SLI is back

[Destroy]

Alienware released their new tech:

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will
allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their
Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands
in parallel.

 

[James Riske]

Alienware released their new tech:

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will
allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their
Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands
in parallel.

Do you have a link for this?

 

[magnulus]

Do you have a link for this?

It's based on some technology by Metabyte. I have no idea how it works,
but apparrently they have been messing around with SLI configurations since
the TNT days.

I'm not sure how it works... or IF it works. Videocards have evolved well
past the point where all they did was basic triangle setup and rendering.
I believe it might work by some proprietary bridge and chipset.

 

[We Live For The One We Die For The One]

WOW get 20% increase in speed and pay 400 bucks for the privilage, the
second card

 

[JLC]

Alienware released their new tech:

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will
allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their
Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands
in parallel.

WOW! I read a few days ago the Alienware had a huge announcement to make at
E3. This is very interesting news! JLC

 

[JLC]

WOW get 20% increase in speed and pay 400 bucks for the privilage, the
second card

You'll pay a whole lot more then $400 if you have to buy one of their
systems to be able to do it! Have you priced a Alienware PC lately! There
not cheap. JLC

 

[magnulus]

I should also add Metabyte made a "vapourware" SLI TNT configuration
several years ago. They didn't even make a prototype. So I wouldn't put
any stock in them.

 

[Tim]

Alienware released their new tech:

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will
allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their
Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands
in parallel.

That's Voodootwo-ariffic!

 

[mattchu]

WOW get 20% increase in speed and pay 400 bucks for the privilage, the
second card

Quiet you! We can't have any voice of reason when it comes to
discussions about the latest PC upgrades.

 

[cK-Gunslinger]

Alienware released their new tech:

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will
allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their
Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands
in parallel.

Nah, what Alienware "released" was a press statement saying they are
planning on developing this tech. Hopefully it pans out for them and
maybe we'll see the return of SLI, but it's not here today, or anytime
too soon. (slated for Q3/Q4)

Here's some more info:

http://www.alienware.com/press_rele...plate.aspx?FileName=press_videoarray_0512.asp
http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1084398037.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/13/135243&mode=nested&tid=137&tid=152&tid=185

 

[Vince]

Nah, what Alienware "released" was a press statement saying they are
planning on developing this tech. Hopefully it pans out for them and
maybe we'll see the return of SLI, but it's not here today, or anytime
too soon. (slated for Q3/Q4)

Q3 is soon.

 

[cK-Gunslinger]

Q3 is soon.

Maybe, but the "End of September, 2003" release for HL2 was "soon" a
year ago. But I don't see it yet. =P I'm just saying, release dates
slip (for both software and hardware), and I've learned to wait until
there is a shipping product before I beleive too much hype.

Otherwise, I'd be playing Duke Nukem Forever, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress
2, and Doom 3 on my brand new BitBoys' video card, or maybe on my
Phantom Gaming Console. *grin*

 

[Chip]

Alienware released their new tech:

Video Array is an accelerated graphics processing subsystem that will
allow users to add multiple, off-the-shelf video cards to their
Alienware computer systems and have both cards process graphic commands
in parallel.

It will never work.

1. If you only have 1 monitor, then it can only be connected to 1 card
(Doh!)
2. Which means that what work is done by the other card, the results have to
be copied across to the card containing the frame buffer. Even at
PCI-Express speeds, this will be sloooooow.

I don't know what these guys have been smoking. Maybe they have plans for
multiple-monitor setups. I could just about believe that. But for a single
monitor setup, I cannot see this improving anything.

Chip

 

[JLC]

Nah, what Alienware "released" was a press statement saying they are
planning on developing this tech. Hopefully it pans out for them and
maybe we'll see the return of SLI, but it's not here today, or anytime
too soon. (slated for Q3/Q4)

Here's some more info:

http://www.alienware.com/press_rele...plate.aspx?FileName=press_videoarray_0512.asp
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/13/135243&mode=nested&tid=137&tid=152&tid=185

You can bet that this "extreme performance system" will cost $4,000 +. JLC

 

[JLC]

It will never work.

1. If you only have 1 monitor, then it can only be connected to 1 card
(Doh!)
2. Which means that what work is done by the other card, the results have to
be copied across to the card containing the frame buffer. Even at
PCI-Express speeds, this will be sloooooow.

I don't know what these guys have been smoking. Maybe they have plans for
multiple-monitor setups. I could just about believe that. But for a single
monitor setup, I cannot see this improving anything.

Chip

I guess you never had two 3DFX Voodoo cards running in SLI. I did and they
were great back in the day. I'm not saying that this new idea is going to
pan out, but I'm sure they have worked around the monitor connection
problem. The Voodoo cards were build with a connecter on their sides that
allowed you to plug in a second Voodoo card into it. Then you had a small
monitor cable that you ran from the bottom card to the top card. You then
plugged your top card into your monitor.
Worked fantastic! JLC

 

[Chip]

have
I guess you never had two 3DFX Voodoo cards running in SLI. I did and they
were great back in the day. I'm not saying that this new idea is going to
pan out, but I'm sure they have worked around the monitor connection
problem. The Voodoo cards were build with a connecter on their sides that
allowed you to plug in a second Voodoo card into it. Then you had a small
monitor cable that you ran from the bottom card to the top card. You then
plugged your top card into your monitor.
Worked fantastic! JLC

But you forget one *crucial* piece of information. The 3dfx cards were
*designed* to work in SLI mode! The hair-brain Alienware idea is that it
will work with normal video cards. And given that normal video cards have
no clue about how to render alternative scan lines, then only thing I can
image they will do is come up with some fancy driver wrapper than decides
which vertices (and which pixels) will be processed by each card and then
splits the work between the two cards. And then takes the rendered pixels
from one card and transfers them to the other for z-buffer processing and
final rendering.

It will be brilliant.... not. If this ever sees the light of day, I will be
amazed.

Chip

 

[Xocyll]

I guess you never had two 3DFX Voodoo cards running in SLI. I did and they
were great back in the day. I'm not saying that this new idea is going to
pan out, but I'm sure they have worked around the monitor connection
problem. The Voodoo cards were build with a connecter on their sides that
allowed you to plug in a second Voodoo card into it. Then you had a small
monitor cable that you ran from the bottom card to the top card. You then
plugged your top card into your monitor.
Worked fantastic! JLC

There's a bit of a difference between the voodoo2 which was designed to
run solo or be linked to another voodoo2, and some feature on a
motherboard to stick two video cards into, that _were_ _not_ designed to
work together.

It the difference between 2 random people, and a set of twins.

Xocyll

 

[Allan Sheely]

There's a bit of a difference between the voodoo2 which was designed to
run solo or be linked to another voodoo2, and some feature on a
motherboard to stick two video cards into, that _were_ _not_ designed to
work together.

It the difference between 2 random people, and a set of twins.

Xocyll

Personally, I would never want dual vid cards, just as I wouldn't want
dual cpu's. And there are two reasons for that, 2 means twice as much
heat and twice as much noise.

 

[Asestar]

I guess you never had two 3DFX Voodoo cards running in SLI. I did and they
were great back in the day. I'm not saying that this new idea is going to
pan out, but I'm sure they have worked around the monitor connection
problem. The Voodoo cards were build with a connecter on their sides that
allowed you to plug in a second Voodoo card into it. Then you had a small
monitor cable that you ran from the bottom card to the top card. You then
plugged your top card into your monitor.
Worked fantastic! JLC

Well.. no current Ati, Nvidia, Matrox or not even Volari card have any
"input for monitor cable" to be able to loop through second card. So SLI
mode is very much DEAD. The possible (however, unlikely) performance gain
will not be worth having to pay for two cards.

There is NO way SLI mode could make two Radeon9200 cards perform like a
9600.

 

[Knight37]

There's a bit of a difference between the voodoo2 which was designed
to run solo or be linked to another voodoo2, and some feature on a
motherboard to stick two video cards into, that _were_ _not_ designed
to work together.

It the difference between 2 random people, and a set of twins.

I have to agree this idea sounds pretty hare-brained. I mean, why not
just buy a faster video card? And if you already have the fastest, are
you really going to want another $400ish video card just to gain a few
FPS? I don't think the consumer market is going to really support this
idea even if they get it to work, unless it just works FABULOUSLY and you
can get almost twice the performance out of 2 cards versus 1.

Knight37