Don't plan to sell your first chip - Bob Colwell, former Intel chief architect
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Tri-SLI 8800 Ultra bench pressed
GERMAN WEBSITE PC Games Hardware (Gurgled here) which, as the name implies, toils in the gaming environment has just blindsided the world+dog by benchmarking a Tri-SLI 8880 Ultra system. Errr... that’d be Crysis @ 1920x1200, with AA/AF on, very high settings, running at over 47fps average frame rate. Apparently, it scales brilliantly. How cool (or hot) is that?
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3DProfessor.org offers us a review of the new FireGL V8650 card from AMD/ATI. There hasn’t been a strong refresh in the workstations graphics arena for a while now. With cards being based on age-old chipper pro users have been longing for the upgrade. It seems the new FireGL is all they need. Tons cheaper than Nvidia’s high-end Quadro’s with similar performance. Read all about it, here.
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Fudo and the Fud Squad have a go at Sapphire’s passively-cooled HD3850. It sports 512MB of memory as opposed to the standard 256MB. Interestingly enough, this review reveals one flaw of 3DMark 06 – as a synthetic test the extra 256MB don’t really get factored in the same way it is in the real world tests (Company of Heroes, World in Conflict, FEAR). This HD3850 on steroids almost matches its bigger brother, the HD3870, at stock speeds. In the end Sanjin awards it their Top Value score.
Thinkcomputers tries to cool their GPU with a Thermaltake DuOrb VGA cooler. Instead of the standard “single massive fan” approach, Thermaltake opted for a different design: two smaller fans operating together to “spread cool love”. They found a 10-degree drop in GPU temps over their 8800GTX stock cooler. It’s a funky looking heatsink/fan with the necessary RAMsinks and VRMsinks. Cheap as chips. µ
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This is how it is, 

QX9650 @ 4.2Ghz
4GB PC6400
CF 3870s 845/1430

I can honestly tell you that I can play Crysis at maximum settings at 1920x1200 without any problems. 

Now to deny the fact that Tri SLi will be faster would seem a bit silly, but in all honesty it's really not. Everyone on here must know full well that there won't be any decent drivers for a long, long while. They'll struggle to get anyone to believe that theres a big enough leap from having a pair of them to having 3 cards in your system. Fact.

Plus does anyone with half a brain cell really want an Nvidia chipset? Because frankly I'd rather not thank you

Mike
What about the scores of BioShock on High GFX (8800 Ultra 53% higher) or worse yet, World in Conflict High GFX (8800 Ultra 78% higher) ouch! As for the precious and touted Crossfire compatibility, it didn't seem to work in all games.

Four things about the article on legitreviews.com:

1) The 8800 Ultra is about even with two 3870's at 1600x1200 on crysis.

2) Adding one more 8800 Ultra will scale much better than adding two more 3870's.

3) NVIDIA's GPU's currently seem to scale better with SLI in Crysis than ATI's GPU's do in Crossfire.

4) Anyone who gets a $500+ graphics card to run at 1280x1024 (as done in most of the review) in a review is not legit

Anyway, I just care about Linux OpenGL performance, since I can't stand Microsoft anything for their poor user interface, bad menu layout, and slow performance (my Apple II could run GUI word processing, but a Pentium II is too slow). The 3870 is only 15% faster than my 8600GT at Quake 4 on my platform (www.phoronix.com), and it costs 2x the price. I'd hate to see it against an 8800 Ultra there.
Quad CF sucks repeat sucks.8800ultra trisli will and is the most rocking performance till now
Please NOTE.. that the price of an ULTRA excedes 500 euros in europe... in eastern europe is 600euros.
An CrossFire gaming setup costs 400 euros... see my point of view?With this money I can buy an core 2 Duo E6750...or...an 790FX chipset motherboard with CrossFire X.Put it with an 6400+ OCD and you'll beat the tri sli ULTRAS on a minimum price (considering the huge price you have to pay ... only on 8800 ultras video cards..not to mention... the power supply cost.)
An 3870CF setup eats only ~320watts with the entire system... an 8800ULTRA alone eats more
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/1/


please try to read this article... an 8800ULTRA is beaten by a CF of 3870 even in crysis.

8800ultra-41.25fps
3850CF-45fps
3870CF-47.53fps in crysis

1600/1200 med details
3870CF-=-54.43fps
8800Ultra-=-53.32fps


Note this please... it was a test rig SLI vs CF and 8800GT in SLI was beaten by 3870 in CF. In Call of Juarez nvidia was beaten with almost 25%.
It looks like... nvidia... even if they were the first (after voodoo... they bought voodoo and they closed it) to make SLI system...they were more concerned to build faster graphic cards..but they forgot about motherboards and chipsets.ATI has made even hybrid crossfire... nvidia is still trying to make a stabile tri SLI. Note that the 3-rd pciex connector is connected thorough SB... see there latancy problems?
What can you say on the jump of CF on 3870... 110% performance in CF on Call of Juarez...?
Call me DUMB... but... the engineers from ATI are trying to make something... to build a system..cheap... and good also.
I can't say anything bad about nvidia... they have excelent cards... but... OVERPRICED
Geforce 8800U is still the undisputed champion of the GPU wars....... guthra is right you wil need atlist 6 3870's to beat a tri SLI of 8800U..... (but there are no such thing like 6 3870's running on crossfire mode)........ lol....... because a 3870 can't even match with an 8800GTX..... If someone claiming that the 3870 can beat an 8800U.... must be nuts, crazy or simply losing hope with AMD/ATI........ please read reviews or benchmarks first before bumping to conclusions..... I'm not an Nvidia fan but the truth is I'm an ATI fanboy before but when AMD comes into the picture I don't like what's going on now with ATI's development of new cards.... like their new cards are like.... crapps......... I like the GPU wars before........ when Nvidia have the 7800GTX ATI replied it with an X1800's and later the powerful X1950XTX......... that was the last glory days of the old ATI........
This will be directed at Enzo:

How can you say the hardware is crap when it's 1900*1200 and with everything turned on, not to mention "very high settings". ATi won't come close to it with 3 cards, I'm sure.

I haven't seen 3870 CrossFire beating GeForce 8800Ultra, but I have seen it beating (albeit marginally) 8800GT in SLi. 
In any case, that'd be TWO cards vs. one, and if you got three 8800Ultras then you theoretically would need 6 3870 cards.

I sincerely doubt you have anything to back your claims up with. GeForce 8800Ultra is the undisputed champion of cards as of now.

If I'm wrong please show me some place that can confirm what you are letting out.
You posted the link to Fudzilla for the Thinkcomputer review. I believe it should be this instead: http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index.php?x=reviews&id=691

Cheers.
' Tri-SLI 8880 Ultra system. Errr... that’d be Crysis @ 1920x1200, with AA/AF on, very high settings, running at over 47fps '

so, 3 of the best cards on the planet can't even hit 60fps in this resolution?

wtf.
Right here:

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_ALX_SLI/area-51_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-AREA51-ALX-R6&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
You've got the Thinkcomputers link wrong as it directs to the Fudo and the Fud Squad HD3850 review... Should have been http://www.thinkcomputers.org/index.php?x=reviews&id=691
anyways thanks for the artical always nice to keep up to date..
How can you compare a tri sli GTX or ULTRA (coz only that cards suport tri SLI) with a quad setup of 3870? If an 3870 CF (400 euros) easily beats an 8800 ULTRA (600 euros), I wonder... an quad CF 3870 (800 euros) with how much fps will beat tri SLI 8800Ultra (1800 euros) or... if it's a tie... how can you justify the 60 percent of price advantage of ATI? SLI is with 1.5 years ahead of ATI...and still an CF beats SLI.nvidia made a mistake... they were focused on video cards...and neglected mainboards.It will come over them. the wheel spins...and ... it won;t be pretty for nvidia if they don;'t come with a good mainboard.