Just saw this on Alienware's site today, not sure if its new news, but I wasnt aware of it and I try to stay pretty up to date on computer technology.
The motherboard has 2 x PCI-E connectors allowing 2 video cards, and then using a link between the 2, they can act as 1 and share the load, majorly increasing performance. I was pretty impressed when I read it
Just imagine the heat this things would put off being side by side!
http://www.alienware.com/product_detail ... KU-DEFAULT
Dual PCI-E Video Cards
Not new news -- it was announced during E3 this year, and they had a prototype/demonstration to show how it worked.
Basically, each video card only needs to worry about half of the screen (which on-the-fly can change the percentage from pure 50-50 to balance load)
Example: Flight sims where the bottom third of the screen is relatively static with displays and guages don't need as much power as the top 2/3, so the load may be split about 60-40.
They showed this in their demo by actually disconnecting output from each video card individually, so you can see only half the screen at a time.
The last time this was tried was with the VooDoo cards that took up PCI slots (except they did stripes of the display alternating instead of just being half the screen).
I think it will be about 2 or 3 more years before I build a new gaming machine since I've just built one earlier this year -- but when I do, I am going to be looking into this.
Basically, each video card only needs to worry about half of the screen (which on-the-fly can change the percentage from pure 50-50 to balance load)
Example: Flight sims where the bottom third of the screen is relatively static with displays and guages don't need as much power as the top 2/3, so the load may be split about 60-40.
They showed this in their demo by actually disconnecting output from each video card individually, so you can see only half the screen at a time.
The last time this was tried was with the VooDoo cards that took up PCI slots (except they did stripes of the display alternating instead of just being half the screen).
I think it will be about 2 or 3 more years before I build a new gaming machine since I've just built one earlier this year -- but when I do, I am going to be looking into this.
