Multi GPU - The Hardcore Way
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Article : New generation of multi
GPU systems
Summery : Multi GPU setups have
been around for a while now and haven't proved to be as popular as
either ATI or Nvidia would of hoped. However multi graphics card
setups are not a dead duck and the two companies have tried once
again with an even crazier idea. Lets bring 3 and 4 graphics card
setups into the fold. Just in case you thing your PC's case is
somewhat empty. |
Initial signs are that Nvidia is slightly behind technology wise when it comes to the setup of SLI with more than 2 graphics cards on board. The connectors are somewhat difficult to find and again the only graphics cards that can be used are the very latest Geforce 8800 series and only the ultra and GTX versions within that range. This is due to an extra connector port required in order to connect to 2 others at the same time. As well as this of course is the fact that ATI have the ability to connect 4 graphics cards and Nvidia only the three. I say only the three but realistically while we are talking about top end cards, there is absolutely no need to connect four of the best together. We might suggest that if you are thinking of doing this then you might have a few more pounds than you have sense.
Nvidia's design also requires specific motherboards from nVidia because an extra controller chip is required on the motherboard to control the 3rd PCI express 2.0 16x lane. This is an nForce 200 controller built into these new boards. Unless some design improvements are made to this system, no further enhancements can be made. Having your 3rd card controlled away from the standard north and south bridge is far from ideal especially when they are supposed to be working in tandem. Driver issues anyone?
System
Requirements:
- Three Geforce 8800 Ultra or GeForce 8800 GTX Graphics Cards
- NVIDIA nForce 680i or 780i Motherboard
- Intel dual or quad-core Core 2 processor (AMD platform to be announced)
- Power Supply With Minimum Peak Power of 1100
Watts
- Four 6-pin and two 8-pin PCI-E Power Connectors or
- Six 6-pin PCI-E Power Connectors
- 3-Way SLI Connector
- Proper and Robust Case Airflow
- New Windows Vista Hotfix For 3-Way SLI (KB945149)
As you can see in order to build this system you are going to need other components that can handle it. Mainly the power supply, recommended minimum peak supply of 1100W, not cheap to get a reliable one at that power. You also require all the PCI-E connectors to connect up all your Geforce cards. As mentioned with the crossfire setup the airflow inside your casing is absolutely key to keeping this setup stable. To get a little bit more info on the true power consumption of this setup HotHardware have taken readings on various Geforce 8800 setups and their respected power consumption and acoustic volume.
Drivers
No to the downside of SLI gaming and computing. Drivers must be the biggest pain when this time of technology comes out. The main gripe is they are never ready for the release of the products. Now a little sympathy here for both ATI and Nvidia. Running a single graphics card requires a driver to run in on various operating systems, should be easy for those software technicians. Now however we are looking at putting 3 and 4 graphics cards together into a wealth of different untested systems. Not easy as you would be able to imagine, not only have they got to get the graphics cards to work seamlessly together, a difficult task in its own right, but they also have to work with all these unknown systems. This brings along the inevitable delays in solid drivers. Its almost like something has to wrong with them before a problem is known.
I think you will agree that when technology takes a leap such as this that the software tends to lack a little way behind it. Patience is certainly going to be required when taking on triple or quad graphics systems. You may well be lucky and not have any problems with your setup, you may face loads of problems from the start. Until the drivers become solid it will boil down to what your setup is, what other drivers are installed in your system, even what game your attempting to play.
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