Asus SLI board shatters graphics card record

[Katsuya]

Sounds good. I wan't one (or two )

-data-

source: 1- THG 2- RuleyWeb

Chicago (IL) - Asus' SLI-based A8N-E mainboards are first to break through the 10,000 points barrier of 3DMark 2005. Meanwhile, SLI solutions are also becoming more available with performance PC maker Alienware beginning to take orders for the technology.

Traditionally, it took about a year, until any graphics solution was able to reach 10,000 3D Mark points after ever new release of the software, which is considered an industry standard for benchmarking graphic cards. According to Asus, Nvidia nForce4-based SLI technology integrated in an A8N-SLI Deluxe board and two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards lifted the record officially to 10,118 points during a road tour in Munich.

In unrelated news, Alienware surprisingly started offering SLI technology with some of its systems. According to Joe Olmsted, spokesman for the company, SLI systems already can be ordered and will be shipped "soon". So far, the company was tight-lipped about SLI, but promoted its own video-array, which also allows use more than one graphic card within one system. Olmsted said that Alienware intends to market both technologies, but is not yet ready to announce availability of its video-array technology.

As SLI, Alienware's video-array will substantially increase graphics performance in the range between 40 and 70 percent compared to just one graphic card. Comparing the two architectures, SLI simply requires a connector bridge between two GeForce 6800 cards, while Alienware's solution calls for a third card to collect and coordinate the graphic signals of two or more cards and provide output to a monitor. However, the video-array works with any and more than two graphic cards. Olmsted could not say when the video-array technology would become available.

According to sources, Nvidia officially will announce shipping of SLI technology towards the mid of November.

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[MaZa]

SLI makes come-back eh? I already wondered why wasnt used anymore after Voodoo2 card. Two voodoo2 cards in SLI literaly doubled graphics speed.

[Kane]

The reason SLI dies was the b/w of the PCI bus was simply inadequete and you didn't (couldn't?) get twin AGP boards

[MaZa]

*shoots himself for being idiot*

I even forgot that theres such a thing as PCI graphics cards.

[fenris-wolf]

In the new athlon motherboards which will be using the "nforce4" chipsets, we will get pci-express compatibility and also it looks like they will be adding SLI capabilities.

[Player-X]

SLI on the Vodoo cards stands for Scan Line interleave where each card rendered every other line

SLI on an Nvidia card stands for Scalable Link Interface where the load is evenly and actively distributed to both the cards so the one under load renders less of the scene than the one under less load to dristribute the work load

[eternal11]

what ever happened to alienware's X2 technology would let you be able to link 2 ATi card (x800XT) together because the X2 was different than SLi. one card would control the top half of the screen, and the other would control the bottom half

[bahamut_2006]

Well this is good news, but I'm sure it will cost an arm and a leg if not the other arm and leg as well.

[Kane]

>what ever happened to alienware's X2 technology would let you be able to link 2 ATi card (x800XT) together

It's still there. Alienware are still marketing it.

>the X2 was different than SLi. one card would control the top half of the screen, and the other would control the bottom half

That is the way nVidia's SLI works. nVidia's technique allows you to use DVI tho. Alienware's doesn't.

[Katsuya]

Alienware's video-array is what you mean. It also has the ability to link more then two graphics cards.

Engineers say the video-array could become a separate box housing 4 to 8 (or more) graphics cards. This would require its own power supply.

But most users will likely only need (or afford) 2 graphics cards.

[eternal11]

doesnt the ALx come with SLi/X2 technology, or will, and last time i checked i think it was around 6000 US. crazy. but being able to link more than 2 gfx card together does seem interesting, and makes me want to try it when i win the lottery

[Typhoon 01]

That setup looks really sexy, but too expencive for me, i'll just wait for nforce 4 SLI an build a pc with it.
I wonder how will ATi counter this, they will have to unless they want to continue in the high-end market(and not only remember 6600GT).

[eternal11]

well in my local newspaper the other day, it reported that ATi knocked nVIDIA out of the number 1 spot for the graphics hardware area. i'm sure they already got something cooking to compete with nVIDIA's SLi technology. they just want to wait and surprise us

[Typhoon 01]

Actually they are evenly placed since nvidia got back it's high end spot here and it doesn't seems that they will lose the low end spot also becouse IMO the 6200 is better than the X300. The real competition will be in the midrange with the X700 std against the 6600 std.

[qing256]

well I'mma wait til intel comes out with their version of SLI stuff and also when SLI is being picked up by games until then I'm staying with my AGP, although some of the bench marks do looks real sweet

[Ipswitch]

It is impressive but totally impractical financially for most people. I wish I wasn't one of those people