nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on October 19, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
DX9 Gaming Performance
We first saw the Far Cry anomaly in past testing of nVidia PCI Express graphics cards. nVidia PCI Express does not perform as well on Far Cry as their comparable AGP graphics cards. This is not the same pattern that we have seen in the ATI PCI Express cards, which perform similarly in Far Cry in either AGP or PCIe flavors.
Keeping in mind that all other Athlon 64 benchmarks were run with an FX53, it is interesting to see that the nVidia PCIe on nF4 top the Aquamark 3 results. It appears that this benchmark responds well to the PCIe interface.
Other DX9 benchmarks are essentially the same as seen on the nForce3 Ultra chipset with the same CPU and an AGP 6800 Ultra.
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Zac42 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I think that it has to be two Nvidia cards with an SLI connector. You are thinking of the alienware video array, which theoretically can use two different branded cards.GhandiInstinct - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Wesley,So in SLI, I can put any two video cards together? No matter the spec difference or maker difference? New and old? Future and past?
microAmp - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I take it the SLI benchmarks from nVidia were done at about 1600 x 1200 resoultion?Wesley Fink - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Kris -Anand and I got some hands-on time with the SLI system while we were visiting nVidia. The benchmarks we ran confirmed the numbers reported for the 6800 Ultra single and SLI. The test system was an Asus SLI motherboard with a 4000+ CPU. While we did not personally run benchmarks with the 6600GT SLI or the 6800GT SLI we have no reson to doubt nVidia's numbers based on what we did confirm.
The Reference board is NOT SLI, which is why SLI testing was limited to our time with nVidia.
KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#6 those are NVIDIA's benchmarks, not actual 3rd party confirmed benchmarks.Kristopher
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#2 and #4 -SLI Performance tests are in a table on page 3. Two 6600GTs don't outperform a 6800 Ultra, but they do outperform a 6800 GT.
ksherman - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#4, from what ive heard, it is probablyh likely that two 6600GTs would definetly cream the 6800 ultra. I do agree that we need some SLI benchies!!!ariafrost - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
*Drool* Anyone know how much of a performance boost would come from SLI yet? I'm wondering if two 6600GTs would outperform a 6800 ultra.glennpratt - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Page 2"While nVidia was not ready to ship nForce4 SLI reference boards for review, they were demonstrating a major manufacturer's nF4 SLI board with a pair of nVidia 6800 Ultra video cards. We also got to play with the SLI system with an Athlon 64 4000+ CPU, confirming benchmarks that were supplied by nVidia."
Jincuteguy - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
why didn't anand did any SLI performance test? i thoguht this board suppose to have SLI.