Hardware Analysis Community Forums http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/ 2009-01-07T22:49:37-05:00 http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/ http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/halogo.gif text/html 2004-11-06T03:48:00-05:00 Jose Garcia http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/?o=20#201256 Well, <br /> <br /> It's not imposible to go with a multi-processor and multi-video card setup. There are such things as 8 way servers. In my opinion, it would be awesome to have the capability of building a computer to minicomputer standards. Unfortunately, most of us would probrably have to get a second job to justify the expense. <br /> <br /> Imagine a personal computer with eight processors, four video cards, a teribite of memory with an insane drive array. Should I go on? No, I'm sure your imagination is already filling in the blanks left for hardware. This would be server or better yet, mini computer territory. <br /> <br /> It's too bad Silicon Graphics isn't a player in the consumer end of the computer gaming industry. Could you imagine how sic their gaming computers would be? They already provide the hardware and software for a large chunk of the design industries.<br /> <br /> So for now, we have dual6800's, 64bit multicore chips and gigs of memory, not to mention a nice amount of drive space and decent OS's. Not bad. We've come along way since the 486 days.<br /> <br /> But I long for the days where VR headsets and deep imersion gaming environments are the norm. The Matrix may not take place in my lifetime, but there's got to be something around the corner that is within our grasp for the gamers that can compete with that Matrix idea.<br /> <br /> In closing, When bullet trajectory mapping and windfactors are calculated in games in realtime (and real-world accurate) for games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 and other great FPS, we will know that computing power has finally reached a peak high enough to make us happy(well, at least me, anyway.) text/html 2004-11-05T21:57:39-05:00 deian shaw http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/?o=20#201133 why not have dual 64bit cpus as well as the dual cards? i see these 'millionnaire game machines' good for cold weather climates :-D... it's as simple as winning the lottery, moving to siberia, build that mad dual things pc, and shove unreal 3 on it! and there we go winter hibernation in 'siber'nation.<br /> <br /> Also... I bet it would kill any future Playstations or Xboxez etc for a few years!? text/html 2004-06-30T06:30:43-05:00 Sailendran Iswara Jothi http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/?o=20#148108 Sounds like an excellent idea except that it would occupy all the slots. Another thing is that the architecture of the card does not allow it.<br /> <br /> Regards,<br /> Sailendran Iswara Jothi text/html 2004-06-30T06:15:08-05:00 Brian Stewart http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#148099 what about 3 or 4 cards?<br /> insane? yes. cool? yes. text/html 2004-06-30T06:06:17-05:00 Michael C http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#148091 Thats right! The Unreal 3 engine will kill everything I hear. Maybe this will be good for something text/html 2004-06-30T05:57:20-05:00 ad asdf http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#148084 correction in the article:<br /> dual 6800 can have a maximum of 100% increase in performance<br /> <br /> UNREAL 3:<br /> Tim Sweeney, founder and president, EPIC Games <br /> &quot;Unreal Engine 3 has an insatiable appetite for fill rate and polygon throughput, running shader programs of 50-100 instructions per pixel to achieve advanced per-pixel lighting and material shading. nVidia's SLI technology running on PCI Express motherboards provides an incredible performance increase of up to 2x, bringing next-generation gaming up to even higher resolutions and frame rates&quot;<br /> <br /> munis b. <br /> <a class="ext" href="/action/r/http://www.back2games.com" target="_blank">http://www.back2games.com</a> text/html 2004-06-30T03:52:31-05:00 Michael C http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#148034 Theres already a bottleneck for one 6800u and x800xt, whats this going to be like? text/html 2004-06-30T03:12:06-05:00 Sailendran Iswara Jothi http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#148030 Performance excellent, Technology Excellent, Cost Highly not affordable. ANybody interested to change their PC to buy this card why not? Its just $3000 bucks more<img src="http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/smilies/smile1.gif" width="14" height="14" border="0" alt=":)" title=":)">? Just throw that P4 or ATHLONS you have at home. Hehehehe@!!!!!<br /> <br /> Regards,<br /> Sailendran Iswara Jothi<br /> <br /> text/html 2004-06-29T14:11:46-05:00 phil lisitza http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147795 This sounds exactly like what <a target="_blank" href="/action/r/http://www.alienware.com/">Alienware</a> is doing with their video array/x2 product that is supposed to come out Q3/Q4. I also recently saw benchmarks from that were similiar to these, and Alienware's solution works in exactly the same way (i.e. by dividing the screen in half vertically and load balancing between them). However, I understood from Alienware's press release that it would take any two perfectly matched pci-e cards, not just nvidia. Is this the same project, and <a target="_blank" href="/action/r/http://www.alienware.com/">Alienware</a> just can't talk about Nvidia yet (due to nda's etc.) or did they both really decide to do this at the same time? Anyway, as far as motherboard availability, <a target="_blank" href="/action/r/http://www.alienware.com/">Alienware</a> has designed their own motherboard specifically for this application, and will release it as part of their alx line, which means built in liquid cooling, including video cooling, so heat shouldn't be a problem, even with 2 cards next to each other. You still will probably brown out the rest of your house (maybe even the block) playing quake3 at max settings =) text/html 2004-06-29T00:33:31-05:00 Michael C http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147621 SLI with 6800Ultras are for PC GODS. Unless you rich as s**t, you cant buy this. text/html 2004-06-29T00:16:33-05:00 Karl Carroll http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147610 Dual 6800Ultra's, hmmm, that's about $1100.00 then there's the $400 to $500 for the Xeon PCI-E board once they actually become available, then $800.00 for a 3.4 Xeon w/ 800FSB, and on and on.<br /> <br /> Why not just come out with a dual GPU AGP card that we can all use now. XGI has the Dual Volari card that you can use right now with out taking four slots of a non-existent PCI-E motherboard.<br /> <br /> Don't get me wrong, I can dream and drool right along with the best of them and those two 6800's tied together sure looked yummy but hardly realistic, even for a workstation solution. <br /> <br /> What are the road blocks to simply designing an AGP8X card running two GPU's on one card? Especially since the 6800Ultra is a double slot solution anyway. It would seem to me that they could easily build an SLI intergrated solution into a single AGP8X slot solution, or a single PCI-E solution for that matter, and still give you the 4 seperate outputs. <br /> <br /> Of course I don't know where you are gonna find a 700W power supply to drive the thing. : )<br /> <br /> Now with the 6800GT single slot and less power hungry cards SLI might be more practical but I wasn't that young and I remember clearly how expensive SLI was in the Voodoo days and I was glad to be rid of it when I got my first GeForce card. I am in no hurry to run down that road again.<br /> <br /> ElvesBrew text/html 2004-06-28T22:36:54-05:00 Michael C http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147574 I dont think there is and processor that can withstand the power of these cards. Btw, is ATI doing this aswell? text/html 2004-06-28T22:29:26-05:00 Koen Kwak http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147568 &quot;We could see some real high benchmarks, but as someone else mentioned because it is controlled by software, the CPU speed could take a huge wack!&quot;<br /> <br /> I doubt that a dual Xeon won't be enough CPU power for this setup <img src="http://media.hardwareanalysis.com/smilies/smile3.gif" width="14" height="14" border="0" alt=":D" title=":D"> text/html 2004-06-28T21:46:49-05:00 Rune Amorsen http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147557 I think this setup will require not only a new motherboard but a new chipset as well.<br /> <br /> I've read that the new chipsets deliver 20 PCIe-&quot;tracks&quot; og &quot;lanes&quot; like on a highway. Those 20 are usually used as one 16x-slot for graphics and four 1x-slots for others (replacing the PCI-slots).<br /> If these two cards each use a 16x-slot, the combined bandwidth needed will be 32x!!!<br /> <br /> My guess is that they either have to make a new chipset with more PCIe-tracks OR run the cards at 8x which will probably be just as fast, given the experience with AGPx4 vs. x8... In this case they'll only need a specially produced motherboard (which in itself is no small thing!).<br /> <br /> Any other guesses or clues??? text/html 2004-06-28T19:48:21-05:00 adam wilson http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/28690/#147536 great idea.<br /> <br /> this could lead to some absolutely bitchin rigs (with opterons or conventional AMD 64's) and some really fast RAM.<br /> <br /> We could see some real high benchmarks, but as someone else mentioned because it is controlled by software, the CPU speed could take a huge wack!<br /> <br /> have to wait and see though.<br /> <br /> adam