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[PCPer] No more 3way or 4way SLI profiles for games

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Didn't 3x and 4x barely work most of the time anyway?

This isn't a big deal, but I'm sure it will be spun into a ****storm by this board full of people running 4x 980ti's and only ever running benchmarks on them.
 
By that standard, why not just drop SLI altogether? Such a small minority even use it and as we know, it consumes the majority of the driver team's time. By dropping SLI they can scale down and make more profits.

As we mature in the DX12 and Vulkan era, multi-GPU becomes the developer's responsibility, so NV and AMD can both save a ton of $$ with less driver resources wasted on SLI/CF.
 
fastamdman said:
Just curious, do you really think the 480 will beat the 1070? Gut feeling tells me it won't, and if it does it won't be at a 200msrp anymore. I really hope it beats the 1070 at 200 though. I really want amd to take the market back with low income pricing. If they could get a card out that beats nvidias 1080s or there higher 1080ti's etc later on down the line that would be even better. I've just been let down so many times from amd. Nothing to my knowledge on the ultra high end has beaten nvidia since like the 9800pro days, thats the last card I remember running from amd lol.
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for first few months no way. but i think 8gb version will match or beat 1070 occasionally in dx12 3-4 months later. depends on overclock and future drivers tho. maybe nvidia is keeping a good driver with better performance to bomb amd later. who knows lol.
 
But that's the salient question. I think SLI/Crossfire users can be divided into two main categories:

1) extreme user - who will buy 4 gpus to try to maximize performance; and
2) power user - who will buy 2 gpus (not necessarily flagship) to optimize performance

I've been a fan of multi gpu solutions ever since I saw 2 voodoo 2s in operation way back when I was much younger than I am today. I hope that developers and NV and AMD as well continue to respect at least the latter category. At the end of the day, it helps to sell more gpus, no?
 
Silverforce11 said:
Didn't they say they will add a special code to enable 3/4 Way?

You mean it was all a lie?
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41fhle1CL9L._SY300_.jpg


Whover already bought 4 1080s and now 2 of them are to no use to him, i will gladly take them😀
 
ShintaiDK said:
^^ This.
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No not this! A few weeks ago they said you could do 3/4 SLI gaming after acquiring a code. Now they are saying you can't in fact do gaming but run 3 benchmarks.

There are already people out there with 3/4 1080s and some with watercooling parts. They basically dropped $2100 - $3600 to run 3 benchmarks because they believed what nvidia said.
 
Element115 said:
No not this! A few weeks ago they said you could do 3/4 SLI gaming after acquiring a code. Now they are saying you can't in fact do gaming but run 3 benchmarks.

There are already people out there with 3/4 1080s and some with watercooling parts. They basically dropped $2100 - $3600 to run 3 benchmarks because they believed what nvidia said.
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They never claimed that. With more than 2 cards you were on your own from the start. And the reason you had to get the code is for that reason.

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-Limits-GTX-1080-SLI-Two-Cards
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3071...fficially-supports-only-2-way-sli-setups.html

Again its not new, the drama however is 😉
 
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ShintaiDK said:
They never claimed that. With more than 2 cards you were on your own from the start. And the reason you had to get the code is for that reason.
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English is my first language and reading their claims earlier, it's quite clear that they would not by default enable 3/4 way SLI BUT they will allow enthusiasts to download a special KEY that enables it.

There was never statements to the fact that they would NOT add 3/4 way SLI to their drivers at all.

That's the new part, now it's official: No driver support for 3/4 SLI except in those benchmarks.
 
Silverforce11 said:
English is my first language and reading their claims earlier, it's quite clear that they would not by default enable 3/4 way SLI BUT they will allow enthusiasts to download a special KEY that enables it.

There was never statements to the fact that they would NOT add 3/4 way SLI to their drivers at all.

That's the new part, now it's official: No driver support for 3/4 SLI except in those benchmarks.
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Its even in the GTX1080 whitepaper at release. And it was explained by multiple sites on may 17th.

The way to use 3-4 cards ahead is via DX12 or Vulkan multi adapter.
 
What terrible terrible support. They are actually charging an extra hundy per card as an early adopter tax and they can't even offer full SLI support. They wring their customers out for more and more and give them less and less.
 
Element115 said:
...
They basically dropped $2100 - $3600 to run 3 benchmarks because they believed what nvidia said.
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Well, the 3-4 way SLI/CF setups I've seen in forums have usually been running mostly Heaven and 3D Mark so wasn't this a given?
As in, these setups are for getting to the top of scoreboards not for actual gaming. Sort of for getting on a league of 'extreme setups*'.

*Extreme in this case mostly meaning being willing to spend big money. Same as today's overclocking: the days of buying cheap parts and seeing how far you could push them (Core 2 Celeron overclocks of 100%+ etc.) are long over. Now it's all about spending big for the privileged of joining the extreme. Sort of like with certain gaming brands where being a big spender makes you an elite.
 
They are going to enable it for benchmarks. Not for games. It's pointless to benchmark with 3-Way and 4-Way then when the results are not going to be indicative of actual gaming performance.
 
ZGR said:
Would GTX 980 ti quad SLI still beat GTX 1080 SLI in certain games that scale well?
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Has there ever been a game that's actually scaled well with quad SLI (or crossfire for that matter)? These setups have never really worked as you'd expect I thought?
 
selni said:
Has there ever been a game that's actually scaled well with quad SLI (or crossfire for that matter)? These setups have never really worked as you'd expect I thought?
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There are plenty that do. None DX12. The Witcher 3 (now), Crysis 3, and the Metro games do off the top of my head. You would need such a setup if you never want dips below 60 fps at 4K.
 
selni said:
Has there ever been a game that's actually scaled well with quad SLI (or crossfire for that matter)? These setups have never really worked as you'd expect I thought?
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What kind of scaling are you expecting? I don't expect linear FPS increases with Tri/Quad GPU setups, but the increases are there for a lot of games.

Frametimes on the other hand.... I could see some games getting higher FPS with quad GTX 980 ti SLI, but the overall user experience should always be better with the fewer cards with traditional SLI setup.
 
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ShintaiDK said:
Its even in the GTX1080 whitepaper at release. And it was explained by multiple sites on may 17th.

The way to use 3-4 cards ahead is via DX12 or Vulkan multi adapter.
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You mean the GTX 1080 whitepaper that contains this:

Enthusiast Key

While NVIDIA no longer recommends 3 or 4 way systems for SLI, we know that true enthusiasts will not
be swayed…and in fact some games will continue to deliver great scaling beyond two GPUs. For this
class of user we have developed an Enthusiast Key that can be downloaded off of NVIDIA’s website and
loaded into an individual’s GPU. This process involves:

1. Run an app locally to generate a signature for your GPU
2. Request an Enthusiast Key from an upcoming NVIDIA Enthusiast Key website
3. Download your key
4. Install your key to unlock the 3 and 4-way function

Full details on the process are available on the NVIDIA Enthusiast Key website, which will be available at
the time GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs are available in users’ hands
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Whilst Nvidia clearly doesn't recommend 3 and 4-way SLI anymore, they quite clearly still promised support for it (in the form of an Enthusiast Key). Secondly that above paragraph clearly mentions games, not benchmarks.
 
It's newsworthy now because people are actually digging into the PR fluff and seeking clarification... after the orders have been made.

Previously, from the white paper, Nvidia implied that in the most blasé way possible that 3-Way and 4-Way SLI modes are "no longer recommended". They further grayed the marketing by claiming that if you still want 3/4-way support, an enthusiast key was available. So it was supported, but not recommended. Only now do they state explicitly that they WILL NOT/NOT EVER support it at all for games, specifically, only select applications.

In hindsight it may seem like a minor distinction, but in reality it's a big deal. It doesn't matter if it's a niche within a niche, that SLI has diminishing returns, or that DX12/Vulkan does X, Y, or Z. It wasn't clear to all and now it is.

While 2x1080 is good enough to get over 60fps average in most DX11 games at 4K, people going 5K or 3x1440 multi-display are SOL. Likewise, those minimum frames still aren't above 60fps in many scenarios. I dunno... seems like a bad time to pull support for it. I'd like to think that pulling back support for 3/4-way means that their 2-way SLI will be amazing, but that remains to be seen.
 
Silverforce11 said:
English is my first language and reading their claims earlier, it's quite clear that they would not by default enable 3/4 way SLI BUT they will allow enthusiasts to download a special KEY that enables it.

There was never statements to the fact that they would NOT add 3/4 way SLI to their drivers at all.

That's the new part, now it's official: No driver support for 3/4 SLI except in those benchmarks.
Click to expand...

They didn't come straight out and say...we will have no greater 2-way SLi profiles in our drivers...but they were not that vague in the fact that they were not going to be responsible for supporting greater than 2-way SLI

Posted May 17

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3071...fficially-supports-only-2-way-sli-setups.html

Nvidia also says that developers can manually support 3- and 4-way graphics card setups using DirectX 12’s multi-display adapter and explicit 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 any quality assurance support from Nvidia, however.
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Nvidia’s not guaranteeing that this Enthusiast Key will necessarily work in any specific games. You’re on your own taking this overpowered path.

Realistically, unless developers go the extra mile to add in DirectX 12 multi-display adapter support—which first appeared in Stardock and Oxide’s Ashes of the Singularity—it sounds like 3- and 4-way SLI is being all but written off for dead going forward.
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compare that to the Nvidia quote in the new PCper article

DX12 and NVIDIA VR Works SLI technology also allows developers to directly implement and control multi-GPU support within their games. If a developer chooses to use these technologies then their game will not need SLI profiles. Some developers may also decide to support more than 2 GPUs in their games. We continue to work with all developers creating games and VR applications that take advantage of 2 or more GPUs to make sure they’ll work great on GeForce 10-series GPUs.
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So the only thing that has changed it seems is that Nvidia won't be requiring an Enthusiast key.

Nvidia has said since the NDA date lifted that they will not be supporting greater than 2 way SLI and that it is up to the developers to support it.
 
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