# NVIDIA Triple SLI: the “Ultimate Gaming Platform”



## Jimmy 2004 (Sep 29, 2007)

It looks like NVIDIA could be readying its new triple SLI platform if a slide published by Expreview is to be believed. The new three-way SLI will allow users to use three NVIDIA graphics cards simultaneously to run demanding 3D applications, although there are still very few details about it at present. The technology is being branded as _"The new Ultimate Gaming Platform"_ by NVIDIA, and will work using a new three-way SLI bridge connector, with NVIDIA's nForce 680i and 780i being the first chipsets to support it. If this slide is for real, then the GeForce 8800 Ultra and GTX will be the only cards capable of triple SLI to start with, but presumaby more will follow soon after - if triple SLI is more successful than quad SLI that is (which was largely let down by poor drivers). ATI is also planning to use three graphics cards with its CrossFire technology in the near future, where one card is expected to be dedicated to physics processing.





*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## Weer (Sep 29, 2007)

OMG, yes!!

Now I will have 3 8800 Ultras, instead of 2!

I'm looking at 120 FPS in Crysis @ 1920x1200 with 4AA.


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## HookeyStreet (Sep 29, 2007)

This just getting ridiculous now!  The PC gamer = SUCKA!


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## AshesOfThePlope (Sep 29, 2007)

freaking awesome good thing i decided to wait for a new graphics card in this case "cards"


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## Weer (Sep 29, 2007)

Not in 6 months when the 8800 GTX costs 200$. Then you'd have 1.5x 9800 GTX performance.


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## Fuse-Wire (Sep 29, 2007)

how the hell are you ment to cool all that graphic power? i wouldnt dare try to overclock!!


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## Weer (Sep 29, 2007)

Fuse-Wire said:


> how the hell are you ment to cool all that graphic power? i wouldnt dare try to overclock!!



Yes, that's the only problem.

What you require is a Side-Panel fan bracket blowing air directly onto the stock cooler. It would be best to remove the cooler, but it's not possible with more than 2 cards.


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## Fuse-Wire (Sep 29, 2007)

Weer said:


> Yes, that's the only problem.
> 
> What you require is a Side-Panel fan bracket blowing air directly onto the stock cooler. It would be best to remove the cooler, but it's not possible with more than 2 cards.



i was just thinking that by looking at it and noticing that there is nowhere really to put any cooling, so yeah woohoo 3 graphics cards at once but Booo because i doubt its safe to OC!!


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## jocksteeluk (Sep 29, 2007)

just think the top line of the next series of card will still beat a tripple sli set up.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

it surely is a great way to kill all of your pci slots.


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## b1lk1 (Sep 29, 2007)

HookeyStreet said:


> This just getting ridiculous now!  The PC gamer = SUCKA!



We sure are.  Not only is this ridiculous, but the amount of heat and power will make it nearly impossible as well.  SLI barely functions right so I would expect triple SLI to be horrible like Quad SLI.  At best only useful for those of us lucky enough to have 30"+ super high res displays.


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## OnBoard (Sep 29, 2007)

One GPU FTW! I'll be still using one graphics card, when there is OctaSLIs around. If they don't put multible cores in one card, I'm not interested. And I don't meant 2 chips in one card with performancelower and price higher than one card  Price is more than single fast card, noise & heat is double, the loss in money is double when they are no longer good enough. But of course if you are playing in some 2560 x 1600 resolution, then I understand SLI / CrossFire.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

i dont think the gpu's will be very cool considering each of the fans is sucking in heat from the top of the gpu, and they are basically warming each other up, and without proper cooling your triple sli could be in trouble

one thing i dont get it why companies dont just release more powerful cards rather then make use like 5 of their old cards combined.


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## InfDamarvel (Sep 29, 2007)

I would think theyd make SLI more efficient before anything. Its not like adding another card now doubles performance.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

just getting a card that can have the power of 2 8800gtx's is what i prefer, rather then getting 2 gtx's.


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## nflesher87 (Sep 29, 2007)

lol only way to cool that would be to have a super high speed wc'ing loop hooked up to a car radiator that's hanging in your freezer!


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

nflesher87 said:


> lol only way to cool that would be to have a super high speed wc'ing loop hooked up to a car radiator that's hanging in your freezer!



agreed


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## Darksaber (Sep 29, 2007)

panchoman said:


> it surely is a great way to kill all of your pci slots.



exacly...that way you are forced to use onboard audio, wont be able to add a PCI based TV Tuner,...sorry but I am not willing to buy a PC just for gaming. Might as well grab a gaming console then...

cheers
DS


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

Darksaber said:


> exacly...that way you are forced to use onboard audio, wont be able to add a PCI based TV Tuner,...sorry but I am not willing to buy a PC just for gaming. Might as well grab a gaming console then...
> 
> cheers
> DS



lol, thats why they need to come out with ultra powerful cards that use like 25nm that way we got the power of quad 8800ultras on a very heat efficent chip. hey i just though of something. why dont they make multi core gpu's. 

sapphires got a start:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102096

2 x1950pro's functioning on one card. this is the kinda stuff we need.


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## OnBoard (Sep 29, 2007)

panchoman said:


> why dont they make multi core gpu's.



This is what I'm wondering too, not like atleast ATI/AMD coudn't do it. I'm thinking they have spend too much money & effort on SLI / CrossFire, to give it up now. 55nm core to dual core should be small enough to fit the board and heat/power propably less than a hd2900xt. Anyone in the loop to know if there are dualcore GPU prototypes ?) (not like you could say it, but I'll take the silence as a maybe).


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## FAXA (Sep 29, 2007)

Now where is my sound card gonna go?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Sep 29, 2007)

fried graphics cards anyone?

how the hell are the first and middle cards supposed to get any air to the fans?


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

OnBoard said:


> This is what I'm wondering too, not like atleast ATI/AMD coudn't do it. I'm thinking they have spend too much money & effort on SLI / CrossFire, to give it up now. 55nm core to dual core should be small enough to fit the board and heat/power propably less than a hd2900xt. Anyone in the loop to know if there are dualcore GPU prototypes ?) (not like you could say it, but I'll take the silence as a maybe).



there dual gpu cards, sapphire's got a 2 x1950's on on card, i posted a link to its newegg above somewhere.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

tigger69 said:


> fried graphics cards anyone?
> 
> how the hell are the first and middle cards supposed to get any air to the fans?



thats what i was saying. the first and second card basically just suck in heat from the other cards. and the 3rd one is sucking metal off of the floor of the case.


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## Casheti (Sep 29, 2007)

That slide looks kinda novice.

Maybe it isn't real...


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

Casheti said:


> That slide looks kinda novice.
> 
> Maybe it isn't real...



what slide?


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## Casheti (Sep 29, 2007)

panchoman said:


> what slide?



http://www.techpowerup.com/img/07-09-29/trisli.jpg

It just looks very unprofessional. Like someone has done it in paint.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

i just noticed that the think is stamped with a nvidia confidental watermark  oh well, not confidential anymore, what slide, i dont see anything.


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## FOXCONN1115 (Sep 29, 2007)

"tripple sli"? they have quad sli out already.. why downgrade to "tripple"?


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

cause there are hardly is not any quad pcie slot mobos. the 680i sli has 3 pci e slots, and thats why they have triple sli, cause its what current mobos out there can support.


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## theonetruewill (Sep 29, 2007)

I just can't see the point in this. Are they basically saying that too achieve the performance you want i modern games their hardware is so poor that you will need two or three cards. SLI and Crossfire are not supported by the majority of games and even with it the cost of it is a tad stupid. Fair dibs if you have one card (eg 7900GS)and you really don't want to have to get a new 8800GTS for £170, then fine get another 7900GS. But three cards?? This is frankly silly. If the only reasons they can state for three card SLI is great performance then their cards are not up to scratch. We've been handling fine with just one at the moment. If DX10 is something they need more than one or two card to perform well when they themselves state even the 8600 series has _"unparalleled levels of graphics realism and performance for Microsoft® DirectX® 9 and DirectX 10 games"_ then they need to go back to the drawing board. This is just more spending for the sake of spending.You can see dual CPU slots on motherboards (Xeon, FX74 etc) for huge amounts of raw processing power in servers or high-end workstations where it is genuinely needed, but not three. This is just a step too far.


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## FOXCONN1115 (Sep 29, 2007)

yea but the third pci-e slot is only what 4x max? lol.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

the 3rd and 1st are x16 the middle one is like 4x.


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## JacKz5o (Sep 29, 2007)

That would be nice but... no PCI slot for my X-Fi


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## GLD (Sep 29, 2007)

Guess I better start slinging Crack. How else would I be able to afford a 3X $500 card system. A 1 card ATi system does me just fine though. Fook that nVidia Crack.


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## SkylinGTR26 (Sep 29, 2007)

Man just think of the PSU you need to power a rig like that!
That is hecka lame!

all im gonna say is single card FTW!


and videocards are multicore, its just not the type o' multicore that CPUs are. 
I read about this somewhere on some forums, but i forgot most of it...


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

agreed, single cards ftw.


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## hat (Sep 29, 2007)

SLI fine, triple SLI no way lol


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## mab1376 (Sep 29, 2007)

who the hell has the money for 3 8800 ultras??!?! that $2100 just on GFX cards...

i wish nvidia would just release a physx card for my middle 8x PCIe slot on my 680i mobo. especially since i have an 8800GTS not GTX or Ultra.


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## Casheti (Sep 29, 2007)

GLD said:


> Guess I better start slinging Crack. How else would I be able to afford a 3X $500 card system.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Sep 29, 2007)

nvidiots been hittin that crack pipe again ...


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

lol, this is very disappointing from nvidia, rather then releasing more powerful cards, they are finding ways to string weak cards together.


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## xnox202 (Sep 29, 2007)

That is just taking too much space. Just look at the slide, where are you going to plug in your sata cables for your drives? I mean, come on.

If CPU can be designed to Dualcore/Tricore/Quadcore in a core, then I don't see why ATI or nVidia should try and do the same. I rather have a 2 cards SLI/CF than that 3 crap-ness. Just looks ugly.


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## deekortiz3 (Sep 29, 2007)

Casheti said:


> That slide looks kinda novice.
> 
> Maybe it isn't real...



Agreed. All there proof is that one picture. That one picture looks extremely fake. It looks like it was done in paint. The edges and everything look horrible. Also the hugely overdone confidential thing is just stupid.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

ati's working on putting everything on one card, but not putting in enough, if ati can  beat nvidia at this, then we get into a huge war. the dual x1950 pro card is great, its 2 x1950's all on card. but i just realized something, if they start doing multi core cards, we're going to the need new slots. cause to have 4 cores all on one slot would cause problems, since each core will require all of the x16 bandwidth..


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## Morgoth (Sep 29, 2007)

3dfx did it first! 
i prefer psu cards and duo or quad cored gpu's then gowing to sli or tri sli or quad sli setups...


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

Morgoth said:


> 3dfx did it first!
> i prefer psu cards and due or qoad cored gpu's then gowing to sli or tri sli or quad sli setups...



same.


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## kwchang007 (Sep 29, 2007)

Hmmm if you're insanely rich, you could buy the water cooled versions on newegg that only take one slot (where the display comes out).  Then run like 3 different water loops with a rad for each...plus one for the cpu.  Oh and a 1200 watt psu.  But you'd be able to use the other expansion slots.  Anyways, I don't think this is for everyone, just for people that want to try and break records....or get a longer e-penis.


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

lol, one day we'll be able to buy quad gpu cores just like with cpus and drop it into like a 6000 pin socket and put in some gddrr4 four into the mobo and thats the system lol. i'd love to see socketed multi core gpu's and memory. some barebone laptops take like socketed mobility radeons and you can upgrade the onboard.


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## Morgoth (Sep 29, 2007)

that would be sweet also for the north and southbridge


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## CDdude55 (Sep 29, 2007)

That gonna be very expensive.. This is how they sucker the us PC gamers, cool parts no games.


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## Agility (Sep 29, 2007)

If they're gonna make dual cores the way cpu is they'll have to lower clocks speeds blah blah. It'll also date back to i guess X800?


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

Morgoth said:


> that would be sweet also for the north and southbridge



true. oh well, p35 got old, went and bought a x38 instead. *pops in the x38* now some as5, with a nice cooler, and waa laa, more performance


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## panchoman (Sep 29, 2007)

i want to see everything become socketed. the gpu, the ram, the nb/sb, etc. and plus we'll need to use socketing similair to that of a cpu for multi core gpu's cause they need loads loads of bandwidth.


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## strick94u (Sep 30, 2007)

If you ran 3 of the old 7950 gtx cards that would be 6 cores 
have they gone mad? 
For real why not stick to one badass video card I mean whats next Gaming clusters where you hook up 4 quad core pc's with 12 video cards. Think about it you would need a dedicated house and you own power station.


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## FOXCONN1115 (Sep 30, 2007)

i like nvidia, and the sli concept, been using it for my past few rigs, but i must say this new 3x sli is retarded. 2 cards is ENOUGH.


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## Grings (Sep 30, 2007)

6 pci-e connectors, that would need some meaty psu


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## hat (Sep 30, 2007)

Obviously for the fool who doesn't know what else to do with his money.


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## zekrahminator (Oct 1, 2007)

This is getting comical, how many graphics cards do you freaking need... .


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## newbielives (Oct 1, 2007)

Too true, if they are going to bitch slap us atleast do it with a 9800GTX instead of this tripple SLI bull. 

Now if Crysis needs 3 x 9800 ULTRAs to run at max settings, then F$#% PC Gaming



HookeyStreet said:


> This just getting ridiculous now!  The PC gamer = SUCKA!


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 1, 2007)

Well, some of us are perfectly happy back on one AGP card.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Oct 1, 2007)

kwchang007 said:


> Hmmm if you're insanely rich, you could buy the water cooled versions on newegg that only take one slot (where the display comes out).  Then run like 3 different water loops with a rad for each...plus one for the cpu.  Oh and a 1200 watt psu.  But you'd be able to use the other expansion slots.  Anyways, I don't think this is for everyone, just for people that want to try and break records....or get a longer e-penis.



the length is not what matters its teh thickness ...


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## CDdude55 (Oct 1, 2007)

newbielives said:


> Too true, if they are going to bitch slap us atleast do it with a 9800GTX instead of this tripple SLI bull.
> 
> Now if Crysis needs 3 x 9800 ULTRAs to run at max settings, then F$#% PC Gaming




I really dont think Crysis need that to plat it on high. But i agree.


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## hat (Oct 1, 2007)

I was happy with my old AGP 6800XT with a P4 3GHz except for the PSU, but my uncle offered me this rig. My dad now has the 6800XT.


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## DaMulta (Oct 1, 2007)

zekrahminator said:


> This is getting comical, how many graphics cards do you freaking need... .



20


Now the Quad never worked right from what I have read. So I have a hard time believing that this will.

I think the only reason for this is because of AMDs new chipset coming out. They don't want to get stomped in 3dmark06 too bad IMO. But ATi will be doing 4 2900Xts soon!!!!


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## hat (Oct 1, 2007)

4 2900s. 4x6 PCI-E, 4x8 PCI-E for a total of... 56 pins FTW!!


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## FOXCONN1115 (Oct 1, 2007)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> the length is not what matters its teh thickness ...



I agree.. most people have plenty of room in their cases length wise, I am using an Antec 900 and I have an 8800GTS and have plenty of room to spare length wise, but the thickness of the card and its cooler is what kills us.. most cards now take up 2 to 3 of our PCI/PCI-E slots.. its a waste of mobo slots for things we could use..


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## FOXCONN1115 (Oct 1, 2007)

DaMulta, please tell me you're not seriously using a Mach64.. lol


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## Jimmy 2004 (Oct 1, 2007)

FOXCONN1115 said:


> I agree.. most people have plenty of room in their cases length wise, I am using an Antec 900 and I have an 8800GTS and have plenty of room to spare length wise, but the thickness of the card and its cooler is what kills us.. most cards now take up 2 to 3 of our PCI/PCI-E slots.. its a waste of mobo slots for things we could use..



I think you missed the joke 

I beleive when he talked about the width he was referring to kwchang007's joke about people buying three graphics cards to get a longer e-penis, not the size of the cards themselves!


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## DaMulta (Oct 1, 2007)

FOXCONN1115 said:


> DaMulta, please tell me you're not seriously using a Mach64.. lol



O yea it's true

Temp Card


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## FOXCONN1115 (Oct 1, 2007)

Jimmy 2004 said:


> I think you missed the joke
> 
> I beleive when he talked about the width he was referring to kwchang007's joke about people buying three graphics cards to get a longer e-penis, not the size of the cards themselves!




lol yeah I think I did miss it.. lmao


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## FOXCONN1115 (Oct 1, 2007)

DaMulta said:


> O yea it's true
> 
> Temp Card



I'm sorry. lol...


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## Woah Mama! (Oct 1, 2007)

This is just insane, The computing market is becoming like the world market for cars. We've only got 4 companies to make our major component decisions on, to run either an AMD+ATI setup of an Intel+nVidia setup. And yet we still can't keep up with only 4 of them! I wonder what sort of PSU you'll need to run tri-SLI and a quad core, with 3TB of storage and 8GB of ram.


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## Grings (Oct 1, 2007)

so wheres they're new gx2 card, i want hexa-sli ffs


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## FOXCONN1115 (Oct 2, 2007)

Grings said:


> so wheres they're new gx2 card, i want hexa-sli ffs



LMAO. 8800GTX2.. lol


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## ktr (Oct 2, 2007)

For every person who does a triple sli with ultras, 25 baby seals get clubbed...


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## FOXCONN1115 (Oct 2, 2007)

lol can I come?


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## panchoman (Oct 2, 2007)

im wondering how many people will actually get the triple sli thing. good thing ati's 3rd card is suppossedly suppossed to be a physics card that also processes stuff for the gpus, so its like a multipurpose assistant.


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## keakar (Oct 2, 2007)

InfDamarvel said:


> I would think theyd make SLI more efficient before anything. Its not like adding another card now doubles performance.



ya but it "does" double profits


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## keakar (Oct 2, 2007)

nflesher87 said:


> lol only way to cool that would be to have a super high speed wc'ing loop hooked up to a car radiator that's hanging in your freezer!



no, just box in the video card area like a psu is enclosed then have one large fan blowing through and accross as many cards as you want to use. in the same sort of way a fan pulls air over heatsinks in a psu.

because of clearances and size there wont be any way to use the gpu coolers we have now and the stock coolers wont work that close together.


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## DaMulta (Oct 2, 2007)

ktr said:


> For every person who does a triple sli with ultras, 25 baby seals get clubbed...



I KNOW

They should have 4 HD2900XT cards on the new MSI board coming soon.

3Dmark06 WORLD RECORD TIME


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## DRDNA (Oct 2, 2007)

Fuse-Wire said:


> how the hell are you ment to cool all that graphic power? i wouldnt dare try to overclock!!



I would  dare  to


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## panchoman (Oct 2, 2007)

keakar said:


> no, just box in the video card area like a psu is enclosed then have one large fan blowing through and accross as many cards as you want to use. in the same sort of way a fan pulls air over heatsinks in a psu.
> 
> because of clearances and size there wont be any way to use the gpu coolers we have now and the stock coolers wont work that close together.



the cooler master cosmos as something similair ot that.


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## WarEagleAU (Oct 3, 2007)

ATI has been touting triple crossfire for sometime now, Nvidia is just late to the party.

I think its awesome, yes. I also think its overkill, overly expensive and I think there will be no need to overclock at all with all them gpus, it would be plainly stupid to do so.


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