Are dual-gpu cards treated as SLI by software (no just games)?

[mashumk]

For example, 3d rendering programs, video editors from Autodesk or Adobe mostly - It's my understanding that SLI doesn't work with them. Correct?

So would there be no benefit of having a GTX 690 over any previous single GPU for say, Maya? The workstation cards are so pricey so that's why I ask.

Likewise, do games see 2 cards if a 690 is installed and thus require SLI configuring? Or, hopefully, do games see a single card and all single card adjustments apply as if it were a 670?

Just want to dabble in graphics with a relatively cheap setup so I'm trying to get this basic concept understood first.

And yes, I understand the keplers have been castrated in regards to 3d rendering vs the previous gen.

Thank you.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Product support you need to check with the vendors.

And yes, dual GPU cards just share a PCIe slot. Usually with an added PCIe switch chip. So no differnce as such vs 2 physical cards.

Thats also why you need SLI/Crossfire profiles in the drivers for games. Else they only run with 1 GPU.

 

[3DVagabond]

Dual GPU cards are running SLI in every aspect. What applies to 2 separate cards in SLI also applies to a dual GPU card.

As far as SLI in pro apps. There's no reason they can't work. They just need SLI support. From what I understand some (or sometimes) they will use AFR, just like games do, or different cards will be used on different views. Like if you have 2 views up of a project (say 360 and top views) one card will render one view while the other card renders the 2nd.

Here's the monkey wrench in the situation. The card vendor needs to support SLI/Crossfire for the app. They might decide to not support it with a consumer card. Rarely is there any support effort made to make consumer cards work with pro apps.

Also for non rendering apps. (GPU compute) they often don't use SLI, per se, but just use the computational power of whatever cards are in there. That's why you can have more than 4 cards for gpu compute.