GTX 1080 does not support 3/4-way SLI

[exar333]

Pretty sure they'd just limit SLI to 2 way on the midrange release. Big Pascal already gets shipped in 4 way communicating modes in DGX1 via NVLink. I imagine they will find a way to leverage NVLink for SLI on big pascal if even just by putting 2 on one card with a fat bridge between that (technically allowing for 4-way SLI via 2 dual-gpu cards). It will come at a steep price I guess though

I didn't think NVlink worked on x86 yet.

 

[MrTeal]

I didn't think NVlink worked on x86 yet.

It doesn't work to x86 CPUs, since none of them have the needed hardware. It works on x86 systems like the DGX-1, since it's just the link between the GPUs.

 

[tential]

I have a hard time believing Nvidia doesn't want quad 1080 rigs showing up at the top of the benchmark charts. I do think these things are a big deal and have an influence on people.

Maybe 1070 Tri SLI would have infringed on the 1080Ti launching at $1200? You could get 3 1070s for that price and it could beat the 1080Ti in performance. But limiting them to SLI, now the 1080Ti can be the Tri SLI king. You don't have $3600 for 3 1080Tis/Titan 9000s?

 

[Elixer]

So maybe they will have special editions for $100 more with 4 way SLI capability?

Or maybe with the new connector and the higher bandwidth, 4 way SLI just won't work?

They could call it the Elite Founder's edition! For the low, low price of $799 per card!

I don't think this is a big issue anyway, as ShintaiDK pointed out, SLI/Crossfire are going to be phased out since DX12/Vulkan can load balance GPUs so, this becomes more and more irrelevant except for pre DX12 games.

Not only that, but, that .00000001% of the gaming population that actually wants more than two cards will always upgrade to the newest card available to get the performance they want.

 

[AdamK47]

4 way SLI will probably work but my theory is that instead of Nvidia going to XDMA like AMD, they just used both fingers for double the bandwidth. If you were to use 4 way on a 1080, you will probably run into scaling issues on 3rd and 4th card. The old SLI bridges still work just you don't get the bandwidth increase. If you use 2 old bridges, it might have the same effect as the new bridges that are offered.

Being that these cards throughput is higher than previous generations, the scaling will have diminishing returns without the high bandwidth SLI bridges. (Or using both gold fingers for SLI)

That's what I think is going on.

 

[maddie]

They could call it the Elite Founder's edition! For the low, low price of $799 per card!

I don't think this is a big issue anyway, as ShintaiDK pointed out, SLI/Crossfire are going to be phased out since DX12/Vulkan can load balance GPUs so, this becomes more and more irrelevant except for pre DX12 games.

Not only that, but, that .00000001% of the gaming population that actually wants more than two cards will always upgrade to the newest card available to get the performance they want.

What are you saying here? Don't the GPUs need to communicate and transfer finished data to the video output GPU? Won't you still need inter-GPU communication? Nvidia uses the SLI bridge and AMD uses the PCIe bus.

What does load balancing have to do with it?

 

[moonbogg]

Maybe 1070 Tri SLI would have infringed on the 1080Ti launching at $1200? You could get 3 1070s for that price and it could beat the 1080Ti in performance. But limiting them to SLI, now the 1080Ti can be the Tri SLI king. You don't have $3600 for 3 1080Tis/Titan 9000s?

This is likely true. Also, $1,350.00 for 3x 1070's can't be allowed to challenge or beat $1,400.00 for 2x 1080's. I did the math, and it turns out that $1,400.00 is MORE money than $1,350.00, so I know Nvidia won't let that $50.00 be stolen from them by their customers.

They could call it the Elite Founder's edition! For the low, low price of $799 per card!

I don't think this is a big issue anyway, as ShintaiDK pointed out, SLI/Crossfire are going to be phased out since DX12/Vulkan can load balance GPUs so, this becomes more and more irrelevant except for pre DX12 games.

Not only that, but, that .00000001% of the gaming population that actually wants more than two cards will always upgrade to the newest card available to get the performance they want.

This is a good idea and people would snatch them right up and dominate the score charts.

 

[Elixer]

What are you saying here? Don't the GPUs need to communicate and transfer finished data to the video output GPU? Won't you still need inter-GPU communication? Nvidia uses the SLI bridge and AMD uses the PCIe bus.

What does load balancing have to do with it?

It is all done through PCIe.
You can install a 1080, 1070, polaris 10, vega 11 in the same system, and DX12 will throw tasks to each GPU, if that is the way they set things up.
So, it would send the data to each GPU that it needs processed.

More reading for you: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn933253(v=vs.85).aspx

 

[maddie]

It is all done through PCIe.
You can install a 1080, 1070, polaris 10, vega 11 in the same system, and DX12 will throw tasks to each GPU, if that is the way they set things up.
So, it would send the data to each GPU that it needs processed.

More reading for you: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn933253(v=vs.85).aspx

Quite right. I don't know what i was thinking. For explicit multi-adapter to work with several manufacturers, it must use the PCIe bus.

 

[thesmokingman]

The irony, in multi adapter the nv cards have to communicate with the amd card thru the pcie bus for multi gpu.

 

[airfathaaaaa]

It doesn't work to x86 CPUs, since none of them have the needed hardware. It works on x86 systems like the DGX-1, since it's just the link between the GPUs.

pretty sure they have the technology years now... and much much much faster than this..

 

[MrTeal]

pretty sure they have the technology years now... and much much much faster than this..

An x86 CPU has had NVLink for years now, you say?

 

[dark zero]

Remember that nVILINK is figthing Xeon Phi. So you know what happens.

 

[ElFenix]

The entire concept of SLI and Crossfire is on the verge of death anyway with multiGPU support fading out.

Aren't you the guy that usually demands proof of assertions?

How many of the released DX12 games support multiGPU? Isnt it only that benchmark game?

Why dont you tell me what future DX12 games that will support it. Since you dont want to talk about the current released games

Guess not.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Aren't you the guy that usually demands proof of assertions?

Guess not.

I´m I?

I just do like the rest. So not sure why you wish to single me out.