This fancy new multi-card physics business

[ripping]

How are ATI and Nvidia introducing this? Would the new chipsets supporting 3 PCIe slots be required, or simply driver updates including existing 2+ slot setups?

I ask because I'm planning to upgrade now. I'm buying Conroe for performance and want to buy ATI for image quality. I don't want to buy R600 until prices come down next year, so plan to get a 1950 Pro in the interim, which would subsequently be used as a physics card, if possible. Waiting for what seems to be the only RD600 board to be made to emerge from DFI has become tedious, so I may just buy a 975 board. Would this allow an R600-1950Pro combo, and would the 8x slot hamper the DX10 card? Or would it be wiser to choose the ATI chipset?

 

[Techno+]

I think this thread should go into the purhcase decisions forum

 

[ripping]

You're probably right.


I just need the answer to two newb qs. Will existing chipsets support the new muli-gpu permutations, and will the DX10 cards need more than 8x slots. I'm aware that DX9 cards don't.

 

[Nick]

Don't buy a separate card for physics. ATI and NVIDIA would like you to but it's really not worth the money. Physics is a hype anyway. Next-generation games absolutely won't require dedicated hardware for physics. A dual-core CPU can already handle all advanced physics. Here are the recommended system requirements for running Crysis at high detail:

CPU: Dual-core CPU (Athlon X2/Pentium D)
Graphics: Nvidia 7800GTX/ATI X1800XT (SM 3.0) or DX10 equivalent
RAM: 1.5Gb
HDD: 6GB
Internet: 512k+ (128k+ upstream)
Optical Drive: DVD
Software: DX10 with Windows Vista

The best thing you can do to further improve performance is to buy a fast Core 2 Duo and invest in a G80 or R600. The X1950 Pro would be practically worthless if you combine it with a DirectX 10 card, so pay only once for the better card.

 

[ripping]

The thing is, the diff betwixt a £120 1950Pro and £420 G80 pays for a Conroe and MB. Limping along with my AGP Socket 754 system for another 6 months won't do.

 

[mito]

Don't buy a separate card for physics. ATI and NVIDIA would like you to but it's really not worth the money. Physics is a hype anyway. Next-generation games absolutely won't require dedicated hardware for physics. A dual-core CPU can already handle all advanced physics. Here are the recommended system requirements for running Crysis at high detail:

CPU: Dual-core CPU (Athlon X2/Pentium D)
Graphics: Nvidia 7800GTX/ATI X1800XT (SM 3.0) or DX10 equivalent
RAM: 1.5Gb
HDD: 6GB
Internet: 512k+ (128k+ upstream)
Optical Drive: DVD
Software: DX10 with Windows Vista

Hi,

Do you think a 7800/1800 will be enough to run Crysis/dx10 at maximum details?

 

[Nick]

The thing is, the diff betwixt a £120 1950Pro and £420 G80 pays for a Conroe and MB.

Then go for the X1950 Pro and try to sell it when you upgrade to a DirectX 10 card. Keeping it won't help physics, it will just add to your electric bill.

Limping along with my AGP Socket 754 system for another 6 months won't do.

Why not? 6 months won't kill you, and you'll upgrade to something that can handle all next-generation games, instead of wasting your money on old technology and prototypes. Besides, that system can't be that bad at all.

 

[Nick]

Do you think a 7800/1800 will be enough to run Crysis/dx10 at maximum details?

How should I know? Maximum detail could even be too much for SLI G80's. They just guarantee a good gaming experience with a 7800/X1800. Is good not not good enough for you?

 

[ripping]

6 months won't kill you

It will, dawg. The only games I want to play at the moment are Oblivion and FEAR, and neither are comfortable experiences. And as for Supreme Commander...

In a year when quad-core is commonplace and memory faster, would x8 be a bottleneck?