Then you gotta look at the 3870 x2 the same way, it's just 2 cards slammed onto one pcb, complete with 2 bios's.
Personally, I'm avoiding both camps dual gpu solutions like they were Rosie O'Donnell's bedroom.
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i know it has been done before, but never with a "high-end" card
dual 2600XT (sapphire) dual 7800GT (asus, but no driver support)
but never with a high end card.
this is a first, ok, the pcb has 12 layers, and you need some good driver to let it work, but it is starting to go to dualcores on the ATI board, on the nvidia card, they just slam 2 PCB's together and put a bridge between them.....
Gigabyte 3D1 was high end at the time and was an nvidia solution in one pcb (dual 6800gt gpu's)
http://www.hardcoreware.net/image.ph...&ts=1107907086
http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data...inal-pic-2.jpg
i thought the geforce 9 high end should be the g100 chip, why not just call it 8800gx2 since all the g-92's are called ge-force 8XXX
Meh.
IMO, w/ the exceptions of benching and 30" inch displays, a single GT/GTS/3870 can be more than enough for today's games and will keep pc gaming headaches to a minimum. I'll be waiting for a card 2x faster than a GTS 512 w/ same power envelope and at least 2 games that don't blow their load in less than a weekend...Bioshock/Crysis. :( COD4/TF2 and other MP games get 10x the action a decent SP shooter gets. This whole MGPU thing seems like a stopgap until we have the true "9800GTX/4870". Now we have new architecture-->shrunken, same performance-->dually, better performance-->2 yrs later, 2x performance w/ reasonable power/noise.
Yes,it's been done but 3870X2 has native crossfire support on the card itself.
The card itself has a chip (PLX) which provides the communication
between the two Gpus.
So you don't need a Crossfire supporting mobo to use it.
(HD 2600XT used the same way )
But Asus Dual 7800Gt or earlier the Gigabyte Dual 6600GT were communicating over the nortbridge,you needed to use SLI supporting chipsets.And as far as I know those solutions weren't supported officialy by Nvidia.This means no real driver support.
Since 3dfx Nvidia only released ''sandwich'' solutions like 7950GX2 and 9800GX2...
its not easy at all, how do you mount the block?
its possible, but its not easy to do...
hows it the same thing?
1pcb vs 2 pcbs glued together is a big difference.
if done properly the nvidia approach of using 2 pcbs could actually be cheaper, easier to cool and could clock higher if they would use a normal single card pcb as the firt half of the dualcard and would have only one gpu between the two pcbs and not both.
the photos are down, can someone put them back pleasE?
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-1_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-2_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-3_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-4_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-5_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-6_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-7_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-8_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-9_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-10_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-11_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-12_1.jpg
http://www.hwupgrade.it/immagini/NV9800GX2-13_1.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-1.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-2.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-3.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-4.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-5.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-6.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-7.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-8.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhunter/9800GX2/1-9.jpg
http://resources.vr-zone.com/newzhun...00GX2/1-10.jpg
absolutely no different than quantum3d voodoo2 sli
i loved 3dfx i love sli but for goodness sake drop the dual pcb already!
If you look carefully you can see a second PCB on some 3870x2 cards as well, they need it for the 4 x DVI.
think about how much of the heat from the pwm power regulation and memory gets dissipated into the pcb, alot. dual pcbs will have more surface area and will be able to clock high due to the better heat dissipation. dual pcbs also let the card be shorter so it will fit in more cases and fit with more room to spare (could increase case air flow) in other cases.
@ single card sli solution
voodoo2 never was
7950GX2 never was
9800GX2 never will, unless single pcb
all other single pcb dual gpu = single card sli solution
2 pcb * 2 gpu = 2 card solution regardless of the single pcie connector
how can it be called single card solution ?