OC3D Review: XFX Tri SLI - 3 x 8800 Ultra's in 3 way SLI
- Thread starter FarFarAway
- Start date
FarFarAway
New member
Yes it was a pleasent surprise tbh, the 9 series should make it even better
Rastalovich
New member
Great read. The results do look good, and the comment about how the games `feel` is a better qualifier for me.
I`d not even entertain this, even with planning ahead months in advance to afford it. Does look nice tho hehe
Heat is an issue for me; power is crazy talk - but obviously a requirement, which is where the heat is going; drivers and/or a card being tempremental, I can do without, just don`t need it ontop of other pc dodgyness.
All said and done, I`m banking on the top end single card for the generation to come.
Be nice to see single slotted cards or wc solutions of this being tested.
Some fine benches too.
I`d not even entertain this, even with planning ahead months in advance to afford it. Does look nice tho hehe
Heat is an issue for me; power is crazy talk - but obviously a requirement, which is where the heat is going; drivers and/or a card being tempremental, I can do without, just don`t need it ontop of other pc dodgyness.
All said and done, I`m banking on the top end single card for the generation to come.
Be nice to see single slotted cards or wc solutions of this being tested.
Some fine benches too.
The performance gains does not justify the price at all, i mean seriously why cant they just get standard SLI to just work properly before moving on to tri, quad and so on...
For this cash i would want to see stable FPS, not 40-500fps ranges, you look at any competitive gamer and the key thing for there setup is constant FPS, why else do you think most of them stick to the low 800x600 res?!?
For this cash i would want to see stable FPS, not 40-500fps ranges, you look at any competitive gamer and the key thing for there setup is constant FPS, why else do you think most of them stick to the low 800x600 res?!?
Mr. Smith
New member
It did OK and nothing more IMO.
For what it costs tri-sli should be a mindblowing experience. It isn't.
It is better than quad fire was but it should be. That is no argument for merit anyway, it is like defending the 9600gt on the basis it is better than the 8600gt. Yes it is but it is still a poor excuse for a mid range card.
The people who will be buying this won't care for price
erformance, the rest of the people using this will be top benchers who get it for free...
I wish people (reviewers and consumers) would be a lot harder on this industry than they are. If we continue to accept and praise half arsed developments then manufacturers will continue to sell them.
For what it costs tri-sli should be a mindblowing experience. It isn't.
It is better than quad fire was but it should be. That is no argument for merit anyway, it is like defending the 9600gt on the basis it is better than the 8600gt. Yes it is but it is still a poor excuse for a mid range card.
The people who will be buying this won't care for price
erformance, the rest of the people using this will be top benchers who get it for free...I wish people (reviewers and consumers) would be a lot harder on this industry than they are. If we continue to accept and praise half arsed developments then manufacturers will continue to sell them.
FarFarAway
New member
name='Mr. Smith' said:It did OK and nothing more IMO. For what it costs tri-sli should be a mindblowing experience. It isn't. It is better than quad fire was but it should be. That is no argument for merit anyway, it is like defending the 9600gt on the basis it is better than the 8600gt. Yes it is but it is still a poor excuse for a mid range card. The people who will be buying this won't care for price
i think you're right in some respects, but i think nvidia really do want to release the full potential of tri SLI. it outperforms anything out there which is why it HAS to have a good performance score and award. the fact that it isn't an economically viable solution is reflected in the price score.
it' not perfect but it's a lot better than any other solution right now snd will improve with driver revisions
Rastalovich
New member
name='Mr. Smith' said:
That`s the norm, that`s how PC dev is. Every now and again there is a blip of good progress tho.
Nothing anyone can do about it, it`s cash driven. Not good tho.
Who know`s nVidia maywell be holding back BIGTIME with their gfx gpus, just cos they can. It`s been.. since Nov/Dec 2006, and no1 in the freeworld has broken the 8800GTX/Ultra as a single card. They get their wedge each time they beat their last card by some %. The big deal IS to realize that in their mind the 9600 has to beat the 8600, nothing else, no great leaps.
FarFarAway
New member
Yes it does feel like nvidia are playing it safe a bit, but then who can blame them? Release a card with minimal tweaks and rake in the cash, it's good business. Tri SLI is a step in the right direction tho so that deserves recognition.
Soz for missing the oc'ing que - am on mobile. I did OC a bit before hols but when i actually did the benchies i didn't get time for conclusive resluts.
In all fairness it didn't seem to make much of a muchness as the power is still not being used to full potential as it is.
Hope that answers y'all!
Soz for missing the oc'ing que - am on mobile. I did OC a bit before hols but when i actually did the benchies i didn't get time for conclusive resluts.
In all fairness it didn't seem to make much of a muchness as the power is still not being used to full potential as it is.
Hope that answers y'all!
SuB
The Webmaster
i love how there are more pictures of all 3 cards
i can see you stood there with the camera talking to them lol
'work it baby'
'yeah growl at me baby'
lol
sorry. that aside its insane money, and i think the scores are fair, the fps output is mad, but not earth shattering like the price tbh
still.. its a step in the right direction i guess
i can see you stood there with the camera talking to them lol
'work it baby'
'yeah growl at me baby'
lol
sorry. that aside its insane money, and i think the scores are fair, the fps output is mad, but not earth shattering like the price tbh
still.. its a step in the right direction i guess
Rastalovich
New member
name='Kempez' said:
Yeah you can`t put aside the financial benefits to them of them doing that, it`s the whole lean of the tech market once you get big enough to do it.
Pishes me off tbh, cos it means tech isn`t advancing as quick as it should be. It`s not just them tho, it`s most companies surrounding the pc that don`t have more than 2 or 3 competitors. It takes some1 outside of the pc market to show-off something outstanding, then suddenly the pc has something very very similar almost immediately.
You just know that Ati could bring out a 8800GTX busting card... then suddenly a 9850UltraXXX appears that doubles it.
Cash over tech. It`s one of the things that will be the end of mankind. I have zero doubt that we have the tech to install sustainable habitats on other planets - but u know damn well that when that meteor is a few thousand miles from hitting the Earth, some company will hold things up cos of the pricing.
Mr. Smith
New member
This is not a step in the right direction.
Multi cards = inefficient in terms of performance, power usage and cost. Driver issues, micro-stuttering etc, etc.
It is lazy and about as innovative as a car company sticking another engine into a chassis and saying ‘yep, we are awesome, we have the fastest car ever. Ok, so it uses twice the fuel, spits out twice the pollution and yes twice the price, but dude, it’s the fastest ever…’ They should be completely reworking the engine, adding turbos and intercoolers, getting 600bhp from the same sized engine that previously pushed 300bhp for less mpg… Perhaps a weak analogy but swap engines for core and bhp for mhz and you see where I am coming from? Maybe not.
I mean the middle card overheats and shuts down! How is that a good design?
Perhaps a mixture of a stressful day and too much caffeine has nvidia taking the brunt of my frustrations at the industry but this is just exactly what infuriates me; garbage being given accolades regardless.
I understand tri-sli outperforms everything out there (hence the perf award), but it should. Just like every new gen should beat the last gen. I mean this X2 is the same, ‘dude, lets put 2 cores on one pcb and sell it as one super card. Yeah… Where’s the pipe man?’ Bah, I could go on but I won’t.
No, for me this is a step backwards. Single cards, with new architecture is what should be developed and released and these half arsed solutions should be ignored and criticised at best.
/rant.
Multi cards = inefficient in terms of performance, power usage and cost. Driver issues, micro-stuttering etc, etc.
It is lazy and about as innovative as a car company sticking another engine into a chassis and saying ‘yep, we are awesome, we have the fastest car ever. Ok, so it uses twice the fuel, spits out twice the pollution and yes twice the price, but dude, it’s the fastest ever…’ They should be completely reworking the engine, adding turbos and intercoolers, getting 600bhp from the same sized engine that previously pushed 300bhp for less mpg… Perhaps a weak analogy but swap engines for core and bhp for mhz and you see where I am coming from? Maybe not.
I mean the middle card overheats and shuts down! How is that a good design?
Perhaps a mixture of a stressful day and too much caffeine has nvidia taking the brunt of my frustrations at the industry but this is just exactly what infuriates me; garbage being given accolades regardless.
I understand tri-sli outperforms everything out there (hence the perf award), but it should. Just like every new gen should beat the last gen. I mean this X2 is the same, ‘dude, lets put 2 cores on one pcb and sell it as one super card. Yeah… Where’s the pipe man?’ Bah, I could go on but I won’t.
No, for me this is a step backwards. Single cards, with new architecture is what should be developed and released and these half arsed solutions should be ignored and criticised at best.
/rant.
name='Mr. Smith' said:
I have to agree. Rubbish isn't it. It seems they've spent so much more time, effort and money marketing this idea than actually making it work.
What do we have here?
Perfect idea then, and still now, or are they just too lazy to come up with an alternative?
EDIT: Very good review all the same. It's refreshing to read your reviews with all the stats and being able to form ones own opinions.
All seems abit daft to me unless they are going to let it run on cards like the 9600gt in which 3 of them give better performance than a single 8800ultra.
Perhaps current tech is reaching a point at which it cannot progress much further and next gen tech is never going to be as big of a leap as it has been the past.
Nice review kemp, made for a good read
Perhaps current tech is reaching a point at which it cannot progress much further and next gen tech is never going to be as big of a leap as it has been the past.
Nice review kemp, made for a good read
FarFarAway
New member
Thanks lads and glad it's brought up a debate, it needs a debate
single cards FTW
whats the point in getting multiple cards....it does seem stupid...
if you have one giant single card, it will do everything you want, and there's only one card, it will only pump out one set of heat...
multiple cards draw wayy too much power and just dump too much heat into your system
just keep reworking graphics cards til you get to 2GHz versions, with 2 gig of memory, and a helova lot of those shader things
THEN it wont be a problem, aside from the massive heatsink needed for a card that powerful...
whats the point in getting multiple cards....it does seem stupid...
if you have one giant single card, it will do everything you want, and there's only one card, it will only pump out one set of heat...
multiple cards draw wayy too much power and just dump too much heat into your system
just keep reworking graphics cards til you get to 2GHz versions, with 2 gig of memory, and a helova lot of those shader things
THEN it wont be a problem, aside from the massive heatsink needed for a card that powerful...
FarFarAway
New member
In fairness the 2 x 9600 GTs draw less power than an 8800 GTX
Very nice review Kemp! 
Personally I don't see the point in SLI. Oh yeah you may get some better FPS but it doesn't have a very good Price/Performance ratio.
I have SLIed once. 2x6800s. Was nice but the amount of problems and driver errors that you can get is just a pain.
And some games don't even support SLI properly and so you can get pants performance.
But it is still good fun. I do still prefer single cards.
Personally I don't see the point in SLI. Oh yeah you may get some better FPS but it doesn't have a very good Price/Performance ratio.
I have SLIed once. 2x6800s. Was nice but the amount of problems and driver errors that you can get is just a pain.
And some games don't even support SLI properly and so you can get pants performance.
But it is still good fun. I do still prefer single cards.
Rastalovich
New member
It`s another few arguements I have. The drivers are getting better time after time. I imagine a time when there will be drivers that a solid - but then there`s who`s version of solid works best for who.
And this other thing about games having to be sli `suitable` to get a real advantage from them - well why don`t they emphasis the cards looking like 1 graphics card to the system so that this is entirely unnecessary ? Kinda like a raid harddrive system.
And this other thing about games having to be sli `suitable` to get a real advantage from them - well why don`t they emphasis the cards looking like 1 graphics card to the system so that this is entirely unnecessary ? Kinda like a raid harddrive system.
