Chicago (IL) - If even two graphics cards in your PC are not enough, what about four? SLI typically is limited to two cards within one system, but sources told Tom's Hardware Guide that Gigabyte will soon offer a "Quad" motherboard with slots for up to four Nvidia-based SLI cards.
About half a year ago, we learned that Gigabyte was working on a graphics card that integrates two GeForce 6600GT graphics chips. While we were impressed with the out-of-the-box approach from Gigabyte, there was of course the question, whether two of those cards could be combined for a total of four graphics chips.
Other features of the GA-8N-SLI Quad include four slots for DDR2 memory for a total of 4 GByte memory, four SATA II ports, ten USB 2.0 and three IEE1394a interfaces.
There was no information when the board will be available for purchase, how much the board may cost or what graphics performance could be achieved. However, we feel confident, that there will be enough opportunity for new record scores in benchmarks such as 3DMark05.
ATI will showcase its own multi-GPU solution "Crossfire" at this year's Computex. The company did not release any detailed information about the technology but sources said users will be able to combine Crossfire-enabled cards with any other graphics card. Also, ATI's approach appears not to be limited to just two GPU - or four such as in this case. Crossfire may be able to support up to 32 graphic chips, sources said.
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