hardocp.com — HardOCP covers the release of NVIDIA's WHQL Quad SLI driver and just what it takes to get a Quad SLI system of your own up and running. They also have 25MB of lossless compression screen shots that they took at 2560x1600 resolution why playing games that really shows you what Quad SLI can do.
Aug 9, 2006 View in Crawl 4
gcube9xAug 9, 2006
I don't know, some serious rendering could go on if the software is compatible with the quad-gpu layout...
chandonAug 9, 2006
It is absolutely not a waste of money. Those early adopters are funding the development that will let me get simliar performance for $400 in a year or so, and will let you junk-hardware affecionados get it for $170 in 3 or 4 years.If it weren't for the high end market - on any computer components - the mid range and low end market would consist of much crappier components for way more money.
chandonAug 9, 2006
You can run Prey at 2560x1600 with 8xAA and 16xAF?It's true that this is only useful with a 30" display and a phobia of aliasing, but if you have those things and the money for the setup, why shouldn't you be the early adopter?
akira117Aug 9, 2006
3 of the better Images in the set of 5 I put on flickr:<a class="user" href="http://flickr.com/photos/akira117/sets/72057594113948130/">http://flickr.com/photos/akira117/sets/72057594113948130/</a>
nx01Aug 9, 2006
From TFA: "Outside of the SLI antialiasing modes, for example 2560x1600 4xAA/8xAF, the benefits of Quad SLI are significant in OpenGL games but often less prominent in Direct3D games. It turns out that DX9 doesn't support queuing of enough frames using standard D3D API programming practices (that would attain WHQL certification) to effectively support high-performance 4-way AFR mode used in Quad systems. Quad SLI instead uses "AFR of SFR" for many D3D games. In the future with DX10, we expect 4-way AFR to work as effectively as it does with OpenGL today."Ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another reason you program in an open standard. The fact that D3D cannot scale the same as OpenGL says quite a bit. Support game developers who use OpenGL. Cross platform, scales well, not proprietary.
kylebafraudAug 10, 2006
I just have one question - "Where are the real world benchmarks?" :) We have a GPU article when the Core 2 Duo is released and we have a "Trust us it's great" article when a new GPU solution is released. It seemed more like an article that Kyle did to promote the fact a bunch of companies gave him some really cool stuff to play with on his kitchen table. Does anything make sense at this website anymore?
almostinsaneAug 10, 2006
More HardOCP.com spam.
debunkerAug 11, 2006
Way to go Kyle. Let me recap:Hey, we're different! Core 2 Duo sucks, because Intel doesn't advertise with us enough. Let's run 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF benches with a SINGLE card when every other site uses CrossFire, just so we can show that we're "right".NVIDIA offers advertising and some ultra-high-end hardware to play with. Kyle: This is the greatest experience EVAR! We'll gloss over the crashing, we won't show any benchmarks, but we'll tell you how great the games play with quad SLI. Thanks NVIDIA, Dell, PSU companies, and our "long-time favorite supplier Corsair." WTF - he ACTUALLY WROTE THAT! If there's anything that screams marketing lackey more, I can't spot it. At least he's too stupid to avoid showing his true colors anymore.So, after "testing" QSLI, what does he conclude? That playing games on a 30" monitor is absolutely amazing and makes QSLI an awesome product. Making statements in a vacuum is easy, of course. How does X1900 XT CrossFire compare at the same settings? What about poor old standard 7900 GTX SLI? Slower in some cases, but not by a lot, and not generally at 2560x1600 4xAA. Turn on the crappy 8xAA and QSLI pulls ahead more, but 4xAA + SSAA Transparency is better anyway.Oh, and if there's such a thing as a monitor that's TOO BIG, it's the Dell 3007WFP. (Yup, I've used one.) Let me explain with a quote that Kyle uses, plus emphasis: "As far as computer displays go, 30” is huge. The sheer physical size provides a very immersive experience. The image literally fills your vision and if you have the monitor pulled close ****you will end up having to look left and right to see it all.***"See, most people sit relatively close to their PCs. 30 inches is, in fact, too big to have sitting two or three feet away on your desk. It's larger than a lot of the TVs people still use! So, if you pull back about 5 feet, you now have a view experience that's more comfortable, and yet the image quality Kyle raves about isn't really visible. Given that 24" displays can be had for 1/3 as much as the 30" 3007, I'd recommend those in a heartbeat! Oh yeah, I have a 2405FPW as well, and yes, I do indeed prefer it to the 3007WFP. Let's also not talk about the lack of interface with the 3007, the dual-link requirement, or the difficulty of getting a lot of games to run at 2560x1600.I'm not saying everyone will prefer a 24" over a 30" LCD, but I know I do, and at a lower cost it's a no brainer. You can run a lot of games at 1920x1200 with 4xAA on a moderate dual-GPU config, or even a single fast GPU in some cases. (Not FEAR though.) 2560x1600 actually runs very well on SLI and CF as well as QSLI. Four frame AFR at 40 FPS means a .1 second lag on every frame - sounds like something I wouldn't want, as LCDs are probably already adding about a .02 to .03 lag. Someone was bitching about the 2407WFP "buffering" a frame recently, because it was off relative to the game world. There's a reason double-buffering is the default and triple-buffering is the maximum approved, but of course no one at [H] or NVIDIA is going to make that point.Bottom line is, I have no idea why people still flock to [H] to confirm the marketing information circulated by AMD, NVIDIA, etc. Kyle's "revelation" about testing gaming performance is about the silliest thing I've ever heard; all it means is that he can write whatever the hell he wants, and he doesn't even need factual data to back it up anymore. This article is a prime example of that. Go ahead and give me the ol' thumbs down, because I don't really care. Believe what you want to believe, but the job of marketing is *NOT* to tell you the truth. They try to present a facet of the truth, and Kyle did exactly that. 30" QSLI gaming is impressive to behold, but so is 60" SLI on a 1080p HDTV.