3-way SLI

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CoW]8(0)

[H]ard|Gawd
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http://www.hardspell.com/english/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=1503
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=5296

We have reported that nForce 780i SLI will support 3-way SLI and NVIDIA defined it to be The Next Generation Ultimate Gaming Platforms.

According to NVIDIA roadmap before 680i 3-way SLI forceware come out, nForce 780i SLI will be the first 3-way supported mainboard chipset, then nForce 790i SLI and nForec 780a SLI for AMD. nForce 680i SLI will also support 3-way SLI after the forceware upgraded.

nvidia is doing to ati what Intel did to AMD. It's a terrible day to own amd shares :(
 
Small problem -- or big, depending on your outlook. With 3 8800 GTXs or Ultras in SLI they're going to run stupid-hot. I mean STUPID hot. So close together, they won't have any room to pull air for intake save right up against the card below. You'll also lose all but one PCIe 1x slot (the one just above the top 16x slot) on 680i boards so you better not need any expansion cards.

3 GTXs are going to be difficult to keep cool, even on water. You'd need more than a single 3x120 radiator for 3 cards -- probably 2 3x120s, not to mention the cost of blocks alone at around $100 each. That's around $500 to cool such a setup, and you'd need a huge case to mount it all in or on.

Granted, 3-way SLI wouldn't be aimed at anyone but very serious sorts of buyers, the 'performance at all costs' crowd... but once you realize that cooling is $500 on top of call it $1500 for cards alone and you're going to need a $200+ PSU, more like a $300-400 PSU with a quad core, which most would be running with such a setup... vs. stock cooling being sufficient with standard SLI and a $150-200 PSU, it's a difficult sell.
 
I think you underestimate watercooling. Watercooling GPU's gives much higher gains than watercooling for CPUs. Where air cooled GPU temps have 60C temperature deltas, water cooled systems usually only have ~10C deltas.

And how many PCI-e 1X devices do you have?
 
Whats up witth al the odd numbers recewntly?

First a Triple Core CPU from AMD, and now 3 way SLi from nVidia
 
CoW]8(0);1031476391 said:
I think you underestimate watercooling. Watercooling GPU's gives much higher gains than watercooling for CPUs. Where air cooled GPU temps have 60C temperature deltas, water cooled systems usually only have ~10C deltas.
Click to expand...

...I'm running water. A dedicated loop. 38C idle 44C load at 675Mhz core 1620Mhz shader 1026Mhz RAM. Swiftech MCR320 radiator, Eheim 1048 pump. I'm not underestimating, I'm going with what I'm seeing now. 3 GTXs, even at stock clocks, on a single 3x120 radiator are going to run too hot. Put more heat in the loop, temps go up. That's just how it works. Put 3x the heat in the loop, temps go up a /lot/.
 
silent-circuit said:
...I'm running water. A dedicated loop. 38C idle 44C load at 675Mhz core 1620Mhz shader 1026Mhz RAM. Swiftech MCR320 radiator, Eheim 1048 pump. I'm not underestimating, I'm going with what I'm seeing now. 3 GTXs, even at stock clocks, on a single 3x120 radiator are going to run too hot. Put more heat in the loop, temps go up. That's just how it works. Put 3x the heat in the loop, temps go up a /lot/.
Click to expand...

Well your temperatures support my argument. What are the acceptable temperatures for a 8800GTX? IIRC, it's over 80C.
 
CoW]8(0);1031476459 said:
Well your temperatures support my argument. What are the acceptable temperatures for a 8800GTX? IIRC, it's over 80C.
Click to expand...

Some would argue that. I'd personally say no higher than 80C, ideally 75C and below under load. My point is, yes, it's fine with one card in the loop -- very good, even -- but temps would go up too much with 3 in the loop, and it hardly seems to make sense to pay $500 for a water setup and get temps equal to or just slightly better than running the same cards on air alone would give.
 
Ahhhh... 80C!?!?!?

I don't like to see over 60C for either CPU or GPU... and I don't.. on air cooling.

It's just really sad how companies apparently dont know how to make good air coolers for GPUs... it's always been that way.
 
Bah, my Core 2 Quad hits over 60C a good bit.

My 8800gtx hits 88*C when playing newer games.

They both work. :)
 
cyclone3d said:
Ahhhh... 80C!?!?!?

I don't like to see over 60C for either CPU or GPU... and I don't.. on air cooling.

It's just really sad how companies apparently dont know how to make good air coolers for GPUs... it's always been that way.
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It's not that they don't know how. People are bitching about the double slot coolers they're using now. imagine having a Tuniq Tower slapped upside the graphics card covering four slots.
 
Why would you want to run 3 cards? Unless of course the other "3rd" one is used as a PPU assiting type device ;)


Anyways, I'd rather get the quad board and stuff quad 8800gtx's in when the drivers come out.... you can get away with such a setup if you watercool :)
 
They always say 3-ways sound great- but when you do it, it always causes trouble in the long run. 2-ways are hard enough- just ask any SLI owner with Vista. :D
 
Diseaseboy said:
They always say 3-ways sound great- but when you do it, it always causes trouble in the long run. 2-ways are hard enough- just ask any SLI owner with Vista. :D
Click to expand...

SLI works in Vista and has for several months. Don't spread misinformation.
 
There is still a performance hit with SLI in Vista over Windows XP. It may work in Vista but still not as well as XP. I still would not rely on SLI to give you a perfomance increase in Vista. If they are just getting SLI to work in Vista now- is it going to be another 9 months for them to get 3 or 4 way SLI to work efficiently in Vista?
 
Spoudazo said:
Bah, my Core 2 Quad hits over 60C a good bit.

My 8800gtx hits 88*C when playing newer games.

They both work. :)
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lol, I would be shitting myself if I had those temps, lol however I am INCREDIBLY picky... so as you say as long as you get teh performances and it wroks... ;)
 
I'm pretty sure this is not being planned with 8800 series cards in mind. 65nm cooler lower power requirement cards are sure to be the order of the day with a setup like this.

I think the most interesting thing is that game (i'm sure physics has something to do with this) and display technology is outpacing gpu technology to the point that this much horsepower is required for the ultimate experience.
 
pretty sure somebody who's willing to spend that much money on 3way sli can afford to do such expensive wc set up
 
CoW]8(0);1031476308 said:
http://www.hardspell.com/english/doc/showcont.asp?news_id=1503
http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=5296

We have reported that nForce 780i SLI will support 3-way SLI and NVIDIA defined it to be The Next Generation Ultimate Gaming Platforms.

According to NVIDIA roadmap before 680i 3-way SLI forceware come out, nForce 780i SLI will be the first 3-way supported mainboard chipset, then nForce 790i SLI and nForec 780a SLI for AMD. nForce 680i SLI will also support 3-way SLI after the forceware upgraded.

nvidia is doing to ati what Intel did to AMD. It's a terrible day to own amd shares :(
Click to expand...

oh joy! maybe I wont need to get 9800's since I have 3 8800's. now if I can find a way to watercool them all.

Citizen86 said:
Loco.... ;)
Click to expand...

what??
 
Hmm...

Current SLI: 50/50 = 100%
Triple SLI: 33/33/33 = 99%

So, Right there, 1 card would have to be taxxed a tiny bit more than the rest of them to make up the entire screen. That would require a total redesign of the SLI architecture and Algorithm... And we're just starting to master the 2 card setups... Sigh.

Also, could you imagine 3 8800GTX's in a water loop? That's a minimum of a Quad radiator right there!

Not to mention a 500w PSU for the GPU's alone. Add in 100w for support devices, and 200w for a quad CPU, + 30% for safety. Yeesh!
 
Diseaseboy said:
There is still a performance hit with SLI in Vista over Windows XP. It may work in Vista but still not as well as XP. I still would not rely on SLI to give you a perfomance increase in Vista. If they are just getting SLI to work in Vista now- is it going to be another 9 months for them to get 3 or 4 way SLI to work efficiently in Vista?
Click to expand...

What? SLI has been working since April or June in Vista...
 
Arcygenical said:
Hmm...

Current SLI: 50/50 = 100%
Triple SLI: 33/33/33 = 99%

So, Right there, 1 card would have to be taxxed a tiny bit more than the rest of them to make up the entire screen. That would require a total redesign of the SLI architecture and Algorithm... And we're just starting to master the 2 card setups... Sigh.

Also, could you imagine 3 8800GTX's in a water loop? That's a minimum of a Quad radiator right there!

Not to mention a 500w PSU for the GPU's alone. Add in 100w for support devices, and 200w for a quad CPU, + 30% for safety. Yeesh!
Click to expand...

What?? that makes no sense. It doesn't work like that.. there are different methods of SLI.. it is exactly 33.3333333...% if they just pass 1 frame to each frame, rotating through the cards. They don't split the workload itself into 3. They can do this, but they usually don't use this method. Even if they do, you don't have to rewrite an "SLI architecture and algorithm".. that's just BS you're spouting.
 
Interesting with the stacker case if I am careful I can put in another 120x3 Thermochill and another PSU lol.
 
instead of doing screen ofsets (one each) they could do trip screening, also one each, shouldn't be too hard


also this didn't help ATI out much either, although they never got the support for it they wanted, this as is ATI's going to be another gimick used by the truely hardcore.

hey i'm tempted!
 
What is that little blurb at the bottom of the hardspell page???? Something about 680i MB will also be_______???
Does that mean current 680i boards will also be capable of triple SLI??? Wow!

My 680i board couldnt because there isnt a double slot space for the third PCI-E,iirc.

But just wow, how much horsepower do you really need.
I agree, the heat of three 8800GTX or Ultra cards would be insane. I can raise the temp in my room by 10 degrees easy after about 15 minutes of heavy use the way it is now. But I'd take two if I had the cash!!!

I run Vista 64 and SLI currently, it works fine.
 
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