ExtremeTech has one of the first reviews in I’ve seen of nVidia’s SLI video cards—the little trick where they let you connect two video cards together to double (or at least increase) your polygon pushing power. And let me tell you, just like in the 3dfx Voodoo 2 days of yore, it absolutely trumps any single card solution out there. That’s the good news.
The bad news is mostly predictable: for just the motherboard, two GeForce 6800 cards, and a 500-watt power supply, ExtremeTech paid (or would have paid) about $1,500. That’s not for a whole machine, but just the core bits—rock bottom for a whole machine built around that platform would be $2,000 at least. The other worrying bit is a bit more speculative, but worth keeping an eye on. If you buy just a single nVidia card today with the intention of adding another in the future, no one can predict how well cards from different manufacturers or cards produced at different times will work together.
More Power to You: nVidia’s nForce 4 SLI is Fastest [ExtremeTech]
Update: Julian Bush writes, “you omitted the fact that you don’t have to use 6800 ultras, which are around 600 a piece. you can use 6600gts or 6800 gts as well, which are 200 and 400 respectively, bringing the total cost to about 700-1100 dollars.” I did not know that.
