Since we have dual core CPU's. You think they should do Dual Core GPU's?
Just a question.

Anyone starting to think both companies released their mid-range cards first instead of dropping the big shells on the market right away?

For some reason I'm thinking ATI is going to release their own blazing fast other company smacker soon enough and it will sell for pretty much the same price.

I bought a ATI x1800XL and I'm starting to regret doing so. I thought I bought a milder version of the fastest card ATI had to offer. $350 isn't exactley easy on the pocket book especially when they're just gonna release another card a few months down the road that will cost the same but be two times faster.

+1 to ATI and NVidia for wringing out the market.

Someone notify me when I can get a Gefore 7 series class SM3 card for 200 bucks and I will start to bother reading the review. Otherwise these reviews are just geek wankery.

Heh a scary thought.

Some l33t Intel fanboi lamer will get two of these. And then he'll get a Pentium 4 to go with it.

That's gotta be approaching, what? 450W at load?

The best bit is he'll probably pick some lame ass power supply simply because he's "tight when it comes to the little things..."

:-D,
-Mole

This article makes me want my new machine faster. Called up voodoopc again to see where they are with my order. I really really want my new dual 7800-512's now. :-)

nVidia still doesn't get it with the heat sinks. Okay, so since the 6800 GT their dual-PCI height coolers have blown the exhaust heat INSIDE the case, counter to optimal case flow. Now they've moved the fan to the middle of the sink and thrown some heat pipes on it. Wonderful, still half of the sink is blowing hot air into the case. What's worse is that primary card in SLI configurations has only about 1/16th of an inch between the top of the fan and the bottom heat sink of the secondary card (on many nForce4 SLI desktop boards such as MSI's). Way to go. The primary card's heat sink easily gets 30 degrees F hotter than the secondary. If the fan was 1/16th of an inch shorter, it would run only about 10 degrees hotter at most (I've tested).

The result is horrible ambient temperatures, very bad for hard drives.

ATI got destroyed...damn..so when I could begin buying the ashes from the ATI empire, ummm ?

ATI did get owned, but I hardly think they're worried. After all, remember the geforce is a 24pipe card vs. ATI's 16 pipe. If the R580 is a 24 pipe card, and they improve clock speeds (which they will, as they research more), you'll see ATI being competitive.

But I think instead of ATI trying to get into an e-penis fight with Nvidia, they should concentrate on getting the mid-range covered.

Nice Review. I love it!

This is really the "7800Ultra" that Nvidia said they weren't going to release, but then the X1800XT changed that overnight.

The tom's hardware article mentions: "Up to 1GB of Video Memory With GeForce 7800 GTX 512 SLI"

Now are they just being retarded and adding the 2x 512's or do the core tweaks and the new memory bus actually allow for utilization of a combined total of 1GB for framebuffer memory?

so when will this drop to $199?

Hot damn. I wish I had time to play with computers these days, I'd want a pair of these guys!!

Um, holy sh1t that thing is fast.

I predict we'll see $1,000 video cards with self-contained nuclear fusion reactors for power in the next two years. Well, maybe not with the fusion reactors, anyway.

I wouldn´t even buy it if I won the lottery. Gawd damn high prices...and they even hold supply back to keep prices high. Talk about milking idio..err...hardcore gamers.

Best review intro evar! :)

Oh, good. Another really fast video card.

So... when do we start to see fun games arriving for the PC? And by fun, I mean something that isn't "run around shiny plastic-coated environments and shoot lots of shiny plastic-coated enemies".

I for one am leaving the PC gaming market - having to spend a couple thousand every year or so on unnecessarily powerful hardware that only gets really stretched when playing the latest (rehashed) games is sheer insanity. The whole scene seems to have become increasingly about who has the biggest penis extension, and I'm quite happy with the size of my penis, thank you.

To think I'm still happily plodding along with my radeon9600LE(yes it actually plays F.E.A.R comfortably) while there are monsters like this available.

What was decided about using the delta between 1 and 2 cards to calculate the total power consumption of 1 card?

We report, you decide.
I love it!

This card is beautiful--and finally its not "just more memory," I've hated how people up to this point have just been doubling onboard memory and calling it a better card. I feel sorry for ATI, it was obvious to anyone that nVidia was waiting for their next product so they had an idea of what they needed to promptly bury with their new flagship.

This is just a friendly reminder that wholesale electricity costs 46% more than in 11/04.

Great review Scott.

I have some comments and questions.

Comments
I can finally see SLI/Crossfire coming into its own in the next 12 months, by that I mean mainstream gamers starting to really buy them, not just hardcore gamers.

Since the new consoles have multicore parts in them, the software will start catching up. More importantly, a pair of graphics cards will really start working well with a pair of CPU cores.

A fast SLI setup with a single core CPU may have the video cards waiting for the CPU to send data, causing a slowdown. A nicely matched pair of GPUs and pair of CPUs will run great. Talking about Car analogies, I am thinking more of a nice Intake/Carb setup.

It doesn’t make sense to have a huge CARB and tiny low flow Intake.
Upgrading is different, in that you buy a faster video card now, knowing you are going to get a faster CPU later.

But if you are building from scratch, I think with the newer SMP/SLI aware games and GPUs hitting the same wall as CPUs, we may start seeing matched GPU/CPU combos, that have both parts running at their full potential, without having one part waiting for another.

Again, as a former mechanic, I am looking at it from a Card/Intake perspective.

Sorry for the long comment, but it was just something I was thinking about.

Question:
As for a the current generation games, since as of right now we know the fastest A64 cpu gives the fastest FPS, why did we go with a slower dual core CPU as opposed to a fastest FX CPU? Just curious, because I am wondering if those of us with current 6800/7800 GPUS can get get nice frame rate increases with newer CPUs? At least maybe the 7800 crowd.

Found one at Mwave.com. Costs $799 without shipping. 0.o

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=3000415

Great review!

Did I miss the mention of temperature? I know it's something of a concern with dual graphics cards running at top speed. Though the distance between the cards is greater on the Asus board, that main card still pulls some hot air from the back of its partner.

I'm just curious as to how their temp compared to other SLI set-ups. In your opinion, did those big fans work as well as the aftermarket options?

Was it a non-issue?

Again, loved the review.

I think there is a market for a $700 video card.

I see plenty of people driving corvettes and hummers. I see plenty of people wearing $500 jackets, $300 shoes, $25,000 engagement rings. I see plenty of people spending $5000 on a weeks vacation.

Granted I am none of these people, but they do exist.

I once spent $120 for 4mb of memory, back when the average "business" computer was $2500. It's all relative....... If only my relatives were rich :-)

I expect the price to drop some over the next few weeks, once the early adopters are out of the way and the retail channels are flooded with these cards. That way Santa can go WTF is a GTX512? And why do you need 2?

"captures the geek's imagination like a wayward pair of Carolina Panthers cheerleaders."

[Homer voice]

Mmmmmmm .... lesbian cheerleaders going at it .... argghhhhhhhh

[/Homer voice]

The word you are looking for, ATI, is "ruined."

I think this needs emphasising. With everything turned on at 2048x1576, that .... THING is still pumping out 60fps in Doom3. 120 if you double them up.

Lord have Mercy but that thing is fast.
-Mole

The perfect Aspen christmas gift.