SUMMARY: We finally get our chance to setup an nVidia SLI system with two GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards and see just what type of performance we can expect from this expensive yet impressive setup which deserves respect. Since this is our first SLI article we look into what exactly SLI is, what it stands for, how it works and everything else we think is important and then get straight into the benchmarking to see what we can come up with.
S-L-I… the three letters on the tip of every computer enthusiasts tongue at the moment. Love or Hate PCI Express, it is here to stay and with it we are seeing leaps and bounds in technology with the biggest deal so far being SLI or Scalable Link Interface.
We will be today looking at two GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics cards from nVidia which take advantage of the highly anticipated SLI configuration. We will be running all our normal synthetic and Real World game tests but we will also be doing something a little different with our tests results today. While everyone is getting excited about SLI in gaming we go further and see how it impacts our overall system performance at all - is memory bandwidth not as good or is the processor not scoring as well in PCMark. We will be looking at this as well as just what kind of difference two graphics cards gives us… the same kind of performance as a twin turbo vehicle or a let down?
We won’t be looking at the graphics cards but simply just having a quick look at what exactly SLI is, what it stands for, how it works and everything else we think is important and get straight into the benchmarking to see what an extra $400 gives us and the upgrade to the nForce 4 SLI chipset.
The heat is turned up Down Under in our hot Aussie summer and even hotter in our testing labs – let’s get down to business and see what SLI can really offer us with two nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra’s.
