NVIDIA 3-Way SLI review roundup

No use kidding around: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 3-Way SLI kicks benchmark ass. Reviewers across the board found the setup to be far and away the best money can buy when it comes to graphics, but the price is certainly steep. Not only are the cards super pricey -- you're limited to the 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra -- but you'll need a 1000+ watt power supply, and pretty much a fresh system from the ground up unless you're already running the nForce 680i SLI motherboard. PC Perspective crunched the numbers, and you're looking at about $2828 in costs before you even get to the case, hard drive, DVD drive and all that other superfluous stuff. That said, the third card really makes a big difference, since performance scales surprisingly well with the addition. You probably don't need this kind of power if you're not trying to game at full-res on a 30-incher, but if you don't mind dropping $3k on a system purely designed to play Crysis at Very High, then you just might have some 3-way SLI in your future.

Read - bit-tech.net
Read - HotHardware
Read - PC Perspective

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 14th 2007 12:03PM]

Gaming is pushing the hardware that you will use as an animator to make your life better. You should be thanking the gamers. ;)

[ByronGman @ Dec 14th 2007 12:03PM]

Totally with you on that one Bob.

What ever happened to good old days when fun consisted of sitting in a hard chair and reading the bible? Or mowing the lawn? Now there is some productive leisure.

[eric @ Dec 14th 2007 1:06PM]

The real question is, will it blend?

[DCGaymer @ Dec 14th 2007 11:29AM]

Having been a longtime Engadget reader I felt compelled to warn people about my personal experience.

DON"T DRINK NVIDIA's KOOLAID!

Quad SLI Support for Windows Vista has been non-existent

If you recall...in 2005... at CEBIT, in Hannover, Germany... NVidia previewed QUAD SLI technology with all kinds of promises for future proofing http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_19394.html . Which at the time also promised to be VISTA compatible....Not so...Later they amended the Press release in a filing with the SEC to include a disclaimer that...I quote.

"Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the performance, capabilities, benefits and features of our products and technologies, the anticipated preview and launch date of our core-logic solutions for Intel CPUS and the anticipated benefits the nForce MCP will bring to Intel computing platforms are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. "

*ooph* (that was the emoted sound of the Quad SLI community getting sucker punched. We bought...we believed them...the screwed us.

Only last night...21 month AFTER they first previewed the Quad SLI have they finally released the "BETA" Tri-SLI (Supposedly vista quad compatible) driver's. The results are NOT good so far. The difference with CDMark is 500 points lower than with XP.

http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=2884

Moral ... Don't drink Nvidia's KOOLAID....make them PROVE themselves before you buy.

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 14th 2007 12:03PM]

What if the Kool-Aid is grape flavor?

[z0phi3l @ Dec 14th 2007 1:13PM]

So you'd rather I waste my $ on some crappy ATI "solution"? No Way I'll stick with nVidia for the foreseeable future.

[DCGaymer @ Dec 14th 2007 2:09PM]

No, I didn't say but ATI anywhere in my post....I said make them PROVE they'll be supporting the TRI SLI before you buy.

[Denver_80203 @ Dec 14th 2007 2:33PM]

"DON"T DRINK NVIDIA's KOOLAID!"

This comes from someone who expects better video Performance in VISTA over XP... I'll have another cup please.

[Ted @ Dec 14th 2007 11:33AM]

Would I get away with powering 3 cards on a 1000W PSU? Does it really have to be 1100?

Just think of the pain when the next batch of nVidia cards come out soon and your tri-SLi setup instantly plummets in value. You problem won't even be able to buy two new cards for the money you get from selling three old ones, come January or whenever we get new 8800 gpus.

[DJWhiplash2001 @ Dec 14th 2007 11:35AM]

I believe that there aren't new 8800 GPUs coming out (new 512MBs just came out) - the 9000 series will be coming out and will make me feel bad about buying the 8800 Ultra.

[eX @ Dec 17th 2007 10:17AM]

If you're getting 3 ultra, you will probably need a 1100w or 1200w QUALITY psu. 3 ultras can suck up just over 800w alone under heavy load so it would leave little to the other system components. Depending on whether you overclock you proc, number of hard drives and all that will possibly push you beyond 1000w. That's of course if your games will pust these cards to the max but better safe than sorry. 3 of these cards will eat around 460w idle. Either way, I think this is a total waste of money. Not only they don't show a reasonable boost in performance relative the insane cost of the setup, nVidia is not going to release 8800gt/gts G92 with dual sli connector thus only limiting you to the most expensive cards. Seeing that anticipations if growing for Geforce 9 as early as coming February I'd hold off on these (or at least G92 based GTX would help since current 8800gtx/ultra gpu's are outdated). Crysis still runs poorly @1920 on UHQ even with 3 ultras and all other top hardware.

[dataminer49er @ Dec 14th 2007 11:36AM]

I don't need a computer that practically needs its own power circuit.

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 14th 2007 12:09PM]

circuit? more like grid!

[Frangible @ Dec 14th 2007 11:58AM]

Suddenly, a $400 PS3 doesn't even look like that bad of a deal.

[Holden @ Jan 2nd 2008 9:37PM]

I wonder what a $1200 or 3 PS3 sli/crossfired setup would be able to produce? protein origami!!!

[Scott @ Dec 14th 2007 12:00PM]

I'll do this when it's available at the 8800GT level. I am not going to use 6! slots to run SLI.

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 14th 2007 12:06PM]

They need to get on the ball and offer three GPU cards instead. Or make GPUs with daughter slots that you can snap GPU boards to if you really need more power. SLI is a waste of memory.

[Byzil Mystwing @ Dec 14th 2007 12:08PM]

I've only got one Ultra and I can run Crysis on very high on my 28" without any problems, I really don't see why anyone would want to do three-way SLI other than for bragging rights..

[Ayle @ Dec 14th 2007 12:56PM]

At what kind of resolution? http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/225/82172998ag3.png

[alexbond @ Dec 14th 2007 12:09PM]

this could probably boil the water in a watercooling system

[matt @ Dec 14th 2007 12:11PM]

*looks at 32meg matrox g450*
*feels smug that the PC is running two 20 inch screens, practically silently, and uses a third of the power in total, not just the graphics cards*

[Martin @ Dec 14th 2007 12:11PM]

Give me a break!! I run Crysis on Very high with 1 8800 GT OC and a quad Q6700 processor and 4 gigs ram Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Go Spend your 3K LOL

[stobrawa @ Dec 14th 2007 12:13PM]

I have a question. Can you then drive 6 monitors with that setup if not in SLI mode?

[zebcarlson2007 @ Dec 14th 2007 12:56PM]

ATI has a Quad-Graphics CrossFire setup. I know, SLi is better than XFire, but isnt 4 better than 3?

[eric @ Dec 14th 2007 1:04PM]

The real question is will it blend?

[Don Corleone @ Dec 14th 2007 1:09PM]

Finally, a relevant post.

[captain underpants and the bringdown gang @ Dec 14th 2007 2:59PM]

I'm still waiting for the 8950 GX2 with OCTO SLI

[risk @ Dec 14th 2007 9:27PM]

crossfire X ftw?

[ark_v2 @ Dec 15th 2007 2:36AM]

I'm drooling...

[Slaziman (B-B-BRUSHED WITH FAAAAME) @ Dec 15th 2007 4:52PM]

It is expensive as hell and the performance probably sucks, but just look at those things. It's beautiful. If I could afford that I would certainly get a windowed case just to stare at my babies all the time.

[legendmaker @ Dec 17th 2007 4:49PM]

wow, good job guys, too bad alienware had already done that and it's a part of their customizable machines right now.

[justin bernero @ Dec 19th 2007 11:09PM]

What really needs to be done is have a graphic card setup where use can change the processor like your mainboard, you could simply upgrade your card when something new comes out and you can free up the space used by three cards, while still getting comparable graphics to three sli's.

[crf @ Feb 10th 2008 9:34PM]

looks nice. i dont like the power supply though seems abit much imo. I think ill stick with my 8800 GTS.

[Martinius @ Feb 15th 2008 3:15PM]

The key would always be this: do you go for ultimate gaming to 780i board with 3 cheap 8800GTX or do you buy a board for 2 ATI X2 cards to get BETTER performance for mist new games, when ATI claims that their 3870 X2's are Shader 4.1 and NVIDIA's 8800's are 4.0 and DX10.1-compliant for 3870X2 vs. DX10 for 8800 and everyone claiming that since NVIDIA do not intend to keep the 8x class going, 3-SLI will likely happily die when the 9x cards come out. SO why waste money on an idea meant to live a couple of months?