# SLI. Is nVIDIA digging its own grave?



## anidex (Sep 5, 2004)

First off, this will be a technical discussion. Please refrain from fanboyism  in this thread (nVIDIOTs and fanATIcs please stay away ).

Now that we've got this over with... let's talk about nVIDIA's SLI (scalable link interface). For those of you who don't know, SLI is a technology that allows the use of 2 (or more) PCI-E graphics cards on a single motherboard, that will theoritically double the performance.

Now I feel that nVIDIA's is doing a big mistake. 2 graphics cards not only mean a lot more heat and noise, but twice the power. That means tha one would need atleast a 600 Watt PSU to run this technology. Apart from that, a compliant motherboard (costing no less than $300) and perhaps a new processor would be required.

Also, there will be marketting issues. Say nVIDIA releases its NV50 about an year from now. We would need to consider 4 cases :-

1. The NV50 (say priced at $550) is faster than 2 GeForce 6800 (say by then they would cost $300 each) cards together and is cheaper than 2 of those as well. Then who would buy 2 GeForce 6800s?

2. The NV50 is more expensive than 2 GeForce 6800 cards, but since it has a better feature set and would naturally consume lesser power than 2 cards, who would go in for SLI?

3. Two GeForce 6800 cards with the SLI tech cost lesser than one NV50 and perform better. Then who would buy the NV50?

4. Two GeForce 6800 cards cost more than the NV50 but would perform much better than one NV50. People requiring performance only would naturally settle for the SLI tech. So, who would buy the NV50?

So, in the end if gamers don't need it, developers won't develop for it.

Because of these reasons, I feel nVIDIA's SLI will flop. What are your thoughts?


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## blade_runner (Sep 5, 2004)

Hmm.......Looks like ur statrement no2 and 3 are contradicting. According to me Nvidia will be targeting SLI towards the absolute enthusiasts (read very very rich ppl) who can throw arnd money to gain absolute performance. Rather than taking 2 6800's and comparing it with a single NV50, look at it this way. Take two NV50's and get the best performance. Ofcourse the power requirement will definitely be high. About being noisy only time will tell  

The most important thing to keep in mind when thinking about SLI is that it will be targeted towards the hi-end segment where money is no  bar and show off is a must. So with SLI we are talking abt a niche segment.


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## anidex (Sep 5, 2004)

Good argument  But statements 2 and 3 don't contradict each other, they show 2 possible senarios.

Yet, the absolute enthuasists form less than one percent of the total gaming community. Game developers obviously won't support them. Plus, nVIDIA's throwing huge amounts of money at 1% of the market segment. That seems a little silly to me.


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## blade_runner (Sep 5, 2004)

Hmm.......those looked like contradictions to me since there is a chance that either one of it will work. But to each his own ............However this is an interesting topic and i'd like other members to post in their views here ..........

Calling all members, gamerz, enthusiasts !


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## DKant (Sep 5, 2004)

Uhh..I dunno. Don't u think most new technology is targeted at the niche segment? Like not everybody is buying the X800's or the 6800's right? As regards procy's..not everybody is buying the absolute high-end Intel or AMD procy's.

Noise (which could be a problem even with an ordinary GPU), power (the primary negative) and cost trade offs between 2 parallel low-end() GPU's or one absolutely high-end GPU are the only minuses...not the overall cost per se.


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## theraven (Sep 5, 2004)

very well pus dkant
technology doesnt have to make sense ..
doesnt have to be logical either
they are just tryin to push their limits to come up with better performance
and price is not the factor
infactg this is how the prices of ... well lemme put it this way ... "LOWER TECHNOLOGY" falls ... and becomes affordable !!!


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## nikhilesh (Sep 5, 2004)

2 6800's might not,but two 6800 ULTRA's will!and there is nothng wrong at having a go with diff technologies and stuff.


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## crusader77 (Sep 5, 2004)

I agree with pt. 3 and 4,and considering the money they are spending to target a very small audience doesn't make much sense.Also I read somewhere, that if 2 cards of 128 mb are connected, only 128 mb of it will be accessible at a time I think?.. what is the reason for this exactly dex?


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## indro (Sep 5, 2004)

the strategy that NVIDIA started is pretty simple, to get the performance crown and nothing else .They were preety confident about their 6800 series of gpu's .They have a clear win over their rival.And to get absolute difference in performance over their rivals they introduced the SLI which is just a remake of the older VODOO cards.The points that you put forward are indeed very interesting but keep in mind that when a big player like Nvidia launches a card , they already have a prototype of future cards and they know what they are planing for.If this could come to your mind , belive me there are a lot of intelligent people out there in nvidia who get payed just to plan their marketing strategies.Also note that in the lower segments over 80% of the price/performance  consious people buy nvidia, so nvidia dont have to worry much about this segment.

P.S - i am both a nvidia and Ati and matrox and SiS card lover ,


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## nikhilesh (Sep 6, 2004)

very good post indro!


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## blade_runner (Sep 6, 2004)

Hmm......retaining the graphics crown cud be one objective of SLI technology. However how abt dual core technology, Nvidia or ATi can start something on that front. Each core rendering a specific thing or some part of the game. That cud be one attractive alternative. Also any one remember Voodoo 5 cards .......they had 4 GPU's on the card ......


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## gxsaurav (Sep 6, 2004)

SLI is just a marketing Hype, it's won't make waves in market due to it's high cost, high noise & heat issue, only a few enthusiast will buy it, but as with other high end product of NVIDIA & ATI, this will add a lot to the reputation of NVIDIA

Remembar, High end card only cointribute a little to the market share, it's the mid range which rocks the market, 2 6600GT in SLI can beat 1.5 6800GT easily


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## DKant (Sep 6, 2004)

What does *1.5 6800GT* mean?  U mean the performance equivalent I guess, but we're talking abt cards that we're going to install right  Not theoretical shootouts.


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## rakesh_1024 (Sep 6, 2004)

Are the two cards going to share the same bandwidth?
One of the effective ways to utilize the BW of PCI-Extreme


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## theraven (Sep 7, 2004)

Extreme ???
wasnt that Express ??


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## Nemesis (Sep 7, 2004)

i dont think nvidia is digging its own grave here, rathere they r putting their investment 2 good use-they bought 3dfx, remember.....
SLI is not at all 4 common ppl like u & i. it is 4 those who can throw that kind of monet around. have a look at the alienware alx series of gaming PCs-they cost $5000 and up. u could argue that they r digging their own grave but it is not so. they know that some ppl will buy these systems. similarly, ppl will go in 4 SLI. and maybe nvidia might provide more viable options in the future. but i definitely like the idea of more than 1 core on a card


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## blade_runner (Sep 7, 2004)

Yup for the mainstream having two 6600GT's running in SLI mode cud be a attractive option !! 

Btw nemesis have you signed up @ Tech-Arena ?


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## anidex (Sep 7, 2004)

I agree with gxsaurav on the first set of terms. Even if the enthusiasts buy the tech, it will soon begin gathering dust along with the other 100 exotic pieces of hardware they own.

I really don't think that spending $$$ bucks on technology that's iffy is a good idea. Oh well, it's nVIDIA's money, not mine...


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## rakesh_1024 (Sep 7, 2004)

> Extreme ???
> wasnt that Express ??



Yes its PCI Express.
But I like to call it  as Extreme and even get carried away sometimes


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## Nemesis (Sep 8, 2004)

no blade, i havent signed up at tech arena....


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## blade_runner (Sep 8, 2004)

Nemesis said:
			
		

> no blade, i havent signed up at tech arena....



Ok cuz there's a Nemesis over there too......


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## gaurav_018 (Sep 8, 2004)

consider this 


now i've noticed that the pci-express is very expensive on a mobo.so i assume a mobo with two will even more expensive. so many manufacturers won't have two on a simgle mobo. but since nvida also makes mobos and graphically thay perform really really good. they can slowly start standising their mobos with two pic-express slots. after that they only need to buy via processor tech or develop their own and 

we'll have (NVIDA INSIDE).


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## anidex (Sep 8, 2004)

Consider this lol :-

A cool nVIDIA nForce motherboard with 2 PCI-E slots running 2 NV50s at fp-16 and all nVIDIA optimizations getting half the fps as a rusty old motherboard with one AGP slot running the R520 at fp-32     ! I'd love to see the look on Jen-Hsun Huang's face !


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## blade_runner (Sep 9, 2004)

Ahem.......Anidex no fanboyism plz......lets get back on track ! 

Here's an article frm the inquirer 

*theinquirer.net/?article=18324


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## anidex (Sep 9, 2004)

Sorry, I couldn't help myself !


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## Naga (Sep 9, 2004)

I'm a bit late, but didn't Alienware come up with this SLI? As far as I know, Alienware PCs developed this tech and they already ship models with this tech. Coming back to the topic, If I had the moolah, I would go for it...."If".In theory, SLI will give me more bang than regular advances in graphic tech can.


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## blade_runner (Sep 9, 2004)

Nah.....3dfx was the one who pioneered it......was going to b incorporated into the Voodoo cards , but then Nvidia took over 3Dfx. I have posted a pic of the Voodoo 5 in SLI mode @ TA i think. Btw dude u seem busy these days.....whats up ?


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## allajunaki (Sep 12, 2004)

Well all fine except for the fact that SLI will be present in NV50's?
Now 2 NV50's will be definatley faster than 2 6800's so People who are in need of ultimate performance will opt for Dual NV50 Solution...!

SLI is a new feature from nvidia... So basically they will try include in their new Chipsets too...

Now consider this scenario, U bought the insanley powerful 6800 and tomorrow doom4 (or some new game) makes sure that ur card can only pump out 15fps, Now what do you do if aint got the cash for shiny new NV50?, u goto shop and buy another 6800, plug in and SLI them and presto... 15->25... Now u can play doom4 without much of compromise.... Cheap solution to a Expensive problem....

Also its intresting to note that ATI was the first come with concept of Parrellel processing using mutiple GPU's... Radeons can can do this in some of the high end workstation cards ( If im not mistaken..)


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## funkymonkey (Nov 14, 2004)

hum guys....... Look.
SLI is IMHO a good technology.
A person get a 6800GT PCI-e today on sli motherboard.
He can use this for a year and get 1 more 6800GT after 1 year. At that time 6800GT PCI-e will be a lot cheaper than now and he will have a very good system which will be goodenought o play intensive games of that times without spending too much money on current top gen card.
People buying new pc will buy the newer single card and be happy.
Enthusiast will always love more.



			
				blade_runner said:
			
		

> Yup for the mainstream having two 6600GT's running in SLI mode cud be a attractive option !!
> 
> Btw nemesis have you signed up @ Tech-Arena ?





			
				gxsaurav said:
			
		

> SLI is just a marketing Hype, it's won't make waves in market due to it's high cost, high noise & heat issue, only a few enthusiast will buy it, but as with other high end product of NVIDIA & ATI, this will add a lot to the reputation of NVIDIA
> 
> Remembar, High end card only cointribute a little to the market share, it's the mid range which rocks the market, 2 6600GT in SLI can beat 1.5 6800GT easily



Who told you 2 6600Gts in SLI mode is a good options? Its really not. Cost of 2 6600Gts is more than 1 6800GT. And 6600gt SLI does not perform as good as single 6800GT. Single 6800Gt will, oh no wait it is beating 2 6600Gts


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