THREE LUMINARIES from ATI, Nvidia and Intel will today underline the benefits they believe PCI Express will bestow on graphics performance.Jeffrey Cheng from ATI, Michael Abel from INTC and David Reed from Nvidia all agree that the faster bus will give better bandwidth and scalability, allow large request size and pipeline depths, and give isochronous support. The bandwidth will deliver simultaneous 8GB/s concurrent peak bandwidth in X16 mode. PCI Express will also provide a pipeline depth of up to 256.
Graphics cards using PCI Express tech will, however, require 75 watts max, and that means a few things. First, the 12 volts on an ATX power supply won"t do the trick. The answer will be to use a 2x12 connector with the same pinouts as server SSIs, which requires a 300W power supply. The other problem is that machines will need to use side panel vents, ducting, and use large fans.