2 + 2 = 4 = SLI on steroids, QUAD solution?

DemonDiablo said:
What would really make it more intresting is if they did this for AGP. About the only reason why a AMD person would upgrade to PCIe is for SLI as an upgradble option plan. However if you were to start to make dual gpu video cards in an agp format...well lets just say PCIe is moving really slow right now it will probably move in slower if dual gpu cards became available in agp flavors
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Thats why PCI-e is moving at all right now.
The AGP format can't do multiple GPUs with a single CPU and/or a lot of software run arounds.
AGP may have given us speed but it was weak in so many ways.
 
MeanieMan said:
Thats why PCI-e is moving at all right now.
The AGP format can't do multiple GPUs with a single CPU and/or a lot of software run arounds.
AGP may have given us speed but it was weak in so many ways.
Click to expand...

Excuse my ignorance, but why is it that you cant have more than one gpu/vpu on a pcb running in agp?
 
Ballz2TheWallz said:
conectors arent needed for sli at all, if you knew anything about it sli works without the connector its just there to lower latency
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a connector is very much needed to connect two physical cards in NVIDIA SLI
 
Comte said:
I dont understand why SLI wouldnt work between a PCI-E card and a AGP card if they both were locked down to AGP bus speeds.
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they are two different communication protocols

the way the information is shared between the bus would have to be in two different protocols
 
Brent_Justice said:
a connector is very much needed to connect two physical cards in NVIDIA SLI
Click to expand...
it works without it
no-connector.gif

FACE
 
Brent_Justice said:
a connector is very much needed to connect two physical cards in NVIDIA SLI
Click to expand...

you're both right...doing it without a connector is a bit of a hack and lowers performance a bit...the official spec is to have the connector...
 
^eMpTy^ said:
you're both right...doing it without a connector is a bit of a hack and lowers performance a bit...the official spec is to have the connector...
Click to expand...
it wasnt done with a hack, there for is not required(key word)
 
Ballz2TheWallz said:
it works without it
no-connector.gif

FACE
Click to expand...

could you link me to the actual article please, not just the picture

it doesn't show up when you hotlink to pictures from tomshardware
 
M1ster_R0gers said:
So does anyone know theoretically using this same principle will it be possible to put dual cores on an AGP card? Does nvidia SLI function completely independant of the Pci-e bus?

I saw the press on the 3d1 a few weeks ago and have been wondering if we could eventually see single card agp SLI solutions.
Click to expand...

if you did you'd have to have the HSI chip on board to convert from PCI-E to AGP, and then you'd have to figure out how to half the AGP bus for each GPU to make it AGP4X for each GPU
 
It's talking about how the driver complains the connector is missing, but it says multi-gpu will still work. The writer adds:
"Without the SLI connector attached, the driver gets grumpy. SLI works, but in a limited fashion (see Performance Analysis). "

This page has #s for no connector:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041123/sli-performance-30.html

UT2004 , 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF:
With SLI connector (2 cards): 153.3 FPS
Without SLI connector disabled (2 cards): 133.0 FPS
Single card (1 card): 101.1 FPS
 
-freon- said:
It's talking about how the driver complains the connector is missing, but it says multi-gpu will still work. The writer adds:
"Without the SLI connector attached, the driver gets grumpy. SLI works, but in a limited fashion (see Performance Analysis). "

This page has #s for no connector:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041123/sli-performance-30.html
Click to expand...

who wants to operate their SLI in a limited fashion?

i haven't tried to operate the cards without the connector btw, because the proper configuration is WITH the connector connected

btw the data that is being communicated between the connector is all the pixel data (1GB/sec), the pci-e bus transmits all the texture data

if you don't have the connector installed all the pixel data won't move across, or maybe it would have to jam up with the texture data between the pci-e bus, either way it is not meant to operate that way
 
Brent_Justice said:
who wants to operate their SLI in a limited fashion?

i haven't tried to operate the cards without the connector btw, because the proper configuration is WITH the connector connected

btw the data that is being communicated between the connector is all the pixel data (1GB/sec), the pci-e bus transmits all the texture data

if you don't have the connector installed all the pixel data won't move across, or maybe it would have to jam up with the texture data between the pci-e bus, either way it is not meant to operate that way
Click to expand...

I agree, but I believe the arguments were the connector isnt actually required to operate SLI mode, and not if it works with good performance. That article proves it isnt actually required for it to work.. It is simply required for it to work at its best. One thing they dont seem to mention is whether or not the image quality was affected.
It still doesnt mean two dual-gpu cards will work together though.
 
DemonDiablo said:
Excuse my ignorance, but why is it that you cant have more than one gpu/vpu on a pcb running in agp?
Click to expand...

Actually, you CAN do it.. in fact, ati had a card that failed to get adopted called , I believe, a "Rage maxx"

As you can see, it's a dual gpu card. :)

Nobody actually BOUGHT any of them, but that's another story entirely.

http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/video/rage-fury-maxx.htm

http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/video/rage-fury-maxx-4.htm
Noticebly interesting is how it beat the nvidia flagship product at the time in some tests, but lost to it in others. {it usually won, though] but.. ya know what? People preferred the more EXPENSIVE nvidia card..

why? cause it ran the quake games better..and quake was THE gaming engine of choice at the time.. I mean, the ati card was faster on say, testdrive 6, but that wasn't nearly as big as a game.
 
Laforge said:
Actually, you CAN do it.. in fact, ati had a card that failed to get adopted called , I believe, a "Rage maxx"

As you can see, it's a dual gpu card. :)

Nobody actually BOUGHT any of them, but that's another story entirely.

http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/video/rage-fury-maxx.htm

http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/video/rage-fury-maxx-4.htm
Noticebly interesting is how it beat the nvidia flagship product at the time in some tests, but lost to it in others. {it usually won, though] but.. ya know what? People preferred the more EXPENSIVE nvidia card..

why? cause it ran the quake games better..and quake was THE gaming engine of choice at the time.. I mean, the ati card was faster on say, testdrive 6, but that wasn't nearly as big as a game.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I thought. The question was more so directed at that other guy b/c I wanted to see how he was going to dig himself out of that hole. Oh well I guess you saved his neck although he probably wasnt going to post a reply only b/c he didnt have any facts to back up his statement
 
Neutraleyes said:
As I understand it, the small card between the two PCIe slots on nForce4 motherboards toggles between 1 PCIe-x16 slot for single-card operation and 2 PCIe-x8 slots for SLI operation.

If you do not like the way HardOCP reviews video cards, there are other review sites such as Anandtech that will give you apples-to-apples comparisons.



Throughout this thread you have done almost nothing but spout misinformation, flame and insult other members as well as the HardOCP staff, and generally make yourself look like a complete ass. If you were banned and all 2300 of your posts deleted, it would bring a broad smile to my face.



Did you call him a THG-face?

My two cents. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

sorry but the pic did work for an hour or so before that happend heres a link
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041123/sli-performance-03.html

thanks to me lol the pic on the page dont work no more but at the bottum quote
Without the SLI connector attached, the driver gets grumpy. SLI works, but in a limited fashion (see Performance Analysis).
Click to expand...
 
paulmofyourhand said:
some SLi boards are connected via a small sli card built onto the pcb between the two pci-e slots
Click to expand...

I think you may be confusing the single/sli select card that resembles a cnr card. IT is on many of the boards , at least mine and it is between the tow pcie video card slots.
 
MeanieMan said:
Thats why PCI-e is moving at all right now.
The AGP format can't do multiple GPUs with a single CPU and/or a lot of software run arounds.
AGP may have given us speed but it was weak in so many ways.
Click to expand...

the 3dfx series ran multiple gpu's the volari v5 and v8 duos are multiple gpu, and agp even has monsters like
this for anyone digging a quad r300 solution.

So Multiple GPU in AGP is not only feasable, it has been done for over 5 years. My question is if SLI is compatable with an agp bus or not.
 
I don't know about AGP SLI but multiple AGP slots on one board are possible in the AGP 3.0 spec. I think HP offered Alphaservers with multiple AGP slots.

Edit:

http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/es80/

Edit 2: Never mind on that Alphaserver I was mistaken those slots are seperated out into each Processor Building Block Drawer
 
Interesting........but they used two northbridges to do it....if i am reading that correctly.
 
Okay there are server motherboards coming out with dual processors, that handle having dual nforce4 sli chipsets allowing for 16x for each pci-e slot, so 8x for each GPU in a dual GPU video card. Tyan and iWill make these boards I believe, I am positive that Tyan does.

.... ofcourse these motherboards are hundreds of dollars more than a regular motherboard

If you look at the top of that Asus Dual 6600gt video card, there are white pin connecters... so far that could be the only possible way there would be SLI ... seeing how there is two on each card ( one for each gpu ? )

Otherwise with all considering this would be pretty hard, and pointless, only good for people who are RICH!!! Not only would you need a 700+ dollar motherboard, and buy dual 400 dollar video cards, you would need a beastily PSU given down by the heavens! considering that the motherboard takes more than average too.

Good day sirs!
 
I didn't even know that the wattage of a psu has ever been made that high... I was thinking more like ~600W
 
Oh well 850(according to the link 950 in the pipeline) is bigger than 600 so it must be better :p
 
Washuu said:
Okay there are server motherboards coming out with dual processors, that handle having dual nforce4 sli chipsets allowing for 16x for each pci-e slot, so 8x for each GPU in a dual GPU video card. Tyan and iWill make these boards I believe, I am positive that Tyan does.

.... ofcourse these motherboards are hundreds of dollars more than a regular motherboard

If you look at the top of that Asus Dual 6600gt video card, there are white pin connecters... so far that could be the only possible way there would be SLI ... seeing how there is two on each card ( one for each gpu ? )

Otherwise with all considering this would be pretty hard, and pointless, only good for people who are RICH!!! Not only would you need a 700+ dollar motherboard, and buy dual 400 dollar video cards, you would need a beastily PSU given down by the heavens! considering that the motherboard takes more than average too.

Good day sirs!
Click to expand...

700 bucks for a mobo? I assume thats a joke right? Plus i will wait for the dual 6800gt or something along those lines
 
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