Sapphire's stnd was brimming with cool toys at Computex. They had the usual high-end GPUs, but the best thing was a quad 1080p monitor all driven from one PC.
More pixels than my camera
The monitor is a 3840X2160 56-inch panel driven by two FireGL cards. It needs four dual link DVI inputs to put up a picture, and software on top of that to make it all seamless. It was seamless, and the picture quality was droolworthy. If you need something to display the pictures from your 8MP camera without zooming or scrolling, or just have US$50K or so burning a hole in your pocket, Sapphire has the box for you.
I normally don't gush about monitors, but this one was by far the most impressive display at the show. US$50K may seem like a lot, but next year it will be US$25K, then 10, 5, 2... I won't bring up running Supreme Commander on this, but rest assured, it brings a tear to my eye thinking about it.
Twin 3D monitors
The next surprise comes out of Sapphire's FireGL business. They are the exclusive distributors for FireGL parts in the APAC region sans Japan. Out of this came seamless multi-monitor 3D drivers aka the Zalman Trimon, but these span multiple displays.
What is a 3D driver and GPU without a 3D monitor? Well, luckily Sapphire is making those as well, 22inch 1650x1050 versions in fact. They will cost under US$700 when they are released in a few months, and will have all the goodies that go along with it. CoD4 across two screens in real 3D is quite cute.
The last product falls into the 'too late' category, a water-cooled 3870. They have a Coolermaster water block on them, and the rest of the plumbing is included as well. They are also sold out.
If you want more things like this, and extra dongles, the place to go is the Sapphire Atomic web site. They are going to be launching an expanded store soon, and not just for high-end toys, but little things as well. Lost the HDMI dongle for your 3870? Need that cable that doesn't seem to be in any store? Thankfully, Sapphire realised that people do need this stuff and is trying to make it easier to find. Who can argue with that? Not us.
Source: theinquirer.net (c) 2010 Incisive Media
