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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sprockkets - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
Thanks for the clarification. But also some were using the Server Intel chipset cause it had 2 16x slots, instead of the desktop chipset to use SLI. Like the article said though, the latest drivers only like the nvidia sli chipet.ChineseDemocracyGNR - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
#29,The 6800GT PCI-E is probably going to use a different chip (native PCI-E) than the broken AGP version.
One big problem with nVidia's SLI that I don't see enough people talking about is this:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=99&type=e...
Jeff7181 - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
Why is everyone thinking dual core CPU's and dual GPU video cards is so far fetched? Give it 6-12 months and you'll see it.RocketChild - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
I seem to recall ATi was frantically working on a solution like this to bypass Nvidia's SLI solution and I am not reading anything about their progress. From the position the article points to BIOS hurdles, does it look like we are going to have to wait for ATi to release their first chipset to support a multi-GPU ATi card? Anyone here have any information or speculations?LoneWolf15 - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
25, the reason you'd want to buy two 6600GT's instead of one 6800GT is that PureVideo functions work completely on the 6600GT, whereas they are partially broken on the 6800GT. If this solution didn't work in only Gigabyte boards, I'd certainly consider it myself.skiboysteve - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
Im confused as to why anyone would buy this card at all. Your paying the same price as a 6800GT and getting the same performance with all the issues that go with Gigabyte SLI. thats retarded.ceefka - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
Are there any cards available for the remaining PCI-E slots?Ivo - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
Obviously, the future belongs to the matrix CPU/GPU (IGP?) solutions with optimized performance/power consumption ratios. But there is still a relatively long way (2 years?) to go. The recent NVIDIA's NF4-SLI game is more marketing, then technical in nature. They are simply checking the market, concurrence, and … enthusiastic IT society :-) The response is moderate, as the challenge is. But the excitements are predetermined.Happy New Year 2005!
PrinceGaz - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
I don't understand why anyone would want to buy a dual-core 6600GT rather than a similarly priced 6800GT.DerekWilson - Friday, January 7, 2005 - link
I appologize for the omission of pictures from the article on publication.We have updated the article with images of the 3D1 and the K8NXP-SLI for your viewing pleasure.
Thanks,
Derek Wilson