My last post for today....

Well people
This is my last post today for this Nvidia-SLI blogg. What can I say? One thing for start this last month has really been an adventure for me. I won't bother you with everything what's on my mind. Just a few thoughts.

Slizone has really been an one-in-all place about everything regarding SLI. This blogg has really been a small piece of information and news from other tech sites around the web. For example I covered some topics on new graphic cards, motherboards or Memory on my blogg. While Slizone has really all the components on their site with detailed specifications (PSUs, computer cases, etc..) I didn't wanted to include much articles from Slizone, I think it makes no sense to do so, since other bloggers have quoted enough articles from this place. I just thought this competition will be more interesting if I look at the articles from various tech-sites.

I must say that I'm more or less proud of my blogg! God knows that it's definitely not perfect. I could not format some elements on front of my blogg!Sometimes I've really went mad about it! I just wanted to quit since I couldn't do what I wanted. It's like I wanted format the text in wordperfect:-) I've succesfully changed the font and size of the text. When I saw the preview everything looked fine. But when I've published the article on the web,the text was 0,01 cm big! I could not believe it, so I last 30% of my time arranging the articles to look o.k.If you look at labels from the right side (where I've putted links on graphic cards and motherboards - and complete system solutions), every 4,5 entry is in different colour!!! I really don't know how did this blogg service created it in different colours. It doesn't have anywhere an optionto manage colour of the links. Well that's another bug I've found. So instead to focus on finding new articles, I've last significant amount of time on fixing paragraphs and fonts.One thing is for sure, I will NEVER use this blogg service ever again! I'll find some other. It's my first blogg web page ever, and I must say I've never created a web page. That's why my blogg doesn't look like professionally. Not to mention the labels, cause on my page I have 'SLI power supplies' 5 posts, but when you click on that Label, it will show you SLI PSU's sectionwith 7 articles on it!! This blogg must have more bugs then windows 98 :-)

The other thing that I'm proud of is the fact that half of the posted bloggs were written while I was on work (luckily we have ADSL) and was able to quickly post the news on my blogg with pictures. The sad news is that the other half of my bloggs were posted while I was at home, on my 56Kbit modem!! And it was really a pain in the neck. I've spent so much time uploading the pictures.... really was frustrated with it.But hey, I survived it so...

Two things did bother me about this blogg contests that really bothered me.

1. I noticed that some people didn't behave fair. I ALWAYS wanted to be a fair contest, and may the best man win. So when I saw some news on SLI around the web, and if I
saw other bloggers to have posted the same news, I decided not to post them! I think it makes sense, since people could make their own blogg by just copy/pasting other peoples bloggs, and win this contest. I'm just sorry that people are ready to do everything to make their blogg as informative as others. It's just sad. Example, yesterday I saw that - well I won't mention any names - lets just call him 'person from Singapore' posted an article Overclocked XFX GeForce 8800 GTX and GTS XXX from hwupgrade.com. That's the very same news I've posted a couple of days ago. Just this blogger decided to post he article under different name :-) I just hope that the crew from Slizone or Vr-zone (whoever is in charge of announcing the winner of this contest) will have this in mind. And you can clearly see who saw the news first (all bloggs have the correct date and time when the blogg was posted on the web).

2. One thing I also noticed (and have posted on the vr-forums about it, but it seems that nobody cared about it :-( is that people have start to post topics that have nothing to do with SLI! The rules of this contest were crystal clear(to start a blogg with primary focus on Nvidia SLI). There isn't much sense to post news about Ati, Amd, Intel on this blogg, right? Well atleast that's my opinion.
That's all from me for now Bye

Goran Bosic

Please stop by to this contest discussion and drop in a note on 'NVIDIA SLI Blog Contest' thread.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=137205

VGA Charts - from TomsHardware

Well people this is (almost) my one last post for ending this competition. In my next post I'm going to write what do I think of this whole contest..

I just wanted to share one last thing, THG has really collected great information on single/multi graphic cards, and how much do you gain or lose performance in different games (Half Life 2: Episode One, Hard Truck Apocalypse, Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls 4, Prey, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Titan Quest and 3DMark06) in different resolutions.
So be sure to check it out before you buy any of your future graphic cards, so you could know in advance how much performance will it give to you.
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Multi GPU Roundup: Quad SLI, SLI and Crossfire - from 24.09.2006

Little more than two years have passed since NVDIA first introduced their SLI technology. Short for Scalable Link Interface, SLI is the first solution to be able to connect two PCI-Express video cards based on the same GPU in a way that they will operate parallel to each other. This type of approach allows, at least on paper, to have an increase in performance of up to double what you would normally have with a single video card. In the first months of SLI’s release, it potential was limited by driver problems and other software errors.
However, forwarding two years into the future and with the release of several new driver versions from NVIDIA, SLI technology has really matured as a whole. Stability has been greatly improved and support has been added to an increasing list of games. SLI support has also been made more accessible to the general public with the release of average and entry level video cards that support the technology. Currently, SLI will even be made available on NVIDIA’s most budget level class of GeForce 7 video cards, the 7100 GS, thus making it a solution that is affordable and available to a vast amount of computer users.
At this moment, SLI and Crossfire technologies can be considered the first full phase of maturity for a broader category: multiple GPUs. The next phase is for more than two video cards being linked up to each other in an effort to, yet again, increase performance. As NVIDIA was first to reach the market with a dual video card solution, they have yet again been able to beat ATI in announcing a solution that utilizes more than two GPUs. The technology is, none other than, Quad SLI (the name isn’t very original). Quad SLI has four GPUs operating parallel to each other, theoretically doubling the performance in respect to an SLI setup.

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This here is a great link to view how much performance can you gain by building a SLI rig. Great link so you must check it out.

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XFX GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty 650MHz in SLI mode

As we draw close to the launch of the new GeForce 8600 and 8500 series from nVidia next week, we will likely see users getting rid of their current mid-range graphics cards and upgrading. When you got your 7600GT, you said to yourself, “I will get a second one eventually for SLI, when I can afford it”. Well, this might be the perfect time to pick up some very capable DX9 graphics cards with a reduced price tag to make way for the new upcoming models.
We have with us today the GeForce 7600GT Fatal1ty from XFX (the version clocked at 650MHz core as opposed to the cheaper 560MHz) which is a bit fancier when compared to our standard run of the mill 7600GT. We’re going to have a look at exactly what the cards are capable of when running in SLI but also by itself.

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ASUS EN8600 GTS Comes Bundled with S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl

The new ASUS EN8600GTS/HTDP/256M is a high-end graphics card that will be released and bundled with the much anticipated first person shooter game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl. Equipped with 256MB of DDR3 memory and able to support NVIDIA´s SLI™ technology, the EN8600GTS is designed with the gamer´s graphics expectations in mind. With such high-end specifications, this graphics card has earned the accolade of being the official global bundle partner of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. In line with this, ASUS´s G1 gaming series notebook – testament to its gaming-oriented design, also features in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R game itself.
The ASUS EN8600GTS utilizes NVIDIA´s unified architecture with GigaThread™ technology to deliver the finest graphics and visual special effects. With full support for NVIDIA SLI™ technology and Microsoft DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0, this graphics card will make use of the graphical enhancements from Microsoft® Windows Vista™ to enable stunning and complex special effects.

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Set of great articles on SLI from Tech-hounds..

Hi people
I've just found new tech website with tons of information about SLI. I don't have the time to make individual posts about every single article, so this is all-together article on SLI topic. One of the most valuable articles I have ever read on this topic.
Hopefully you'll like it, I know I did.

Revisiting SLI
Admittedly, we are skeptical of new technologies and products. After all, we think a healthy dose of skepticism is good since that means we reserve judgment until we saw proof to the contrary. When we first looked at what multi rendering has to offer with SLI, we were dismayed to say the least. From our experience, SLI doesn't always make good on its promise of performance. But at least, SLI have made good on the promise of quality, every time with every game

Crossfire: ATI's Answer to SLI - Part 2
Both Crossfire and SLI took some news time the past weeks with NVIDIA and ATI making the annoucement of supporting Havok FX physics. NVIDIA was the first to announce their support, back at E3 and ATI has followed suit in Computex. In general we think this is a good thing, particularly with SLI. This means if you don't experience a performance increase with a Havok FX enabled game in SLI, you can either use SLI to have SLI AA or physics.

Crossfire: ATI's Answer to SLI - Part 1
It's been a long time coming, but we finally decided to give in and test a Crossfire setup. For those of you out of the loop, Crossfire is ATI's take on the multi rendering solution, very much like NVIDIA's SLI. We were a little bit skeptical of multi rendering solutions in general, more so after looking at what SLI has to offer.

SLI: Myth and Reality - Part 2
Last week, we took a quick look at what NVIDIA's SLI has to offer. In that article, we concluded that while SLI does work, you should not expect tremendous gains in frame rates. In average, SLI can only offer around 30 % increase, occurring mostly when AA and AF are enabled. So, getting a single faster card is always better than putting two slow cards in an SLI setup.

SLI: Myth and Reality
Several weeks after the release of the GeForce 6 series, NVIDIA announced the rebirth of SLI. For the uninitiated, the moniker stands for Scalable Link Interface (and not Scan Line Interleaving from the ol' 3dfx days). The concept of SLI is pretty simple - instead of using a single card, you use two cards to render one screen by dividing the screen into two parts. If that's not possible, the two cards can take turns rendering the screen, ie. the first card renders all odd frames and the second card renders even frames. An intriguing idea and early test does show some promise. However, as most reviewers found out (later), SLI was anything but simple.

Contest time! Great prizes from Ocz!!! Win two OCZ 8800GTX cards and more!!!

OCZ is the name and Benching is the game! Show your overclocking skills and win OCZ gear for your system by participating in the first annual OCZ Benchmark Competition. The contest features three phases and a Grand Prize Winner who will be awarded two OCZ 8800GTX video cards, one 2GB kit of OCZ DDR2, one 1000W ProXStream power supply, and one OCZ air-cooled CPU cooler. The OCZ Benchmark Competition is part of OCZ’s growing forum community. The forums at.... provide dedicated expert technical advice and a place for OCZ fans and enthusiasts to trade overclocking tips and industry news. The site is managed by OCZ’s devoted support team and overclocking specialists.

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Can SLI in a Notebook Beat Desktop Graphics?

The world of mobile computing has been evolving over the past few decades. There are many variations to fit the nature of the need. Some are highly portable, with extended battery life. But while portability has been the aim of most designs, some users find power wanting.
Desktop replacement notebooks are the most powerful portable systems available, but they represent the smallest segment of the mobile computing market..We have seen the power mobile systems such as the Dell XPS M1710 and the Eurocom D900K F-Bomb offered, which could meet the performance requirements of those looking for maximum frame rates while on the road. While those two notebooks employed a single graphics processor, how well does a system with dual graphics perform? That answer comes in the form of Nvidia's Mobile GeForce Go 7800GTX processors in SLI.

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Quad SLI under the microscope

OVER THE PAST few years, we've seen an incredible number of extreme hardware solutions marketed to PC gamers: graphics cards that cost over five hundred bucks, thousand-dollar "Extreme Edition" CPUs, motherboards with more ports than Dubai, custom physics processors, and now even a "killer" NIC. Without a doubt, though, the most extreme of all of these offerings has to be Nvidia's vaunted Quad SLI. The concept of running four GPUs together for insane gaming goodness is more extreme than snowboarding down some wicked moguls into a vat of Mountain Dew at the X Games.
But does Quad SLI live up to its practically built-in hype? Can running four GPUs in tandem catapult you into a zone of pure extremeness, where new frames flow like water, object edges are feathery smooth, and textures are so perfectly mapped to surfaces that you're utterly convinced they're real?
I dunno. I'm just making this stuff up as I go along. But we have tested Quad SLI in order to see what it's like to play games on a quad-GPU system. We've also popped open the metaphorical hood on Quad SLI to see how it works. Along the way, we found a few unexpected things, as well.

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Overclock Your PC For Top Performance

At its most basic level, overclocking is exactly what its name implies—making a component, such as a CPU, memory, or video card run at a clock speed above its rated frequency. If you’re willing to accept (and are equipped to handle) the extra heat and increased power consumption that inevitably result from overclocking your components, your reward is a PC that performs better—sometimes much better—than before.

Changing the mode by which the memory clock speed is linked to the FSB (frontside bus) is the most common way to overclock system memory. Some motherboards, such as those based on the Nvidia nForce 680i SLI chipset, also give users the ability to manually adjust memory clock speeds completely independent of the FSB.


Just my quick comment is that this article is a great reading material for beginners/overclockers out there! So be sure to get the written issue of CPU magazine, issue April 2007, Pages 64-70.
I would include more text and pictures from this, but I haven't had the time to contact CPU magazine, and ask for a permission to use more of the text/pictures from this great article.

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New D-Tek FuZion GFX GPU Block Available

The all-new D-Tek FuZion GFX CPU block will bring a new level to GPU cooling with its direct impingement design, appearance, and high quality manufacturing. Unique to the FuZion GFX is the mid chamber design that provides good flowrates while utilizing direct impingement to the GPU core that puts this block at the level we normally see only in CPU cooling designs. The GFX is the perfect match for the newly released FuZion CPU waterblock. The baseplate of the block is 100% copper and features dense rounded pins. The low profile design of the FuZion GFX allows installation with Nvidia SLI and ATI's CrossFire systems.

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Ask Dan: Two 7950s or one 8800?

I'm in the process of buying a new computer, and I have come to a crossroad with video cards. I cannot determine if I am better off getting 2 Leadtek PX7950GT 512mb cards and running in SLI or getting 1 nVidia 8800GTX 768mb card.
What would your recommendation be? Will I get greater performance in games running 2 cards? Or is it better to just get one top-end card?
Jason

Fortunately, the rat's nest that is video card comparisons has become much simpler these days, which makes it very easy for me to answer your question. No, just kidding. It's as bad as it ever was, if not worse. Fortunately, it is possible to convey some vague idea of the current state of play without presenting you with 108 graphs of benchmarks from different games at multiple resolutions and with and without different levels of anti-aliasing.
There's no real-world situation I'm aware of in which a single GeForce 8800 GTX will be slower than a pair of GeForce 7950 GTs
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Budget PSU Roundup with HardwareCanuck - part 2 !!

Well, here we are in what seems to be an almost weekly occurrence: another power supply roundup by yours truly. This time we will be looking at a little more powerful models than we were last time; 500W to 600W models that all come in at under $105. Sounds like a great deal doesn’t it?
In this day and age we are faced with ever increasing power demands from higher-end components such as Nvidia’s 8800-series and AMD’s almost-mythical R600 cards. To power these beasts (or at least the 8800-series because of AMD’s tight lips about their card) and a proper processor, consumers should be looking at a minimum of a 450W power supply. If you start adding more than one hard drive and perhaps some overclocking, you are suddenly faced with the purchase of a 500W or more power supply. While this proposition can make some people weak in the knees (and bladders) there are relatively cheap 500W and above power supplies out there. It is in exactly these situations where the PSUs in this roundup come into play.

This test includes:
FSP Blue Storm II 500W

Cooler Master Extreme Power Duo 600W

Nmedia MP-500 (500W)

Enermax FMAII 535W

Silverstone ST50EF-PLUS (500W)

Mushkin HP-550 (550W)


This is the one test that made these power supplies crap their pants and call for mommy; 8800GTS cards in SLI ( as shown on this picture)

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CrossFire and SLI dongle-less / bridgeless performance analysis

Multi-GPU rendering in games. Ah, truly a geek's dream come true; to be able to drop in an extra graphics card and double the performance of a game, or keep the lovely performance and up the resolution and IQ a couple of notches. But the two consumer multi-GPU implementations - SLI and CrossFire - aren't without their caveats, right?
Let think up a few drawbacks you might have on your mind. There's price, drivers, game compatibility, platform issues, power requirements, the setup and more. Oh, what a minefield... except it's not quite that bad and it's continually getting better.
We could wax lyrical about how yes, some single cards cost and perform the same as two cards in dual-GPU mode, but that with two cards there's the upgrade path of buying one now and another later... or we could talk about how game support is constantly being tweaked with every driver release. In fact, we could rattle on for hours about it, especially with assistance of a Hoegaarden or two.

Bridgeless and dongle-less multi-GPU rendering isn't exactly new. We've seen it on lower-end SLI and CrossFire solutions, but now it's starting to rear its head higher up the product ranges, where the lack of a dedicated inter-card link might have a bigger impact. Shall we see if it does?

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GEFORCE 8950 GX 2 AND GEFORCE 8800 ULTRA

The passed exhibition ceBIT 2007 many where assured that in the following block NVIDIA will release video card geForce 8950 GX2 and GeForce 8800 Ultra. It is assumed that they will be announced on 17 April; however, associates with the reference to NVIDIA briefing told that about the accessibility Of geForce 8800 Ultra will be possible to speak only during May. NVIDIA is assured that the performance of this video card will be sufficient to complete with Radeon x2900 XTX. Associate also speaks about the possibility of appearance for geForce 8800 Ultra during May; however, it called the ultra high price on the order of $999. Let us note that we have more optimistic data about price and characteristics of the new high end chip from NVIDIA…
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