to 2 6800GT's maybe. Not in 3dmark05, but in UT2004 and Farcry. Of course, that is assuming that ATI's numbers add up, :tongue: Which means my guess could be WAY OFF.

MSI K8N Neo2 platinum, A64 3000+, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro

TheGreatGrapeApe · Nov 24, 2004

Yep for the future it's a great litle offering. As long as we don't run into that issue where it's almost as much as the near top card to implement, and gives you little benifit. The thing that's got me is, think of the power requirements, especially for a pair of Ultra! OK, 1 Ultra needs two molex connectors (preferably on seperate wires) for the one 6 pin 'PCIe connector', does SLI need all 4 to be seperate or can you pair up cards and off-settting wire combinations?

I find it interesting that there's no advanatage, but in fact a disadvantage, is in one of the more intense OLD games out there (FS 2004), that would've been a great place to see a boost so you can increase view distance, etc.

The early results look good, but it is definitely the COMPLETE opposite from what I like (quiet, cool, and not power hungry). I will be getting a big tower or CUBE anyways, and dual PSUs and multiple fans are an easy possibility, but who wants the hassle for everyday gaming. For competitive gaming/benchmarking, sure but day to day?

I was also dissapointed to see no OC results.

EDIT Insert: But I did love Borsti/Lars' multi monitor investigation because that's the main thing I want SLI typ stuff to do! KUDOS on that for sure! Too bad no surround gaming yet.
- End Edit-

As for the ATI numbers, I don't like the X850XTPE, I like the X800XL. Now that's an intruiging card, especially with a better cooling colution (looks like the same craptacular HSF as the X700XT which is supposedly noisy and not good enough for serious OC'ing. Oh well it's low mid-range between the R9600P and the R5xx/NV5x for me. I do want to get something for HL@ because my system is really feeling it now.

BTW, I also wanna ask Lars/Borsti, "Who the Heck allowed SIMS2 into a Graphics Card review!?!" :evil:

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

Edited by TheGreatGrapeApe on 11/23/04 06:04 PM.

SVoyager · Nov 24, 2004

About the Multi-Display part. Indeed I too find it very interresting and im lucky I actually read this because I would have made a rather horrible mistake

.

Altho I am still wondering. Does NVIDIA has said any comments about being able to support horizontal span over multiple graphic cards? If they intend to support it on the short/middle term?

With PCI-Express, I was starting to think about a setup that would use 3 video cards (if its possible) and use one vid card per monitor. Why you ask? Well, I have a few simulators that would add so much realism and feel to it that it would be worth using stereo display for it. I could use 2 cards for that job too altho, I often find that when you put your games on 2 display (with 1 vide card), you lose fps so much that its not always worth it. Would 3 different graphic cards fix that (each card to its display) if its at all possible.

Unfortunatly the softs im using only support dual or stereo display via horizontal span (you cant individually put windows and drag them to each monitor, like fs2004). So the fact that horizontal span is not supported over multiple cards puts a stop to my plans.

Would there be any "workaround" to that?

TheGreatGrapeApe · Nov 24, 2004

Not sure if there will be a workaround from a third party. That's the best multi-monitor support, and there's alot to choose from. If it comes from anywhere short term (and done right) expect it from them.

ATI has plans (even if never implemented) and they would fall under Surround-View, however ATI isn't even announcing it let alone supporting it, it was left to others to talk about potential surround-view, and so I don't plan on seeing much soon, but hopefully reviews like Lars' will get people thinking in that direction from both ATI and nV. I can't comment on nV's support as I have heard even less from them.

As for your 3 card solution, I would say the better idea would be for 2 cards, since there are no triple PCIe-16x slot mobos. SLI had enough hype/interest to garner MOBO support, but three cards is unlikely. Having one card do two monitors and the other do one would still be better IMO than 2 PCIe-16x cards + 1 PCI card (or future PCIe-1x if there is). For triple monitor you will almost always have a center monitor (baring 3D overlay), and the single output could go to the dedicated center monitor, the other card could share the left/right duties which are usually less stringent in gaming, and not a problem for general desktop apps (not including CAD/CAM/ANIM/etc). That's what I'm thinking of once the Surround-view style stuff does appear.

This is a topic that I have often said this about, but once again, we will have to 'wait and see'.

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp (or internet account) ! - RED GREEN GA to SK :evil:

erios999 · Nov 24, 2004

If there's one thing I'm looking forard to more than moving from my FX5950 to a 6 series it's the possibility of triple head gaming on an Nvidia setup. So as cheesy as this may sound, how can a person let Nvidia know that (IMO) triple-head on two pci-x is a must-have option? I'll gladly join a triple-head special interest group and lobby Nvidia till they do it. Has anyone seen any responses from Nvidia in that regard? I really can't find anything remotely official so any input would be outstanding!

Blah!

priyajeet · Nov 24, 2004

two PCI-X ??
You mean two PCIe ? Bcos theres a big diff.

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new">Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.</A> :tongue:

erios999 · Nov 24, 2004

Oh. Well, whichever is short for PCI Express.

Blah!

Borsti · Nov 24, 2004

>> BTW, I also wanna ask Lars/Borsti, "Who the Heck allowed SIMS2 into a Graphics Card review!?!"

You won't believe how many EMails I get, asking me for the best graphics upgrade for their wife's computer... for Sims2

Sims is one of the most sold games ever

Lars

Borsti · Nov 24, 2004

>> Altho I am still wondering. Does NVIDIA has said any comments about being able to support horizontal span over multiple graphic cards? If they intend to support it on the short/middle term?

I will check this with ATI and NVIDIA! I really expected the NVIDIA cards to work, but it seems that Spanning is limited to one card/GPU at the moment. I'm not sure if it's possible to implement that. ATI always had trouble to implement real span-modes for gaming since they drive each display as a separate device (for example: X800 and X800 Secondary in the device Manager).

I think the only way to go around this is to use a SLI like techonology... a split screen solution where one card renders the left area and the other the right one... just an idea.

Lars

rx7000 · Nov 24, 2004

Remember to thats Radeon judging its next card aganst nvidias current card, lets wait to see nvidias next new offering and see how they compare.

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel Level II V2,Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT

priyajeet · Nov 24, 2004

yeah, its funny Sims sells a lot. Time magazine (current Holiday Issue) has it in their MOST wanted list at position #1 !!!

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new">Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.</A> :tongue:

rx7000 · Nov 24, 2004

Its the game for bored housewives and ugly chicks across america =D

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel Level II V2,Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT

pauldh · Nov 24, 2004

All I am saying is SLI with the current 6800 series, even once perfected, loses some immediate appeal IF there will soon be single cards out that compete with it for a fraction of the cost(not to mention space and power). If someone is buying a 6800GT PCI-e because that's the top of their budget now, then SLI may become a useful alternative to them a year down the road for sure. But getting amazed by the performance of 2 6800U's now, and finding out that a single $550 card beats it a few months from now, would tend to tick off those who just blew $1000 to be king for a quarter. Wouldn't ya think?

MSI K8N Neo2 platinum, A64 3000+, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro

rx7000 · Nov 24, 2004

Say two cards equal 100% (Optimum), and there was a single card for 75-80%, id still prefer the single card for that range then have 2 cards in a rig. No matter how cool it is etc, its still a pain in the ass and is going to make for moderate case conditions at best.

Asus p4c800 Deluxe,1 Gig Mushkin PC3200 Dual Channel Level II V2,Pentium 4 3.0 512k 800fsb HT, Thermaltake Xaser III, Thermaltake Spark 7+, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum Pro, eVGA GeForce 6800 GT

Nitrom · Nov 24, 2004

IS IT REALLY WORTH IT ???

TOM's HARDWARE review of the SLI configuration pit against the Radeon X 800 and the GE Force 6800 (single card configuration) is very telling.

The SLI excells on 3D Benchmarks but comes behind in all the video games tested....is it really worth it?

At first I thought..."Wow..." and now is more like "meh"...

priyajeet · Nov 24, 2004

"but comes behind in all the video games"

Do u know that more the FPS, better the performance, hope you werent reading those bars wrong :tongue:
And hope you read the final verdicts - CPU dependent, perf only seen in high resos with goodies on.

:tongue: <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/priyajeet/fing.jpg" target="_new">Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes.</A> :tongue:

SLI Benchies out

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