What is the NVIDIA SLI Technology

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Features And Specifications of NVIDIA SLI

Hardcore PC enthusiasts have historically sought new ways to maximize graphics and system performance. Scalability (combining multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) to drive a single display) is one approach.

Unfortunately, adding additional GPUs rarely brought about the desired level of increased performance. Two Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) graphics cards in one system. Two GPUs on a single card, even multiple cards in a workstation rack configuration all had serious limitations (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Two GPUs on a single card

Now, Alienware leverages a revolutionary approach to combine multiple GPUs in a single system to enable screaming, boundless performance. SLI is a high-performance technology that allows users to intelligently combine and scale graphics performance by having multiple NVIDIA GPUs in a single system. SLI works by scaling geometry and fill rate performance for two GPUs.

SLI technology fully exploits the increased bandwidth provided by the latest bus architecture (PCI Express) when communicating between the GPUs and the CPU. Providing sixty times the bandwidth of PCI, the PCI Express interface eliminates the bottlenecks caused by previous bus architectures and allows for maximum system performance in a multi-GPU configuration.

NVIDIA SLI-Ready Graphics Card

NVIDIA SLI-ready graphics cards are designed around a qualified NVIDIA PCI-Express GPU. Qualified NVIDIA SLI-ready GPUs presently include most of the GPUs of GeForce 6, 7, 8 and 9th generations.

Featuring an intelligent communication protocol embedded within the GPU and a high-speed digital interface, NVIDIA SLI-based GPUs can easily communicate with one another without the overhead associated with a bus-only implementation. In addition, unique software algorithms efficiently share the workload to deliver unbelievable performance.

About the SLI Connector

A high-bandwidth digital SLI bridge connects two NVIDIA-based PCI Express graphics cards. This bridge provides the necessary high-speed data path required for the graphics processing units to operate in tandem, providing up to two times the graphics performance of non-SLI enabled systems.

ALX system equipped with the Alienware X2 SLI-Ready system board, qualified NVIDIA SLI-Ready graphics cards, and the latest in processing, memory, and storage technologies, delivering truly jaw-dropping PC performance beyond that of even the wildest of imaginations.

Requirements of the SLI technology

The following are the basic requirements of a computer to implement SLI technology.

• A NVIDIA SLI certified chipset (like the nForce 4 SLI, nForce 590, 680i and 790i series)
• Both video cards require the same GPU for SLI to work. It is possible to mix cards from different manufacturers as long as the same GPU is used in both cards, but it is always recommended to use identical video cards for SLI configurations.
• The presence of a SLI bridge connector is highly recommended, and in some configurations its presence is mandatory.