SLI Primer 275
GFXguy writes "If you are looking to catch up on some hardware learning you may want to check out "SL Why?". It is a short article that goes over the basics of SLI graphics. The article goes over some strengths and weaknesses of this technology as well. It looks like one video card is not going to cut it any more, at least for the hardcore gamers out there. "
Re:Voodoo (Score:2, Interesting)
Some strange claims... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm running a $160 motherboard with two 6800GTs that I picked up for a good price at my local shop. They did not have a single PCIe 6600 or 6800 board there that wasn't SLI compatible.
Why not dual core? (Score:1, Interesting)
Personally, I wouldn't buy a SLI cardset. Top of the line video cards are already $500. What kind of person really needs that much fps or resolution? It gets beyond a point of recognition, where the difference is so small that it isn't noticed. The only real reason people would spend that much money is for bragging rights, which is an absurd principle to spend money on.
Oh Yeah! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:AFR / SFR error (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm one of those people who believe that this rush for graphical perfect will be dying slowly over the next decade. Eventually, we'll reach a point where graphics are as good as they're going to get on a monitor. VR, here we come, right? Well...in any case, for now I'm going to have to suffer through this focus on graphics and wonder when gamers are going to start focusing more on the plot and gameplay as opposed to pretty new shiny things on screen and the impressive rendering of blood effects.
Why SLI? (Score:2, Interesting)
- Cary
--Fairfax Underground [fairfaxunderground.com]: Where Fairfax County comes out to play
Re:Single video card not going to cut it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Asinine (Score:4, Interesting)
What a stupid comment.
Currently, the best video performance out there is a pair of 6800 Ultras in SLI, it's true, but that's also well over $1000 in video hardware alone.
Meanwhile, single-card solutions like the X850XT PE are capable of chewing through anything you can throw at them with admirable performance.
SLI is a lot like the tablet PC: a solution in search of a problem. Sure, it's a cool idea, but in practice, not terribly useful and very much overpriced.
Compare, for instance, a pair of 6600GTs running SLI:
$175 for each card; $350 total. Another $50 for the premium on a SLI mainboard.
Now you've got additional heat, additional power draw, two seperate cards, and the hassle of dealing with SLI drivers when, for $100 less, you could purchase a single X800XL and enjoy superior performance [tomshardware.com].
SLI may become worthwhile in the future, but for now, it's the exclusive domain of chumps and the e-penis crowd.
Re:Single video card not going to cut it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Amazing how everything old is new again. Everything under the sun.
Re:Voodoo (Score:3, Interesting)
The old 3dfx 'SLI' thing involved not one but two Voodoo 2 cards, in addition to the conventional 2D graphics card - unless you happened to hijack a second, matching 3D card, you won't have had SLI...
Re:Single video card not going to cut it? (Score:4, Interesting)
But Intel's very latest onboard graphics chipset is fairly good, and the latest onboard graphics from nVidia's motherboard chipsets are getting fairly good, too. Now, if we can just get VIA to upgrade their onboard graphics....
Re:Single video card not going to cut it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Maybe something I'll look into (Score:3, Interesting)
The same thing might happen with graphics cards. If you can use two mediocre cards instead of one big beefy card, it's possible you might be able to save yourself some money.
Re:PC vs Console - TCO (Score:5, Interesting)
I suppose this may be true if you are a fan of Grand Turismo. However, aside from that, consoles just don't cut the muster. MMORPG and FPS games don't play very well on consoles when compared to their PC counterpart. Even the "greatest" console FPS, Halo, is just mediocre on the PC.
As far as console first development goes...
Here's a list of PC games that are still not released for the consoles: Doom 3, Half-Life 2, World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, Far Cry, Painkiller.
Audiophile insanity vs. gamer insanity (Score:5, Interesting)
You're kidding, right? Audiophiles are off the deep end. I don't think you have ever seen an *actual* audiophile-- you're mixing them up with people who like stereos. Audiophiles do things like buy $3000 cables. Or put all their components on 200lb. granite blocks or $600-per-component magnetic levitation dampers to ease vibration. Power conditioners. Huge stacks of tube amps. Subwoofers that require special basement rooms to be built to act as the box.
In the worst cases, the quest for perfect audio goes so far as to become pointless. There's an article I wish I could find for you about one particularly off-the-deep-end audiophile who paid so much for the system he used to listen to classical recordings that had he kept the money, he would have had enough to bring the *actual orchestra* to his house to play for him regularly, for years. Say what you want about huge stereos, but if it gets to the point where you can afford to bring the source home with you, you don't need reproduction.
The worst gamers can't hope to touch this. The most expensive rig on the market with a massive hang-on-the-wall plasma or whatever as your huge monitor is still just a drop in the bucket compared to people who will spend $3000 on three feet of speaker cable. And unlike some of the audiophile quackery, at least a fast machine has measurable performance gains. Try convincing a real engineer that your $1000 power cable makes a detectable difference in sound quality.
For your reference, as a guide to the levels this insanity can reach:
$23,000 for a pair of 8-foot speaker cables [consumerreview.com]
$75,000 per speaker [wisdomaudio.com]
$40 silver-plated electrical outlet [audiophilia.com] (because... ummm... you can't just use any old outlet with the next item:)
$1000 5-foot AC power cable [audiophilia.com]
There's much worse. Try pricing out monoblock tube amps. Keep in mind they're not just going to buy one per channel (the minimum), but probably one per *driver* (as in, three per speaker if you have a woofer, mid, and tweeter).
Superior... (Score:2, Interesting)
And Inferior Performance [tomshardware.com].
Same article, two pages earlier.
Oh yeah, and the cheapest you can find an X800 XL is $350, not $200/300.
Re:Superior... (Score:3, Interesting)
Point being, the 6600 GT is the most credible instance of an SLI implimentation. The cost/performance of a pair of 6800 GTs or 6800 Ultras compared to a single X850XT PE is just laughably bad.
Re:Single video card not going to cut it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Even for a single 6800 ultra, the figures you see are *slightly* lower than ATI X800 in most benchmarks because the ATI deals *slightly* better with being CPU-limited. Those results have usually got nothing to do with maximum GPU performance because they often test at stupidly low res's like 640x400 or 800x600.
Instead, look at the figures at the highest resolutions, where Nvidia still creams ATI.
Actually the main reason I'm going to buy Nvidia (again) is that ATI still don't take Linux drivers seriously.
Re:Asinine (Score:3, Interesting)
Your 19" LCD is native to 1280x1024, which is a fairly low resolution. By adding a second 6800 GT, even with AA and AF cranked up, you can't hope to get anything near double the performance. If you get even an extra 15% to your framerate, I'd be amazed.
And again, dual core CPUs won't be coming anywhere near doubling your performance. They're essentially SMP on a single chip. They'll help with compiling, yes, but gaming? It amounts to a lot of nothing.
And for the record, the "slowest" 939 A64 is the 3000+, which you can actually pick up in Winchester core, too. Apparently, you didn't do much research into building this rig of yours.
Interface (Score:3, Interesting)
Show me a mouse that ships with a keyboard and mouse so console developers can *rely* on them being present, and I might care about console games. Hell, just the mouse would do, though mouse-and-controller would be more than a tad clumsy
As it is, I find most games I care about (RTS, strategy games, and games like Deus Ex and System Shock II) either don't exist for consoles, or are pathetic hollow shells of their former selves. Deus Ex II: Invisible War, anybody?
The upgrade cycle and low starting price would be attractive, but I don't find it too bad with my desktop. Then again, I don't buy top end gear, so I'm usually in the lower middle of the requirements and performance bracket. This is helped by the fact that I often play older games.
When it comes to developers building for consoles first, I'm painfully aware of that. I often fire up a game demo for something really interesting, and it has a bloody console interface or is written with the assumption that the user will be confined by console input devices. Especially in FPS games, this is *incredibly* annoying.
Call me a bigot, but if all I can get is console games, I'll just stop buying games. There are a lot of old, good games out there - and I'm gaming less these days anyway. I play games for fun, and I don't find console UIs fun.
Re:Single video card not going to cut it? (Score:2, Interesting)
200-pound granite blocks are great! (Score:4, Interesting)
I had that room the following year and used the slate as a plant stand :-)