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<p><span style="font-size: small;"> It’s been </span><span style="font-size: small;">quite a while</span><span style="font-size: small;"> since we’ve looked at triple-GPU Crossfire and SLI performance – or for that matter looking at GPU scaling in-depth. While NVIDIA in particular likes to promote multi-GPU configurations as a price-practical upgrade path, such configurations are still almost always the domain of the high-end gamer. At $700 we have the recently launched GeForce GTX 590 and Radeon HD 6990, dual-GPU cards whose existence is hedged on how well games will scale across multiple GPUs. Beyond that we move into the truly exotic: triple-GPU configurations using 3 single-GPU cards, and quad-GPU configurations using a pair of the aforementioned dual-GPU cards. If you have the money, NVIDIA and AMD will gladly sell you upwards of $1500 in video cards to maximize your gaming performance.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> These days multi-GPU scaling is a given – at least to some extent. Below the price of a single high-end card our recommendation is always going to be to get a bigger card before you get more cards, as multi-GPU scaling is rarely perfect and with equally cutting-edge games there’s often a lag between a game’s release and when a driver profile is released to enable multi-GPU scaling. Once we’re looking at the Radeon HD 6900 series or GF110-based GeForce GTX 500 series though, going faster is no longer an option, and thus we have to look at going wider.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> Today we’re going to be looking at the state of GPU scaling for dual-GPU and triple-GPU configurations. While we accept that multi-GPU scaling will rarely (if ever) hit 100%, just how much performance are you getting out of that 2<sup>nd</sup> or 3<sup>rd</sup> GPU versus how much money you’ve put into it? That’s the question we’re going to try to answer today.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/4254/triplegpu-performance-multigpu-scaling-part1">Read more...</a><br />
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Radeon HD 6950 was initially released only in one modification with 2 GB of video memory. However, in the competition against GeForce GTX 560 Ti AMD decided to roll out a more affordable model with 1 GB of memory onboard. Today we are going to review a graphics card like that from PowerColor.
<p><span style="font-size: small;">GeForce GTX 550 Ti launched without much fuss and fireworks, but it is the mainstream solutions that usually find their way into our computer systems. Please meet our first candidate – MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone CO!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/msi-n550gtx-ti-cyclon-oc.html" target="_blank">Read more...</a><br />
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We are benchmarking two top-of-the-line solutions from AMD and Nvidia to see who’s the king of the hill now.
It really doesn’t seem like it’s been all that long, but it’s been nearly a year and a half since NVIDIA has had a dual-GPU card on the market. The GeForce GTX 295 was launched in January of 2009, the first card based on the 55nm die shrink of the GT200 GPU. For most of the year the GTX 295 enjoyed bragging rights as the world’s fastest video card; however the launch of the Radeon HD 5000 series late in 2009 effectively put an end to the GTX 295’s run as a competitor.
Even with the launch of the GTX 400 series in March of 2010, a new dual-GPU card from NVIDIA remained the stuff of rumors—a number of rumors claimed we’d see a card based on GF10X, but nothing ever materialized. Without a dual-GPU card, NVIDIA had to settle for having the fastest single-GPU card on the market through the GTX 480, a market position worth bragging about, but one that was always shadowed by AMD’s dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970. Why we never saw a dual-GPU GTX 400 series card we’ll never know—historically NVIDIA has not released a dual-GPU card for every generation—but it’s a reasonable assumption that GF100’s high leakage made such a part unviable.
But at long last the time has come for a new NVIDIA dual-GPU card. GF100’s refined follow up, GF110, put the kibosh on leakage and allowed NVIDIA to crank up clocks and reduce power consumption throughout their GTX 500 lineup. This also seems to have been the key to making a dual-GPU card possible, as NVIDIA has finally unveiled their new flagship card: GeForce GTX 590. Launching a mere two weeks after AMD’s latest flagship card, the Radeon HD 6990, NVIDIA is gunning for their spot at the top back. But will they reach their goal? Let’s find out.
We have already learned that in some cases Radeon HD 6870 may even compete successfully against GeForce GTX 560 Ti and Radeon HD 6950. Today we are going to talk about two new graphics cards on AMD Barts GPU.We have already learned that in some cases Radeon HD 6870 may even compete successfully against GeForce GTX 560 Ti and Radeon HD 6950. Today we are going to talk about two new graphics cards on AMD Barts GPU.
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> Throughout the lifetime of the 400 series, NVIDIA launched 4 GPUs: GF100, GF104, GF106, and GF108. Launched in that respective order, they became the GTX 480, GTX 460, GTS 450, and GT 430. One of the interesting things from the resulting products was that with the exception of the GT 430, NVIDIA launched each product with a less than fully populated GPU, shipping with different configurations of disabled shaders, ROPs, and memory controllers. NVIDIA has never fully opened up on why this is – be it for technical or competitive reasons – but ultimately GF100/GF104/GF106 never had the chance to fully spread their wings as 400 series parts.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"> It’s the 500 series that has corrected this. Starting with the GTX 580 in November of 2010, NVIDIA has been launching GPUs built on a refined transistor design with all functional units enabled. Coupled with a hearty boost in clockspeed, the performance gains have been quite notable given that this is still on the same 40nm process with a die size effectively unchanged. Thus after GTX 560 and the GF114 GPU in January, it’s time for the 3<sup>rd</sup> and final of the originally scaled down Fermi GPUs to be set loose: GF106. Reincarnated as GF116, it’s the fully enabled GPU that powers NVIDIA’s latest card, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.anandtech.com/show/4221/nvidias-gtx-550-ti-coming-up-short-at-150">Read more...</a><br />
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There has been the same undisputed leader in the graphics cards market for almost eighteen months now. As with many good things, they all must come to an end or at least step aside in order to give way to the new generation. Sticking to its ‘premium products are of dual chip design’ dogma, AMD has just released its latest dreadnought – Radeon HD 6990.
In our today’s article we are going to learn which of these multi-processor technologies provides maximum performance gain compared with a single graphics accelerator and what obstacles the users may face in either case.
The AMD Radeon HD 6990, otherwise known as Antilles, is a card we have been expecting for some time now. In what’s become a normal AMD fashion, when they first introduced the Radeon HD 6800 series back in October, they also provided a rough timeline for the rest of the high-end members of the family. Barts would be followed by Cayman (6950/6970), which would be followed by the dual-GPU Antilles (6990). Ultimately Cayman ended up being delayed some, and as a result so was Antilles.
So while we’ve had to wait longer than we anticipated for Antilles/6990, the wait has finally come to an end. Today AMD is launching their new flagship card, retiring the now venerable 5970 and replacing it with a new dual-GPU monster powered by AMD’s recently introduced VLIW4 design. Manufactured on the same 40nm process as the GPUs in the 5970, AMD has had to go to some interesting lengths to improve performance here. And as we’ll see, it’s going to be a doozy in more ways than one.