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What is NVIDIA SLI technology? How does it work? |
NVIDIA® SLI™ technology is a revolutionary platform innovation that allows you to intelligently scale graphics performance by combining multiple NVIDIA graphics solutions in a single system with an NVIDIA nForce® SLI media and communications processor (MCP).
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| Do you have dedicated hardware for NVIDIA SLI technology or is it just software? |
Yes. NVIDIA GPUs combined with an NVIDIA nForce® SLI motherboard (which ships with the proprietary NVIDIA SLI connector) are the necessary building blocks for the SLI platform. Dedicated scalability logic in each GPU and a digital interface between GPUs (the SLI connector) enable this logic. In addition, a full software suite of advanced rendering algorithms provide the best image quality. |
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| How much of a performance increase will I see with SLI technology? |
The amount of performance improvement will depend on the application and its ability to scale. Several of today's hottest games see a full 2x increase in performance when using SLI technology with two graphics cards. In general, applications running at higher resolutions with higher image quality settings will benefit most. |
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| Does SLI technology work on AGP? |
| No. SLI technology is designed for PCI Express. |
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| How does SLI technology work on PCI Express? |
SLI technology is designed for PCI Express. This new bus has superior bandwidth (two to four times AGP 8X), support for isochronous data transport, and the capability to drive multiple high-speed graphics devices. AGP 8X is limited to one high-speed graphics device and was not a good candidate for SLI technology. |
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| What is the function of the SLI connector? |
The SLI connector is a proprietary link between GPUs that transmits synchronization, display, and pixel data. The SLI connector enables inter-GPU communication of up to 1GB/s, consuming no bandwidth over the PCI Express bus. The SLI connector is not used with some mainstream graphics cards. These graphics cards pass inter-GPU data through the PCI-Express bus, instead of through the SLI connector. For these mainstream GPUs, there is enough excess bandwidth across the PCI Express bus to effectively manage this additional communication. More powerful GPUs require the SLI connector to achieve optimal scaling results. |
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