Super-Size Me: Gigabyte's G1.Assassin In An XL-ATX Monster
Super-Size Me: Gigabyte's G1.Assassin In An XL-ATX MonsterAfter demonstrating P67's ability to keep up with X58 in single-, dual-, and triple-card configurations (with the help of Nvidia's NF200 switch), we're pretty much "over" the idea of paying a premium for X58-based platforms. However, there will always be a market for the best of the best, regardless of how much it costs.
To that end, Gigabyte sent us its huge G1.Assassin motherboard to show off the board's unique features, not the least of which is its ability to host four dual-slot Radeon graphics cards in a CrossFire configuration (or three GeForce cards in three-way SLI). Up until now, this editor hadn’t had any experience with the XL-ATX form factor and its extra-large proportions. So, we invite you to see exactly what we saw when putting together a massive dream machine.
There aren't any benchmarks this time around. We planned a review of this beast in a configuration it'd actually be used for: with a quartet of graphics cards in four-way CrossFire. Unfortunately, the Radeon HD 5870s we were using simply wouldn't run stably in that arrangement. So, we swapped in three Radeon HD 6950s, which worked fine. The problem is that we'd still recommend a P67- or Z68-based config for three GPUs. The only way this was going to go down was with four cards. As we dig around for a fourth 6950, we thought we'd present you with this unique build as it stands (imposingly) today.
The thing I like about this board is no Realtek. There is a more sophisticated network adapter and a better sound chip. I don't like Sound Blaster, but I like them more then Realtek.
You guys still haven't proven that the limited bandwidth of a single PCI-e lane doesn't create a bottleneck in a multi-screen environment. The few benchmarks I've ever seen that address this showed a significant difference in FPS (approx. 15%) @ 5760x1200 between x16/x16 and x8/x8 setups.
"Three 3 GB sticks of the stuff results in a a total 12 GB" perhaps a refresh in math will do.
On the other hand, its a nice board, but with Sandy Bridge, Intel can no longer justify those money amounts people spend on x58
+1
For the love of GOD, MAN!!! That's a magazine, NOT A CLIP. A clip is for something like the SKS or the M1 Garand.
Not if you are running multi screen resolutions.
That is a common misconception. You might do some reading on PCIE scaling (it can be found right here at TOM's.) I have proof of this sitting on my desk, and have built them for customers as well. The 4th slot on my Asus C4F is an x4, occupied by a 4th Asus EAH DirectCu 5850,(before you say it, I use a PCIE riser pass-thru) and it adds frames nicely to shader heavy games running at 5760 x 1080.
Have a look at the scaling down to a single lane here:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_5870_PCI-Express_Scaling/25.html
From Tom's
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/pcie-geforce-gtx-480-x16-x8-x4,review-31964-4.html
Far from an "appendix"
http://www.techspot.com/gallery/member-galleries/p4288-metro-203340-5760x1080-very-high.html
http://www.techspot.com/gallery/member-galleries/p4287-metro-203340-5760x1080-very-high.html