Chicago (IL) - After launching its 3D1 graphics card last December, Gigabyte will announce a second dual-GPU board next week, Tom's Hardware Guide has learned. The card will be based on two GeForce 6600 processors and be priced around $400.

The new graphics card will be called 3D1-XL and build on features that were introduced of the original 3D1. Instead of using GeForce 6600GT processors in a SLI tandem, the XL version will be based on the basic 6600 - a processor that is not officially announced to support SLI so far.

Using the smaller chip allows Nvidia to drop the price of the board significantly. Sources told Toms' Hardware Guide that pricing will be approximately 24 percent below the price of an ATI 850XT which hints to a range between $380 and $400, including Gigabyte's GA-K8N Ultra-SLI motherboard. The manufacturer apparently tested the board internally and achieved higher benchmark results than the X850 XT. The 3DMark 2003 score is said to be slightly above 13,000 points while the ATI board ended up at around 12,750 in a comparable test environment.

Features of the card include 256 MByte GDDR3 memory, TV, D-SUB and DVI-I output, as well as a HDTV decoder.

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Source : Tom's Hardware US