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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 set up in 3-way SLI, tested against Radeon HD 5870 and 5970
Not many mortals will ever have to worry about choosing between a three-way GeForce GTX 480 SLI setup, an equally numerous Radeon HD 5870 array, or a dual-card HD 5970 monstrosity, but we know plenty of people would care about who the winner might be. Preliminary notes here include the fun facts that a 1 Kilowatt PSU provided insufficient power for NVIDIA's hardware, while the mighty Core i7-965 test bench CPU proved to be a bottleneck in some situations. Appropriately upgraded to a six-core Core i7-980X and a 1,200W power supply, the testers proceeded to carry out the sacred act of benchmarking the snot out of these superpowered rigs. We won't spoil the final results of the bar chart warfare here, but rest assured both camps score clear wins in particular games and circumstances. The source link shall reveal all.
NVIDIA's nForce 780i SLI MCP gets official
Hot on the heels of NVIDIA's 3-way SLI system hitting all sorts of test benches comes word that the outfit is cranking out its brand new nForce 780i SLI MCP (media and communications processor). That's right kids, the self-proclaimed "must-have gaming platform for Intel Yorkfield CPUs" is finally out in the open, and aside from playing nice with Intel's QX9650, it also supports PCI Express Gen 2.0, 3-way SLI and the new Enthusiast System Architecture specification. Apparently, a number of "motherboard partners" including Asus, Falcon Northwest, HP, Gigabyte, Hypersonic and Voodoo PC are already planning to offer nForce 780i SLI MCP-based products, and judging by NVIDIA's holiday themed press release, we'd wager that you'll see the aforementioned items seeping out sooner rather than later.[Via HotHardware]
NVIDIA readying three-way SLI for CeBIT?
Who needs two-way SLI when you've got three-way SLI, right? Reportedly, NVIDIA is readying a new three-way SLI approach that will actually hit "the mainstream," which differs somewhat from the SLI x 4 renditions that currently reside primarily in pre-fab boxes and luxury boutiques. While we've already heard that Asus' forthcoming U1F will show up at CeBIT, NVIDIA's new SLI treatment just might steal a bit of everyone's thunder by loosing it on the public with a presumably "spiffy marketing" scheme. What this means for the future of linking GPUs together to squeeze marginal benefits out of a gaming rig remains to be seen, but if this rumor proves true, we'll be getting a lot more details come month's end.
