It’s true: Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 officially supports only 2-way SLI setups - tilleysamium

The rumors were true: Starting with the GeForce GTX 1080, Nvidia is discontinuing official support for 3-way and 4-style multi-GPU SLI setups, rolling out rigid other high-bandwidth bridges that limit SLI configurations to just two graphics cards.

Well, kind of. It's complicated.

The new SLI HB connectors (shown above, which work only with Nvidia's raw Pascal GPU-based graphics cards) fill both SLI connectors on a GeForce graphics poster in govern to transfer data 'tween them at 650MHz, compared to the 400MHz that traditional SLI bridges run at. This allows dual GPUs to have a smoother gaming experience at 4K-plus resolutions and along multi-monitor Nvidia Surround setups, the company says. That of course of action means there's no room to extend SLI configurations to to a higher degree two GeForce card game now—and Nvidia says it's A-OK with that.

From Nvidia's GTX 1080 whitepaper:

"Aside default, GeForce GTX 1080 SLI supports adequate to two GPUs. 3-Mode and 4-Direction SLI modes are no yearner recommended. Equally games feature evolved, it is becoming increasingly difficult for these SLI modes to provide beneficial carrying out scaling for remnant users. For instance, more games become bottlenecked away the CPU when running 3-Way and 4-Right smart SLI, and games are increasingly using techniques that make it very difficult to extract couc-to-frame parallelism."

The story behind the write up:Peering between the lines, 3- and 4-way SLI fend for has always been a big engineering headache for a setup used away and then hardly a people, so Nvidia's raw information technology loose now that it has an excuse in the GTX 1080's raw power and DirectX 12's constitutional multi-GPU flexibility.

I'm non dead!

That doesn't mean overpowered GPU configurations are at peace, necessarily. You can still use a 3-way setup with two GTX 1080s in SLI and a third votive to PhysX alone. Nvidia likewise says that developers can manually support 3- and 4-right smart graphics poster setups using DirectX 12's multi-display adapter and unequivocal linked display adapter modes. (MDA is the magical DX12 tech that lets GeForce and Radeon cards work together on the same game.) Those configurations won't get ahead any quality assurance support from Nvidia, however.

Individual games will still be competent to write in code in support for 3- and 4-way of life SLI setups going forward likewise, which makes sense as DirectX 12 is only in the initial stages of its rollout. For those games—and for hardcore, deep-pocketed PC enthusiasts who sneer at the theme of running just two graphics card game—Nvidia's offering a workaround.

The fancy, pricey Light-emitting diode SLI bridges offered for GTX 900-series graphics cards can be used to run the GTX 1080 in unsupported 3- and 4-way SLI configurations.

You posterior connect three surgery four GTX 1080s together using the LED-lit SLI bridges that appeared finished the last twelvemonth or two. Time-honoured several-slot SLI bridges South Korean won't work. And then you'll need to download an Enthusiast Key generated for your particular, individual GPUs from a parvenu Nvidia Enthusiast Key website, which ISN't live yet but will be in time for the GTX 1080's May 27 launch. Running the Enthusiast Key on your political machine will unlock 3- and 4-way SLI functionality, as well As crank the LED SLI nosepiece's clocks equal to the same 650MHz arsenic the new SLI HB bridges.

Ohio, but Nvidia's not guaranteeing that this Partisan Key leave necessarily work in whatever specific games. You're on your have taking this overpowered path.

Realistically, unless developers crack the extra mile to add in DirectX 12 multi-display adaptor support—which first appeared in Stardock and Oxide's Ashes of the Uniqueness—IT sounds like 3- and 4-way SLI is being altogether simply written off for dead going forward. If we're organism honest, a couple of gamers rocked such fire-breathing rigs, and multi-GPU support in pandemic seemed lackluster in 2015, with numerous top-tier games failing to support SLI or CrossFire for months after release. And then the real-world touch on Crataegus laevigata embody minimal, a job for PC gaming's proverbial 1 percent.

But damn if it still doesn't feel like the end of an era. It'll fated be exciting to see if AMD's North Star GPUs support 3- and 4-way CrossFire setups when they launch later this class.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/414868/its-true-nvidias-geforce-gtx-1080-officially-supports-only-2-way-sli-setups.html

Posted by: tilleysamium.blogspot.com

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