Will ATI go SLI?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rockin Ronnie
  • Start date Start date
Rockin Ronnie said:
Just wondering if this is a fad or something ATI is looking into.
Thoughts?

Ron
Click to expand...

If you mean will ATI "licence" SLI technolgy so that it is compatible with
Nvidia "sli" motherboards, I doubt it. I think they should look at Gigabytes
"sli on aboard" idea and see it they can't get two GPU's working together on
a single board.
 
Rockin said:
Just wondering if this is a fad or something ATI is looking into.
Thoughts?

Ron
Click to expand...


I can't imagine there is going to be a large market for that. Most of us
consider it a big deal if we can afford to buy ONE high end video card...
 
John Russell said:
If you mean will ATI "licence" SLI technolgy so that it is compatible with
Nvidia "sli" motherboards, I doubt it. I think they should look at
Gigabytes "sli on aboard" idea and see it they can't get two GPU's working
together on a single board.
Click to expand...

Oh how soon we forget.

Voodoo5 5500AGP
64MB Dual-Chip SLI

Luck;
Ken
 
True. I don't think there is a market for an SLI setup involving two high
end video cards. At least not a market that anybody would want to take a
chance on. Even 3DFX gave up on the two card setup when it developed the
Voodoo 3 following the SLI capable Voodoo 2 , and then the Voodoo 5500. I
bought all of those cards, the last one two weeks before 3DFX went belly up.
Oh well.

Nope, I think PCI Express, once it is fully implemented combined with
superfast GPU's, singly or in pairs, will make SLI unnecessary.

JK
 
John Russell said:
If you mean will ATI "licence" SLI technolgy so that it is compatible with
Nvidia "sli" motherboards, I doubt it. I think they should look at
Gigabytes "sli on aboard" idea and see it they can't get two GPU's working
together on a single board.
Click to expand...

I think that the two card idea is great. I had my primary video card (TNT 2
I think... oh the agony!), then two 12MB Voodoo 2's in SLI at one point. I
must have blown nearly $600 just for this graphics card setup, but it kicked
ass at the time, and for several years. The advantage is of course that you
can use one card, and then add another down the road as you can afford it
and/or they become more affordable. Kind of like popping in another stick of
RAM. I spent $500 for my X800 XT PE, and would I spend another $500 now?
Hell, no! But in a year if they cost $200 I would buy another one for SLI
especially if it bumped my graphics performance greater than 50%. No new
graphics technology will ever do that compared with one generation earlier
in a single card/GPU setup.
 
JK left a note on my windscreen which said:
True. I don't think there is a market for an SLI setup involving two high
end video cards. At least not a market that anybody would want to take a
chance on. Even 3DFX gave up on the two card setup when it developed the
Voodoo 3 following the SLI capable Voodoo 2 , and then the Voodoo 5500. I
bought all of those cards, the last one two weeks before 3DFX went belly up.
Oh well.
Click to expand...

You're probably correct. SLI on high end cards will only be a niche
market or for those who simply have to have the fastest thing regardless
of cost.

I know it's a waste of money but I must admit I am seriously thinking
about two 6800 Ultra's in SLI maybe next year for my next build.
Coupled with an Athlon FX55. Just 'because'.
 
You're probably correct. SLI on high end cards will only be a niche
market or for those who simply have to have the fastest thing regardless
of cost.
Click to expand...

When I bought my Voodoo 2 (when it was released), I paid 250GBP, the
prospect of paying 500GPB for SLI was plainly silly. A year or two
later I bought a second V2 for 80GBP with gave me a great upgrade for
an affordable cost.

I can see myself using the same strategy in the future.
 
Rockin Ronnie said:
Just wondering if this is a fad or something ATI is looking into.
Thoughts?

Ron
Click to expand...


If nVidia is doing it, ATI pretty much also has to. I agree that SLI will
only be seriously considered and implemented by a small number of users, but
things like this usually come down to public perception.
 
Ken Maltby said:
Oh how soon we forget.

Voodoo5 5500AGP
64MB Dual-Chip SLI

Luck;
Ken
Click to expand...
Nvidia's "SLI" is not the same as the old 3DFX "SLI" (Scan Line
Interleave - thank god!)

Crimson Liar
 
ATI already had SLI before, and probably will again.
It was in the Rage Fury MAXX line, there were 2 GPU's on a single card.
 
I can't imagine there is going to be a large market for that. Most of us
consider it a big deal if we can afford to buy ONE high end video card...
Click to expand...

Dual 6600GT-PCIExpress will be quite hot. Possibly buy one 6600GT
and another later under the SLI-certification program ( supposedly
guaranteeing that boards match in SLI-mode ). Gives either quad-head
out in non-SLI-mode, or dual-head SLI performance almost equal to a
single 6800 Ultra and the dual-price is likely to quickly drop below
that of the single-Ultra, unless nVidia quickly cranks the 6800
GT/UltraGPU on a smaller-geometry process - as with the X800XT,
the 6800GT and Ultra current yields are poor, keeping the prices high.

In an interesting variation, Gigabyte has already announced a AGP
board with dual 6600GT in SLI-configuration, so Ati has distinctly
missed this particular boat. If Ati do a dual-chip configuration, it
will either have to be a kludge around an existing GPU, or a new GPU
for which the driver will probably take months to perfect. On the
SLI-driver alone, nVidia has nearly a one-year head-start.

John Lewis
 
Oh how soon we forget.

Voodoo5 5500AGP
64MB Dual-Chip SLI
Click to expand...

Not I. I have that very card in the computer on which I am composing
this reply-posting. Works like a champ.

Also a SBLive! with SB16 genuine emulation and can dual-boot to Win98.
I use this machine ( w/Celeron 1100MHz ) for word-processing, news,
email, general business and Glide/DOS games. Very useful indeed.

John Lewis
 
John said:
Dual 6600GT-PCIExpress will be quite hot. Possibly buy one 6600GT
and another later under the SLI-certification program ( supposedly
guaranteeing that boards match in SLI-mode ). Gives either quad-head
out in non-SLI-mode, or dual-head SLI performance almost equal to a
single 6800 Ultra and the dual-price is likely to quickly drop below
that of the single-Ultra, unless nVidia quickly cranks the 6800
GT/UltraGPU on a smaller-geometry process - as with the X800XT,
the 6800GT and Ultra current yields are poor, keeping the prices high.

In an interesting variation, Gigabyte has already announced a AGP
board with dual 6600GT in SLI-configuration, so Ati has distinctly
missed this particular boat. If Ati do a dual-chip configuration, it
will either have to be a kludge around an existing GPU, or a new GPU
for which the driver will probably take months to perfect. On the
SLI-driver alone, nVidia has nearly a one-year head-start.
Click to expand...

I thought one of the selling points for the new-style SLI was that it didn't
need a special driver.
 
I thought one of the selling points for the new-style SLI was that it didn't
need a special driver.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, the SLI functions are in the latest nVidia unified drivers and
non-functional for configurations not recognized as genuine SLI.

John Lewis
 
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