Gigabyte Dual GPU: nForce4, Intel, and the 3D1 Single Card SLI Tested
by Derek Wilson on January 6, 2005 4:12 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Test
These SLI systems can pull quite a lot of power, so we employed our 520W and 600W OCZ Powerstream PSUs to put voltage to our parts. We needed to use the 66.81 ForceWare drivers for the Intel system in order to get SLI to work.Our single card NVIDIA 6600 GT tests were run on the AMD Athlon 64 platform.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 Intel Pentium 4 EE 3.4GHz |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (AMD) 2x 512MB PC2-4200 (Intel) |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200RPM IDE (8MB Buffer) |
| Motherboard & IDE Bus Master Drivers: | Intel Chipset INF 6.2.1.1001 NVIDIA nForce 6.31 (Beta) |
| Video Card(s): | NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT Gigabyte 3D1 SLI |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA ForceWare 71.20 (AMD) NVIDIA ForceWare 66.81 (Intel) |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Motherboards: | Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI Gigabyte GA-8AENXP Dual Graphic |
| Power Supply: | 520W OCZ Powerstream PSU 600W OCZ Powerstream PSU |
The GeForce 6800 Ultra numbers shown in the graphs are included as a reference point from our previous SLI tests, just to show where single card, single GPU performance compares to the 3D1 and SLI solutions. Since the previous tests were performed on an A64 4000+, the numbers are just to be used as a reference rather than a direct comparison.
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johnsonx - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
To #19:from page 1:
"....even if the 3D1 didn't require a special motherboard BIOS in order to boot video..."
In other words, the mainboard BIOS has to do something special to deal with a dual-GPU card, or at least the current implementation of the 3D1.
What NVidia should do is:
1. Update their drivers to allow SLI any time two GPU's are found, whether they be on two boards or one.
2. Standardize whatever BIOS support is required for the dual GPU cards to POST properly, and include the code in their reference BIOS for the NForce4.
At least then you could run a dual-GPU card on any NForce4 board. Maybe in turn Quad-GPU could be possible on an SLI board.
bob661 - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
#19I think the article mentioned a special bios is needed to run this card. Right now only Gigabyte has this bios.
pio!pio! - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
#18 use a laptopFinalFantasy - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
Poor Intel :(jcromano - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
From the article, which I enjoyed very much:"The only motherboard that can run the 3D1 is the GA-K8NXP-SLI."
Why exactly can't the ASUS SLI board (for example) use the 3D1? Surely not just because Gigabyte says it can't, right?
Cheers,
Jim
phaxmohdem - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
ATI Rage Fury MAXX Nuff said...lol #6 I think you're on to something though. Modern technology is becoming incredibly power hungry I think that more steps need to be taken to reduce power consumption and heat production, however with the current pixel pushing slugfest we are witnessing FPS has obviously displaced these two worries to our beloved Video card manufacturers. At some point though when consumers refuse to buy the latest Geforce or Radeon card with a heatsink taking up 4 Extra PCI slots, I think that they will get the hint. I personally consider a dual slot heatsink solution ludicrous.
Nvidia, ATI, Intel, AMD... STOP RAISING MY ELECTRICITY BILL AND ROOM TEMPERATURE!!!!
KingofCamelot - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
#16 I'm tired of you people acting like SLI is only doable with an NVIDIA motherboard, which is obviously not the case. SLI only applies to the graphics cards. On motherboards SLI is just a marketing term for NVIDIA. Any board with 2 16x PCI-E connectors can pull off SLI with NVIDIA graphics cards. NVIDIA's solution is unique because they were able to split a 16x line and give each connector 8x bandwidth. Other motherboard manufacturer's are doing 16x and 4x.sprockkets - Thursday, January 6, 2005 - link
I'm curious to see how all those lame Intel configs by Dell and others pull off SLI long before thie mb came out.Regs - Thursday, January 6, 2005 - link
Once again - history repeats itself. Dual core SLI solutions are still a far reach from reality.Lifted - Thursday, January 6, 2005 - link
Dual 6800GT's???? hahahahahehhehehehahahahah.Not laughing at you, but those things are so hot you'd need a 50 pound copper heatsink on the beast with 4 x 20,000 RPM fans running full boar just to prevent a China Syndrome.
Somebody say dual core? Maybe with GeForce 2 MX series cores.