Dual GPU card, and SLI are not the same thing, and SLI offers more than a dual GPU card.
SLI (in it's dual board incarnation) is not a 'good' concept to base a platform on.
It exists so that a small percentage of users can get better than typical industry performance without a completely new graphics card design. Single-card architectures offer better performance at the same price point. However, people who want more GPU power than the bulk of the industry can still bennefit from SLI. They can simply doulbe the number of cards without needing to pay for an absolutely huge amount of R&D.
The problem with SLI for the masses is that if you're going to mass produce cards aimed at that performance level, you can get even better performance (at the same price) out of a single card. Notice, I'm not saying single GPU. Spreading processing between multiple identical chips has proven economical at certain points in history.
Once a higher level of performance is demanded by the masses, components are all slapped on a single board and a suitable bus is chosen.
It is much much more expensive to split functionality between two boards. This is why you never see consumers using computers with two motherboards even when there are two CPUs.
Dual graphics boards offers an upgrade path for people on the fringe of GPU performance demands. For general consumers, fewer boards has always offered better price/performance.
This isn't a new concept even if gamers have only just now realized that doubling up on standard components is one way to architect a system.
Is the record broken? Didn't you already say all this, and I refuted it once before?
By the way you obviously didn't notice most of what your saying is word for word from before. So I imagine your just quoting someone else from another forum trying to make his argument work in here, but isn't.
I'm going to go see Constantine now, Maybe I'll find the cure there.
But I'm not really angry. I'm a little distraught about the fact that my next computer will probably not be a Mac. I've never purchased anything else. I find that bothersome.
SLI doesn't at the moment bring a massive overall 3d performance boost anyway. Not like it was proposed to.
In what exactly? The cards that have finished SLI drivers that have been tested all show approximately double the performance of a single card. 2x the performance seems like a pretty massive performance gain to me.
We've been over this many times already, but I'll post one that someone else already posted because I don't feel like looking for one that has the newer updated SLI drivers, and I'm not even sure if those have been tested anywhere yet.
The maya test, and all the QFX tests are not reliable, or really applicable. Quadro SLI drivers were not even in beta at the time of this test, and they are still in beta now. It's also using an out dated version of Maya, and an outdated Maya Spec test, but gaming tests are pretty good indicators. The Halo, and Doom 3 for PC are reliable even though those drivers have sense been updated. With the old drivers you still get a pretty good indication of what speed increase. you can expect to see from a single GFX card to SLI, but again they are old drivers.
I see constantine didn't do much to mellow our onlooker.
Thanks for the link though. I'm interested to see how SLI pans out in various applications. While I don't see it as an economically suitable architecture for the mainstream, it's fascinating for us geeks.
Comments
Originally posted by onlooker
Dual GPU card, and SLI are not the same thing, and SLI offers more than a dual GPU card.
SLI (in it's dual board incarnation) is not a 'good' concept to base a platform on.
It exists so that a small percentage of users can get better than typical industry performance without a completely new graphics card design. Single-card architectures offer better performance at the same price point. However, people who want more GPU power than the bulk of the industry can still bennefit from SLI. They can simply doulbe the number of cards without needing to pay for an absolutely huge amount of R&D.
The problem with SLI for the masses is that if you're going to mass produce cards aimed at that performance level, you can get even better performance (at the same price) out of a single card. Notice, I'm not saying single GPU. Spreading processing between multiple identical chips has proven economical at certain points in history.
Once a higher level of performance is demanded by the masses, components are all slapped on a single board and a suitable bus is chosen.
It is much much more expensive to split functionality between two boards. This is why you never see consumers using computers with two motherboards even when there are two CPUs.
Dual graphics boards offers an upgrade path for people on the fringe of GPU performance demands. For general consumers, fewer boards has always offered better price/performance.
This isn't a new concept even if gamers have only just now realized that doubling up on standard components is one way to architect a system.
By the way you obviously didn't notice most of what your saying is word for word from before. So I imagine your just quoting someone else from another forum trying to make his argument work in here, but isn't.
Originally posted by dfiler
Your posts are so full of anger.
I'm going to go see Constantine now, Maybe I'll find the cure there.
But I'm not really angry. I'm a little distraught about the fact that my next computer will probably not be a Mac. I've never purchased anything else. I find that bothersome.
Originally posted by onlooker
I'm a little distraught about the fact that my next computer will probably not be a Mac. I've never purchased anything else. I find that bothersome.
Say it isn't so!
I am sure Apple is gonna have something to fill your needs within the next few months, try and hold out a little longer!
Get a mac mini to play with for now, and instant jukebox/print server/email & web machine when the 970MP w/PCI-e SLI Quadros PowerMacs come out...!
Come on, you know you are gonna hate looking at your AMD64/SLI box after Apple releases dual dualies no later than WWDC'05...
Originally posted by mattyj
SLI doesn't at the moment bring a massive overall 3d performance boost anyway. Not like it was proposed to.
In what exactly? The cards that have finished SLI drivers that have been tested all show approximately double the performance of a single card. 2x the performance seems like a pretty massive performance gain to me.
The maya test, and all the QFX tests are not reliable, or really applicable. Quadro SLI drivers were not even in beta at the time of this test, and they are still in beta now. It's also using an out dated version of Maya, and an outdated Maya Spec test, but gaming tests are pretty good indicators. The Halo, and Doom 3 for PC are reliable even though those drivers have sense been updated. With the old drivers you still get a pretty good indication of what speed increase. you can expect to see from a single GFX card to SLI, but again they are old drivers.
Tests
But one thing to note after all that. is the Athlon is a single CPU machine, and the Xeons are duals.
Originally posted by onlooker
We've been over this many times already
...
I see constantine didn't do much to mellow our onlooker.
Thanks for the link though. I'm interested to see how SLI pans out in various applications. While I don't see it as an economically suitable architecture for the mainstream, it's fascinating for us geeks.