GTX 1080 does not support 3/4-way SLI

[guskline]

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?

My hunch is the latter of your 2 theories. Not necessarily a bad thing since the 1080 is apparently so fast now.

 

[Grooveriding]

How expensive could it have been to support ? Maybe they see the writing on the wall that multi-gpu is on a decline that DX12 may hasten. Seems like a bad turn for users who are on the extreme end of things. Going from 3x or 4x SLI of GM200 to 2x of GP104 is going to be a performance downgrade in many cases. A downgrade I doubt a new $25 SLI bridge will be able to overcome against 3 or 4 GPUs. The Futuremark benchmarking crowd must not be happy.

 

[exar333]

I find this extremely surprising to be honest. Is NV planning for only their Titans to support 3/4SLI?

 

[dark zero]

It's a mainstream card, like I said in the other thread, so that's not surprising (and why I think it's overpriced).

For me is underpriced. It deserves to cost 1 thousand dollars since it beats Titan X at lower wattage consumption. And that means that multi GPU is likely to be dead along DX12. Maybe NVIDIA can release an API better than that if they want to justify this.

 

[railven]

I find this extremely surprising to be honest. Is NV planning for only their Titans to support 3/4SLI?

What's stopping them from making a bridge with 4 connections?

Sort of like this one:

Obviously with all the ports used up?

 

[digitaldurandal]

For me is underpriced. It deserves to cost 1 thousand dollars since it beats Titan X at lower wattage consumption. And that means that multi GPU is likely to be dead along DX12. Maybe NVIDIA can release an API better than that if they want to justify this.

Well by that logic the cost should be more like 5,000 by now because the price would rise so much each time a card beat the previous top dog. The 470 beat the 285 so it needs to cost 400 dollars, the 480 needs to be more than that, then the 570 beats that so has to be that price, the 580 more than that, etc etc.

You get the idea.

 

[UaVaj]

hate multi gpu bridges. unnecessary pain in the rear.

once you try to xdma. you will never go back. butter smooth performance. micro stutter is a thing of the past. install in any slot you want. clean installation.

tough to go back to sli bridges.



gtx 1080 limted to 2 way sli is on the same nonsense as gtx 970 with 3.5gb.

 

[AdamK47]

The NVidia site shows new 3-Way and 4-Way bridges. Are they making them just for decoration?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/10series/geforce-gtx-1080#sli

 

[MrTeal]

The NVidia site shows new 3-Way and 4-Way bridges. Are they making them just for decoration?

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/10series/geforce-gtx-1080#sli

I don't think they're 3 and 4 way bridges. They're just 2, 3 and 4 slot spacing.

 

[VirtualLarry]

This is interesting from a technical perspective - why would this limit exist, in particular when Nvidia should be interested in selling as much of these cards as possible?

Because it's really a mid-range chip masquerading as high-end? NV's mid-range chips have always been limited to 2-way SLI, AFAIK.

 

[UaVaj]

those are NOT 3-way and 4-way bridges.

those are 2-way bridges for 1/4 slots configuration and for 1/5 slots configuration.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38218946&postcount=45

 

[Rvenger]

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)

 

[UaVaj]

Because it's really a mid-range chip masquerading as high-end? NV's mid-range chips have always been limited to 2-way SLI, AFAIK.

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

this should been called a 1060 to begin with.

 

[nitromullet]

If you follow the thread on EVGA forums, this may not be the last word on this...

http://forums.evga.com/Nvidia-only-supports-up-to-SLI-on-10-series-cards-m2477545-p4.aspx

EVGA_JacobF
Update:

More info about SLI support will be coming soon, please stay tuned.

Apparently the definitive post from ChrisB has been removed as well. Perhaps NV is reconsidering their decision based on community feedback?

 

[MrTeal]

I think RS's explanation on this makes a decent bit of sense, in that they have just essentially kept the existing SLI system intact, but are ganging the two together to double bandwidth.

To me this would seem to indicate a couple things.
1) There's no nvlink present at all on GP104, likely to save on die space.
2) There's a good chance that when a big chip 1080Ti (or 1180Ti) comes out, the SLI interface itself will be replaced with a version of nvlink for multi-GPU support.

 

[moonbogg]

I think the 980 supported 4 way and that was a mid range chip too. Yes, the 1080 should be a 1060 regardless of all this SLI nonsense. $700 GTX 1060. Nice.

 

[thesmokingman]

What a bargain!

 

[Kenmitch]

If you follow the thread on EVGA forums, this may not be the last word on this...

http://forums.evga.com/Nvidia-only-supports-up-to-SLI-on-10-series-cards-m2477545-p4.aspx



Apparently the definitive post from ChrisB has been removed as well. Perhaps NV is reconsidering their decision based on community feedback?

It's one of those things that most likely he shouldn't have stated....Yet at least.

Time will tell in the end if it's true or not.

Looking at the sli bridge options available for the 1080 it does look like it may be true. Would seem silly to me that NVidia wouldn't be pimping a 3-way or 4-way bridge also. Double spacing is really the only way to go 3 or 4-way sli anyways so a bridge wouldn't be hard to produce....As long as it's technologically possible.

 

[moonbogg]

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.

 

[YBS1]

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.

They won't care one bit until AMD has something that can unseat the quad Titan X's and 980TIs that currently reside on top of the chart.

They may also not want the early adapters to be too heavily invested in their 1080 setups. Better they buy two 1080s @ $600 and then four 1080TIs @ ~$799 later, than to sit content with four 1080's.

 

[exar333]

I personally don't have the ability for SLI (single enclosure) but I also don't see a lot of value for myself in SLI anyways.

That said, I still would be surprised if only 2-way SLI is allowed. As others have said, it would be a large detriment for those who buy 3-4 top GPUs for benchmarking. Which is probably a decent slice of the $500+ GPU buyers.

Weird, if true.

 

[wilds]

Here's hoping the SLI bridge dies of old age soon.

 

[Headfoot]

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

 

[Majcric]

I wonder if Nvidia is partially doing this to try and push people to the real high end i.e Titan.

As for myself this won't be an issue, but I can certainly see how it's going affect some enthusiast .

 

[dark zero]

Well.. at least 1080 Ti will have Quad SLI....