- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
First things first, we don't flame around here. We don't tell people how ignorant they are. 99% of the time, it's ironic.
Second, find in my post where I said that the Asus A8N32 had 64 lanes. Can't? Neither can I. You've put words in my mouth.
Third, there are no boards or chipsets that exist as of yet with 64 pci-express lanes. Thus, the Quad-SLI setups that X-Bit, Anandtech, and others have built use the next best thing - mobos and chipsets with 32 lanes. Not even the motherboards and chipsets in pre-manufactured Quad-SLI setups like Dell have 64 lanes.
Quad-SLI does not require 64 lanes. If you actually read news and review sites, you would have seen an overflow of Quad-SLI benchmarks over the weekend.
Minimum FPS matters because that is the lowest FPS that the system hits. In the Oblivion tests, the 7900GTX SLI system was hitting 25 FPS at its lowest. That would cause you to see stuttering. The X1900XTX never dropped below 35 FPS. Most scientists agree that the human eye cannot distinguish images faster than roughly 28 FPS, so no visible stuttering would occur.
Fourth, according to two reliable, independent, and prestigious sites, Anandtech and X-Bit Labs, X1900XTX Crossfire is superior at high resolutions and high IQ settings.
Fifth, it appears that Gamespot's reviews conflict with X-Bit's and Anandtech's. That's common in the review world, but not by such drastic differences. I'd be more inclined to believe Anandtech and X-Bit because they are independent reviewers. Unlike Gamespot, which sells games and is essentially a corporation, these other websites are independent. They know the hardware better than software specialists like Gamespot, and, if you compare the articles, they're much more thorough. In addition, I'd be more inclined to say that independent reviewers are closer to being unbiased.
Finally, Gamespot is not using the most recent Forceware and Catalyst. While the others use FW 87.24 and Catalyst 6.4, Gamespot uses FW 84.17 and Catalyst 6.2. Gamespot's drivers are older.
Now, take a deep breath, this is important...Catalyst 6.2 offered early support for Crossfire. However, only until Catalyst 6.3 did ATi intoduce optimizations for the X1800 and X1900 series of cards. These allow better performance and eleminate previous bottlenecks. nVidia introduced optimizations for the 7900 series with ForceWare 84.17.
Thus, Gamespot's benchmarks are skewed. Not only did they not use the most recent drivers, but their nVidia drivers are optimized for the 7900 series and their Catalyst driver are not optimized for the X1900 series. Essentially, the review is not credible. To add insult to injury, 84.17 does not allow the 7900GTX to overclock properly. Hence why, in all of the reviews I've read, only this Gamespot review uses it. They are the only review site to use 84.17 in testing the 7900GTX. All other reviews I've seen use either the reviewer 84.11 drivers or the standard 87.24 drivers. Can anyone say credibility and reliability?
Believe what you want. Just don't call me ignorant and proclaim your knowledge on the matter, and then proceed to state facts that simply aren't true. If you wanna go this hardcore, know your facts.
[Edited on 5/2/2006]