Will ATi jump on the SLI bandwagon?

[digitalwanderer]

Yeah I don't think anyone is clear on that relationship. But either way my plan for SLI would be 2xGT refresh parts. What's the timeline on those?

On the SLI or GT refresh parts? :|

 

[trinibwoy]

Yeah I don't think anyone is clear on that relationship. But either way my plan for SLI would be 2xGT refresh parts. What's the timeline on those?

On the SLI or GT refresh parts? :|

The refresh parts. Are we even going to get beefed up NV40's soon or are we just getting PCIe variants with the same performance/features as their AGP counterparts?

 

[digitalwanderer]

No clue, to be honest I haven't even read an X700 or 6600 review even yet.

 

[trinibwoy]

How expesnive is it to implement SLi like Nv did? It doesn't seem like it would cost much more than $10 per board, I would even think it less like perhaps $1.00 If that is the case a company might as well so they can say they have that feature.

Well that's what (most of us) are hoping. No idea about the engineering cost/effort behind the second slot though.

 

[Ailuros]

if ATI should truly have a multi-board config in it's plans after all and/or releases a R4xx based refresh late enough, it could only indicate that R520 shouldn't be expected as early as many believe or would like to believe.

If there were to be something introduced I don't think it would represent any ramifications on the lon or shortterm roadmap, merely an anti-marketing tool.

Clear enough on multi-board configs, yet does that also stand for the refresh?

 

[Ailuros]

But, hear is my question: which would be better, in your opinion, a single R520 with 24 pipes, or 2 6800's in SLI? Or is that a rhetorical question until we get more info?

Without having any exact specifics on R520, let alone performance numbers, yes that's highly rhetorical.

Best case scenario for a dual 6800 config would be twice the performance of one board; even there we'll have to see where and under what exact conditions this occurs and how the average performance increase really looks like.

 

[jimmyjames123]

For me the main problem with SLI as a concept (leaving aside cost, heat, power, extra slots etc) is that when you are thinking about boosting your performance twelve months later, another 6800 isn't going to cut it. Anyone cutting-edge enough to want SLI willl be wanting the upcoming next generation card with the same processing power as SLI, plus all the new features of whatever the upcoming DirectX does that SLI on a year-old card won't provide.

The primary benefit of SLI is a large boost in performance (at times up to nearly 2x speed boost) for a marginal cost. Many people will not be able to initially afford a dual card setup, but SLI will allow them to at times significantly boost their performance for a fraction of the initial purchase price. Obviously there are costs involved in setting oneself up for SLI, but that is a fixed cost that is necessary at some point down the road if someone wants to be equipped for SLI. Also, an SLI-capable cards will probably retain it's value better than other comparable non-SLI cards.

In addition to this, there is no perfect way to judge how much faster next generation cards will be over their precedecessors, how many extra features they will have over their predecessors, and when these new cards will be available to the public. One year after introduction of the 9700Pro, all we had was a speed bumped card with essentially the same feature set, and we had to wait nearly 2 years before seeing cards that offered anywhere near 2x performance improvement and improved feature set. SLI cushions for the future, and given the choice of having it or not, anyone would want it.

 

[PaulS]

No clue, to be honest I haven't even read an X700 or 6600 review even yet.

You're slipping in your old age

 

[digitalwanderer]

You're slipping in your old age

I've been busy and have spent all the time I got focusing on the high-end cards for a bit.

Will the SLI cards need their own special drivers? Or will they just use the standard Detonators and they'll just also support SLI?

 

[Fodder]

Will the SLI cards need their own special drivers? Or will they just use the standard Detonators and they'll just also support SLI?

Forceware 66.31 already has a 'Multi-GPU' tab, which advises owners of AGP 6800 Ultras to obtain another and run them in SLI mode.

BTW, the guy in marketing who suggested changing the name from Detonator to Forceware is a moron, and the exec who greenlighted it is even worse.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Forceware 66.31 already has a 'Multi-GPU' tab, which advises owners of AGP 6800 Ultras to obtain another and run them in SLI mode.

I had to re-read it before I got it, but I laughed once it sunk in.

BTW, the guy in marketing who suggested changing the name from Detonator to Forceware is a moron, and the exec who greenlighted it is even worse.

Agreed, I still think of 'em as detonators.

 

[Ailuros]

Will the SLI cards need their own special drivers? Or will they just use the standard Detonators and they'll just also support SLI?

Forceware 66.31 already has a 'Multi-GPU' tab, which advises owners of AGP 6800 Ultras to obtain another and run them in SLI mode.

BTW, the guy in marketing who suggested changing the name from Detonator to Forceware is a moron, and the exec who greenlighted it is even worse.

I've seen the Multi-GPU tab in much earlier drivers, yet no advise as of yet to obtain a second GPU.

Here's what it looks like:

 

[Fodder]

Here's the shot I saw. I'm afraid you'll have to copy/paste the URL as the imagehost only allows certain referrers.

 

[Lecram25]

Are we going to see something similar to 6x on the NV50? Or do you mean that 8x will provide higher performance than the current FSAA/MSAA mix?

That would be a "SSAA/MSAA mix".

 

[trinibwoy]

Are we going to see something similar to 6x on the NV50? Or do you mean that 8x will provide higher performance than the current FSAA/MSAA mix?

That would be a "SSAA/MSAA mix".

I thought that SSAA is a synonym for FSAA in its purest form? Wasn't FSAA=SSAA in the earlies?

 

[DegustatoR]

SLI ability for nv40/43 is just a bonus/experimental feature, nothing more. NV won't suddenly stop new high-end cores development since they have SLI. There will be nv47 and nv48 to compete with r480 and r520. They both most probably will be SLIable to while offering comparable too ATI's offerings performance even in single-chip configuration.

IMHO

 

[Richthofen]

SLI ability for nv40/43 is just a bonus/experimental feature, nothing more. NV won't suddenly stop new high-end cores development since they have SLI. There will be nv47 and nv48 to compete with r480 and r520. They both most probably will be SLIable to while offering comparable too ATI's offerings performance even in single-chip configuration.

IMHO

In an interview at ati-news.de Jens Neuschaefer - working for Nvidia Europe - clearly stated that Nvidia will provide SLI in the future. New Nvidia products will definatly offer SLI capabilities.
Here is the link:
http://www.ati-news.de/HTML/Berichte/Interview/NV/1/Interview-Seite1.shtml

You will need a translator though because the interview is in German.

 

[DegustatoR]

In an interview at ati-news.de Jens Neuschaefer - working for Nvidia Europe - clearly stated that Nvidia will provide SLI in the future.

I said the same thing, did i? It's just that for some reason people here are beginning to think that NV SLIs will compete with future ATI's cores. They won't. NV's future cores will compete with ATI's future cores. SLI is just a feature of all new NV's cores allowing approx. 75% more performance for double price. It has it's own niche. And if ATI won't introduce it's own SLIs this whole niche will be captured by NVIDIA...

 

[PatrickL]

Or more likely capturing an empty niche

 

[trinibwoy]

Or more likely capturing an empty niche

If it works the niche will have at least one member - ME!! According to the INQ Nvidia is reporting 7229 in 3dmark05 with dual 6800 Ultra's. Now if the INQ is also right about a 5000 score with a single Ultra then that is nowhere near double the performance on the SLI setup.