Albatron Unveils GeForce 8-series Graphics Cards For PCI Slots

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

Albatron Technology has unveiled three new Nvidia GeForce 8-series graphics cards that use the practically outdated PCI slot. While the appeal of the PCI8600GT-256X, the PCI8500GT-256X and the PCI8400GS-256 may not be obvious for anyone who has a PCI Express or even AGP slot on their motherboard, there are still quite a few systems (particularly small form factor or HTPC ones) where expansion options are limited, creating an niche market for these cards.

More here at Digitimes.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nvalhalla
    So they'll make an 8 series for PCI but not AGP? I'm really curious how much the PCI bus cripples these things. The benchmarks I've seen so far have the 8500 only slightly slower than the 8600, so I'm sure the PCI bus is really hurting them.
    Reply
  • njalterio
    Outdated PCI slot = girly pink packaging and sticker?

    Is Albatron suggesting that mainly women use older computers? lol
    Reply
  • blackened144
    Are those slower 8 series even fast enough to saturate the PCI bus? Im sure I could look that up myself, but Im just too lazy..
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  • blackwidow_rsa
    A gf 4 is held back
    Reply
  • ROFL!! With the BUS limitations I'd be shocked if this card can do 30 fps at 640 X 480. I'd love to see some benchies just for the fun of it.
    Reply
  • I hate to double post but just for everyone's information the PCI can only 133megs or 266 if it's 64 bit PCI (the 32 bit is much more comman). Not to mention it's sharded with the sound, network, and possibly some others, not USB though, that's serial.
    Reply
  • blackened144
    The problem with "ALOT of PCI slots" is that the bandwidth is shared between them all. So if one card can fully saturate the PCI bus, then you can have 1 card in each slot, but the total throughput for all the cards will remain the same. EZG, most modern motherboards have network, sound, etc running over PCI Express to the south bridge and the PCI bus is connected by itself directly to the south bridge giving full bandwidth to the PCI bus. That wouldnt matter in this case though as its still most likely too slow to matter.
    Reply
  • Frast
    These cards do have a purpose. They can be implemented in systems that need multiple monitor support for software like doctors who work at home with imaging data. Not everyone uses video for games! :)
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  • Frast> Matrox
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  • @Frast

    Yep... there's a sort of mini revolution going on in medical imaging... the bandwidth isn't as important since the FPS doesn't need to be perfectly smooth. They are using them like little supercomputers for parallel processing and simulations.

    Since it's processor bound as opposed to IO bound (Typically not as many textures) it can be effective on the PCI bus. You made me remember this: http://www.rt-image.com/content=8204J05C485EA486405698764488A0441
    Reply