GeForce GTX 295 In Quad SLI
This article was exciting to do for two reasons; the first was of course the fact that we were going to just see how powerful two of the fastest graphics cards on the market would perform when place together. This in total gave us four GPUs to play with across two cards and what this results in is a bucket load of power.
The second reason was that I would finally get a chance to take SLI for a spin on the newly built testbed. It’s really been ages since I’ve had the ability to test SLI on my main testbed. It was fantastic that the X58 closed that gap where we no longer need one motherboard for Crossfire and another for SLI.
We were fortunate sufficient to receive a GTX 295 sample from both GIGABYTE and Gainward, so with two cards in hand and a motherboard that supported SLI, we wanted to see some Quad SLI goodness, if not just for our readers.
The GTX 295 is impressive, but Quad SLI can really show a card and drivers’ faults, so let’s get straight into our test system and the results...MSI N295GTX-M2D1792 - Graphics adapter - GF GTX 295 - PCI Express 2.0 x16 - 1.75 GB GDDR3 - DVI, HDMI ( HDCP ) - HDTV out
PCI Express 3.0
In August 2007 PCI-SIG announced that PCI Express 3.0 will carry a bit rate of 8 gigatransfers per second. The spec will be backwards-compatible with existing PCIe implementations and a final spec is due in 2009. New features for PCIe 3.0 specification include a digit of optimizations for enhanced signaling and data integrity, including transmitter and receiver equalization, PLL improvements, clock data recovery, and channel enhancements for currently supported topologies.
Following a six-month technical analysis of the feasibility of scaling the PCIe interconnect bandwidth, PCI-SIG's analysis found out that 8 gigatransfers per second can be manufactured in mainstream silicon process technology, and can be deployed with existing low-cost materials and infrastructure, while maintaining full compatibility (with negligible impact) to the PCIe protocol stack.
PCIe 2.0 delivers 5 GT/s but employed an 8b/10b encoding scheme which took 20 percent overhead on the overall raw bit rate. By removing the requirement for the 8b/10b encoding scheme (relying solely on the still-used scrambler), PCIe 3.0's 8 GT/s bit rate fruitfully delivers double PCIe 2.0 bandwidth. According to an official press release by PCI-SIG on August 8, 2007
The final PCIe 3.0 specifications, including form factor specification updates, may be available by late 2009, and could be seen in products starting in 2010 and beyond.
PCI-SIG expects the PCIe 3.0 specifications to undergo rigorous technical vetting and substantiation before being released to the industry. This process, which was followed in the development of prior generations of the PCIe Base and various form factor specifications, includes the corroboration of the final electrical parameters with data derived from test silicon and other simulations conducted by multiple members of the PCI-SIG.
PCI Express 2.0
PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007. PCIe 2.0 doubles the bus standard's bandwidth from 0.25 GByte/s to 0.5 GByte/s, meaning a x32 connector can transfer data at up to 16 GByte/s for both videocards (SLI 2x etc). PCIe 2.0 has two 32 bits channels for each GPU (2x16), while the first version only has 1x16 and is operating at 2 GHz.
PCIe 2.0 is backward and forward compatible with PCIe v1.x. PCI Express 2.0 has excellent backwards compatibility, new PCIe 2.0 graphics cards are compatible with PCIe 1.1 motherboards, meaning that they will run on them using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v2.0 will be able to work with the other being v1.1 or v1.0.
The PCI-SIG also said that PCIe 2.0 features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture.
In June 2007 Intel released the specification of the Intel P35 chipset which does not support PCIe 2.0 only PCIe 1.1. Some broadcast may be confused by the P35 block diagram[19] which states the Intel P35 has a PCIe x16 graphics link (8 GB/s) and 6 PCIe x1 links (500 MB/s each). For simple verification one can view the P965 block diagram which shows the same digit of lanes and bandwidth but was released before PCIe 2.0 was finalized. Intel's first PCIe 2.0 capable chipset was the X38 and boards started to ship from various vendors (Abit, Asus, Gigabyte) as of October 21, 2007. AMD ongoing at the bottom of PCIe 2.0 with its RD700 chipset series and nVidia ongoing with the MCP72.The specification of the Intel P45 chipset includes PCIe 2.0 .
EVGA 017-P3-1291-AR GeForce GTX295 1792 MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Lifetime Warranty
Nvidia three-way SLI
NVIDIA IS PREPARING to unveil its three-way SLI driver, as the first promo picture leaks its way into the dingy sewers of the interdribble.
The launch of SLIII is due on November 12. The skinny is here but here's the clipped notes.
Basically you're going to need a 680i or 780i/a board with three PCI-Express graphics slots, the latest and greatest Nvidian drivers (expect bugs galore if Vista SLI is anything to go by) as well as a card that has two SLI connectors (currently, the 8800 Ultra or GTX). You're also going to need a rather meaty looking new bridge adaptor that connects each card to every other card.
Nvidia is not preparing to go quad, and nor could it - aside from the lack of PCI-E slots on motherboards, most cases don't have room for eight slots' worth of cooling. Ouch.
PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800GTX Overclock 512MB 256 bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 3 Way-SLi Supported Dual-link HDCP Capable Video Card (VCG98GTXXPB-OC)
How to Overclock your Graphic Card
Overclocking is more well loved than ever. And since it’s so simple to boost the frequency of your Intel processor, it would be a shame not to. But CPUs aren’t the only gears that can be overclocked. The GPUs on graphics cards can also be speeded up, and so can their memory. And since an affordable card only differs from more expensive ones in its clock alacrity, overclocking can be your key to some real savings.
Overclocking a GPU is a less common process than overclocking a CPU, and above all, it’s more complex. One of the reasons for that is that a graphics card’s BIOS is not as easily accessible as a motherboard’s. This article will shed some light on the different methods that can be used and the results you can expect when overclocking your graphics card.
ATi vs nVIDIA: Video Transcoding
Nvidia
of processing power and till now we had to use, in most cases, CPU processing power.
Since market of portable devices that can play video files (like smartphones and
portable media players) is growing rapidly, necessity for conversion of video files
to lower resolutions and bit rates is growing accordingly. Of course there are cases
when we need to covert video file to higher resolution as in case of converting DVD
to HD video format that is better apposite for your new Full HD TV. Users are using
Video Converters more and more every day and at the same time they are seeking
for software solution that will do the job quicker and with better results...
EVGA 512-P3-N879-AR GeForce 9800 GTX + 512 MB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card -Lifetime Warranty
ATI
ATi’s approach to this problem is somewhat different while the basic principle is the same.Badaboom was developed by independent company while ATi developed its application in-household. ATi Avivo Video Converter (AVC) is option that can be found inside Catalyst Control Center and it is one of the fundamentals of the project FUSION. To get access to Avivo video converter you need to switch Catalyst Control Center from Advanced to Basic mode. Why this gathering isn’t available in Advanced view mode isn’t clear but obviously someone in AMD thinks that Advanced users don’t need this gathering?! When you start Avivo Video Converter you will be welcomed by poorly designed interface. Digit of supported formats is greater, than in case of Badaboom, but those options are unnecessary block out and perplexing and that can be major drawback for inexperienced users. When it comes to options it seems that Badaboom has more of those then AVC, and Badaboom allows better control of transcoding process. AVC was in some cases unstable and inconsistent when it comes to calculation of time necessary to complete conversion. We saw too often those modest miscalculation windows with “Don’t Send” button so we suspected that our overclocked CPU is the problem. We “downclocked” our CPU on default values and reinstalled Windows OS, but that didn’t help. We can only hope thatthis will be corrected in next CCC version. Performances of AVC were in most cases better than Badaboom. If we consider that nVIDIA was powered by more powerful GTX280 and ATi by Palit Radeon HD 4870 1GB DDR5, these differences can seem even larger...
Diamond 4870PE51G ATI Radeon HD 4870 PCI-Express 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Video Card
Hardcore Graphic Game
SAN FRANCISCO - The next generation of computer games sporting more realistic visuals than ever is not yet in full swing but a range of new graphics chips is letting gamers beef up their PCs today in anticipation.
It's the latest round in the grudge match between Nvidia Corp., the last remaining independent graphics chip company, and ATI, which was folded into PC processor maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. last year.
The new chips are some of the most impressive pieces of silicon ever produced - sporting more than half a billion transistors, hundreds of processing engines and accompanied by more than half a gigabyte of memory.
The magic lies in their ability to run games using DirectX 10, the latest version of the software from Microsoft Corp., enabling games to run on its Windows operating system.
Only a handful of games take advantage of DirectX 10 now, but the most anticipated releases later this year - jungle shooter "Crysis," online role-playing game "Age of Conan" and "Unreal Tournament 3" - all use it.
"Broadcast are buying the new cards because you buy with a degree of headroom to support games coming down the pipeline. Broadcast want to buy today knowing they can maximize that experience," said AMD spokesman Jon Carvill.
AMD brought its newest Radeon chip to the table last month, giving it a powerful product to compete with Nvidia's GeForce lineup, which it refreshed in late 2006.
Reviewers have praised the $400 ($NZ520) Radeon 2900 XT's specs and said that although early tests showed it underperforming a comparable Nvidia card, the results should improve as AMD's engineers tweak its software...BFG BFGEGTX2851024OCE GeForce GTX 285 OC 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card
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