So, has anyone seen one of these in the wild yet?

I can't find anybody who is selling these, even though they are supposed to be available.

-SF

This is a highly crippled version. The memory is only 800Mhz GDDR2. The high end 2600XT has 2200Mhz GDDR4

4096x3072 resolution across four screens, 15” LCD’s that fit screen to screen, quad resolution; is what I'd like to see.

How long would it take the hardware to catch up on that? For under a grand you could have a nice display set up that you could use for ten years, just like the good old days.

I think the fact that the resolution ability of the hardware is starting eclipse the avaiable desktop resolution is hurting high end hardware sales. What’s the point in quad GPU’s or quad core CPU’s if you’re already getting great FPS at your desplay’s max resolution? It’s not as exciting. And buying a new $2000 display everytime you upgrade your hardware is even less exciting.

High end sales are not the same 5% everytime. It’s a dynamic set of the bell curve of all the people who are in the market. It’s exciting to get new hardware and see what it can do, and pushing pixels is largely our window into what computers can do. Yea, processing video and audio is important, but most of the money in computing is about having fun and just seeing what it can do. We put a man on the moon and it's like, so what. But building your own computer, that's empowering.

Just say no to the console game pushers.

If anyone gets to play around with one of these cards, I'd like to know if it can drive a three display setup similar to:

A 30" Dell using dual-DVI as a primary, with two 24" Dell displays on either side using single DVI cables.

-SF

"Auto Pilot Safe Protection" is a pretty weird name..

I'm thinking this is a product aimed at a small portion of the market that wants an "all-in-one" type solution that will allow them to drive 3 or 4 monitors without having to have a SLI or Crossfire enabled motherboard. (Think OEM PC upgrade) Use those 3 or 4 monitors in 2d/3d modes for thinks like photo editing or light CAD/CAM work and stil be able to play the occasional game at a decent frame rate yet, without having to pay the $700+ price that typically comes with a "pro" level video card.

Plus you can fool those not in the know by saying you bought a video card with 1GB of RAM. LOL

"including HDMI audio/video output"

The card in the picture looks like it has two DVI connectors. So are the other two connectors HDMI or are they selling the fact that the GPUs could be interfacing something that they're not? Why would that be good?

EDIT: The press release is a little vague too. Dongle? Quad DVI? Built in HDMI?

Not that I'm in the market for anything from this generation of cards from either company...

I do hope that someone comes out with a single slot/dual GPU version of a high end part (ala the 7950GX2). I remember reading an INQ article back in February concerning a 2800XTX2, but all news on said card has since been quiet. Of course, it was from the INQ.

Imagine running quad crossfire with four of those bad boys (octo-fire?). :)

Apart from rather specialized, "niche" uses (multi-monitor setups et al) this is a rubbish product, if there ever was one. Reminds me of those ridiculous FX5200 cards with insane amounts of RAM, that were only useful for "bragging rights" of people who didn't know any better (and could have bought a much better card for the same price).

So... the $279 model comes with 512MB and the $259 model does as well? Shucks, I know which one I'm getting. Unless you meant to say the $279 model come with 1GB.

Two questions:

1) When will there be a folding client for it?

2) Will users have to run two clients (1 for each GPU) or can a single client utilize both GPUs?

Brutally overpriced product. Who will ever buy this thing?

Maroon1: SLI drivers are in worse state than Crossfire though. In some cases two HD2900XTs beat two 8800GTXs or even Ultras. It depens on game, operating system and driver optimisations for both.

Therefore you don't know how well two HD2600XTs perform versus one 8800GTS.

I suspect that if you want a single card with 4 outputs then this is the card for you, and it'll even play games.

But otherwise it's a curiosity.

8800GTS 320 is faster than two 8600GTS in SLI

8600GTS is faster than one HD2600XT

So, this means that 8800GTS 320MB can kill two HD2600XT in crossfire

Maybe if it was 199.

@ $279 it would have to match the performance of an 8800GTS. I don't think it will.