3 GPUs

[hartz]

If the work of rendering a frame on the screen can be split over 2 GPUs, why can't it be split over 3 or more, eg each card doing a 3rd of the image using some kind of sizzor mode? Why not 10 GPUs each do a tenth of the work?

And I don't want to start any conspiricy theory discussions, but why all the [chipset] lock-in? SLI only works on an nForce4 board (bar the K8T900 reference board tested here: http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/via-k8t900/index.x?pg=1) , and Crossfire only on an ATI chipset board ... S3 is doing the right thing by "just using the PCI-E bus for MultiChrome", irrespective of wat motherboard you use. The bandwidth is there, the bus allows communications, the software takes care of the workload distribution. What else do you need?

[RWB]

My understanding is that a "frame" is actually two interlaced frames, and upper frame and lower frame, at least for TV it is, not sure how much different it would be for a CRT monitor. I am sure there is someway of using 3 GPU's, but they are coming out with a 4GPU SLI setup soon if I recall.

[edcentric]

You can, but it adds overhead.
Both overhead for the video system and for the CPU.
If you go from one to two you don't get double the speed.
There are diminishing returns.

The old SLI was alternate scan lines.
The new systems cut up the frame differently, with similar results.

There may be more to be gained by going to dedicated PPU (physics processors).

[Sledgehammer70]

True true....

The problems we see now with these high tech GPU's is that they become CPU bound! you get 2 7800GTX 512 cards and even if you have a dual core CPU they are not pushing even 2 GPU's to there limit. Yes we see huge gains onscreen, but having more than 2 GPU's at this point in time would be pointless for 1 screen. Now Gigabyte has released a Quad Graphics setup, which runs up to 8 monitors, but take in mind these are not in SLI. I'm sure graphics companies will be pushing the envelop here soon enough with Dual SLI.... but think of the cost.... what a nightmare.

I think the next thing we will see become a standard is Dual GPU’s “which are already appearing” and Dual core GPU’s think of Dual Dual Core GPU’s ….. and graphics card nut dream come true!

[hartz]

I spoke too late. This was reported on the 28th of October already: http://www.techspot.com/news/19237-nvidia-90-series-drivers-to-support-quad-gpu.html

:-)

So RWB is absolutely correct!

Strange I only found this now!?