Yes, but that’s SLI on a stick – not quite the same thing. SLI doesn’t always work in every game title, has double the power requirements, complicates multiple monitor setups, etc etc.
Thats a crossfire on a stick, and the crossfire has far less problems with multiple monitor setups than the SLI
if you check the power efficiency chart you linked to, the GTX 280 was using 159.1 Watts which I suspect is in 2D mode. Your reading of 190 watts might be in idle 3D mode
Yes, but I have another video card in my PC (to run 3 monitors – the 8500GT), an overclocked CPU, and two hard drives. That’s why the idle number is higher.
Even with the 9600 GT installed, a far more frugal video card, this same system was pulling 150w idle.
With the 8800GTX installed, which has horrible idle power management, this system pulled 250w idle.
The card is definitely downclocking; there’s no way we’d get to 190w if it wasn’t.
nooooo!
fantastic artwork for the weedding invites!
Yeah, highend graphics card are cool…but have you checked out the new era of flash based harddrives?
How about a 80GB disk connected directly on the PCIx bus with performances of read/write @ 800/600 MB/s…and 100.000 IOPS when a standard disk gets like 100 IOPS
Something for stackoverflow? 
http://www.fusionio.com/Products.aspx
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34065/135/
Copy a DVD in 4 seconds? (is that to and from same disk? same bus)
you’re not folding with that beast?
Man, I wish I had the cash for an upgrade. I hate being a student, paying out 3145 to study for a year, plus anothr 3705 for accommodation, plus however many thousand it costs to buy food for over the year. It just means I have to content myself with everything I could upgrade before I came here, namely, an OCed E6300, 2Gigs of RAM, and a HD 3850. It’s not a bad system, but if I had the cash, it would be upgraded in the time it takes to type in my debit card details.
Still, maybe I should concentrate on the work, then I could possibly get a job that pays well enough to not need to worry about this issue again.
lol I’ve owned every single one of the cards you mentioned in your first list as well. I still have a few of them in some dusty box somewhere. I always got them when they first came out too. I’ve probably spent 20 gran on video cards since around 1996 too, aside from the ones I got for free when I worked for EA.
I’ve toned it down lately, since I’ve forced myself to ease off on the games in pursuit of a social life. The PC I’m on now is running a $59 8500GT, and it’s really all I need at the moment. However, I’m currently negotiating a contract for development of a new game engine, so if that goes through I’ll probably end up making myself a long Christmas List of cards to purchase by the end of the year so I can play around with all of the cutting edge DX and OpenGL features. I’m secretly salivating for that Being able to do HDRL in realtime with good framerates should be fun!
I certainly relate to the addiction of buying a new graphics card every year or two and doing the odd mod (I even own a Dremel). A few years back I decided to break this pattern and try out the console world by buying myself a 360. It really lived up to my expectations. It was cheap (compared to buying a new GPU), quick startup, no technical problems and, at the time, awesome bleeding edge graphics. However, there is one thing that has always grinded with me (and this applies to both the WII and PS3); new game prices are practically double those on the PC. I know the argument goes something along the lines of Microsoft subsidising the console and recovering costs from game sales. However, the console is designed to thwart piracy (not sure how big an issue chipped consoles are), appeal to a market less inclined to pirate and can no claim bragger rights regarding GPU performace. So why aren’t console game prices coming down?
Sweet Jebus… 157 Watts… at idle!! That’s enough to power my 3-year old ThinkPad - six times over. Or watch a 40 inch widescreen flat-panel TV. Insane power wastage.
@Richard, new game prices for consoles are only about $10 more than PC games. i.e. Fallout 3 is $59.99 for the Xbox 360, and $49.99 for the PC. The extra licensing costs for publishing games on consoles probably explains the extra few dollars.
Ahh, conspicuous consumption! Hope you get your mortgage bailout - not.
So what kind of SUV do you drive?
You buy a new graphics card every year? Can I have last year’s? 
Seriously though… Graphics card porn has gotten old for me. I’d rather hear about what you’re doing with the old ones.
Jeff,
I forget. Are you running 64-bit? Since these cards have 1GB of RAM, that affects the total RAM available to the system in 32-bit world, no?
I have 2 8600 GT cards in my machine (primitive compared to yours) and they both use 512MB. Combined, they take away 1GB from my 32-bit system. I have 4GB installed, but the OS (32-bit XP Pro SP3) only sees 2GB now.
Hey Jeff, time to upgrade again:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/10/nvidias-quadro-fx-5800-with-4gb-graphics-memory-is-the-most-po/
Hello, my name is Jake, and I’m an addict.
firstly, i’m glad you are bringing that stackoverflow.com addiction under control.
That’s what separates us from those knuckle-dragging Mac users: skill
this really killed me because lately this is more true than 2005 when you took the first swipe at them. have you seen http://hackint0sh.org/ ?
correct me if i’m wrong but those are pc enthusiasts venturing into mac.
Jeff - I feel you man! I am addicted too. I’ve owned all of the cards on the list - but currently I am topped off with my GeForce 9600. Too bad games have slowed down - it doesn’t really justify the updates these days.
F3 is great especially on maximum settings.
I do get a yellow-ish ghost around all models when playing in the dark though. But I think I had the same thing with Oblivion. Got latest drivers and all…
Also, except for having great gfx, I think f3 is way more then Oblivion with guns. It’s Oblivion with Story (notice the capital S).
Npcs that don’t talk about the mudcrabs they saw yesterday but instead talk about things that are actually relevant. Quests that are not just the same generic irrelevant quests all over again. More then 2 voices for ALL the characters around.
It’s like Oblivion was fallout beta. Where they focussed on the engine and used the last week to cram in some quests. Where now they could spend their budget on great voice actors and good quest/story writers.
And yes, gfx cars are great too.
F3 is great especially on maximum settings.
I do get a yellow-ish ghost around all models when playing in the dark though. But I think I had the same thing with Oblivion. Got latest drivers and all…
Also, except for having great gfx, I think f3 is way more then Oblivion with guns. It’s Oblivion with Story (notice the capital S).
Npcs that don’t talk about the mudcrabs they saw yesterday but instead talk about things that are actually relevant. Quests that are not just the same generic irrelevant quests all over again. More then 2 voices for ALL the characters around.
It’s like Oblivion was fallout beta. Where they focussed on the engine and used the last week to cram in some quests. Where now they could spend their budget on great voice actors and good quest/story writers.
And yes, gfx cars are great too.
FWIW/Fallout3: Yes, I do say that like it’s a bad thing, and for a very simple reason: different levels for the inside of buildings.
I mean, come on - it’s 2008. We ought to be beyond that.
(Sorry for flaming)
oooh cutting off the rear plate is such a good idea. I’m going to go home and do that tonight to both of my 8800 gts 512’s!