When it comes to video horsepower, computer enthusiasts are insatiable, demanding, consumers.  Give us one video card solution, and a certain stripe of user demands two.  Given two, prompt speculation on whether or not those two could be combined into a single card begins.  Given dual-GPU / single-card solutions, its inevitable that someone, somewhere will request a 4-way solution?and they?d like it to be quiet, SFF-compatible, and, of course--affordable. 

Gigabyte?s 3DV1 is a dual 6600GT video card in the spirit of earlier fusion cards?the Obsidian X24 is probably the last time we?ve seen a card quite like this (that video card combined two Voodoo2?s into a single slab of 24-meg 3D goodness).  It?s a gutsy move for Gigabyte to make, but its also one way for the manufacturer to offer a product that stands, head-and-shoulders, above the rest.  We didn?t actually receive a formal 3DV1 bundle?Gigabyte included the card with out SLI motherboard?but Gigabyte is offering the board and card combo for sale together.  There are some twists and turns to this product, so lets begin by breaking down what it is?and what it isn?t.

Gigabyte?s 3DV1 Under the Microscope:

The bundled combo Gigabyte ships the 3D1 + K8NXP-SLI in. 
 

According to Gigabyte, the 3DV1 is the industry?s first 256-meg, 256-bit GeForce 6600GT.  The first number is accurate (if mis-leading), but the second is a flat-out lie.  If you recall, the 3dfx dual VSA-100 Voodoo5 5500 was marketed as a 64-meg video card, yet under testing, performed equivalently to a 2x32meg configuration.  Although that card had 64 meg of RAM total, only 32 meg of memory was available per VSA-100.  Similarly, although Gigabyte?s 3DV1 does sport 256 meg of RAM, 128 meg of it is dedicated to each of the two NV43 GPU?s.  Using Gigabyte?s 3DV1 provides no advantage in terms of addressable memory space as compared to two 6600GT cards in standard SLI mode.

The 3D1 itself.  Note the lack of an actual SLI cross-connector.   

Claiming that the 3DV1 has 256 meg of memory is the kind of ?literally-true, practically-useless? statement that marketing departments love to slip past, while the technically inclined grind their teeth in frustration, but claiming that the 3DV1 has a 256-bit memory bus is factually wrong.  This video card has two 128-bit busses, one per GPU, and unlike memory configurations, bus widths are never added and then stated as a total.

Once we dispose of the untrue marketing claims, the Gigabyte 3DV1 is a pair of ordinary GeForce 6600GTs built together on a single PCB.  The twin cores run at 200 MHz in 2D mode, and ramp up to 500 MHz in 3D mode (this is standard for the 6600GT reference design).  Gigabyte?s clocked their memory a bit faster than our original NVIDIA 6600GT reference card?initially, NVIDIA?s specs called for a 500 MHz core clock and a 1 GHz memory clock; Gigabyte delivers a 1,120 MHz clock rate, for a  total of 17.9 GB/s of memory bandwidth. 

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• NV43 In Brief, Fine Print on the 3D1. (1 of 5)
• Test Configuration, 3DMark 2005 Performance. (2 of 5)
• Doom 3 Performance (Standard and High-Quality) (3 of 5)
• Far Cry Performance (Standard and High Quality) (4 of 5)
• Performance Analysis, Conclusion. (5 of 5)