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The Definitive Multi-GPU Roundup |
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Introduction Summer 2006 |
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by Josh Walrath |
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The Basic Setups As a group we decided to focus more on price rather than perceived market placement. We have defined these points as sub $1,000 US, sub $2,000 US, and Unlimited budget. Here are the contenders for each side. For the ATI $1K system we are using the abit AT8 motherboard which features the Xpress 1600 chipset. The graphics cards used are the X1600 Pro models, though we have a variety of providers at this point. The AMD Athlon X2 3800+ will be powering the system with 1 GB (2 x 512 MB) of PC3200 DDR with 2.5-3-3-7 timings. When throwing in a moderately sized hard drive, optical drive, case and power supply, this basic setup can be purchased for around $1K US. On the NVIDIA side we are using a selection of nForce 4 SLI boards. These particular products have been out for over a year and a half now, and the differences between performance and feature-sets are pretty much nil. On the graphics side we are using the BFG Tech 7600 GS. The same processor and memory as the ATI part are used as well. For the next level we set the price of entry to a max of $2,000 US. On the ATI side we have the abit AT8-32X, which features the Xpress 3200 chipset. The graphics cards are X1900 GT’s, which are as of this moment “unofficially” supported in CrossFire configurations. With Catalyst 6.8, these cards will be officially recognized as CrossFire capable. AMD again provided an X2 4400+ as the processor of choice, and we upped the memory to 2 GB (2 x 1 GB) PC3200 DDR at 2-3-2-7 timings. On the NVIDIA side we decided to use is the abit AN8-32X for our motherboard choice. For the graphics portion we decided to shake things up a bit. Since overall price was the priority, we had a bit of flexibility in our choice of graphics card. To this end we decided to skip the 2 x 7900 GT cards and go with a single 7950 GX2. This may be a very controversial choice, because this product straddles the line between being a single card and a SLI setup in one slot. In the end we decided that the card does utilize SLI to work, and if a user was looking to spend $600 total on graphics cards, they would be better off going with a single 7950 GX2 vs. 2 x 7900 GTs. This not only increases the overall space available in a user’s case, but it also opens up Quad-SLI possibilities in the future. For the Unlimited budget we are going all out on the configurations. The AMD Athlon FX-62 AM2 processor is the current top choice for consumers. We are also using the Supertalent T800UX2GC4 PC800 2GB DDR-2 DIMMS, as they provide some of the lowest latencies at the lowest voltages around. At 1.8v these DIMMS are set for 4-4-3-8 2T timings at PC800 speeds. For the ATI side we ran into a bit of a problem for a top end motherboard. As of June 30th, there were no ATI AM2 CrossFire supporting motherboards out. We felt we could give ATI a bit of leeway here, as the ECS KA3-MVP boards we were provided are final, and should be available in the second half of July. We as a group felt that these articles will be read well beyond August, so it would behoove us to include these boards that are not currently available at this moment (July 10, 2006). Again, the promise is that they will be available soon. For the graphics portion we are using the X1900 CrossFire Edition and the X1900 XT. We decided to not use the X1900 XTX because when CrossFire is enabled, it downclocks the XTX to XT speeds. So, the extra money spent on a XTX may prove to be foolish for the average user not looking to overclock. On the NVIDIA side we are using both the Foxconn C51XEM2AA board as well as the Asus M2N32-SLI. Both boards show about the same performance, and they are excellent examples of the breed. For the graphics portion we are using 2 x 7900 GTX’s from BFG. These are slightly higher clocked, and have the famous BFG lifetime warranty. The Timeline The articles from the other member sites will be released every other day, throughout the work week. Weekends will not see new articles, unless there is a delay in getting a particular article out. This Wednesday we will see Bit-Tech cover the GPU choices in depth, and this Friday Bjorn3D will cover the motherboards used and their performance and feature-sets relative to each other. The Monday after that will see the start the graphics testing with Hard-Info, and will continue on through the Conclusion provided by Guru3D.
We would also like to acknowledge the companies that have come through for us with the hardware to make this project a reality.
NVIDIA- Brian Burke, Bryan Del Rizzo, and Andrew Fear AMD- Damon Muzny and Bubba Wolford Supertalent- Joe James BFG Tech- Scott Herkelman and Dean Brady abit- the European and North American offices ECS- the European and North American offices Gigabyte- European office Sapphire- European office ATI- Chris Hook and Andrew Dodd
Read the next installment at Bit-Tech Return to the Beginning of the Article If you have found this article interesting or a great help, please donate to this site.
Copyright 1999-2006 PenStar Systems, LLC. |
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