Could someone explain SLI to me?
- Thread starter jmacavali
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You're right, any card with two 'outs' can do that, but thats not the primary feature of SLI. Infact technically its quite the opposite - to utilize 2 cards into a single output.
You'd have two cards, thats twice as much punch!
The short answer is it increases your Graphics processing power & is nothing to do with dual display (not primarily anyway).
Nvidia use SLI, ATI use crossfire ... its only a name but the concept is the same.
Its a huge topic with many opinions and views, whats best, is it worth it, yada yada yada. Do a google search on SLI versus crossfire, by the time you've read over all the arguments you'll be well up to speed on utilizing two cards.
You'd have two cards, thats twice as much punch!
The short answer is it increases your Graphics processing power & is nothing to do with dual display (not primarily anyway).
Nvidia use SLI, ATI use crossfire ... its only a name but the concept is the same.
Its a huge topic with many opinions and views, whats best, is it worth it, yada yada yada. Do a google search on SLI versus crossfire, by the time you've read over all the arguments you'll be well up to speed on utilizing two cards.
Whyfly??
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Basically right, if you add what Whyfly mentioned.
The increase in performance from adding additional cards isn't a 100% increase per card. The more card you add, the less you get out of each.
sniperviper21
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â™ whyfly was right..
he said
"you don't just multiply by two"
he said
"you don't just multiply by two"
Atomic Rooster
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wol-va-rine
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in addition to not multiplying the performance by two, some cards just don't scale well in SLI while others do scale well, different models don't all scale the same amount when SLIed...
OP
OP
jmacavali
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So it uses the 2 cards to 'multiply' the graphic processing power. But it really only helps when you have the 'best' cards on the market. But since most likely a new card comes out regularly, it's really not the best practice right?
I guess I understand now. Thanks for the help.
I guess I understand now. Thanks for the help.
It's not exactly like what has been said before. SLI stands for scalable link interface. It can be used in two modes. SFR and AFR.
SFR: One card only renders a half of the screen.
AFR: One card works on the current frame and the second will work on the upcoming one.
It should be used when you get a card i.e. GTX 280. Soon after the 295 comes out. You can't exactly afford to purchase the card at it's hefty price. So you purchase another GTX 280 at a lower price to compete with the 295. It doesn't exactly "multiply." The way the game is coded takes a huge toll on performance. Many of the newer games can utilize multi-GPU setups. You can get anywhere from a 0%-100% increase in performance depending solely on the card and the engines utilization of multi card setups.
SFR: One card only renders a half of the screen.
AFR: One card works on the current frame and the second will work on the upcoming one.
It should be used when you get a card i.e. GTX 280. Soon after the 295 comes out. You can't exactly afford to purchase the card at it's hefty price. So you purchase another GTX 280 at a lower price to compete with the 295. It doesn't exactly "multiply." The way the game is coded takes a huge toll on performance. Many of the newer games can utilize multi-GPU setups. You can get anywhere from a 0%-100% increase in performance depending solely on the card and the engines utilization of multi card setups.
