[Grey Wolf]

Seems that nVidia's new tech doesn't actually affect that much. Apparently, they need to write profiles for each game for it to work, and they've only gotten around to writing it for about 15 games: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_hardware_sliapps.html

[Liberator]

You'd think with as much hype as they've been giving it that they'd have a whole staff to do nothing but write profiles.

[JR2000Z]

nvidias nothing but hype

[Liberator]

You just want a Nvidia/ATi flame war don't ya?

[Nuke]

id stick with agp, vidcardarrays are the only reason to use pcix anyway.

[IceFire]

Apparently SLI does work with Pacific Fighters...but only after tweaking.  

All companies are hype...thats how it works.  Sometimes we like it, sometimes we hate it.

[Scuddie]

PCIe is hype.

PCI-X was WAY more than enough.  Hell, I wish PCI-X was used a helluva lot more commonly.  As of now, if you have a PCI-X board, you can do jack, and ****.  ****ing multiple standards...

PCI-X > PCIe; I base this claim on absolutely nothing.

[Ace Pace]

Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
Seems that nVidia's new tech doesn't actually affect that much. Apparently, they need to write profiles for each game for it to work, and they've only gotten around to writing it for about 15 games: http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_hardware_sliapps.html

Read the list, its all high end games that actully benefit from SLI.

I don't even see why would anyone get SLI unless they were planning on playing those games, you don't need high end parts to play a TBS afterall.

Scuddie, allready, BS, PCIe will be very helpful to the video companies, since video editing is heavy on information transfares, and on PCI that thing is just slow, same with PCI-X. Also, with texture sizes increasing in games, memory transfare from system memory will be helpful, to do that, you need a fast BI-directional bus, not a one way ****stain called AGP.

[Fineus]

Seems like a bit of a penis-extension piece of tech to me. Great to brag about and very impressive to your geeky mates who worship your water-cooled dual video card rig.

But damn near useless for most applications.

[Ace Pace]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
Seems like a bit of a penis-extension piece of tech to me. Great to brag about and very impressive to your geeky mates who worship your water-cooled dual video card rig.

But damn near useless for most applications.

Yes, its a nice toy, but its useful.
Get a SLI motherboard, get 1 6800GT, when you need to upgrade, forget replacing the card, get another 6800GT(which by the time you upgrade will probebly be under 200$) and Presto, fast preformance increase.

[Fineus]

True - but the cost of them isn't exactly cheap... and who do the developers think about catering for? The SLI users with their increased performance cards... or everyone else?
 
We end up looking at a situation where the SLI people want games that push their cards with increased visuals etc. that can only be taken advantage of by SLI format systems. The rest of us are in the other boat shouting "hang on, what about the rest of us who don't/can't afford this kind of thing?".

Hope you see where I'm coming from - it has its place I guess - but there are other things that they could be concentrating on.

[Scuddie]

Originally posted by Ace Pace
Scuddie, allready, BS, PCIe will be very helpful to the video companies, since video editing is heavy on information transfares, and on PCI that thing is just slow, same with PCI-X. Also, with texture sizes increasing in games, memory transfare from system memory will be helpful, to do that, you need a fast BI-directional bus, not a one way ****stain called AGP.

You are correct.  I was being sarcastic.  The last sentence of my post should give that away.

Anyway, yes PCIe will be very helpful to video rendering.  However, until that day comes where PCIe will be utilized to its potential, it is simply does not justify the additional cost required to buy a new board and video card.  Neither the bus, nor the cards are capable of using PCIe to its full power.  We're just not there yet.  AGP 4X does the job perfectly well, and the difference is barely noticeable.

Video capture on the other hand...  Well, lets just say that I've never done that before on anything higher than AGP 8X, and even that was a pain in the ass.  I sincerely hope PCIe will flourish in its success in that matter.


And more on topic:  Latest and greatest isnt always best.  I can see where SLI would be neccessary in the future, but now it isnt feasible. 15% improvement from an extra $479 isnt worth it, IMO.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Scuddie
You are correct.  I was being sarcastic.  The last sentence of my post should give that away.

Anyway, yes PCIe will be very helpful to video rendering.  However, until that day comes where PCIe will be utilized to its potential, it is simply does not justify the additional cost required to buy a new board and video card.  Neither the bus, nor the cards are capable of using PCIe to its full power.  We're just not there yet.  AGP 4X does the job perfectly well, and the difference is barely noticeable.

Video capture on the other hand...  Well, lets just say that I've never done that before on anything higher than AGP 8X, and even that was a pain in the ass.  I sincerely hope PCIe will flourish in its success in that matter.


And more on topic:  Latest and greatest isnt always best.  I can see where SLI would be neccessary in the future, but now it isnt feasible. 15% improvement from an extra $479 isnt worth it, IMO.

Certainly at the moment the extra bandwidth afforded by PCI Express isn't going to be needed for a while yet.  Certainly one day they will push that boundary but right now we aren't even stressing the AGP 8X cards so I think it'll take some time.

There's no reason at all, unless you have lots of cash with which to spend frivolously, to buy a board for PCI Express.  On the other hand, new computers of all types are going to start using this as a standard.  Its better than old school PCI and its better than AGP (when you need it to be) so its going to be a good standard to move in now and then grow into it later.  But thats for new systems...

...no need right now to rush out.

[Grey Wolf]

And more nVidia evilness: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21008
Specifically, look around the picture with the two monitors. Apparently, nVidia does not consider VIA chipsets worthy of SLI
This basically cements my decision in favor of a single 6800 when I build my computer this summer....