Intel i7 is a brilliant processor, but when we were creating Firebird we had to make a choice between processing power, and overall platform performance. We wanted to create the worlds first "PC Hybrid" - and thus we chose to work with Nvidia with their Hybrid SLI technology.
Hybrid SLI allows us to install 3 GPU's in the machine. The power is scalable, it uses as little as 107 watts and maximum of 233 watts under full load. There is no way we could have pulled it off without the Hybrid technology, and we worked very closely with them to deliver this system.
That said, Nvidia Hybrid SLI does NOT currently work with Intel's i7. So there's the answer. There is no doubt that our choices in hardware make for the best possible configuration for Firebird - and when you factor in the performance enhancements through Nvidia's Visual Computing it really doesn't matter anymore.
9 blogger comments:
Well, I can see your argument for this specific platform, but I think there's a larger question of why HP hasn't released a Core i7 based machine in any product line.
I think the idea of the Firebird is brilliant. I was wondering how Voodoo were going to adapt to the economic downturn. Especially considering how luxury firms in other markets such as Aston Martin have suffered from drastically reduced sales. I believe you will have captured the market perfectly.
My only queries are why have the Omen and Blackbird been withdrawn. While i'm sure they will have seen reduced sales surely removing them once large amounts of money have been spent on product development would surely simply cost you even more money, especially when surely some people would purchase such systems even with the downturn.
Regarding Core i7 do you know if Nvidia has plans to include support for core i7 and if so then when they do will the Firebird be updated to include i7?
Finally I'm considering purchasing a Firebird in the future and was wondering what desktop graphics card that is approximately equal in performance to the 9800s?
Kind Regards
Patrick
I'm also very impressed by the Firebird and thinking very seriously about buing one.
Re: the GPUs -- I would love to know whether there is any possibility of upgrading them in the future (e.g., if Nvidia were to someday produce new "S" form factors cards) -- I start with the assumption that the answer must be "No, you can't upgrade on an MXM platform" but I would love to be proven wrong.
Like the previous poster I'm also curious to learn more about what desktop card the 9800S most closely resembles.
Daring choices made with the Firebird. To go low power, low(er) profile, and use last gen. platform and then charge a fair price is surprising and refreshing. I applaud HP for this. The leap from the Blackbird to Firebird (idea wise) is awesome.
Would love to play with it in person. Is it going to be displayed at any major retailers (maybe a Microcenter)?
Hi, Midlife Crysis. I've done a bit of research into the 9800gs and compared the specs of it with various other cards on Nvidia's website!
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800s_us.html
The nearest comparable card is the geforce 9600gt. The only obvious difference being the 9600gt has a 50mhz core clock advantage, a 125mhz shadar clock advantage and a 100mhz memory clock advantage.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9600gt_us.html
Therefore it would be sensible to assume that when overclocked (providing there were no heat issues) 9600gt sli performance could be reached with two 9800s cards although at default settings the 9600gt will out perform the 9800s.
This slightly irritates me as Rahul said
'they perform every bit as good as their desktop counterparts.'
The 9800s name would lead one to assume the 'desktop counterpart' was the 9800gt not the 9600gt. I suppose this is just the infamous Nvidia naming game!
Despite this 9600gt's in sli will run almost all games maxed at 1920x1200 and I still love the concept of the Firebird.
Hope this helps!
A single 9600GT would certainly be comparable to a single 9800S in most applications ...
Where it gets interesting is in the overall power consumption and efficiency - but when the clock speeds are the same the 9800S seems to perform better in our platform This could be due to the cooling, the efficiency of the system, the shorter interconnects, etc. We're also using way less power (total machine power at full consumption is around 233 watts!)
The bottom line is a pair of 9600GT's in SLI will deliver more than enough performance for 99% of the market - and believe it or not the desktop counterpart to the 9800s WOULD be the 9600GT, don't let the model numbers bug you ;)
Now by the way, Nvidia tried their latest silicon on the machine and it works great... We're still waiting to see how our launch goes.
Yeah good point. I wasn't saying that the equivalent to 9600gt sli was not enough power. As you said, 99% of people/ games do not need more power than that!
Those are really impressive consumption figures for an Sli setup!
Hopefully systems like this and the ideology behind them will help slow the release of games that require stupid amounts of processing power such as Crysis. I'd love to see more games like Team Fortress 2, and Portal that manage to look great, but run on everything from the integrated graphics on my old laptop to a gtx280 sli setup. ;)
Thank you very much Patrick and Rahul for the additional information. It's extremely helpful.
I'm slightly disappointed that Crysis would seemingly have to be scaled a fair amount on a Firebird but I also recognize what an outlier that game is. It definitely seems that the Firebird, as advertised, will have plenty of power to handle just about any other game that's out now or on the immediate horizon.
I'm still a little anxious about MXM expandabiity but I'm looking forward to reviews and thinking seriously about "graduating" from consoles and making a Firebird my first gaming PC.
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