Behold the X1950XTX!

 

 

Sexy!

 

And notice the gigantic CPU cooler in the background.. )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Imagine trying to crossfire that thing; you'd have no room for a soundcard.

You cant SLI/Crossfire ANY double-slot cards, can you?

Only on large Mobos

 

Edited July 28, 200619 yr by Bokishi

I believe all/most dual-GPU slot motherboards (SLI and Crossfire) are built keeping dual-slot cards in mind.

*stares at the pictures* *stares some more*

 

Time for motherboard companies to redesign their boards, soon, perhaps?

How much bigger can these things get? I mean, there was a time when companies were proud at how small they could make a component. Now, the video cards are huge and the manufacturers are telling us we might need a secondary PSU just to make the things work.

Tom's has an interesting article on this very thing for those interested.

Tom's has an inteesting article on this very thing for those interested.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

External graphics, that's crazy!

 

What I find tantalising about it - to be honest - is the flexibility it might offer the mobile user. My current upgrade is a SFF as the power of a notebook is hampered by the GPU. If, however, I had access to an external graphics solution, I could chuck the PDA and go with a powerful - yet small - notebook and when @ home link to a high-end GPU box. Now that would be sweet!

Heh, yeah that does sound cool, people wouldn't need desktops anymore; they just link their laptops to massive hardware when they get home.

I'm kind of suprised that no one has produced anything like that yet.

 

Even though it does mean more wires running here and there, I'd definitely spring for it. I have a thing for modularity .

I just think it would be easier to cool and easier to replace.

I just think it would be easier to cool and easier to replace.

 

Agreed! And the longecity factor of modularity would perhaps help with this crazy constant upgrade route for PC Gecklings

If I understood the article correctly, you can link up to 32 external cards, does that mean for SLI power?

If I understood the article correctly, you can link up to 32 external cards, does that mean for SLI power?

 

I don't see that as the implication - though I suspect the technology could hypothetically do such a thing. That would be a lot of power indeed.

Get 768 of them, and have them each render a single line while at 1024x768!

Get 768 of them, and have them each render a single line while at 1024x768!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A novel idea, Alan my friend! I've even selected an appropriate case for them, including it's unique brand power supply!

Oh, that's too funny. talk about modularity. I was afraid you'd have 768 different cases! Your solution is much better.

 

Forget the batmobile. Instead, you've got the casemobile.

 

I'd think external video cards must make it a lot easier to use a few. 768 is a bit out of my price range, however.

Get 768 of them, and have them each render a single line while at 1024x768!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

A novel idea, Alan my friend! I've even selected an appropriate case for them, including it's unique brand power supply!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Haha just park that thing on your driveway and tell everyone it's game time!

How fast would an external graphics solution be? Would they just be using an existing interface like Firewire.

 

It just sounds like another potential bottleneck. I can't imagine it being easy to compete with a PCI-E 16x connector attached right to the motherboard.

How fast would an external graphics solution be?  Would they just be using an existing interface like Firewire.

 

It just sounds like another potential bottleneck.  I can't imagine it being easy to compete with a PCI-E 16x connector attached right to the motherboard.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I was wondering this too. Are there problems with the length of wire as to why they couldn't just make something like a long extension from the video card to the PCI-E 16x on the motherboard?

 

I'm not familiar with such things.

Are there problems with the length of wire...

Wire length is a HUGE problem in general. As clock speeds keep increasing, one of the single largest problems chip designers have to face today is the amount of time it takes for a signal to travel from one end of a chip to another. It is very hard to do this in one cycle nowadays. Transistors are becoming smaller and faster, but wire delays are becoming increasingly dominant.

 

Of course, once you get out of the extremely constrained on-chip design parameters, you do have a little more room to play. I'm sure a couple of (processor) cycles of extra latency on the PCI-express bus won't hurt much today, but I don't know if such a modular solution would work in the long term. We seem to be moving towards a System-On-Chip paradigm, where most of the critical components of the system are integrated onto a single chip. AMD have already integrated the FSB into the chip. GPUs will soon follow, and then you'll have your network card, South Bridge, audio, Firewire and RAID controllers.. everything, on chip. The only thing left on your "motherboard" would be power supply components and possibly DRAM.

I just ran into an external graphics card solution from Nvidia today. It's not for home users though, starting at $17,500.

 

Here's the link: Quadro Plex [www.reghardware.co.uk]

 

edit:

Here's the link to Nvidia's page on it: NVIDIA Quadro Plex VCS [www.nvidia.com]

Edited August 1, 200619 yr by LostStraw

It's not for the average home users though, starting at $17,500.

Fixed.

 

I want one. I could afford it, but still, I think hubby would be a little mad at me...

I love the way they call it the The Quadro Plex 1000 family, when the snazzy gizmo would probably make you forget all about your family.