3 Way SLI - MultiCard setups Bah Humbug

I gotta agree with Kyle on how useful this tech is yet I still would like to see [H]ardOCP review it when they get a chance. It is interesting to keep up with the tech. Would I ever buy it? No I enjoy my dual monitors too much. Also just don't see myself spending that much on gaming. Do I know some people that would? Yea which is why I want to read up on it.
 
swatbat said:
I gotta agree with Kyle on how useful this tech is yet I still would like to see [H]ardOCP review it when they get a chance. It is interesting to keep up with the tech. Would I ever buy it? No I enjoy my dual monitors too much. Also just don't see myself spending that much on gaming. Do I know some people that would? Yea which is why I want to read up on it.
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Oh we will cover it, but NVIDIA did not even mention to me till today that 680i will support Tri-SLI and the embargo is in the morning. They did gives fully built computers to other sites to test with. 780i launches on Monday morning and also supports it but I don't have time to evaluate it between now and then. Unless you want to come cancel a full schdule of holiday family cheer with the Mrs. ( I would damn near pay to see that.)

NVIDIA claims it forgot about HardOCP as we got left off a list that was put together at a press event we did not attend (so we could write about 8800 and Crysis). I think that is bullshit. I somewhat think we are being punished for not attending their event, although they have explained that is not the case. I think NVIDIA expected a bad review of Tri-SLI from HardOCP so they left us out of the mix. That is what I think. And it is far from the first time this has happened to us. Parhelia anyone? :eek: Either that or NVIDIA PR has just hit rock bottom when it comes to making sure the enthusiasts know about enthusiast products. :rolleyes:
 
Marcdaddy said:
DAN_D this is Kyles comment that i didnt agree with
One of the reasons NVIDIA stated that it had not shared 680i/3-Way SLI with [H] was because we have previously expressed to them that we think 3-Way SLI would not interest our readers, which we did tell them in closed meetings.
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Umm... with all due respect, not to add too much to this, but last time I checked Kyle's company owns this site... and since I've been reading since around '99-'00...I have grown to respect the opinions of those who run and edit this site on a daily basis. So if they believe it isn't that important to me I'm more than happy for them to filter it. I'm sure there are tons of things that come through the door for them on a daily basis that have to be decided on whether or not to run. It is like running a newspaper, not every article that comes through the editor's desk will make it to the front or inner pages. Same thing here. But I do respect the opinions of everyone who posts, and don't mean any disrespect to anyone.
 
Palliser said:
Umm... with all due respect, not to add too much to this, but last time I checked Kyle's company owns this site... and since I've been reading since around '99-'00...I have grown to respect the opinions of those who run and edit this site on a daily basis. So if they believe it isn't that important to me I'm more than happy for them to filter it. I'm sure there are tons of things that come through the door for them on a daily basis that have to be decided on whether or not to run. It is like running a newspaper, not every article that comes through the editor's desk will make it to the front or inner pages. Same thing here. But I do respect the opinions of everyone who posts, and don't mean any disrespect to anyone.
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My comments and opinions to NVIDIA were not made in order to "filter" anything, they were made because they are what I truly think YOU GUYS will think. Hey, I am wrong sometimes and I know it is best to let [H] readers make up their own minds....had we had timely access to the tech, we would have made sure and shown it off to you.

And as another reader mentioned above, there is the question of business. A full blow evaluation of this nature is very expensive for HardOCP to do. Now that it will be way past launch, the article will simply not net the page turns it would have tomorrow. So at that point we have to look at how we cover and to what extent we use our resources. It would be a lot cheaper to throw together an old-school benchmark only fest, as that is cheap and easy to do, but I am not sure what value that would hold for the guys that wanted to actually know how it would impact their gaming experience.
 
Ok, I've just gotta jump in on this one..... And yeah I was the kid that that said "hey! watch this" just before something memorable happened. ;)

To the guys that just don't understand why Nvidia is doing this.
Have you ever heard of the Corvette?

This is Nvidia's Corvette.

It's sexy, it looks cool, it goes really fast, it has a high price tag, and GM looses money on every one that they've made, but - and here is the catch - it gets people into the showroom and that will boost the sales of that new Blazer II (POS) / Nova that GM has a 130% profit margin on it.

The technical term for what Nvidia is doing here is "Loss Leader" - selling something at a loss to get people into the store - Walmart is the KING of it. And it's a means of advertising - even negative advertising is better than no advertising at all. Look at the number of views this thread has - and it just helps increase the amount of time that the word "nVidia" is in front of us. Even if we are bashing them.

Now, if Nvidia wanted to do something to benefit it's customers then the dual SLi connector would be on ALL of it's cards from the day it was introduced and they would've made it possible for cards of different GPU lines to support each other in SLi mode. Every little bit helps! Maybe a 7900GTX isn't as fast as the new 8800GT, but in it's day the 7900GTX was a $400-$600.00 video card and that kind of investment by a customer deserves a reasonable lifespan. Not 12-18 months!

Next point - and yes video cards are something I get emotional about - I'll take a valium when I'm done posting.:)

Cost of development - Isn't any. The dual/tri SLi bridge is just a larger and less complex version of the internals of a 7900GX2. It's paid for - now Nvidia gets to recoup on it. Finally, the "Corvette" might actually MAKE money!!! Remember, back in the day, beta drivers allowed 2 - 7900GX2's to do QUAD Sli, so triSLi isn't going to be any harder. Business wise - this is win/win!

I also agree with Kyle - this is really about mobo chipset sales. The 680i has such a bad rep that Nvidia HAS to do something to save it. Or get out of the chipset business. And this is it. Now the guy that buys a new motherboard can say that his supports Tri SLi, even if he can't afford to buy the cards required to do it - it's still a positive selling point - just like a 'Vette being able to do 200MPH. I've been over 160MPH and the only thing it did for me was make my bowels work. I certainly wouldn't want to do it on the way to work every day.

re: Nvidia/Intel pissing contest.
Nvidia is going to lose.
You don't walk into a cage, lock the door behind you, and then proceed to piss off the 700 pound gorilla that's inside. This is one of the main reasons I'm waiting for at least 6 months before I buy anything but hard drives or other peripherals that I can migrate to a new build. Currently I'm not going to get locked into one side of the match until I can see a pretty long term upgrade path.

I'm done now (Minnie Pearl Deja Vu!!!)

Time for that valium and a beer or twelve - somebody call 911 if I don't post for a couple of days.

Ahhh! Venting is so good for the soul!
 
The heat generated from my 8800GTS already turns my computer into a space heater. Three 8800GTX cards would noticeably increase the power bill and probably require me to run the floor standing AC all 12 months of the year. Not to mention, for three 8800GTXs I could just about make three car payments. Somehow that just doesn't add up to me.

I think I'll always be a firm supporter of the single card solution. There's no way that 768MB of memory is enough frame buffer for three 8800GTX cards, and the memory bus is paltry even compared to the HD3870. I would rather keep buying a new single card every year and selling the old.
 
What's kinda ironic is that Kyle is correct that this "Tri SLI" is more of pushing their motherboard chipsets then actually selling a Tri SLI setup. I do find it interesting that NVIDIA hasn't allowed Intel to run SLI on their chipsets considering ATI/AMD has. I would think it would be far less cheaper and more profitable if NVIDIA would allow SLI on Intel chipsets.

Considering Phenom's launch is shaky and their "Spider" platform isn't what a lot of enthusiasts are shifting too, NVIDIA could put a nail in the coffin if they did a cross-licenses agreement for X38 or even the X48 chipset to allow SLI. This Tri SLI and Quad Crossfire is just, "My dad can beat up your dad" routine. It gets old really fast.

Plus is this like the first time since the 3Dfx days that NVIDIA nor ATI hasn't released a next gen hardware release in Nov/Dec? Usually each year is when a new generation of GPU's gets launched and not a refresh/refab?
 
Fuzzy Logik said:
SLI is for retards with big pockets... reminds me of the saying, "A fool and his money are soon parted".

I can see the Nvidia marketing team:

"Hey let's make graphics cards cost the cost of a brand new pc alone."
"Great idea!"

"Oh, now what... we need to scam more money out of people because that's the only way to afford luxuries in this day and age as a business"

"I GOT IT! LETS MAKE IT PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE TO USE TWO!!!"
*motherboard manufacturers are like "sure, fug it, why not"

"OMG WHAT MARKETING GENIUS!"

Then I read Hardocp....

NOW THREE WAY SLI?!?!!?

BWUAAHAHAH!!! The morons will buy it too!

I remember the QUAD SLI stuff from back in the day and I just shook my head.

SLI is the most worthless waste of money I could imagine when purchasing a new PC component for a system.

I'll bet you half of the SLI users out there if not more don't even have a 10k rpm drive or are running at 1 GB of memory versus 2 or 4.

SLI should stand for Stupid Loser Interface.

IF you need SLI to own, you probably suck ass anyways, spending another 500 dollars isn't going to pixel your way into the lead on FPS games.
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Dude, $500 is a good steak dinner. Chill out. $500 is not a lot of money from a bigger perspective. Do you have any idea how much women spend on shoes? Have you ever had to buy a good business suit? Something tells me you are either really young and don't have a job, or a twenty-something living in your parent's basement.

I do in fact have a 10,000rpm hard drive. And a few TB of storage. And a 30in monitor. And 4GB of memory. I had quad SLI. And the x800xt-PE. And 6800 Ultra SLI.

I don't particularly care about marketing or pricing when I buy something. I buy it if I want it, and then I enjoy the hell out of it. If I'm the dumb one and you're the smart one, why are you the poor one?

I went to your profile to check your age. You don't have it listed, but you list your location as "Oreganja". Ahhh, explains a lot.

Go ahead, splurge on that Geforce 5200. It'll do the soul some good.
 
Wasnt there meant to be some news today about new products arising from a meeting between Kyle and ATI? We need some good news on the gpu front to help keep my sanity whilst waiting for the new high ends so I can finally upgrade my aging P4 rig
 
Moofasa~ said:
There is at least one positive resulting from these solutions (Triple SLI and CrossfireX) that I don't think people can deny. In the (near) future I think video cards will go the way of CPU's and go multi-core (see R700). The information gained now by Nvidia/AMD with these platforms could be extremely helpful on later designs. I'm glad Nivdia and AMD are at least experimenting in this field. Although I doubt many will buy into Triple SLI and CrossfireX now, perhaps in the future they will be being into it one way or another.
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Y0, guess what? The 8800GTX is 128-core. Dual-core would be a *huge* step backwards in GPU design. GPUs have been "multi-cored" for years now - Intel/AMD are the ones playing catch-up in the multi-cored world :p

I personally don't see SLI/CF being worth my money, especially since so far 1 next-gen card has owned 2-previous gen cards in SLI/CF. I just want the next-gen cards to be out already... :/
 
kllrnohj said:
Y0, guess what? The 8800GTX is 128-core. Dual-core would be a *huge* step backwards in GPU design. GPUs have been "multi-cored" for years now - Intel/AMD are the ones playing catch-up in the multi-cored world :p

I personally don't see SLI/CF being worth my money, especially since so far 1 next-gen card has owned 2-previous gen cards in SLI/CF. I just want the next-gen cards to be out already... :/
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He obviously means dual gpu dies, thus giving you 256 cores
 
I dunno about you guys, but i think they should fix the fact that you can't run mulitiple moniters on an SLI system. That imo, should be addressed first rather than adding another slot for a video card which will cause power\heat\space ect. issues. I myslef have been very disappointed with the fact that i have 4 DVI ports on my rig and 3 are unused. :( Thats just what i think. Nvidia is just trying to squeeze more money out of the consumers without updating their cards and stablizing their drivers with current OS's and what not.
 
This (among other things) is an excuse for nVidia to continue to justify sales of the GTX and Ultra since the release of the new G92-based GTS, because the GTX/Ultra are the only cards with the additional SLI connectors.

I just went from a 7900GTX SLI setup to a single 8800GT. I blew $400 on watercooling the 7900GTXs to get rid of the dual-slot coolers so I could improve chipset cooling and actually use the PCI slots (of which there are too few, because manufacturers insist on putting those useless fucking 1X PCI-E slots on there) on my mobo. I hate dual-slot coolers. 3-way SLI with those damn huge heatsinks is going to ensure that no other expansion card can be used in the system.

I may go SLI with the 8800GT in the future (still waiting for some current SLI coverage from [H]), but if I can't play any game I want with 1 or 2 single-slot-cooler cards, then the video chip makers are failing. I don't need every option maxed out on every new game, but I expect to use the current graphics features on a game without subjugating my entire system to video cards.
 
Dear NVIDIA,

With great pains I write this e-mail, and yet, thank you for your past excellence. These days research has become frustrating for me as I try to put together a system based on SLI and am unable to find a suitable motherboard. If NVIDIA wants to make SLI unprofitable for leading edge manufacturers like ASUS and Intel, shouldn't then the corporation be ahead of new technology. It becomes a lesson in audacious arrogance projected toward NVIDIA while trying to find a motherboard suited for its very own 8800 GT. Unfortunately, AMD/ATI does not have enough wanted advancements, yet, for me to buy from them, so I must wait for NVIDIA to figure out how to make a motherboard for its own card. For me, this attitude that NVIDIA is responsible for has created resentment toward NVIDIA, itself, and I should not be the only consumer that feels this way.

Dear NVIDIA, please become more customer friendly or else lose profits. The only thing that the market had to provide me with to move away from NVIDIA was an AMD-Spider or similar platform with DDR3 and four lanes running PCIe 2.0, with a few PCI. And though I would not have been totally satisfied with my purchase, I would have comforted my discontentment with NVIDIA for tying up SLI, which now I currently am even more frustrated over because of having to wait, unnecessarily. Do not believe that within the human psyche these stimuli go unnoticed when making future purchases. AMD need only prove itself to be close to NVIDIA's performance in order to gather the loyalty of a cheated community of thoughtful enthusiasts.

Maybe there is a CEO that does not care about these matters because he or she has amassed a personal fortune. However and regretfully so, another company has allowed for the wrong move to be made, and people do not forget. I hope that in the future there will be no more hyper-capitalism from NVIDIA.


Sincerely,
Joseph
 
MrMike said:
The heat generated from my 8800GTS already turns my computer into a space heater. Three 8800GTX cards would noticeably increase the power bill and probably require me to run the floor standing AC all 12 months of the year. Not to mention, for three 8800GTXs I could just about make three car payments. Somehow that just doesn't add up to me.
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This is a gross exaggeration. I am not sure why it is people tend to overestimate what impact their computer will have on their electric bills. I have never noticed an increase in my bills running my computer equipment. I am pretty wasteful when it comes to electricity and cooling my house. I have never had electric bills that equal half my car payments.

3DChipset said:
What's kinda ironic is that Kyle is correct that this "Tri SLI" is more of pushing their motherboard chipsets then actually selling a Tri SLI setup. I do find it interesting that NVIDIA hasn't allowed Intel to run SLI on their chipsets considering ATI/AMD has. I would think it would be far less cheaper and more profitable if NVIDIA would allow SLI on Intel chipsets.
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Nope. NVIDIA wants a piece of the chipset market. I think there is probably higher margins in that than in video cards. Especially when we are talking about higher end chipsets. I think NVIDIA would rather sell chipsets than second or third video cards but about the only way anyone will buy their high end chips is if they are required for SLI.

MrMike said:
Considering Phenom's launch is shaky and their "Spider" platform isn't what a lot of enthusiasts are shifting too, NVIDIA could put a nail in the coffin if they did a cross-licenses agreement for X38 or even the X48 chipset to allow SLI. This Tri SLI and Quad Crossfire is just, "My dad can beat up your dad" routine. It gets old really fast.
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Again if NVIDIA ever licenses SLI for Intel chipsets or just removes the damn block in their software than NVIDIA's chipset business on the Intel side will DIE. There is no doubt in my mind that will be the case. I think they probably haven't touched the Intel workstation/server market in terms of chipsets because they know that breaking into that market will be next to impossible for them at present.

SomeoneElse said:
I dunno about you guys, but i think they should fix the fact that you can't run mulitiple moniters on an SLI system. That imo, should be addressed first rather than adding another slot for a video card which will cause power\heat\space ect. issues. I myslef have been very disappointed with the fact that i have 4 DVI ports on my rig and 3 are unused.
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I agree. People (myself included) have bitched about this limitation for years.
 
Again if NVIDIA ever licenses SLI for Intel chipsets or just removes the damn block in their software than NVIDIA's chipset business on the Intel side will DIE. There is no doubt in my mind that will be the case.
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Agreed. IMO it's so obvious, it's surprising it even needs spelled out for those claiming Nvidia should allow Intel access to SLI.
 
I have been downplaying the concept of multiple cards (be it CF or SLI) as long as I have remembered. It has not ever provided the bang for the buck I was looking for. The crying aside, was this already posted here ?

TRI SLI in action
 
Kowan said:
Agreed. IMO it's so obvious, it's surprising it even needs spelled out for those claiming Nvidia should allow Intel access to SLI.
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I would think the profits from selling more 8800GTX / Ultras would outweigh the profits gained from there shit motherboards. Think about the R&D invested in motherboards and everything else.

Motherboard = 300 (minus R&D and manufacturing costs)
8800GTX = 500

I'm almost 100% positive that if they gave up the motherboard aspect that they would see something like a 15% increase in SLI users possibly ALOT more as I'm just throwing a number into the air.

Shitty explanation but you guys know where I'm coming from right? :D
 
next-Jin said:
I would think the profits from selling more 8800GTX / Ultras would outweigh the profits gained from there shit motherboards. Think about the R&D invested in motherboards and everything else.

Motherboard = 300 (minus R&D and manufacturing costs)
8800GTX = 500

I'm almost 100% positive that if they gave up the motherboard aspect that they would see something like a 15% increase in SLI users possibly ALOT more as I'm just throwing a number into the air.

Shitty explanation but you guys know where I'm coming from right? :D
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+ another thousand for 2 more gtxs..and a power supply..

So $2000 for tri-sli anyone?
 
Only an idiot would leave hardocp out of the preview/review process for launching this. The readers of this site ARE THEIR MARKET.

And the whole "Don't let them review it- their review might be bad" thing cracks me up- its nto like everyone will buy this tomorrow, and its either bad reviews now, or bad reviews late if they are going to come.
 
Kowan said:
Agreed. IMO it's so obvious, it's surprising it even needs spelled out for those claiming Nvidia should allow Intel access to SLI.
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How profitable is their chipset business compared to their gpu business?
 
If Crysis is the killer app. for this type of setup, and it hasn't even been optimized for standard SLI, what kinda PR spin could possibly make tri-SLI appealing even for a wealthy enthusiast? :eek: The timing is just awful, and without any other credible reason to bust this out 'sides e-peen swashbuckling with ATI, it could very well backfire imo. I guess it already has to a certain extent.

If they fixed/improved what's already in place in order to make SLI more mainstream they'd be far better off from a business standpoint imho. Making the switch from SLI to multi-displays less of a hassle would be a start.

Working with devs even more so that games can take better advantage of SLI would pay huge dividends. I don't think it's inconceivable for SLI to fit into an average user's upgrade path in the future if games made better use of it overall, it just hasn't been the case thus far... But GPU development won't keep moving at the blinding pace it has forever, whether it's due to lack of competition or purely technical reasons.
 
Now watch how many people build systems with 2GB of memory, equip it with 3 x 8800GTX 768MB cards, and then pair it with a 32-bit OS -- thereby having less than the full 2GB of RAM addressable.

......and yes, I agree that if I could run dual monitor SLI, I'd be much more willing to run 2 x 8800GT or the new 8800GTS cards.
 
Multi gpu is the future i guess, what was happening with smp at the first place, wasnt exactly popular b4 we got dual core's but it helped alot.

Ati might do a dualcore gpu well i dont know.

Its clearly that ati is going for multi gpu instead of 1 powerfull one, and the powerconsumtion temp and performance is just right, beating a gtx with 2x 3850 which use less power than a ultra and a single 2900 xt.

Ati have the possibility to do multi gpu cause of intel supports multi gpu and amd does
 
Tri-SLI? WTF?

Kyle is right on the money. It's e-penis material and nothing more (same goes for QuadXfire)

Cheers to Nvidia for wasting our time. :rolleyes:
 
As far as I'm concerned,SLI is simply a gimmick devised to sell more cards.Two or three cards,what's the difference when the boards that support it have had issues from the beginning,and continue to this day.More isn't always better,I'll take quality over quanity any day.
 
I'm waiting for intel skulltrail... intel chipset.. with SLi..... damn the price for memory on those boards are going to rape my butt.
 
Chris_B said:
Its amazing that at a time where crysis is ass raping most peoples systems at a high res theres really no single card capable of playing it properly, i just wonder would the true next gen cards from ati and nvidia be around now if ati hadn't dicked around with the 2900 for so long.
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Wow, I could only make it to page 5 with some of the raving some people have posted about tri SLi. It seems like on today of all days, (well today and yesterday), people keep throwing the notion around that somehow nvidia is "stalling" because ATi hasn't been able to compete with nvidia at the same level as they have been for years. Now I come to remember a period in 2003 Where ATi had nvidia in the same position, Where ATi had a superior product already out, where it was nvidia's turn to answer, and they came out with the Geforce FX, A product many would say was a day late and a dollar short (much like the 2900xt). It also happened to run very hot and loud (again... 2900xt, not as loud tho). My point is, nvidia has had its down days as well, and they spent some more on R&D and came out of it okay.

People Forget one thing, they always see new products being released, First the high end super card, then the low range, then the real dollar for donut cards. To top that off you have new motherboards being released, and every once in a while Intel or AMD decide to release a new processor. The problem is, people don't seem to realize the time and money into making these product launches both successful and profitable. It takes time to develop the main chips, time to work out the bugs you may encounter, time to respin again into a finished product, keeping in mind both ATi and nvidia don't have their own fabs, so they have to develop the designs, then have the chip made by a 3rd party. Not to mention emerying else it takes to get these cards ready for sale on day one (which we should thank nvidia for stepping up on that one).

So when I see someone say "i just wonder would the true next gen cards from ati and nvidia be around now if ati hadn't dicked around with the 2900 for so long." it begs the question, do you really know what the fuck your talking about? Nvidia spent about 4 years designing G80, and im sure what nvidia has planned next, after D9P shrink, and after D9E (my guess is its not the next "big" leap in GPU tech.) took just as much if not more planing and designing.

People always find flaw in one company or another, Because nvidia is ahead, or because ATi is behind, some people believe somehow that both of them are at fault, and both of them are slowing down development in both software and hardware. I personally believe that both nvidia and ATi are pushing "moores law" harder and faster than intel can.

Now about SLi and crossfire. Back in the 3DFX era, they invented SLi (although different meaning back then), it essentially did the same thing, allowed you to hook up a 2nd video card to increase your graphics output. And the idea was wildly successful and pushed the limit back then, intill their demise. The whole AGP/PCI design wasn't conducive to video card scaling but 3dfx managed to pull it off.

Fast forward to late 2004, PCI express comes out, suddenly communication between different cards over a high bandwidth link was possible. Nvidia comes out with nforce 4, which was a HIGHLY successful motherboard chipset, and SLi, a multi GPU technology. Believe it or not. It was niche technology, but it got people to buy more than one video card ,(good news for nvidia), and ATi soon follows with crossfire, although to much less fan fare. SLi allowed you to push settings even higher than one card could, the same applies to today.

Now you have Trip-SLi, and quad crossfire (crossfire X), Proof that the concept isn't dead, its alive and expanded. Long ago they had the idea to combine multiple cpu processors on one motherboard to expand the overall processing capability, why is all of a sudden this idea so bad and deionized for the graphics side? Yes chaining more than one cpu together now adays is a bit more efficient than can be said about these multi GPU solutions. But you have to remember GPUs are HIGHLY Dependant on the drivers and software that run them, the same can be said by making more than one of them run in parallel, and software design follows hardware design.

SLi was the idea of nvidia, built on the idea of what 3dfx did in the past, ATi played catchup, now its the same thing again. Two companies waving their dicks, while at the same time providing the rich among us an even more bleeding edge technology, I really don't think nvidia is going to be betting the farm on this technology. This is really a "tech demo" if you will, and both companies are showing you what is physically possible. But this isn't going to be a big revenue stream for both companies, but it does look nice on a box, or in a pc magazine, and it creates good PR, which is what matters here.

BTW its been what, 13 months since 8800GTX came out, when has 13 months been considered a very long time between new card series? The rumors are flying saying that nvidia has something on tap (possibly, but not for sure a new series), but something faster, so 15 months, I want someone to tell me how this is a long time, and how this is hurting the gaming community?
 
Here's a thought, why not do a respin on the GTX? Take the GTX and put it on the 55nm die, that would lower the power draw and heat output of the chip allowing for higher clocks. If you really wanted to get fancy why not put on 1 gig GDDR 4 or 5 with a 512bit bus. Then use this 8850GTX or what ever they would call it to advertise Tri-SLI? Being on a smaller scale would help with the power and heat concerns. They could use the wider memory bus and larger amount of ram to bolster their claim of the the new cards effectiveness. I'm no engineer so this may or may not be feesible. Tri-SLI isnt all the fessible either with the power draw and heat out put of 3 GTX's or Ultras. You would need a Coolermaster Stacker with a EATX motherboard just to get enough room btwn the cards to get the enough air flow so they didnt melt themselves or invest in some serious water cooling that would cost nearly as much as the cards themselves. Of course as the psoter above me said they could just IMPROVE THE DAMN DRIVERS FIRST!
 
Tr-?, it really looks like a special airflow design will be needed to keep thing relatively decent without sounding like a 747 at takeoff, as well as the huge PS drain.

Personally, I am waiting till the new year breaks to see when the (Dual GPU?) ATI R6xxx gets a little more press.
If my brain cells are regurgitating that bit of info then it should look like a good first 1/2 until Nvidia decides to release their 10.1 board(June?)

Depending on price, I'll pop for either that or the 3870 I have on Amazon for $210 after instant rebates
 
Does 2-card SLI actually work as advertised and as reliably as one card in all cases yet?

Until someone convinces me of that, 3-card sli ain't even a thang.
 
15+ million triangles in Unreal 3 --- "we" NEED 3 way SLI ..... we beat the hell out of SLI now,so the more the merrier!!! Better = Skull Trail MB's with three way SLI???

Kyle, anything on the Intel Skull Trail MB's?

Patrick
www.archengine.org
 
The day may come when you find three vid cards on sale way cheep and might like to use them in place of two higher priced cards. I don't think it is ever a good ideal to "Just say No" to hi-end tech until all the facts are in.
So there is my 2 cents worth.
 
I don't know what to think, I just barely tried sli and I was sort of annoyed by the hassle, now tri sli? and only with gtx / ultra cards?
i guess it's just for bragging rights, like you guys said about ATI having Quad CrossFire
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
I don't know what to think, I just barely tried sli and I was sort of annoyed by the hassle, now tri sli? and only with gtx / ultra cards?
i guess it's just for bragging rights, like you guys said about ATI having Quad CrossFire
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Same thing with NVIDIA's Quad-SLI, which is over a year old now. It's an extremely niche market, which only a few care about.
 
I am on my second SLI based system (7800 GTs which I sold to 2 friends as an upgrade for each) and now my shiny new 8800 GTs.

While I love SLI, I cant see a 3 way or 4 way SLI or Crossfire system being feasable at all. Too expensive, too hot, too much power needed, extremely large case footprints too.
 
Evil_SPanKY said:
I am on my second SLI based system (7800 GTs which I sold to 2 friends as an upgrade for each) and now my shiny new 8800 GTs.

While I love SLI, I cant see a 3 way or 4 way SLI or Crossfire system being feasable at all. Too expensive, too hot, too much power needed, extremely large case footprints too.
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And those are not even their biggest problems. Their biggest problem is actually driver support.
 
NeXTCUBE said:
The day may come when you find three vid cards on sale way cheep and might like to use them in place of two higher priced cards. I don't think it is ever a good ideal to "Just say No" to hi-end tech until all the facts are in.
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And you will just happen to pick up an overly expensive motherboard, a ridiculous and expensive 900 watt power supply A case with 5 fans to cool the lot, just in case you might someday want triple SLI? Oh and have practically no room in your system for any other cards with 3 double width graphics slots. And a large increase of noise, heat and power bills. Sometimes it does make sense to just say no.

This stuff is ridiculous. We are not talking about anything that is even remotely necessary, it is just for bragging rights. Though who you brag to about being the biggest e-weenie of all time is a bit beyond me. I think any adult owning something like this would want to hide it from most people.

I work in a software dev shop, the land geeky gamers, two guys sitting next to me are avid gamers and we played multiplayer over the corp networks and regularly talk games and hardware, but if one of my co-workers said they had triple-SLI, it would translate in my mind as "Triple SLI" == "I still sleep in Star Wars PJ's". Triple SLI is the "I am king of pathetic losers" badge IMO.
 
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