[geeks] pci express x8 video card?

[Francois Dion]

On 2/14/07, Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com> wrote:
> Tue, 13 Feb 2007 @ 16:34 -0500, Francois Dion said:
>
> > Looking for an nvidia video card that is pci express x8, if there is
> > such a thing? All I see is x1 or x16. Anything x4 or x8?
>
> Yes, however, they are incredibly rare.
>
> They also cost more than x1 or x16 cards.

Still, it might be worth it for me, do you have any links?

> If you don't think an x1 card is fast enough, then get a 16x card,
> and buy something called the "Orbit Micro Converter".
>
> http://store.orbitmicro.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=21199

Yes, that's the product I mentionned earlier in the thread, but it
would not be usable in my case (1U server).

I just noticed yesterday that Sun finally released on january 24 their
visualization software:

http://www.sun.com/servers/visualization/specs.xml

Shared visualization software seems to work on a lot of different
platform, but what I found interesting is this, under the Sun Scalable
Visualization section:

 Supported Platforms  	 Sun Fire x4600 M2, Sun Fire x2200 M2, and Sun
Ultra 40 M2 with NVIDIA Quadro FX or NVIDIA Quadro Plex VCS

Now I'm not sure what is different between an ultra 20 and 40 that
would not be compatible, but, anyway, it also list an x2200 M2. The
x2200 is a 1u server similar to what I want to use, in that it is 1u,
amd 64 bit and has a pci x8. What kind of Quadro FX can be put in an
X2200 M2? It sure is not listed on their web site and you cant order
one with it. Plus, the X2200 has 2 pci express x8 slots, and from the
documentation are not open ended, so you could only put a x1 quadro
fx. All the quadro fx and vcs that sun sells are x16...

Whichever card it is, it has to work with the Nvidia Solaris driver.

So I wonder, how did Sun get around the issue of the pci express slot.
And what about that 25w limit on the pci express bus, I wonder if a
quadro fx doesn't draw more than that.

Francois