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Nvidia's SLI 'Scalable Link Interface'

Posted 07/12/05

PC gamers looking to equal the next generation consoles are increasing tarting to consider SLI as a viable option. So what SLI?, well it stands for 'Scalable Link Interface' and takes advantage of the WHQL ForceWare driver releases from NVIDIA. With SLI pc gamers link two graphics cards together hoping to produce twice the power of one graphics card.

So what do you need to start using SLI,

• A motherboard capable of supporting SLI, such as the Gigabyte Nforce 4 based boards.
• Nvidia graphics card capable of being linked togther. Currently the 6600GT , 6800GT and 6800ultra support SLI. But currently the best setup is linking two 7800 GTX or 7800 GT's together.
• SLI will bottle neck most CPU's so you will need an AMD FX-57 or 4000+ at least.
• A power supply of at least 500W. And 30amps on the 12v rails for thigh end cards like the 7800 GTX.
• You also need a monitor capable of running at resolutions of least 1600x1200. An SLI rig is just wasted on 1024x768 screens. And you wont see many benefits on a 1280x1024 display.

So is SLI currently worth purchasing?

We would suggest it's only for the hardcore gamer. Many older titles don't support SLI, and even on the latest games it may take alot of tweeking to see the benefits. We've read reports that gamers have seen no real-world gaming benefits whatsoever. The difference between single card and SLI performance just wasn't noticable. SLI could be a technology of the future, so it may be worth waiting for the next generation of graphics cards, motherboards, monitors and games before you see the benefits.