Hardware Discussions

[powwow71]

That's right boys and girls...run an nvidia card and ATI card together at the same time and get perfect load balancing. Run a gtx 285 and a 8800 gtx and get perfect load balancing. Get 100% scaling. Run an ATI 4890 with a gtx 260 etc.

AND

no more SLI or crossfire profiles. It is all handled in hardware now. All available next month. I'm gonna have to see if I can delay my computer order now lol

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3646

[Samuel71]

Holy **bleep**ing Christ.    

If this turns out to be what it is being touted as, then this is the single biggest development in computer gaming hardware since the invention of the discrete video card.  ATI and NVIDIA will be **bleep**ing slaughtered.

I can't wait for the reviews.

[Synchronous Failure]

*salivates*

SLI and Crossfire are both pains in the ass. You have to have two of the same card and a good majority of games just don't fully support it if at all. It's expensive and almost useless. The ability to use the brand new DX11 cards from ATI and get a performance boost from an existing NVIDIA card plus the use of proprietary NVIDIA goodies like PhysX at the same time is just plain awesome. I hope it works as advertised.

[Bowhunters]

Sounds sweet, if they can reach a deal with all the motherboard companies over time to put that chip on all multi 16x slot motherboards i'm wondering if it should actually make it easier for Nvidea and ATI.    Nvid and ATI may not like the idea of Hydra right now but in the end it might make their lives easier with no more sli or crossover issues with certain games, etc.

There wouldn't be a need for anymore sli or crossover pin connections built  onto cards and no connectors to go between cards and after a few years no more sli or crossover updated drivers needed.

It will be interesting to see if it has any issues in the real world, lets hope not.

[powwow71]

Guys...I'm really hyped about this. I really hope this is the real deal

[bysmitty]

It just sounds too good to be true.  I'll remain optimistic but keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

...bysmitty

[jwhx]

This sounds amazing and with an extra cost of not even $80 bucks for the highend...holy crap! Granted, I'm more of the mindset of 1 highend card vs. 2 lesser cards as I don't require crazy high frame rates to be happy but I'd still pay for this just in case.

[Samuel71]

Guys... remember, Intel has stake in this company... imagine what they could do if they combined this with Larrabee and shut out ATI and NVIDIA from using the chip.  The video card market would be reformed in a flash, and Intel would be bigger and badder then ever.  Just an idea.

[Synchronous Failure]

And then the EU fines their ass another couple billion dollars. =P

[Overload]

And then you get this move by Nvidia as per X-Bit Labs: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20090929095918_Nvidia_Reportedly_Limits_PhysX_Support_to_...

[Bowhunters]

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Overload wrote:

And then you get this move by Nvidia as per X-Bit Labs: http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20090929095918_Nvidia_Reportedly_Limits_PhysX_Support_to_...

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As the article states, that move could turn around and bite Nvidia on the azz if ATI starts enabling it for their cards or if someone creates a work around since PhysX is an "open standard" that is available for anyone including ATI to develop so Nvidia trying to force people into using two Nvidia cards could turn people against them in the end if someone else runs with it.

Might even see Lucid Hydra put it on their chip at some point.

[Natedog51]

From the press release that ATI released on the 5800's on their site it seems they have answered Nvidia feature for feature except for one (3D vision vs. Eyefinity (multiple monitors)). They have announced that the 5800's could support Physics based processing (meaning they could open up that feature with a driver update, they'd be stupid not to), their ATI Stream claims to help video encoding along the same lines as CUDA does for Nvidia. Now, how well do these features work? Not sure but I'd be willing to say they could work just as good if not better over time as the drivers for these next gen cards are refined.

[lordmikjeff]

nvidia made it so that this chip is a stillborn.

i hate nvidia... stupid monopoly on physx and mostly all games have a flashing nvidia bs going on.

I was a fan when they beat voodoo and cheered em on

now theyre the badguys and everyone else is the underdog.

ill always hate sli. in all forms. old with voodoo and the new.

i find both amd and nvidia acting like ass hats atm