Nvidia forced to disable chipset PCI Prefetch

[rrjwilson]

I can honestly say you've lost me there. SLI is the linking of two Nvidia GPUs to perform the necessary tasks. Combining two dual GPU cards gives four GPUs, making Quad SLI. The argument could be made that because they use single PCI-E lanes, that it's not 4 cards in use, but it is not the cards that count, its the cores.

Umm no. I'm sorry Ham as much as I am your side for everything else in this thread Quad SLi (if using situations in other SLi setups) does not exist. Quad SLi as you point out refers to the 4 cores being operated over 2x 16x PCI-e lanes however, this does not match triple or normal SLi setups.

In dual SLi you have two cores linked directly for glorious scaling.

In triple SLi has three cores directly linked together using twice the connectors to insure bandwidth is maintained and scaling is optimal.

In "Quad" SLi you have a dual SLi setup in each card and the information from one CARD is shared (not both cores on each card - that is the difference). Thereby making the cards act as really fast single core cards so they CAN share the information over the single slot bridge used during quad SLi. If quad SLi was actual quad SLi there would presumably be 3 SLi connectors to insure bandwidth between the respective cores or perhaps SLi connectors above each core to tandem SLi. This however is not the case.

 

[Ham]

That last comment was not necessary.

What you are describing is besides the point, as well as just affirming the last sentence you quoted from me. What you have written is how it works. The fact of the matter is there are 4 GPUs cooperating with each other, via what ever means, to produce your graphics.

If you wish to debate it further, feel free to start a new thread. This one is now awaiting y eye to explain himself.

 

[llwyd]

Quad = four cores, SLI = linked cards. 4 cores + link = Quad SLI

and rrjwilson, you stated "Thereby making the cards act as really fast single core cards". ACTS. A quad core CPU ACTS like one CPU (because it is) but you still call it quad core do you not?

It's just a tag at the end of the day. The ASUS commando doesnt don face paint and drop from helicopters does it.

 

[MeltedDuron]

I started with a 7900 GT xxx edition on a 939 sli board. At this time sli was very much a new technology and when nvidia launched the 8 series card i thought it wise to invest in another 7900GT .

Ever hear of a little company called 3dfx? <3dfxfanboi> SLI is pretty old lol 3dfx made the first insane desktop cards, and introduced SLI with the Voodoo2 (A PCI 3D accelerator). Their cards were a little too insane and nV bought 3dfx out a few years back, just before they were going to release the voodoo5 6000, a card with 4 gpu's and an external PSU. Funny how history repeats itself, with all the Geforce GX2's and Radeon X2's out now. You've probably seen a few cards with external psu's too.</3dfxfanboi>

Quad = four cores, SLI = linked cards. 4 cores + link = Quad SLI

and rrjwilson, you stated "Thereby making the cards act as really fast single core cards". ACTS. A quad core CPU ACTS like one CPU (because it is) but you still call it quad core do you not?

It's just a tag at the end of the day. The ASUS commando doesnt don face paint and drop from helicopters does it.

Wow I don't see how this thread turned into such a flamefest! There are probably limitations to quad SLI, but I doubt the GPU's have the bandwidth to make sharing 16 lanes an issue.. Theres a couple of extra chips involved with quad gpu setups, which would mean there are overheads, but the extra GPU means that it'd still spank 3 cards and definitely whip a straight dual card setup assuming all cards are based on the same GPU.

I think my commando might don face paint and drop from a helicopter though. I'm sure i've already had that nightmare lol my mobo wants to kill me!

Thanks for the idea though, I'll have to get some UV paint going on

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