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Computex 2005: Graphics Preview May 30, 2005 |
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Summary: While Computex hasn't officially begun, earlier today we got a sneak peek at a few upcoming graphics technologies that will be grabbing the headlines once the show begins. See Gigabyte's follow-up to the original 3D1, now sporting dual GeForce 6800 GT graphics cores running in SLI on a single card for even more power. ATIs dual graphics technology also made an appearance. Read all the details inside!
 Getting in early | Page:: ( 1 / 3 ) |
This year's Computex is only a day away and the FiringSquad team was able to get into the show to give you a preview of what we'll see over the next few days.
Our first stop was the ASUS booth, which like most of the booths at the show, was still under construction when we visited Monday afternoon.
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We were able to see that ASUS was showing off their Vento 3600 case at the show, as well as a good number of 6800 Ultra cards in SLI. ASUS representatives told us that tomorrow, at the start of Computex, ASUS will be showing off their dual-GPU stand-alone GeForce 6800 Ultra card.
We then moved on to the Gigabyte booth, where we were introduced to their dual-GPU stand-alone GeForce 6800GT card. Unlike ASUS, Gigabyte had their card running when we visited.
SIDEBAR: It is a 13-hour trip from LAX to Taipei. Dan, Brandon and Paul must've had their share of potty breaks and "Excuse me"'s
| Gigabyte booth | Page:: ( 2 / 3 ) |
Gigabyte told us that the single dual-GPU card actually runs in SLI, and even hinted that two of these dual-GPU cards could be used in their upcoming four PCIe x16 slot motherboard that they'll be showcasing when the show starts tomorrow. The card also ships with an external bracket which isnt pictured, providing output support for up to four displays.
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Gigabyte was also showing off a new water cooling setup that features CPU and GPU water blocks.
After Gigabyte we headed over to the GeCube booth, where we got our first glimpses of ATI's new multi-graphics card technology.
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We can now confirm the rumored "external dongle" that connects both graphics cards together. As you can see from the pictures, the cards used in the GeCube dual-graphics card system are Radeon X850XT graphics cards.
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SIDEBAR: Brandon tells of his ride on a China Airlines 747-400 with personal LCDs and the ability to tap into the nose and belly cam, allowing passengers to view the outside world as the pilot sees it, and also watch 12 movies on-demand.
| Tul and DFI | Page:: ( 3 / 3 ) |
Heading over to the Tul booth, we were able to see another ATI built dual-graphics card system, this time without the external dongle that connects both cards together.
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DFI was one of the few companies that actually had a completed booth by Monday afternoon.
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At the DFI booth we were able to take a look at their LANParty UT RD480-DR motherboard, capable of supporting two ATI PCIe graphics cards.
We also saw quite a few other booths, but most of them had no new hardware on display as most of the booths were still being worked on. NVIDIAs booth for example, had several GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI systems up and running (including one system with dual 512MB GeForce 6800 Ultra cards) but they still had quite a few shelves that still needed to be filled. We were also on the lookout for G70 in the wild, but none of the manufacturers we came across had any next-gen products on display just yet, so it appears that will have to wait for another day.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the show floor!
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SIDEBAR: Brandon hates leaving home. Let alone crossing the Pacific.