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GeCube Gemini 2 (Dual Radeon X1650 XT)

By Vincent Chang - 18 May 2007

Conclusion

Conclusion

There's a simple reason why despite all the media attention about dual graphics cards, their eventual sales figures are usually not significant. Enthusiasts may go on and on about the performance they managed to achieve by having a pair of overclocked graphics cards running in SLI or CrossFire, but the majority of consumers are content with just one. With the heat, noise and power increasingly becoming important concerns as the transistor count of GPUs soar, the attractiveness of dual-GPUs takes a turn for the worst. More so because single GPU variants are plenty fast for the vast majority of users, leaving only a small group pursuing the dual graphics route.

Cost and noise will probably be the downfall of this unique card. GeCube has tried too hard to squeeze everything into a single-slot solution, compromising the noise quotient as a result.


The GeCube Gemini 2 puts two GPUs on a single graphics card, taking away worries that dual GPUs will crowd the enclosure or take up valuable expansion slot space. This is enhanced further by the decision to use a full copper, single-slot heatsink. We must say that we were expecting a larger cooler but the mainstream nature of the Radeon X1650 XT chipset probably made this manageable heatsink size possible. However, the drawback is the noisy fan on the cooler, which makes a din that immediately overwhelms your other system or CPU fans. This is not a cooler that we can live with, even with a solid enclosure with noise dampening panels. Temperatures on the other hand were quite decent, so at least GeCube got half of that equitation right.

Performance too could be another bugbear but this varies depending on the games and applications. Most of the problems could probably be attributed to ATI's CrossFire compatibility and those games that have issues with it will naturally have lower performance on the Gemini 2. Even at its best, do not expect to get twice the performance of a single Radeon X1650 XT in real games, though it does beat higher end graphics cards in some benchmarks like Quake 4 that scales well with dual GPUs. In short, if you want consistent performance, you would be better off purchasing a single GPU graphics card based on a more powerful chipset rather than opt for the Gemini 2. You may get the occasional high score with this unique card but the lows come more often unfortunately. Then there is also the expected higher power draw, noise and heat that results from having two GPUs in close proximity.

Of course, whether one can get the GeCube Gemini 2 in retail is another question. With previous attempts at such cards failing to make any mark in retail, it is debatable if the GeCube can succeed. One major sticking point is likely to be related to its price, since the cost of development is bound to be higher than the typical graphics card. While we don't have the exact retail price yet, a price we have seen bandied online puts it at around US$300, which would make it quite the expensive novelty.

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