NVidia GX2 to be released on March 11th
 

Still waiting for these new boards to hit from ATI and NVidia. I haven't seen one physically yet.

Here are some more details on the power req's for this GX2 - notice the 2x connectors! This thing must suck down some juice!

http://resources.vr-zone.com//newspi...00GX2label.gif

Nvidia has informed their partners that the launch date for GeForce 9800 GX2 has been pushed back to March 11th but most probably you can still see the cards during CeBIT. However, Nvidia hasn't provide partners with working cards yet and the final clock speeds have yet to be determined. In the meanwhile, Nvidia has asked the card partners to put up a label on their product boxes to address concerns about end users plugging in the 8-pin connector for motherboard into the 8-pin PCIe power connector on the 9800GX2 card.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/GeForce_...11th/5560.html

3870X2 uses less power but still needs 2 connectors

http://www.fudzilla.com/images/stori...0News/r6c1.jpg

http://img.hexus.net/v2/graphics_car...ropped-big.jpg
notice the 2 power connectors top right corner of card

the 3870X2 has a far superior design.. the nvidia uses 2 PCB boards slapped together.. while ATi uses 1 PCB board with 2 GPUS soldered onto it.

Hehe, these new cards are supposed to use 470w at full blast.

All of this probably means more heat. :down: Can't say I'm that impressed by these power sucking giants. :-?

Yep,

not impressed by these cards,

They need to think how to save power for more perfomance instead of making it just bigger and suck more power.

HunterICX

Uhhh, where did you read that? That is pure crazyness! :down:

I know the R680 won't since its max power per GPU is 120 Watts - x2 that is 240 Watts max.

-S

anyone find any 9800GX2 benchmarks??/ i would really like to see how it competes with the 3870X2 in terms of price and performance??:hmm:

I saw some preliminary ones, but it didn't do so well. A couple of SLI 8800 GT's were beating it easily. I don't hold much weight though that this will be what we see in March. This could simply be that the drivers are not ready for prime time yet. We must wait for a released product to determine what the true results will be.

As it stands right now, the R680 product is the faster product, and sounds like it consumes 1/2 the power doing it of the above statement is correct at 470 Watts.

-S

keep in mind that the 3870X2 has 2 GPUS on one PCB board.. which means it will use alot less power then the 9800GX2 which is 1 gpu on 1 PCB board.. and the GX2 is 2 PCB boards attached to each other and linked internally by a pcb bridge.. this design is inferior to the 3870X2 because the gpu- gpu link on the 3870X2 is much shorter and smaller therefore, faster and uses less watts to power.:yep::rock:

Agreed.

Well that's ideal, but not reality lately. What you are witnessing is only marginal GPU improvements over the last couple generations, and the way they are getting an increased FPS over the earlier generations is basically overclocking the board. This results in a much more power hungry product, adn stuff you could do as a consumer yourself if they weren't forcing an overclocked product down your throat.

I should point out however that the way things have been going lately will not be the way it is in the new future.

Now my 'shocking' prediction is about to be said:

I hereby say, that soon, very soon, either ATI or NVidia will not exist in its present form. The winds of change are in the air, and I can't tell which one is going down. If this were a chess board, it is NVidia's move and this move will determine the fate of one of these said companies. If NVidia makes the wrong move, it will cease to exist in its present form. If it makes the right move, ATI and even AMD will cease to exist in its present form.

The chips are on the table and I am a bit worried. No matter how this plays out, the days of ATI vs. NVidia are at a close. Also, no matter how this plays out, we the consumers seek to lose from either proposition. Gone are the days of the $200 super GPU boards like we've seen of late between the 3800 and the 8800 series.

What is about to happen in the next year or two boads bad for all of us in the computer market. Maybe SHV we will be playing on a console. :-?

-S