The Platform
I haven't discussed the platform that both of these arrays are currently designed to be coupled with so far, but as it stands, there is only Intel's just-announced Tumwater chipset that supports dual PCI-Express 16x slots at present. This chipset is based on Intel Xeon platform; anyone who's ever considered buying an Intel Xeon will realise that they're not the cheapest processor you'll ever lay your hands on. To compound this problem, Xeons are optimised for servers and not gaming. To go with the cost of the processor, the dual slot PCI-Express motherboards aren't going to come cheap either.
Considering both of these factors, I cannot see the dual video array taking off in a huge fashion, at least to start with. NVIDIA, who also make chipsets for the Athlon 64 platform, will be looking to release a platform that will support dual PCI-Express 16x slots; not surprisingly, this is codenamed NForce4. The chipset is rumoured to support 2 PCI-Express 16x slots amongst other things, and it will be able to used across all three Athlon 64/Opteron sockets.
Initial Thoughts...
NVIDIA have stated that they're gaining performance increases of up to 87%, while Alienware stated a performance increase of around 60-70% in a Tech TV interview. Based on these two figures, I would expect the performance increase over a single card for both of these solutions is suggested to be around the 80% mark, we will have to wait to find out whether this is the case or not, if this is not the case, we will need to establish how much the CPU is actually limiting the performance.
With this in mind, it'd be interesting to look at a few figures to determine what the extra card will get you in terms of performance. Would it be worth investing in two 6800's over a single 6800 Ultra?
In short, the answer to the above question is yes, it would be worth investing in a dual GeForce 6800 solution in favour of a single GeForce 6800 Ultra - there is a clear fillrate advantage. Of course, whether this translates in real-world testing remains to be seen. And of course, it would appear that a single X800 XT PE is faster still than the 6800 pair, and for $100 bucks less.
There'll be a market for it without a doubt, but you'll have to decide for yourself whether the extra cost is worth the extra performance that you're likely to get. Even with the slightly lower expected performance from the Alienware system, you can see that the theoretical fill-rate that two ATI X800XT Platinum Editions can produce together is greater than what NVIDIA's dual 6800 Ultras combined with the NVIDIA SLI bridge connector can produce.
With the Alienware solution, there are also the possible bottlenecks that might be created by the add-in merger hub. Not necessarily by the card itself, but it utilises a PCI-x slot, which could prove to be a bottleneck; again we will have to wait and see if this is the case or not. In terms of flexibility, Alienware have possibly got a winner here - they've got something that, if successful, will provide a way of achieving multiple graphics card technology with any identical pair of PCI-Express graphics cards. This flexibility does come at a cost though, if you're not a fan of having lots of add-in cards, the NVIDIA solution will be the route to take seeing as Alienware's Video Array runs from an add-in PCI-x card, which controls the load balancing and data throughput to the multiple GPU array.
NVIDIA, however have something which has already opened a few eyes and most certainly mine. Their solution requires no extra hardware, besides the SLI bridge PCB - this is certainly a positive in my book. Whoever comes up trumps in the battle for the title of "the fastest graphics platform in the world" will have something that will bring back that edge or bragging right to online gaming. In the late 1990's when I was a proud owner of dual Voodoo 2's, back when Quake 2 was in its prime and Counter Strike was just starting to emerge; they were one of those things that many online gamers were envious of - they were rare, and they were arguably the best graphics solution that was available at the time. Now, you can brag that you've got two X800XT Platinum Editions in your system to run Half Life 2 at 1600x1200 with 6xAA 16xAF at some unheard-of frame rate. Only time will tell I guess, and we will endeavour to get our hands on one of these arrays to see what the real performance difference is going to be - the question is; will it be worth the money?
- Tim Smalley
I haven't discussed the platform that both of these arrays are currently designed to be coupled with so far, but as it stands, there is only Intel's just-announced Tumwater chipset that supports dual PCI-Express 16x slots at present. This chipset is based on Intel Xeon platform; anyone who's ever considered buying an Intel Xeon will realise that they're not the cheapest processor you'll ever lay your hands on. To compound this problem, Xeons are optimised for servers and not gaming. To go with the cost of the processor, the dual slot PCI-Express motherboards aren't going to come cheap either.
Considering both of these factors, I cannot see the dual video array taking off in a huge fashion, at least to start with. NVIDIA, who also make chipsets for the Athlon 64 platform, will be looking to release a platform that will support dual PCI-Express 16x slots; not surprisingly, this is codenamed NForce4. The chipset is rumoured to support 2 PCI-Express 16x slots amongst other things, and it will be able to used across all three Athlon 64/Opteron sockets.
Initial Thoughts...
NVIDIA have stated that they're gaining performance increases of up to 87%, while Alienware stated a performance increase of around 60-70% in a Tech TV interview. Based on these two figures, I would expect the performance increase over a single card for both of these solutions is suggested to be around the 80% mark, we will have to wait to find out whether this is the case or not, if this is not the case, we will need to establish how much the CPU is actually limiting the performance.
With this in mind, it'd be interesting to look at a few figures to determine what the extra card will get you in terms of performance. Would it be worth investing in two 6800's over a single 6800 Ultra?
There'll be a market for it without a doubt, but you'll have to decide for yourself whether the extra cost is worth the extra performance that you're likely to get. Even with the slightly lower expected performance from the Alienware system, you can see that the theoretical fill-rate that two ATI X800XT Platinum Editions can produce together is greater than what NVIDIA's dual 6800 Ultras combined with the NVIDIA SLI bridge connector can produce.
With the Alienware solution, there are also the possible bottlenecks that might be created by the add-in merger hub. Not necessarily by the card itself, but it utilises a PCI-x slot, which could prove to be a bottleneck; again we will have to wait and see if this is the case or not. In terms of flexibility, Alienware have possibly got a winner here - they've got something that, if successful, will provide a way of achieving multiple graphics card technology with any identical pair of PCI-Express graphics cards. This flexibility does come at a cost though, if you're not a fan of having lots of add-in cards, the NVIDIA solution will be the route to take seeing as Alienware's Video Array runs from an add-in PCI-x card, which controls the load balancing and data throughput to the multiple GPU array.
NVIDIA, however have something which has already opened a few eyes and most certainly mine. Their solution requires no extra hardware, besides the SLI bridge PCB - this is certainly a positive in my book. Whoever comes up trumps in the battle for the title of "the fastest graphics platform in the world" will have something that will bring back that edge or bragging right to online gaming. In the late 1990's when I was a proud owner of dual Voodoo 2's, back when Quake 2 was in its prime and Counter Strike was just starting to emerge; they were one of those things that many online gamers were envious of - they were rare, and they were arguably the best graphics solution that was available at the time. Now, you can brag that you've got two X800XT Platinum Editions in your system to run Half Life 2 at 1600x1200 with 6xAA 16xAF at some unheard-of frame rate. Only time will tell I guess, and we will endeavour to get our hands on one of these arrays to see what the real performance difference is going to be - the question is; will it be worth the money?
- Tim Smalley
MSI MPG Velox 100R Chassis Review
October 14 2021 | 15:04
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