Dual Fermi (2x GTX 470)

phinix

phinix

Gawd
Joined
Dec 13, 2005
Messages
884
So it is possible....

http://hothardware.com/News/Computex-2010-Dual-GPU-GTX-470-Videocard-Spotted/

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It's a prototype, but I do have something to say.

HOLY CRAP GALAXY ARE YOU GUYS OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!

Carry on, do want.
 
Where's the full cover waterblock for it that'll weigh 8lb? :p
 
Dual 470s in one. What a fuggin waste. It will require massive cooling, ton's of electricity and its performance will come up short of the 5970.

Bare minimum they should have utilized dual 480 chips so that it would at least outperform the 5970.

Man I hope Nvidia's next series is substantially better than this one which almost entirely sucks compared to the 5000 series. The only card truly worth considering is the 480 because its at least outperforms the 5870. The 470 is on average on par with the 5850 and they want this dual gpu card to compete with the 5970?

Sad day
 
This could very well beat the 5970 at eyefinity resolutions if a higher bandwidth link between GPUs is used. Hell, I'd let my 5970 go for 2 'nilla 470s if they performed better. Still no effing drivers though.
 
I'd bet dollars to donuts the card will be downclocked from stock frequencies to cut down on the heat signature.

Still friggin' impressive, though.
 
edifyingkarma said:
Dual 470s in one. What a fuggin waste. It will require massive cooling, ton's of electricity and its performance will come up short of the 5970.

Bare minimum they should have utilized dual 480 chips so that it would at least outperform the 5970.

Man I hope Nvidia's next series is substantially better than this one which almost entirely sucks compared to the 5000 series. The only card truly worth considering is the 480 because its at least outperforms the 5870. The 470 is on average on par with the 5850 and they want this dual gpu card to compete with the 5970?

Sad day
Click to expand...
Yeah well, they have to start somewhere. First generation technology is always inferior to what's possible but someone has to take the first step.
 
Result of first dual fermi bench test...
68017710_123de4638c_m.jpg


Looks like a custom, proprietary pcb/card?
 
edifyingkarma said:
Dual 470s in one. What a fuggin waste. It will require massive cooling, ton's of electricity and its performance will come up short of the 5970.

Bare minimum they should have utilized dual 480 chips so that it would at least outperform the 5970.

Man I hope Nvidia's next series is substantially better than this one which almost entirely sucks compared to the 5000 series. The only card truly worth considering is the 480 because its at least outperforms the 5870. The 470 is on average on par with the 5850 and they want this dual gpu card to compete with the 5970?

Sad day
Click to expand...

funny, do you actually know what you're talking about :p? GTX 470 SLI runs faster then 5850 CF, which is about what a 5970 runs at
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
funny, do you actually know what you're talking about :p? GTX 470 SLI runs faster then 5850 CF, which is about what a 5970 runs at
Click to expand...

And what makes you think this card will run at the same speeds as 2xGTX470s, given that the 5970 doesn't run at the same speeds as 2x5870s? (And not given how ridiculous the heat envelope and power draw for this card will be)
 
Oh4Sh0 said:
And what makes you think this card will run at the same speeds as 2xGTX470s, given that the 5970 doesn't run at the same speeds as 2x5870s? (And not given how ridiculous the heat envelope and power draw for this card will be)
Click to expand...

Did you read the post I replied to? he said "2 470s" and come up short of 5970 all in the same sentance =)

Dual 470s in one. What a fuggin waste. It will require massive cooling, ton's of electricity and its performance will come up short of the 5970.
Click to expand...

then went on to say they should have used 2 480s instead ^^

and to answer your question, who knows, I'm assuming it's just 2 470s stuck on there at stock speeds so far, nothing to indicate otherwise, maybe its skimped down maybe not
 
Oh4Sh0 said:
And what makes you think this card will run at the same speeds as 2xGTX470s, given that the 5970 doesn't run at the same speeds as 2x5870s? (And not given how ridiculous the heat envelope and power draw for this card will be)
Click to expand...

The 5970's is underclocked, stock.

The GTX 470 may, as well. All I can be reasonably confident of is the "490" will be faster than the GTX 480, and that is powerful enough for my needs.
 
phinix said:
So it is possible....

http://hothardware.com/News/Computex-2010-Dual-GPU-GTX-470-Videocard-Spotted/

small_galaxy4.jpg
Click to expand...

A few comments.

1. Why does each GPU have only 8 memory chip ICs? the 465 has 8, the 470 has 10 and I believe the 480 has 12. Have they packed on denser memory to get to 3GB with only 16 chips (8 for each). That would mean each IC was a 192mb module instead of the 128 used on the other GTX units.

2. Because the stated memory capacity is 3 GB, this means that although the chips used are 470s, they each enjoy the full GTX 480 bus bandwidth. That is because Nvidia memory capacities have all been based on the bus width of their chips. IE the 480 has a higher bus width than the 470 thus 1.5gb vs 1.28 gb.

3. This card has 3 DVI outs, which means it will be the first Nvidia card to offer 3D Surround in a 1 card solution. This is a nice feature and is really needed to compete with the 5970 which is the current king of Eyefinity cards.

4. I expect Nvidia to tightly bin these 470 chips and possibly overclock them compared to the stock 470s so as to compete with or beat the stock 5970. Remember Nvidia's TDP on this beast is stated to be 430W so it has more power to play with, what better use for that power than higher clock speeds out of the box?

5. Pricing. I'd expect the entire video card to retail for $799 because it gives you the convenience of all in one surround, more memory than two normal 470s, and a bigger bus width than two normal 470s would enjoy.

BUT knowing Nvidia's pricing pattern, this could be significantly higher than that. *shrugs* If they believed that a GTX 465 is worth $279 *facepalms* who knows how much they'd think a GOOD product would actually be worth?

PS I think Nvidia needs to take a page from ATI and go straight to vapor chamber tech to cool this type of beast. Otherwise you're gonna see a lot of melted video cards and angry owners wanting their money back!
 
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Digital Viper-X- said:
funny, do you actually know what you're talking about :p? GTX 470 SLI runs faster then 5850 CF, which is about what a 5970 runs at
Click to expand...

The 5970 is two 5870 cores underclocked to 5850 speeds. It is still 2 5870 cores. I have not seen any indication that 2 470's in sli outperform 2 5870s even underclocked.

The 5970 isn't basically just 2 5850's. If it was, then I would not have made that statement because 470sli is faster than 5850 CF. However, since the 5970 is 2 5870 cores @ 5850 clock speeds, 2 470s should come up slightly short of the 5970.

Where did you come of with the logic that the 5970 is just 2 5850s?
 
vjcsmoke said:
A few comments.

1. Why does each GPU have only 8 memory chip ICs? the 465 has 8, the 470 has 10 and I believe the 480 has 12. Have they packed on denser memory to get to 3GB with only 16 chips (8 for each). That would mean each IC was a 192mb module instead of the 128 used on the other GTX units.

2. Because the stated memory capacity is 3 GB, this means that although the chips used are 470s, they each enjoy the full GTX 480 bus bandwidth. That is because Nvidia memory capacities have all been based on the bus width of their chips. IE the 480 has a higher bus width than the 470 thus 1.5gb vs 1.28 gb.

3. This card has 3 DVI outs, which means it will be the first Nvidia card to offer 3D Surround in a 1 card solution. This is a nice feature and is really needed to compete with the 5970 which is the current king of Eyefinity cards.

4. I expect Nvidia to tightly bin these 470 chips and possibly overclock them compared to the stock 470s so as to compete with or beat the stock 5970. Remember Nvidia's TDP on this beast is stated to be 430W so it has more power to play with, what better use for that power than higher clock speeds out of the box?

5. Pricing. I'd expect the entire video card to retail for $799 because it gives you the convenience of all in one surround, more memory than two normal 470s, and a bigger bus width than two normal 470s would enjoy.

BUT knowing Nvidia's pricing pattern, this could be significantly higher than that. *shrugs* If they believed that a GTX 465 is worth $279 *facepalms* who knows how much they'd think a GOOD product would actually be worth?

PS I think Nvidia needs to take a page from ATI and go straight to vapor chamber tech to cool this type of beast. Otherwise you're gonna see a lot of melted video cards and angry owners wanting their money back!
Click to expand...


It can't enjoy the 480s mem bandwidth without also unlocking the cluster of SPs disabled, I Believe the mem bandwidth is also tied to the SPs

on that note, possibly some more memory chips on the back of the card
 
edifyingkarma said:
The 5970 is two 5870 cores underclocked to 5850 speeds. It is still 2 5870 cores. I have not seen any indication that 2 470's in sli outperform 2 5870s even underclocked.

The 5970 isn't basically just 2 5850's. If it was, then I would not have made that statement because 470sli is faster than 5850 CF. However, since the 5970 is 2 5870 cores @ 5850 clock speeds, 2 470s will come up slightly short of the 5970.

Where did you come of with the logic that the 5970 is just 2 5850s?
Click to expand...

Actually, you miss-read my statement, the 5970 performs on par with 5850XF, you can go ahead and look it up yourself, it's true. if the GTX490 doesn't suffer from the same issue as the 5970(single card xfire scaling I assume) then it will be faster.

to that note, a 5850 @ 5870 speeds, runs almost identical to a 5870. So it seems the clock speed is more of a factor, then the 160 shaders / tmu the 5850 is missing.

and to answer your question at the end there about my logic

funny, do you actually know what you're talking about :p? GTX 470 SLI runs faster then 5850 CF, which is about what a 5970 runs at
Click to expand...

I bolded the statement for you.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
It can't enjoy the 480s mem bandwidth without also unlocking the cluster of SPs disabled, I Believe the mem bandwidth is also tied to the SPs

on that note, possibly some more memory chips on the back of the card
Click to expand...

If that's the case, wouldn't 3GB of memory be wasteful? If the bus isn't increased, then there would be no need to put more than the optimal 2.56 GB of memory on the card.

Possible, but I didn't see any. and did you notice that there are clearly blanks, where additional ICs could have been placed?
 
vjcsmoke said:
If that's the case, wouldn't 3GB of memory be wasteful? If the bus isn't increased, then there would be no need to put more than the optimal 2.56 GB of memory on the card.

Possible, but I didn't see any. and did you notice that there are clearly blanks, where additional ICs could have been placed?
Click to expand...

good Q, I don't know really =)
 
Those GPU's in the picture are not (working) 470 GPU's. They are 465's (GF100-030-A3.) Most likely can get away with calling it a dual 470 board since as of right now all 465 GPU's are defective 470's.
 
^

And all 470s are defective 480s.

Wo why not call it a dual 480 board by that logic?
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
Actually, you miss-read my statement, the 5970 performs on par with 5850XF, you can go ahead and look it up yourself, it's true. if the GTX490 doesn't suffer from the same issue as the 5970(single card xfire scaling I assume) then it will be faster.

to that note, a 5850 @ 5870 speeds, runs almost identical to a 5870. So it seems the clock speed is more of a factor, then the 160 shaders / tmu the 5850 is missing.

and to answer your question at the end there about my logic



I bolded the statement for you.
Click to expand...

You can bold anything you want, but that doesn't change how irrelevant your original post was about GTX470SLI being faster than 5850CF. The 5970 isn't merely 5850CF and the GTX490 isn't GTX470SLI. The poster was pointing out that the GTX490 is likely to not outperform the 5970, or will result in similar performance. Don't think that seems like a wild assumption to anyone else.
 
Digital Viper-X- said:
Actually, you miss-read my statement, the 5970 performs on par with 5850XF, you can go ahead and look it up yourself, it's true. if the GTX490 doesn't suffer from the same issue as the 5970(single card xfire scaling I assume) then it will be faster.

to that note, a 5850 @ 5870 speeds, runs almost identical to a 5870. So it seems the clock speed is more of a factor, then the 160 shaders / tmu the 5850 is missing.

and to answer your question at the end there about my logic



I bolded the statement for you.
Click to expand...

isn't the 5870 10% faster clock/clock?
 
Oh4Sh0 said:
You can bold anything you want, but that doesn't change how irrelevant your original post was about GTX470SLI being faster than 5850CF. The 5970 isn't merely 5850CF and the GTX490 isn't GTX470SLI. The poster was pointing out that the GTX490 is likely to not outperform the 5970, or will result in similar performance. Don't think that seems like a wild assumption to anyone else.
Click to expand...

my post was relevant, it's unbelievable that you say it isn't

me screaming said:
THE 5970 PERFORMS CLOSE TO 5850 IN CF INFACT THE 5850 IN CROSSFIRE WITH ANOTHER 5850, IS FASTER THAN A 5970.

NO ONE SAID THE 5970 IS 5850 in XF

IF THIS CARD IS 2 470s THEN GUESS FUCKING WHAT, IT MIGHT JUST PERFORM THE SAME OR CLOSE TO 2 470s IN SLI. AND HEY LOOK, NOW WE HAVE A VALID COMPARISON OF PERFORMANCE
GTX 470 SLI > GTX490(IF ITS 2 470S) > 5850 CF > 5970
Click to expand...

I put it all in caps, and coloured it up for you, hopefully that drives the point home!
 
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