We dont need to be in Taiwan to know what's going on in the industry but as you know it was not our choice to skip humid Computex show.

However, we learned that even if Crossfire defeats SLI, Nvidia has some secret horses for a new race. It is working on something that we know as SLI 2.

As you know SLI, has been around for a few quarters now and Nvidia is working to improve this marchitecture. One of the teams was working to get some better silicon at the same time and that’s what we believe is going to be called SLI2.

We learned that Nvidia is working on a motherboard that will have more PCIe lanes and might actually get close to two times 16 PCIe lanes, the ultimate for PCIe graphic cards in SLI mode.

We are not sure how much two times PCIe 16 times lanes will change the actual SLI score but this is something that we need to see before making our own mind . It could be good thing you never know.

Nvidia will also improve number things on its new silicon once it polishes it enough as it learned from its first born SLI chipset. We don’t have any idea about timing of final specification and features of such SLI 2 chipsets and boards but we will work on it.


Source : TheInquirer

yes give us more pci-e lanes that's what we need. 2gb/s/card is not enough obviously.

look u marketing a$$holes, step away from the r&d department, stop looking over the engineers' shoulders and quit telling them what to do so that you can apply more ink on the spec sheets.

the one thing that sli2 needs is what the whole concept is all about, i.e. being able to put 2 video cards in a machine. not 2 halves of a card as is the case with sli(1) at present. i want to be able to buy a 6600 now and in 1.5 years buy a 6800gt for the same price and have them both work in sync

(in reply to SiliconFreak)

No no no....more lanes....more disasters for Nvidia........and you were right...2gb/s/card really isnt enough...but its already WAY TOO MUCH!!!

So by my opinion....it may be SLI1,2,3 or 100....the whole concept sucks at its roots...so you cant change much here....and even if they could use 2x16 lanes (could be even 2x128lanes...)....there would still be games and some other software where it just wouldnt work....or it wouldnt bring any noticeable performance increases...

So from this point of view....ATIs concept is much better,flexible and upgradeable....it works with ALL software and games....and its much faster than SLI2 (or whichever SLI in the future)....trust me on this one!  So if anyone needs more than those 2gb/s/card (ATI actually uses full bandwidth at both(or even more than with just 2 cards....could be 4,8,16,...cards....so one more advantage for ATI over SLI) cards....so 4Gb/s/card)...then this is surely ATI....

To finish this...I really wish You luck with Your idea (of buying 6600 now and 6800gt in 1.5 years), but I believe it will be as with most of CPU-upgradeable motherboards....when the upgrade time comes...you just find out that some other component (ram,disk controller,FSB,network card,...etc...) will lag behind too much - so even with new CPU...whole system wont be faster or even close to some totally new motherboard with those new implementations already on it....got the point? Thats what we need to have in mind at those so-called "upgradeable components"....there is always something missing...and I am afraid that even at your idea of SLI upgrade...something will surely change in those 1.5 years which will force you (and/or others) to re-think whether upgrade is good option or whether to buy completely new components...it depends whether someone looks from budget or performance point of view....for low-budget user....upgrade will be reasonable option (but dont think you will get same performance as new systems at the time of upgrade!...cause you wont!...i.e...in 1.5 years much much happens...and those 1.5 years old components are at that time good enough for some average users only)....but for someone who wants performance....it will be better to buy completely new components...so its again up to each individual to decide....

ENOUGH (at last,huh)........(need a beer fast....cause all this deep thinking almost burned my brains....)


Cya around....enjoy....bye....

(in reply to semo)

put ........................ the beer bottle ....................doooown!

my pc is over 3 years old now and a new gfx card would help it a lot. i will be able to play hl2 and doom (with doom even the main menu is choppy never mind trying ot walk and jump and stuff in game). sure i won't get all the eye candy without top of the range gfx card and the physics might not work too well on my willamette but it will all be functional. these days you're paying the higher price only for diminishing returns. look at p4 for example, they're going nowhere fast. ppl that got a p4 2.8ghz prolly oc'd it to 3.4 or something which could easily take the 3.4 and 3.6 prescotts. amd and their push for 64bit 2 years ago still hasn't payed. maybe it will soon when winxp 64 comes out but right now... same with memory.. those that got ddr400 need not envy ppl with ddr600 that much.

a few months ago when i bought a pc for a friend i realised just how little things have changed since bought my pc. there have been no major leaps since i bought my pc. main difference is that a pc bought now would cost a third of what i paid for my pc (but with equivalent components ofcourse).

main reason to upgrade these days is for games so i'll prolly just get a new mid range gfx card and save up for a next gen console. my pc is not obsolete yet since i am still upgrading it with no problems. i've added usb2.0 to it, added an hdd, have a benq1620 in the post and i'm getting some logitech z-5500 along with a mx-518. cuttin edge stuff is for ppl who like high numbers (courtesy of synthetic benchmarks). me... i like to see high (black/positive) numbers in my bank account

(in reply to SiliconFreak)

I mostly agree with what you said...you can do it that way....maybe oc cpu a bit...add more ram...maybe new graphics card and so on....but you wont get the total performance of new system at the time of upgrade (and even if...you would spend more that if you bought entire new mid-range system!)....

I agree that CPU part isnt major role nowadays...I guess that anything above 2Ghz will do its job quite well....also ram speed around DDR400 is ok....next...if you have 100mbps network card (or maybe some gigabit-lan integrated on M/B) its also more than enough for coming years....usb2.0 is also a standard already for quite some time now...some nice 19" LCD monitor....mouse...etc....and thats it....

But the reason for most of upgrading that takes place is...GAMING...and although components above arent soooooooo important ( the above ones will do good job at almost any game), on the other hand Graphics card is! And I wouldnt recommend oc'ing  3 years old card to try to get same performance as new cards....no way... So one option is to do as you said before(buy new card and connect both of them into SLI)-which would make sence if it would really double performance (which i am sure it wont!)...or...just buy new card that matches your budget...I am 99% sure that new mid-range-class graphics card(i.e. bought in 2008) will beat SLI made of 1 2005 card&1 new card at that time...because that 3yo card will prevent the other (new card) to show its full potential in SLI mode...

enough for one day...do as you wish....i wish you all the best with choosing the right path.......Beer? did I hear a nice tall sexy blonde saying "come on over....have a beer with me?"...huh....must have been dreaming...

(in reply to semo)

HIS's marketing manager, Peter Yeung, has this to say: "Most new games are designed for advanced graphics, and end users will see large performance increases with multi-GPU systems. Competitive SLI systems only work on a select few number of games that are profiled in the driver. In contrast, HIS CrossFire works will with all 3D applications. The end user is able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, no matter upcoming, current or old, all the time, plus improves the overall gaming experience."

Competitive SLI systems only work on a select few number of games that are profiled in the driver
Competitive SLI systems only work on a select few number of games that are profiled in the driver
Competitive SLI systems only work on a select few number of games that are profiled in the driver
Competitive SLI systems only work on a select few number of games that are profiled in the driver
Competitive SLI systems only work on a select few number of games that are profiled in the driver
 
 
HIS CrossFire works will with all 3D applications...able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, no matter upcoming, current or old, all the time, plus improves the overall gaming experience...
HIS CrossFire works will with all 3D applications...able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, no matter upcoming, current or old, all the time, plus improves the overall gaming experience...
HIS CrossFire works will with all 3D applications...able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, no matter upcoming, current or old, all the time, plus improves the overall gaming experience...
HIS CrossFire works will with all 3D applications...able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, no matter upcoming, current or old, all the time, plus improves the overall gaming experience...
HIS CrossFire works will with all 3D applications...able to take advantage of the additional graphics hardware for all games, no matter upcoming, current or old, all the time, plus improves the overall gaming experience...
 
 
 
So so so??? SLI or Crossfire? No doubt here...SLI (Seriously Leaking Interface ) is dead meat when it finds itself right in the middle of CrossFire...

(in reply to SiliconFreak)

yep, main reason for upgrades is games most of the time. yep, crossfire looks interesting but... try to remember the issues with the current gen of ati gfx cards -- ya couldn't find 'em anywhere. ati has had a chipset for atleast a year now but i've never seen an ati powered mobos so what makes you think they will release that crossfire thing in the near future. it not only needs chipset support but gpu support as well. i certainly like the idea though.

that's why i'm getting a next gen console. much better vallue for money. look at the ps(1). been around for 10 years and you could still buy new games for it not so long ago. ps2 - 5 years and new games appear weekly. my p4 1.8ghz with radeon 7500 - no new games for whatsoever

and

quote:

ORIGINAL: SiliconFreak

...

did I hear a nice tall sexy blonde saying "come on over....have a beer with me?"...huh....must have been dreaming...

ignore it, must be the beer talking. feel free to talk back

(in reply to SiliconFreak)

first of all...Crossfire is hear....few more weeks or maybe months...and you could buy it anywhere...and it will be (as they said) cheaper to connect 2 cards in Crossfire mode than it is with Nvidia's SLI...and also first one is much faster...thats why i vote for it... It doesnt need no special stuff to make it work....just one Crossfire "motherboard" card and another ordinary card like X800XL,X850XT and stuff....and off you go...connect them...and they will work like hellllllllllll (actually it will be a living hell for SLI!)


And about consoles...yes i agree...I read about PS3 and its features....that surely is gonna be a MUST-HAVE baby....mmmmmmmmmmmm.... Read more about its superlatives here (and click on Source for full story..)...http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/ReviewsAroundTheWeb/Home.aspx#Id_564 
Short sample from there....
""""The Playstation 3's components are being described with superlatives. For example, the new console is 35 times more powerful than the Playstation 2, the company says. Indeed, the firm has spared no expense in order to maintain its lead in the console market, confronted with the extremely promising Xbox 360 and the Nintendo. As previously announced, the PlayStation 3 will be powered by an IBM PowerPC multi-processor with a clock speed of 3.2 GHz and the capability to reach 218 GFlops.

The main memory does not lag behind either, with 256 MB of XDR (specially adapted for this type of processor), while in tandem the video memory, will also reach 256 MB, composed of DDR at 700 MHz.

On the graphics side, the partnership with Nvidia has led to an amazing processor christened the RSX "Reality Synthesizer," which can carry out its calculations for pixels with 128 precision bits and with a resolution of 1080 lines (that is, the precise norm for "true" high resolution). By comparison, according to Nvidia, this RSX graphics processor based on a 90-nm process, with a speed of 550 MHz and no less than 300 million transistors, is more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultras. This means that the sky's the limit for developers and guarantees even more visual pleasure for gamers. """


Finally....stop whinning about your machine and no games and so on....almost all new games that come out today support your machine (although its better to meet a "recommended requirements" than "minimum requirements" , but anyway....games should work....most of them....but you should play them at 1600 but on 800 screen resolution...)

one last info....two more news just came by....1. http://www.cdrinfo.com/Forum/tm.asp?m=111264 (ATI's R520! which is gonna make Nvidia cry out loud for sure...i guess 24 pipelines will be more than enough...but if not...they'll just turn all 32 of them on....and vrooooooooooooom....hahahahahaha) 2.http://www.cdrinfo.com/Forum/tm.asp?m=111265 (something about Crossfire and Doom 3....read it well...cause if CrossfireX850XT already defeated SLI (2x6800Ultra) then i cant imagine what R520 and its 32 pipelines in Crossfire mode will do to Nvidia's poor 7800 (be it GX,Ultra,GSX,GSXR,Ninja,ZX....oooppss...mixed them with Kawassaki's....sorry....nvidia isnt as fast as those great motorbikes....sorry again...)


and Crossfire preview here....




Thats it...take your time....have a beer or two...and expect more news soon....

(in reply to semo)

Must admit, never been a fan of ATI, but I'm impressed with what I have been reading.  Love my A8N-SLI, but agree it is too early to tell where it will go.  I purchased mine because I love nVidia chipsets for AMD; not for SLI (yet).  I have yet to see an ATI chipset and am a little leary of their first attempt.  But hey, keep the heat on and these two technologies could evolve.  I'd say if nVidia is working on SLI2 then they will likely stop working on drivers for SLI and scrap it.

Disappointing.  But congtat's to ATI for the competitive edge (on paper for now) that spooked nVidia into announcing SLI2.

(in reply to SiliconFreak)

I agree with you SithTracy...

Although I have always been ATI fan...I never underestimated Nvidia...because they are both great Graphic cards manufacturers....maybe some takes a lead for a year or so....then the other takes it....and so on....competition...thats all about....because at the end...with their "battles" we gain the most...just look how it all improved in last 3-4 years....I wish that some other manufacturer would join this race.... We'll have to wait and see and always hope for the best for all of us!

Also both....CrossFire and SLI (2)...have great potential...its just that CrossFire is newborn baby  thats why it has all the latest techologies inside...and thus more performance and everything...but I also know that Nvidia wont rest for long here... We could just look back a while here....its been more than a year that Nvidia dominated now (not much....maybe few % but anyway...)....so only with ATI's latest X850XT and upcoming R520, ATI is slowly starting to move forward again....but as I said...Nvidia wont rest...so...you know what i mean...

Cya soon with more news...

(in reply to SithTracy)