Since this performance preview is targeted to PC gamers, to start things off we might as well play a game. Riddle us this, what would be the antithesis of a product like a thin and light notebook PC that is energy efficient, eco-friendly, and performance per watt tuned for those of you on the go? Some of you may hazard a guess that it would be a high performance desktop replacement notebook machine or perhaps a workstation computer of some sort. Those might be good answers but we'd beg to differ. Take a high-end quad core processor, drop in not two but three NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards, chain them together in 3-Way SLI and then watch the lights dim. - HotHardware

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 3-Way SLI Config Preview

We are a pretty serious bunch, this is no joke. Modern day, cutting edge 3D graphics processors are easily as complex, if not more so in some respects, as high-end multi core CPU's. Let's think about this for a minute. An Intel Core 2 Quad processor is comprised of some +800 million transistors. A GeForce 8800 Ultra is made up of 640 million transistors or so. Now, multiply that GeForce 8800 Ultra number by three and you're looking at 1.92 billion transistors just for graphics processing. Green friendly, eco-minded, tree huggers or those of you with weak constitutions for that matter, look away.

The requirements for a 3-Way SLI setup are fairly straight forward. You can easily build one of these monster configurations yourself. All you will need is an 1100 watt power supply with at least six 6-pin PCI Express power connectors or four 6-pin and two 8-pin connectors, an nForce 680i or 780i motherboard with three full length PCI Express slots, a fairly roomy case with good airflow, Windows Vista and the right NVIDIA driver to support 3-Way SLI, and of course three GeForce 8800 GTX or Ultra cards. Incidentally, NVIDIA has noted that AMD based 3-Way solutions are forthcoming.

The system we tested today, based on NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra 3-Way SLI technology, showed significant performance gains that scaled relative to its additional graphics processing resources, in specific test setups and gaming usage models. Conversely, the power consumption of this system exceeded anything we've seen in our test lab to date by a wide margin, topping out in excess of 800 watts under full load. So, what's the moral of our little 3-Way SLI story that we've layed out for you today? Do you need 3-Way SLI? Well, that depends of course heavily on your perspective.

There's no question that a 3-Way SLI setup will benefit end users with 30" LCD's that want to run at their monitor's native resolution with a high level of image quality processing turned on as well. At the end of the day, we were rather impressed that the NVIDIA 3-Way SLI solution scaled as well as it did at these extreme high resolutions and image quality settings. However, you'll also need significant financial resources to bring a system build of this sort together. With even the least expensive GeForce 8800 Ultra on the market at around $659 and the lowest cost GTX at $510, you're looking at $1500-2000 in cards alone.

There's no question, three GeForce 8800 Ultra cards running in tandem are easily the fastest 3D graphics gaming engine available at the moment. We're actually more encouraged to see the technology working in general so well currently, with good performance scaling. We're also intrigued at the thought of multi-GPU rendering for mid-range cards, multi-GPU single board designs or NVIDIA's next generation G92 based product that is due out in the next few months. With improved power profiles and smaller, more optimized and cost efficient manufacturing technology, the solution could become more compelling.

For now, 3-Way SLI with GeForce 8800 GTX and Ultra cards feels more like a dreamer's system, with all practicality thrown to the wind, not to mention zero concern for the inconvenient truth of excessive power consumption. But then again, if you simply must have that the ultimate PC gaming experience, at high resolutions, on enormous 30-inch LCD's, you probably don't care much about these things. In that case, 3-Way SLI certainly can deliver the goods.