The_Professional
Nov5-04, 10:28 PM
The dual videocard system has been around, but to those who haven't heard the news yet.
Hint: the system will run your word processing programs 1,000,000X faster YAY!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20041027021135.html
Alienware’s dual graphics cards option will not require driver support from the graphics card manufacturers. The system was designed to be standalone using Alienware’s Video Array (including software and merger hub) and X2 mainboard. Video Array Technology divides the screen in multiple parts, in contrast to 3dfx’s SLI that required every single line to be rendered by different graphics card. In the case of using two video cards, the screen is divided, vertically, in two parts: one video card renders the upper section, and the second video card renders the lower section.
Video Array uses a ‘Predictive Load Balancing’ technology that evaluates on each frame the processing load for each GPU. Based on this, it ‘predicts’ the load distribution for the next frames, and adjusts the ‘Split Ratio’ accordingly. While the system always starts at a 50% split, as the content of the screen changes, the ratio changes accordingly (75%/25%, 85%/15%, 80%/20%, etc., etc). This logic enables Video Array to maximize the use of the graphics processing power from each card.
Preliminary testing of dual graphics cards shows performance gains of more than 50% compared to single graphics card configuration. The more graphics intense the application, the more performance increase gained.
Hint: the system will run your word processing programs 1,000,000X faster YAY!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20041027021135.html
Alienware’s dual graphics cards option will not require driver support from the graphics card manufacturers. The system was designed to be standalone using Alienware’s Video Array (including software and merger hub) and X2 mainboard. Video Array Technology divides the screen in multiple parts, in contrast to 3dfx’s SLI that required every single line to be rendered by different graphics card. In the case of using two video cards, the screen is divided, vertically, in two parts: one video card renders the upper section, and the second video card renders the lower section.
Video Array uses a ‘Predictive Load Balancing’ technology that evaluates on each frame the processing load for each GPU. Based on this, it ‘predicts’ the load distribution for the next frames, and adjusts the ‘Split Ratio’ accordingly. While the system always starts at a 50% split, as the content of the screen changes, the ratio changes accordingly (75%/25%, 85%/15%, 80%/20%, etc., etc). This logic enables Video Array to maximize the use of the graphics processing power from each card.
Preliminary testing of dual graphics cards shows performance gains of more than 50% compared to single graphics card configuration. The more graphics intense the application, the more performance increase gained.