nForce4: PCI Express and SLI for Athlon 64
by Wesley Fink on October 19, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
SLI Performance
For months, nVidia has been sneaking peeks at their upcoming Dual Video card capabilities, based on a technology known as SLI, or Scalable Link Interface. Not since the PCI Voodoo 2 from 3dfx in 1996 have we seen such a solution from a major graphics vendor. Of course, history saw the original 3dfx die in the market place. The single-slot AGP was introduced, 3dfx lost the video wars, and nVidia purchased what was left of 3dfx.We have been told that 3dfx engineers had quite a bit to do with the design of the new GeForce 6 series, and that is finally starting to make sense when we see that SLI capabilities are built into the 6 series video cards. Dual AGP would require a custom design, but PCI Express, like PCI in the past, finally provides the kind of platform that nVidia needed to launch a new SLI solution.
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 at 1600x1200 resolution at 4x AA. We also got to play with the SLI system with an Athlon 64 4000+ CPU, confirming benchmarks that were supplied by nVidia.
| Single GPU vs. SLI - nForce4 SLI | |||||||||
| 6600GT | 6800GT | 6800 Ultra | |||||||
| Single | SLI | % Increase | Single | SLI | % Increase | Single | SLI | % Increase | |
| Doom3 | 17.3 | 32 | 85% | 37.9 | 65.2 | 72% | 42.4 | 71.7 | 69% |
| Halo | 37.23 | 58.58 | 57% | 50.01 | 72.76 | 45% | 57.21 | 79.01 | 38% |
| 3DMark05 | 3186 | 5698 | 85% | 4588 | 8271 | 80% | 5211 | 9297 | 78% |
Increases in video performance from 38% to 85% are certainly impressive, and there are gamers and performance enthusiasts who will be flocking to the new nForce4 SLI boards as soon as they start shipping in the next few weeks. Perhaps the most impressive gain here is the performance leap with a pair of SLI 6600GT video cards. Two of these less than $200 cards are actually faster in most benchmarks compared to a single $400 6800GT. This provides an interesting upgrade path for many users. Of course, a pair of 6800GT or 6800 Ultra cards take performance to levels that we have never seen before.
Click to enlarge.
Shipping boards will allow a single video card of any brand at x16 PCIe or 2 nVidia video cards in two x8 PCIe slots in SLI mode. The SLI boards can be switched easily from x16 to SLI mode by switching a programming card on the board.
Click to enlarge.
nVidia says that the first nForce4 SLI boards will be available in the next few weeks from Asus and MSI. Other manufacturers will also be supplying SLI motherboards later this year.
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AlphaFox - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I take it no one here has used soundstorm with doom3: crackling and cutting out, having to reset the sound all the time. pain in the butt, how is it great??jm0ris0n - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I still think that Anyone who would want SLI-PCIe WOULD NOT use onboard sound.Viper96720 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
Ah i see I thought that was agp it is the 16x pci-e.LotoBak - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
55 -I take it your refering to this pic
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showimage.htm...
That long slot is NOT agp. It is PCIe 16x. The two above it are PCIe 4x I believe (could be wrong on the 4x)
jediknight - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
nVidia's decision to dump SoundStorm makes no sense. If it was a business decision because the OEMs and media (??) as an earlier posted pointed out.. how can they justify the extra expense of SLI? What OEM is going to use that high-end tech? (Hint: Not Alienware.. they've got their own stuff)The same people who want SLI want SoundStorm.. these enthusiasts are nVidia's core business (not by sales volume, by prestige, reputation, etc. in the marketplace) and not listening to your customers is a bad idea in my book..
jm0ris0n - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
I could care less about the soundstorm :-p*Drool@SLI goodness :-D*
Viper96720 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#45 the board has AGP in case you didn't notice the long brown slot next to the PCI. The 2 small ones right above the audio is the PCI-E.RebolMan - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
The reason soundstorm is nice is because it outpreforms "real" cards - thus leading to better enjoyment of said games by soaking up less CPU time!http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review...
It produces a _better_ gaming experience in terms of sound, and still gets better frame-rates than a PC equipped with a SB Audigy Platinum Pro!
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review...
and...
http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=articl...
Why don't vendors pay as much attention to "APU" performance as they do to GPU performance?
RebolMan - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
BAH! Where's my SoundStorm!!!?!?!?Aquila76 - Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - link
#44 - That dual SLI board (page 3) looks like an MSI (VIA chipset? has an Envy controller at top) board, not the nForce4 SLI reference board. The nVidia reference board design may be different.