Thread: What is meant by Nvidia SLI and ATI CrossFire ?

Nvidia SLI and ATI CrossFire is basically a solution for using multiple graphics card on a single PC with a single motherboard .

Nvidia Scalable Link Interface

Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards(Nvidia cards) together to produce a single output. SLI is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics.
-Courtesy Wikipedia

ATI CrossFire

It is a similar technology used to connect multiple ATI Graphic cards and produce a single output .Rivaling the SLI Technology .

For such a set up using SLI you need

-->An Sli enabled Motherboard (Preferably from Nvidia)
-->2 Similar Nvidia Graphic cards
-->SLI bridges

The SLI Bridge essentially serves as a connection between the 2 cards .

The 2 Cards are in a master slave relationship . That is if a 3d scene is given to the 2 cards to render .
One card (Master) renders the upper scene . while the slave card renders the lower scene and passes this to the master card through the SLI Bridge .The master card then connects the 2 halfs and renders it finally to the monitor .

NOTE : Note : It is Better to buy a new single card than sli 2 cards imo..... Contrary to popular belief 2 sli ed cards give you a performance boost of any where from 60% to 90% depending on your card** not a 100% boost as it should be .So Even though you pay twice the price for the 2 cards you dont get twice the performance!

**According to Nvidia's statement

Most Recent Technology

NVIDIA 's Quad SLI

As the name suggests 4 Nvidia Graphic cards can be connected together to produce a single output

ATI's CrossFire X

A Similar technology allowing 4 ATI Graphic cards to be connected together to produce single output .

The setup, according to internal testing by AMD, will bring at least 3.2x performance increase in several games and applications which required massive graphics capabilities of the computer system, the setup is targeted to the enthusiast market
-Courtesy Wikipedia

Well you will also need a good power supply with atleast 50 amps if you are using mid range cards. Not to mention air to circulate around. If you see want to see a scaling difference on crossfire/sli upi definatly got to have screen of a great resolution than 1650x 1050.

Yes SLI does produce a lot of heat and needs an extra fan or some kind of non-passive cooling solution

r u sure 50 AMP ??

Quad sli...... can u giv the link to a board that was 4 pcie slots (for NV)...
as far as i have seen, they have tri sli till now and the only ones that can do a QUAD sli are their dual gpu solutions (eg 9800GX2 X 2 = quad sli)

Originally Posted by rajan1311

Quad sli...... can u giv the link to a board that was 4 pcie slots (for NV)...
as far as i have seen, they have tri sli till now and the only ones that can do a QUAD sli are their dual gpu solutions (eg 9800GX2 X 2 = quad sli)

You are correct ...... But where did i say that you have boards with 4 slots :confused1: ?

2 9800GX2 are considered as 4 GPUs or Graphic cards . theres a Damn good reason they named it Quad SLI and not something else

Show me where i said that you have an Nvidia Mo bo with 4 pci-e slots ?
This you assumed yourself .....

It seems you have gotten it into your head that i know nothing and you know everything .....

Pity

Originally Posted by rajan1311

r u sure 50 AMP ??

Basically for a 2 card SLI anything above 50 is good ..... But that ofcourse will purely depend on the card being used and other components present

Originally Posted by The Sorcerer

Well you will also need a good power supply with atleast 50 amps if you are using mid range cards. Not to mention air to circulate around. If you see want to see a scaling difference on crossfire/sli upi definatly got to have screen of a great resolution than 1650x 1050.

Originally Posted by rajan1311

r u sure 50 AMP ??

He said atleast 50amps

This will also help for choosing a psu
PSU calculator .....

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/p...ulatorlite.jsp

omg.... i was worried that is i stick my hand in the wrong place, 50AMPs would instantly kill me !! but anyways thx for the info.

abt the 4 slots thing... i was just askin if they were out...... they were suppose to be out by now....

and thx 4 the hybrid SLI....
which all board support it .. can u send link plz...

buddy 50 AMPs is enough to fry anything in the comp.
How did u calculate 50 AMPs plz explain i m totally confused.
the calculator u gives me the wattage of the PSU....

Originally Posted by rajan1311

buddy 50 AMPs is enough to fry anything in the comp.

These days processors themselves use more than 50 A current..

Processor Electrical Specifications

wow did not know that!
thx for the info .

Well the i7 processors have a TDP of 130w- literally double the ones he was now. Though its pretty sad that is defeats the high end core 2 extreme by a small margin on stock, it shows that ones needs to invest a equally good power supply. Sliing cards like 8600gt is plain silly. You rather buy 1 single card. Besides the common screens that we get in cheap rates are TN panels. I have seen my friend's pc running a palit 4870 1GB dual sonic being run on an s-ips panel based dell 3008wfp and the colour was FANTASTIC. One has to have equally worthy cards to sli/crossfire, screen and resolution, power supply and good enough case to keep it working properly without any hassles.

Originally Posted by rajan1311

omg.... i was worried that is i stick my hand in the wrong place, 50AMPs would instantly kill me !! but anyways thx for the info.

abt the 4 slots thing... i was just askin if they were out...... they were suppose to be out by now....

and thx 4 the hybrid SLI....
which all board support it .. can u send link plz...

buddy 50 AMPs is enough to fry anything in the comp.
How did u calculate 50 AMPs plz explain i m totally confused.
the calculator u gives me the wattage of the PSU....

Wattage=Amperage*Voltage

where volatage [12v ,3v , 5v etc]