NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX triple-SLI rig benched
By Ryan Block 
posted Mar 30th 2008 6:14PM
posted Mar 30th 2008 6:14PM
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yes but can it play doom.
negative. thats the single drawback of triple-SLI. it can't play doom.
just doom though.
No. It'd be silly for a 1000$+ video card setup to play a four year old game.
Pure silly.
ROFL, try 14 years old.
Holy mother *********************&#%$^@(*&#$ expelative.
This thing is a work of pure beauty.
And just to let the original poster know, this thing would run 100 copies of doom at the same time....and crisis....while encoding video.....and checking email.
no you can't because you really don't know how to play doom with your ass, kid :D
I haven't been keeping up with Video Cards since GEFORCE 3.
I'll just assume that when you've got cables thicker than heavy duty extension cords - you can play Crysis.
The "cables" are coolant tubes, not giant data cables.
Wait, that makes it sound even more ridiculous.
Seriously?
are you re-tarded kid?
Your comment is not funny. The main reason this joke WAS funny, was the fact that its original. (not anymore). So I beg of you not to kill other comments like that.
BTW, I feel dumber already..
Not only will it play it, but it will make you better at the game too!
I'd love to see what your monthly energy bill is running this rig, lol.
why lord? why? why must we buy 2 or three?
it can play doom and castle wolfenstein. At once...while dialing out on the internet to AOL. Its the new hotness.
my 8800gtx is still going strong, and i find sli to be a waste of time, money, resources and power!
Not to mention coolant.
not to mention the fact current pc architechture "can not" read "can not" use the cards in tandem properly... best wait for PCIE 2.0 componants than throwing money away on SLI or CrossFire. Duel GPU cards do work better if you cant wait. Cant remember if this card is a X2 GPU on 1 die though o.O
will these work in my apple IIc?
OSX hardware support is terrible. I recommend Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Ubuntu Linux.
Open the blob!
your logic confuses me
what does OSX's hardware support have to do with NineT9's Apple IIc
It would if Apple would have seen the writing on the wall and included three PCI-e x16 slots back in 1984. Though, you can emulate a few hundred Apple IIc's on one GeForce 9800 :D CUDA kicks ass.
not on a IIc.... maby a IIvx tho
Still waiting for the 10 series. Don't want to have to buy 3 cards to get Crysis to run maxed at only almost 30 FPS.
9800 gtx in action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
Whoops! I know what's there!
(-1)
Boooo!
god! i'm so reckless with my mouse hand, as i clicked that link i thought "why!!!!!!" i deserve the punishment.
oh snap.
"Never gonna let you down."
Oh but YOU just did.....
Thank you for your very original contribution.
Seriously, I think this "joke" has run its course; don't you?
ooh someone got rick roll'd a few too many
Be forewarned, but I thought this was fitting:
http://rickastleychart.ytmnd.com/
I like that song, so I clicked the link with full expectation of the consequences.
This might be useful if you wish to play Crysis with a 100inch screen, but I'm not so sure about anything else.
Well at least there is room for other expansion cards after you install 3 of those beasts...oh wait...
Hope you like onboard ethernet and audio, cuz when one of those fries, your gonna need a new mobo
hmm is it just me? or do the benchmarks seem relatively on par with quad sli?
Um, this is actually 6-way SLI in reality, since there are three of the already SLI'ed GX2's.
Oops, I misread the title. I thought it said GX2, not GTX, so my bad. Forget what I said.
Why liquid cooling if none of the precious fluid touches any of the 3 cards? Just sayin...
You are mistaken. Those pipes actually contain the chemicals that turn regular teenage turtles into teenage mutant ninja turtles.
hahaha @ tony
YES!! now I can play pong at 320x240!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Not only Pong, but you can also play Asteroids too!
GALAGA
Joust!
and PAC-MAN!!!
dig dug!
CD-MAN >>> Pacman
Most importantly.... Will it blend?
I hate you
Dang it, Bobby.
-jp
Yes, yes it will.
The cooling fans required for these will double as a makeshift blender :)
Pointless given the scaling of SLI technology reaches its limit with two cards never mind more. ATIs solution is superior simply because it wasn't based on technology with its basis coming from the 3DFX days. The only SLI option that makes sense these days is two 8800GT(s) or a pair of 9600GT(s). They had to invent a new scaling system just to get Quad SLI working forget performing well.
...sure it blends--the result? A triple-quick milk Quake...
not so sure about Tri SLI but I did like how clean the inside of that tower looked!
Even if it can play Doom, I can't. I'm 94 years old and video games cause me to have seizures.
But wouldn't 2 9800GX2's be faster and cheaper.
Yes, actually.
Dear anybody who cares deeply about this,
GET A LIFE.
Love, me.
you're the one trolling engadget.
oh i get it now. its a "learn from my mistakes" type thing.
I can't... You don't seem like a hot chick.
Seriously?
People seem to throw the term "Get a life" at those who care about something they dont care about.
Would you consider people "Having a life" if they cared about Taito, Making XP Pretty, and ads about the Genesis game Deadly Moves?
And man, 1280x1024 is so totally useless!!! Internet high five. We have lives.
Don't worry - you'll fill out that training bra someday.
Dear replies,
You guys rule. TRIPLE SLI ROCKS.
Love, me.
Riiiggghhht... o.0
older 8800GTS can still play any reasonable (Crysis excluded) game at high quality with a high enough framerate.
Disposable Income are the magic words when it comes to GTX lol
Damn!
Is someone trying to create a CG animated film in there basement or something?!
That's alot of hardware there.
lol flashpoint....that's watercooling for the rest of the system :P
there's a little black card on the very left of the picture that has little SLI logos on it that connect the two together :)
This doesn't happen to be that gaming rig that district attorney put toghether...because if it is, damn boy you just had to push it.
Let's see...
Liquid cooling, thousands of dollars spent, a appliance level 1000 watt PSU...
All to play a $50 game.
Guess who the joke is on?
Remember this axiom: Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should.
God forbid someone invest in a hobby they enjoy. Go troll autoblog, it has unnecessary things that are even more expensive.
Perhaps you could even consider going outside. Make sure you wear lots of sunscreen to protect your basement conditioned skin.
Well people spend millions of dollars to burn 50 dollars of Gas. I guess the joke is on them!
No man the joke is on you. These people obviously make enough money to easily afford these things, you Probably don't. This gives them enjoyment, so stop raining on their parade. Most of the people I know that have 3 or 4 thousand dollar computers are Doctors. They can easily spend that much and just ENJOY IT. That's the most important part. Who cares how much the game costs? They can afford it and it's Fun.
What an idiotic argument? I can't afford it? Of course I can. I simply don't waste money foolishly. I'm thst person who buys an HP HDX rather than a desktop which would cost $500-$1000 less for the sake of ergonomics, form and function, and lowered carbon footprint.
I don't waste money on things which give diminishing performance per dollar. You pay 100%+ (considering additional watts consumed) more for SLI just to get at best 50% more performance for one stupid and poorly programmed game (Crysis) that has limited gameplay repeatability. 1 single 8800GT will play COD4 at 1920x1200 on high with frame rates that exceed 30fps. An ATI Radeon 3870 will do the same.
Because you can install 4 turbochargers instead of two just to shave off .3 secs in a quarter mile doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. Expect to get sneered and snickered at for being silly and economically irresponsible.
Yes, it's all relative. But some things are universally extreme.
benjesuit, you're a fool.
Whatever you enjoy doing, don't do it- because it's obviously a waste of money.
I have yet to get my Dual SLI working on my 2 NVIDIA GeForce 8600m GT video cards!
When I have my them in SLI mode, I can't play any DirectX games!
You're sure one of your cards isn't defective?
It's not long before we'll have to move the gaming rig to the laundry room. Gotta unplug the drier to power these damn things.
Or back to the days of computers taking up entire rooms...
http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_resources.php?cPath=97&pPath=632&productID=639#
Those days are already here. It uses a special plug because its 1600 watt.
Just as an aside, this thing is an absolute joke, as there isnt a combination of parts that can fit in a PC case that would ever, ever require this. This is basically to say "we make the most powerful PSU".
I own a GeForce FX 5200, a very old (AGP) graphics card. It does my videos, it does my Compiz-enabled desktop, and yes, it also enables my occasional gaming. It's cheap and it works. Things should be as simple as that. Maybe someone else has a good reason why they would need 3 graphics card.
Aero is a little less efficient than compiz, felipe.. It needs the first card for overhead, kinda like the first 3/4 GB of RAM. *cough*
Those aren't cooling tubes. They are IDE cables with the rounding on them. Notice how they plug into the drives
Humm... NO!
What's all this nonsense about trolling? It's called dissent and reason.
Or must we all applaud non-commensurate price versus performance versus diminishing marginal utility?
I think not.
3 heatmakers instead of one. Instead of creating more powerful and power efficient GPUs, we basically have to spend upwards of $1000+- to enjoy a PC game at what basically comes down to is some AA, AF and higher resolution. In this day and age good graphics & stable framerates should be a given. If you're playing a game, who gives 2 shits if the leaves on some tree have jaggies. In the heat of the moment you won't even stare at that stuff for a 10th of a second. The requirements,(and I don't mean the crap printed on the box with hardware specs from 4 years ago) to play a PC game are getting higher and higher and yet compared to consoles the improvement is marginal at best especially when it comes to price. The high price of hardware, configuration, driver updates and limited usual genres of FPS, RTS and MMO is what unfortunately turns most people off to PC gaming.
The PC has FPS, Sports, plenty of MMO, RPGs, better RTS, very few Platformers.
The Console has FPS, better Sports, MMO, better RPGs, RTS, plenty of Platformers.
What the hell is with these misconceptions?
A 600 to 1000 dollar PC custom built will get you playing most of the games out there. And you get a PC to boot.
Thanks to the 360, a good portion of games released on it are later released for the PC, 10 dollars less, and sometimes with more features and levels, and depending on your video card/game, you can actually run it at 1080 instead of 720 (where most of the 360/PS3 games are rendered at, and don't believe the back of the game box which is complete horse shit).
Careful, some might consider your poignant and realistic assessment of the current PC gaming situation...
trolling.
These combinations arnt the norm. Nor should they be. Most people who want to play a game or two on PC do it happily with a 200-250 dollar card. These articles make it seem like all PC gamers sell their cars to get these cards. Very few do.
These are flagships. Just like a GTR is Nissans flagship. Every company needs the high end so they can say they are the best at their field, while offering decent midrange, which makes them the money.
These are as niche as it gets.
And Crysis is just broken. Theres something wrong with that game.
Honestly benjesuit, when someone like you sits there and tries to incite problems with people (as you have the entire time, and its pretty obvious with the post I'm replying to as well), then that is trolling. Someone can criticize it for what it is, but you haven't done that. You have tried to make the point that all we're doing is wasting money and that the people that do this are retards/fools and so on and so forth. That, my friend, is trolling.
Believe it or not, people can criticize without trolling.
Really?
Let's see...
It's an item for sale. You buy it hoping to kick some serious FPS arse. yeah?
There's only a few games that might benefit from it. Crysis potentially being one of them.
However for all other games a single 8800GT plays them on high and 1680x1050 to 1920x1200.
Anything well over 40 FPS and you can't tell the difference.
You purchase this set up only to realize that you're only getting so little more FPS.
Tell me... who is the joke on?
You're paying more in equiptment, noise, and watt hours to get a few frames per second more.
This nonsense between Nvidia and AMD/ATI as well as a few game developers has got to stop. They are praying on the stupidity of the lesser informed and less rational male ego. It's only a matter of time before it backfires because if they don't create more efficient GPUs, you will not be able to go any higher because the average home uses 15A wall socket wiring and fuses per line.
And all that to play 1 or 2 games? That's just silly. Especially when you have alternatives both in software and hardware.
You're missing the point- people who buy this aren't going to buy it unknowingly. Its not like that Chinese knock-off of a product that you buy inadvertently, only to find out it doesn't do what you want.
People who are going to buy this are going to know what it is first. There is no scam involved- they flatout know what it is or they don't, and if they buy it and it doesn't work the way they want it to, well then they should have done their research because it's all there. Its not as if people are being "fooled" into purchasing a setup like this.
All this is also not to "play a single game" its also pushing technology forward and opening the door for more games with better graphics and so on. Crysis is broken. The fact that it doesn't run on many systems the way it was intended to is because the engine is broken. It may look great, but a good engine and good developers would make it scale well, as Epic and id Software have done throughout the years.
The funny thing is, you actually think that the people who buy these types of things aren't aware of what they require or how they perform. People who buy these setups know what they're giving up, what they're gaining, and what it will cost to maintain them.
Stop being such a trolling fool and THINK- a fresh concept to you, I know, but you should definitely try it- I hear its all the rage.
I'm not missing any point whatsoever. As a long time gamer, going back 25 years, I know a lot about it.
You have yet to address any of my arguments. You keep trying to defend those who buy those who might buy this type of setup. That says that you are personally offended. Many posters have expressed either sarcasm or outright disapproval to this type of setup and those who might be interested in them. They are in effect saying not in so many words, "it's a waste."
Understand yet? If you comment against the setup, you are commenting against the economics of it since it's not free. And if you comment against the economics, you are commenting against the economic rationality of those who would purchase it.
Like I said, learn what trolling actually is. When you do, we'll chat again. Until then.. adios.
Maybe you don't understand- I don't care to take on any of your arguments because they are non-issues. To those interested, it doesn't really matter.
I guess you'll just never learn.
I think this is overkill for most purposes. A dual 9800GT is probably enough
I can't believe it.
We STILL can't break 30fps on very high.
I weep.
I thought the 9800GX2 did.
can't wait until the next version of PCI express, heck lets just go right to 4.0
Yeah ok ok ok kid...NOW you can run Crysis with the settings maxed!!
id rather a car thankyou very much... you should see how high def and how many frames per second playing the new hit game amongst the kids call "A LIFE" seriously is there any need whatsoever for that kind of excess?.... id happily accept it as a gift though :P
I wonder how well this will do for nvidia. They have market dominance anyway, but one has to wonder who this is exactly trying to entice. Even the usual idiot with money to burn had enough headaches with the last round of SLI cards to not want to touch this one. The sheer ridiculousness of this is just on so many levels, and for what? minimal gains in the higher resolutions over a single card? Let's face it, you're buying this because you're driving a large display, and you need horsepower. No one is buying 3x9800's for 1024x768 gaming (Oh god, at least I hope not)
You need:
A mobo that can support 3-4 way SLI
Power supply big enough to feed 3 cards (not even taking into account every other components draw, which one can easily argue is minuscule compared to the gpu). Oh, and enjoy the increased energy bill from your 24/7 1,100 watt required power supply.
A cooling system more intricate then "fan". 3 times the card, 3 times the heat.
You get:
5 more frames in crysis???
Before I get a bunch of a replies with "people buy Ferrari, and they're expensive and excessive", that doesn't even work in this context. that analogy leaves you with a fast beautiful car for your expense, this nets you about the same thing as trading up from a kia to a honda, and then letting the car dealer rifle through your wallet and pocket everything he finds after kicking you in the crotch.