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Scalable Link Interface
Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is the brand name for a now discontinued multi-GPU technology developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output. The technology was invented and developed by 3dfx and later purchased by Nvidia during the acquisition of the company. SLI is a parallel processing algorithm for computer graphics, meant to increase the available processing power.
The initialism SLI was first used by 3dfx for Scan-Line Interleave, which was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. Nvidia acquired the technology when it bought out 3dfx, but never used it. Nvidia later reintroduced the SLI name in 2004 and intended for it to be used in modern computer systems based on the PCI Express (PCIe) bus; however, the technology behind the name SLI has changed dramatically.
SLI allows two, three, or four graphics processing units (GPUs) to share the workload when rendering real-time 3D computer graphics. Ideally, identical GPUs are installed on the motherboard that contains enough PCI Express slots, set up in a master–slave configuration. All graphics cards are given an equal workload to render, but the final output of each card is sent to the master card via a connector called the SLI bridge. For example, in a two graphics card setup, the master works on the top half of the scene, the slave the bottom half. Once the slave is done, it sends its render to the master to combine into one image before sending it to the monitor.
The SLI bridge is used to reduce bandwidth constraints and send data between both graphics cards directly. It is possible to run SLI without using the bridge connector on a pair of low-end to mid-range graphics cards (e.g., 7100GS or 6600GT) with Nvidia's Forceware drivers 80.XX or later. Since these graphics cards do not use as much bandwidth, data can be relayed through just the chipsets on the motherboard. However, if there are two high-end graphics cards installed and the SLI bridge is omitted, the performance will suffer severely, as the chipset does not have enough bandwidth.
Configurations include:
Nvidia has created a set of custom video game profiles in cooperation with video game publishers that will automatically enable SLI in the mode that gives the largest performance boost.
Nvidia has three types of SLI bridges:
The standard bridge is traditionally included with motherboards that support SLI and is recommended for monitors up to 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 at 60 Hz. The LED bridge is sold by Nvidia, EVGA, and others and is recommended for monitors up to 2560×1440 at 120 Hz and above and 4K. The LED bridges can only function at the increased pixel clock if the GPU supports that clock. The high-bandwidth bridge is only sold by Nvidia and is recommended for monitors up to 5K and surround.
Scalable Link Interface
Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is the brand name for a now discontinued multi-GPU technology developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output. The technology was invented and developed by 3dfx and later purchased by Nvidia during the acquisition of the company. SLI is a parallel processing algorithm for computer graphics, meant to increase the available processing power.
The initialism SLI was first used by 3dfx for Scan-Line Interleave, which was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. Nvidia acquired the technology when it bought out 3dfx, but never used it. Nvidia later reintroduced the SLI name in 2004 and intended for it to be used in modern computer systems based on the PCI Express (PCIe) bus; however, the technology behind the name SLI has changed dramatically.
SLI allows two, three, or four graphics processing units (GPUs) to share the workload when rendering real-time 3D computer graphics. Ideally, identical GPUs are installed on the motherboard that contains enough PCI Express slots, set up in a master–slave configuration. All graphics cards are given an equal workload to render, but the final output of each card is sent to the master card via a connector called the SLI bridge. For example, in a two graphics card setup, the master works on the top half of the scene, the slave the bottom half. Once the slave is done, it sends its render to the master to combine into one image before sending it to the monitor.
The SLI bridge is used to reduce bandwidth constraints and send data between both graphics cards directly. It is possible to run SLI without using the bridge connector on a pair of low-end to mid-range graphics cards (e.g., 7100GS or 6600GT) with Nvidia's Forceware drivers 80.XX or later. Since these graphics cards do not use as much bandwidth, data can be relayed through just the chipsets on the motherboard. However, if there are two high-end graphics cards installed and the SLI bridge is omitted, the performance will suffer severely, as the chipset does not have enough bandwidth.
Configurations include:
Nvidia has created a set of custom video game profiles in cooperation with video game publishers that will automatically enable SLI in the mode that gives the largest performance boost.
Nvidia has three types of SLI bridges:
The standard bridge is traditionally included with motherboards that support SLI and is recommended for monitors up to 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 at 60 Hz. The LED bridge is sold by Nvidia, EVGA, and others and is recommended for monitors up to 2560×1440 at 120 Hz and above and 4K. The LED bridges can only function at the increased pixel clock if the GPU supports that clock. The high-bandwidth bridge is only sold by Nvidia and is recommended for monitors up to 5K and surround.