First Look: Nvidia 3-way SLI on nForce 680i - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 13th Dec 2007, 13:51

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...680i_preview/1

Nvidia is announcing availability of a driver that enables 3-way SLI on its nForce 680i SLI motherboards. This isn't something for everyone and Nvidia doesn't hide away from this fact, but are the gremlins of Quad-SLI about to be washed down the drain? Let's take a look...

Digg to share - thanks for your support!

Mankz · 13th Dec 2007, 13:59

Those cards must me absalutly boiling with so little air-space between them...

SOrry, but I still think 2 cards is over the top.

korhojoa · 13th Dec 2007, 14:10

If they ever release a 8800 gt with two connectors.
I'm getting this.
Seriously. When i get back from my trip to the lovely army, if I see that this is still kicking major ass, I'm getting three of 8800 gt equivalents, and getting myself triple f*cking sli.
YES!

Redbeaver · 13th Dec 2007, 14:14

yep. if not only the GTX and Ultra have this capabilities, the number of people that would have this will definitely increase. one can easily buy the board, get 1 card... then when he has the extra cash, he'd get another one. voila. SLI. fast forward a year or two... rather than overhauling a whole upgrade, u just get a 3rd card. thats neat.

noobarino · 13th Dec 2007, 14:17

So you need 3x8800 ultras to stop cryisis crapping all over your computer

Tile · 13th Dec 2007, 14:18

Deleted

Tim S · 13th Dec 2007, 14:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by noobarino

So you need 3x8800 ultras to stop cryisis crapping all over your computer

haha, yes, it's true

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tile

I wonder how much power do these video cards require. Nvidia should start to think seriously on ways to improve the electrical and thermal efficiency of their products.

I can run some tests if you want... Nvidia's TDP rating (which is a maximum) for an 8800 Ultra is around 175-180W afaik.

kenco_uk · 13th Dec 2007, 14:26

tbh, within a year, there'll be a card on sale for about a third of the price of those three that is just as powerful, if not more so.

Tim S · 13th Dec 2007, 14:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenco_uk

tbh, within a year, there'll be card on sale for about a third of the price of those three that is just as powerful, if not more so.

Of course, and you could say the same about SLI/CrossFire too.

Cr4zYEnder · 13th Dec 2007, 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tile

I wonder how much power do these video cards require. Nvidia should start to think seriously on ways to improve the electrical and thermal efficiency of their products.

Hopefully the newer G92 versions will be able to triple sli and they will have lower power requirements than the old models due to smaller manufacturing scale.

samkiller42 · 13th Dec 2007, 14:40

Thats pretty impressive having 3 cards, how novel, kinda works with AMD's new tri-core cpu, lmao.
Watercooling would be suitible to keep 3 Ultras cool i think, or phase cooling, or a fridge freezer (freezer for the pc)
Do you think we could see a 8950GX2 for quad gpu goodness:P?

Sam

kenco_uk · 13th Dec 2007, 14:43

Ooh, tri-sex cards! Kinky

yakyb · 13th Dec 2007, 14:45

just have to wiat to see how 780i holds up with a 9450 now!!

Tulatin · 13th Dec 2007, 14:48

Shame that there's officially no G92 support for this atm

Firehed · 13th Dec 2007, 15:06

Okay, great in concept here, but that's just insane. Maybe I'm tainted from a rather less-than-fantastic SLI experience back some time ago (they still don't let you use multiple displays when SLI is enabled, right?), but spending that much on games now still seems insane.

I suppose if you've got the cash to burn... but yeah - that's crazy.

zr_ox · 13th Dec 2007, 15:11

I was sure the early reports were indicating that this would only be possible on the 780i.

This is interesting since a simple driver will enable it, that begs the question then "why bother with the 780i" since it really brings little extra to the table, and at what cost?

Nice article for something which has potential, still lacking some optimization since the performance should still be much better. It's early but I cant see this getting much better with time, why would Nvidia pour extra resources into optimizing something that fewer than 1% of the market can afford? They wont and will release a single card in 6 months that can outperform this :=)

Goty · 13th Dec 2007, 15:13

I'm anxious to see some in-depth IQ assessment. NVIDIA manages to achieve almost perfect scaling at times and I'm just a bit skeptical of that.

outlaw · 13th Dec 2007, 15:32

i would love to have this setup but after a year or so they still would be 'old' and people like us always want to have the latest so theres really no point in spending so much money for this as long as you dont have a lot of $$ to waste

Jipa · 13th Dec 2007, 15:39

Atleast it looks so ballsy it's easily worth paying 2000 € or so (not enough maybe?) for the mobo + cards + CPU.

FaSMaN · 13th Dec 2007, 15:47

When I saw the title of the article I was jumping for joy,as I allready have a striker exteme and really wanted to go with 3 gpus,but then reading further I couldn't help but get depressed, how can Nvidia not allow the 8800gt to go 3-way,its a budget card that just about everybody can afford in a 3 card setup,why shoot them selfs in the foot and decrease there target market by allmost 90%, ATI/AMD is probably laugh thing at this piont,as they just released there 4 card solution and 4x 3870s will probably work out to 1/2 as expensive as 3x 8800 ultras

,not that I would use a 4 card amd/ati setup though...

Allso if I'm not mistaken wasn't the 3rd pci-e slot meant for a 3rd smaller nvidia graphics card to render physics ?

13th Dec 2007, 13:51	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	First Look: Nvidia 3-way SLI on nForce 680i http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...680i_preview/1 Nvidia is announcing availability of a driver that enables 3-way SLI on its nForce 680i SLI motherboards. This isn't something for everyone and Nvidia doesn't hide away from this fact, but are the gremlins of Quad-SLI about to be washed down the drain? Let's take a look... Digg to share - thanks for your support! __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

13th Dec 2007, 14:10	#3
korhojoa Multimodder Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Vaasa, Finland Posts: 149	If they ever release a 8800 gt with two connectors. I'm getting this. Seriously. When i get back from my trip to the lovely army, if I see that this is still kicking major ass, I'm getting three of 8800 gt equivalents, and getting myself triple f*cking sli. YES! __________________ the world is not enough, i gotta have modding too.

13th Dec 2007, 14:14	#4
Redbeaver Hypermodder Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Ontario, CANADA Posts: 719	yep. if not only the GTX and Ultra have this capabilities, the number of people that would have this will definitely increase. one can easily buy the board, get 1 card... then when he has the extra cash, he'd get another one. voila. SLI. fast forward a year or two... rather than overhauling a whole upgrade, u just get a 3rd card. thats neat. __________________ Monita DFI NF4 Expert - X2 3800+ 2.925Ghz - 2x1Gb OCZ Gold XTC DDR500 - 2x eVGA 7900GT SLI - 2x80Gb Seagate 7200.9 [RAID-0 4k] - Enermax Liberty 500 - Vista Ultimate x86 - Silverstone Kublai [Modded] Keisha DFI BloodIron P35 - Q6600 3.6Ghz - 4x1Gb OCZ Gold XTC2 DDR2-800 - eVGA 8800GTS 640MB - 2x80Gb Seagate 7200.9 [RAID-0 4k] - OCZ GameXstream 700 - Vista Ultimate x86 - Silverstone TJ-06 [Modded] www.pecelayam.com

13th Dec 2007, 14:18	#6
Tile Banned Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 376	Deleted Last edited by Tile; 3rd Nov 2008 at 00:33.

13th Dec 2007, 14:26	#8
kenco_uk I feel your presents. Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Bourne, Lincolnshire, UK Posts: 6,309	tbh, within a year, there'll be a card on sale for about a third of the price of those three that is just as powerful, if not more so. __________________ MSI X58M - i7 920 4Ghz - 6GB Corsair - GTX260 648/2520 ::: Vote for bit-tech T - theevilelephant - "it sounded like bouncing around on a pogo stick, screaming in chinese while occasionally throwing a cat at a door."

13th Dec 2007, 14:17	#5
noobarino Minimodder Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 33	So you need 3x8800 ultras to stop cryisis crapping all over your computer

13th Dec 2007, 14:40	#11
samkiller42 KEEP IT CLEAN! Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Havant, Hampshire, England Posts: 3,187	Thats pretty impressive having 3 cards, how novel, kinda works with AMD's new tri-core cpu, lmao. Watercooling would be suitible to keep 3 Ultras cool i think, or phase cooling, or a fridge freezer (freezer for the pc) Do you think we could see a 8950GX2 for quad gpu goodness:P? Sam __________________ The Rig: i7 920 D0, Gigabyte EX58-UD5, 12GB DDR3 1600mhz, BFG GTX295, Samsung 64gb SSD, WD 640gb Black, Samsung F2 Eco 1TB, Dell 3007WFP, Windows 7 RC. The Netbook: Samsung NC10 Black, Intel Atom, 2gb DDR2 Xbox Live: samkiller42¦PSN: samkiller42¦Bungie: samkiller42

13th Dec 2007, 14:43	#12
kenco_uk I feel your presents. Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Bourne, Lincolnshire, UK Posts: 6,309	Ooh, tri-sex cards! Kinky __________________ MSI X58M - i7 920 4Ghz - 6GB Corsair - GTX260 648/2520 ::: Vote for bit-tech T - theevilelephant - "it sounded like bouncing around on a pogo stick, screaming in chinese while occasionally throwing a cat at a door."

13th Dec 2007, 14:45	#13
yakyb CK is God!!! Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 1,071	just have to wiat to see how 780i holds up with a 9450 now!! __________________ Gaming Box:: q6600 @3.0 :: 9800gtx :: Abit IP35 :: 4gb :: 1.4TB :: akasa eclipse :: Win7 Development:: PhenomII 955BE @3.2 :: 4200 :: asus M4A785 M Evo :: 1.25TB ::Win7 Media Centre :: q6600 @3.0 :: x1950pro :: asus p35 epu :: 8gb :: 320 GB :: Lc17B :: Win7 server:: I7 860 :: p55 gd65 :: 3450 :: 8 TB :: 8gb :: Rebel 12 :: server 2008 R2

13th Dec 2007, 14:48	#14
Tulatin The Froggy Poster Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 2,942	Shame that there's officially no G92 support for this atm __________________ Desky E8400 @ 4.0 1.42v; P5K-E WiFi; 4x1 Kingmax Mars 1066 @ 1129 CAS 5; 2x [TOO CHEAP TO SPONSOR] 4850 @ 675/1050; Enermax Liberty; WCing in a CM690

13th Dec 2007, 15:06	#15
Firehed Why not? I own a domain to match. Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: An hour north of Boston Posts: 12,576	Okay, great in concept here, but that's just insane. Maybe I'm tainted from a rather less-than-fantastic SLI experience back some time ago (they still don't let you use multiple displays when SLI is enabled, right?), but spending that much on games now still seems insane. I suppose if you've got the cash to burn... but yeah - that's crazy. __________________ hire me @ eric-stern.com - web developer and php ninja pics @ my smugmug :: Twitter @firehed :: blog @ firehed.net 40D\|580EXII\|285HV\|AB800\|70-200f/4LIS\|17-50f/2.8\|150f/2.8Macro\|50f/1.8 MacPro @ 8x2.8GHz, 10GB FBDDR2, 3TB HD :: MBP @ 2x2.2GHz, 4GB DDR2, 320GB HD

13th Dec 2007, 15:11	#16
zr_ox Whooolapoook Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Stalking Orco Posts: 1,117	I was sure the early reports were indicating that this would only be possible on the 780i. This is interesting since a simple driver will enable it, that begs the question then "why bother with the 780i" since it really brings little extra to the table, and at what cost? Nice article for something which has potential, still lacking some optimization since the performance should still be much better. It's early but I cant see this getting much better with time, why would Nvidia pour extra resources into optimizing something that fewer than 1% of the market can afford? They wont and will release a single card in 6 months that can outperform this :=) __________________ 0ptimizm :PC under review

13th Dec 2007, 15:13	#17
Goty Supermodder Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Dacula, GA USA Posts: 302	I'm anxious to see some in-depth IQ assessment. NVIDIA manages to achieve almost perfect scaling at times and I'm just a bit skeptical of that.

13th Dec 2007, 15:32	#18
outlaw What's a Dremel? Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 10	i would love to have this setup but after a year or so they still would be 'old' and people like us always want to have the latest so theres really no point in spending so much money for this as long as you dont have a lot of $$ to waste

13th Dec 2007, 15:39	#19
Jipa Licenced idiot. Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Tampere, Finland Posts: 3,064	Atleast it looks so ballsy it's easily worth paying 2000 € or so (not enough maybe?) for the mobo + cards + CPU. __________________ Abit IP35 - E6750 - 8800GT 1024 MB - 2 GB 800 MHz - enough HDDs - 750 W Silverstone - CM Storm Sniper Asus P5Q-VM - Q9450 - 4 GB - 400 W Silverstone - Fortress FT01 AllTheMods - MetkuMods - LedCalc

13th Dec 2007, 15:47	#20
FaSMaN Minimodder Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 27	When I saw the title of the article I was jumping for joy,as I allready have a striker exteme and really wanted to go with 3 gpus,but then reading further I couldn't help but get depressed, how can Nvidia not allow the 8800gt to go 3-way,its a budget card that just about everybody can afford in a 3 card setup,why shoot them selfs in the foot and decrease there target market by allmost 90%, ATI/AMD is probably laugh thing at this piont,as they just released there 4 card solution and 4x 3870s will probably work out to 1/2 as expensive as 3x 8800 ultras ,not that I would use a 4 card amd/ati setup though... Allso if I'm not mistaken wasn't the 3rd pci-e slot meant for a 3rd smaller nvidia graphics card to render physics ?