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When Team Green (in the graphics card space) introduced the GeForce 10-Series back in the day, nVidia started the process of removing SLI support in certain GPUs. Since then, the company has been doing so at an ever-increasing pace.
Then, with the 2000-Series, nVidia only let GeForce RTX 2070 ‘Super’ and higher cards have multi-GPU support. This was not too much of a problem at the time because the GeForce RTX 2070 wasn’t exactly an ‘enthusiast-class’ GPU, anyway. So, when nVidia set the bar there, it was reasonable. Also, most games at the time didn’t include SLI support, anyway.
What Graphics Cards Are SLI Compatible?
None. No new graphics card will ever have SLI support again. If you want multi-GPU support these days, you will have to get a GeForce RTX 3000-series card that supports NV-Link.
So. if you want multi GPU support you are going to have to spend at least 3 grand. Yes, that’s right. The only nVidia GeForce 3-Series graphics card that have NVLink (SLI’s successor) support is the $1,499 dollar GeForce RTX 3090.
Hidden Costs For Multiple GPUs
To add to the already high cost, most computer power supplies would struggle to support just a single RTX 3090, let alone 2 of them.
Multi-GPU systems are possible to create, but only just. Now only fat-walleted tech enthusiasts will be able to build a multi GPU system. And remember, this change will discourage even more game developers from including support for SLI/NVLink in their games. This will be because of the multi-GPU market is now shrinking to almost non-existent levels.
Nvidia is doing this after recently releasing its RTX 3000 series video cards that, in their defense, do offers an amazing price to performance ratio over last-gen hardware. The removal of SLI, though, which was such an adorned feature since 2004, is going to aggravate a lot of people.
What is SLI, anyway?
SLI, is an acronym that stands for ‘Scalable Link Interface.’ SLI allowed users to combine the performance of two or more GPUs to increase gaming performance by splitting the workload across multiple chips. This would increase frame rates and increase the resolution in which a given game could be played. Ever ahead of its time, using restrictive PCI express interfaces, SLI never really hit the mainstream.
What happened to SLI? Why did SLI go away?
Even though it was a great idea that actually works well on paper and in practice, because it required two or more graphics cards, SLI setups always represented a small portion of the total gaming market. It was hard to find a game that was SLI compatible, as it was usually something only AAA developers would integrate into their games. think Battlefield and Call of duty.
What replaced SLI? Does it work on more cards than SLI?
SLI has been completely replaced by NVLink. NVLink provides many advantages, but unfortunately, it’s not available on many cards. In fact, it’s only available on the GeForce RTX 3090. NVLink does, however, provide higher GPU-to-GPU bandwidth and allows each graphics card’s memory to effectively be pooled together.
Is the RTX 3000-series worth it?
Definitely. The nVidia RTX provides a lot better performance per dollar than its predecessor, the RTX 2000 series. As a matter of fact, the RTX 3070 performs better than a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti.
What is GDDR6X Memory?
GRRD6X is the latest and by far the fastest graphics memory available. Micron, along with nVidia, developed GDDR6X in a close partnership. GDDR6X SGRAM isn’t an official memory standard just yet, because it has yet to be formally recognized by JEDEC. GDDR6X does, however, offer double the bandwidth per clock-cycle as compared to conventional GDDR6.
Which Graphics Cards Have GDDR6X Memory?
Nvidia is currently the only company that has access to Micron’s GDDR6X memory technology at the moment. The first GPUs to take advantage of GDDR6X are the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090. GDDR6X chips consume 15% less energy per transferred bit than GDDR6 does. This is because GDDR6X is implemented in much faster configurations than GDDR6. Power consumption overall, however, is higher with GDDR6X. Also, GDDR6X is lower-cost than HMB (High Bandwidth Memory).
Check this article later for a berak-down chart showing the best Geforce RTX graphics card for your money.
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