Nvidia will not be supporting 3-Way or 4-way SLI in games with GTX 1000 series GPUs

[WYP]

Nvidia has confirmed that they will not be supporting 3-Way or 4-way SLI in games with GTX 1000 series GPUs and only support select applications such as 3DMARK, Unigine and Catzilla.



Read more on Nvidia only supporting 3-way and 4-way SLI in benchmarks.

Has Nvidia SLIed?

 

[barnsley]

Haven't they been saying this since the 1080 was released?

 

[WYP]

Haven't they been saying this since the 1080 was released?

Even Nvidia have been conflicting themselves with this.

First they said only 2 way was officially supported, but you could use 3 and 4 way with a special key. That way gamers could use 3 or 4 way if they wanted.


Now they say you don't need a key, but now it will not work in games at all. Just benchmarks.

 

[PsychoDeli]

Any idea whether the new HB bridges are available anywhere?

Specifically for the ASUS Strix cards...only have one on order atm but hope to get another once they are more widely available

 

[AngryGoldfish]

Didn't I hear/read that the nVidia HB bridge is nothing more than an EVGA SLI bridge with nVidia branding?

 

[PsychoDeli]

Judging by this, I would be OK with an LED bridge

Now, where to find one of those for ROG

 

[SeekaX]

3way/4way sli/cf has been garbage anyways for games, no point in supporting something which is rarely used and even rarer useful.

 

[shambles1980]

i find it starnge to drop support for something that should benifit from the latest api "if implimented properly by game devs"
We may end up looking at a situation where 3-4 cheap amd cards (less than the cost of 2 nvidia cards) outperform the nvidia cards Easily in dx12.
I see people say that 2x rx480's will be faster than this and that. but thats based on 1 benchmark of 1 game that amd cards have a Huge boost in when in dx12 mode. So its not really a thing IMO.
but if dx 12 does start hitting games and are coded to make the most of dx12, then nvidia could be looking at issues..

obviously the die hard fans dont think this is remotely possible.. But it really could happen.

i do however assume that nvidia are still working off the premise that dx11 is going to be the dominating api for quite a while yet. so they concentrate on cards and drivers for that api above anything else. and probably believe/know that they have a few more generations of cards to pump out before they have to really go for dx12

 

[Kushiro]

Well there is the hybird thingy, lets see if there will be a work around for this. Only 2 cards isnt enough

 

[Wraith]

Pretty sure from the GDC they stated that the Enthusiast key was only available to those that benched or wanted 3 - 4 Way support for production work. They never mentioned gaming as 3 & 4 Way is pointless for gaming anyway.

 

[Mysterae]

i find it starnge to drop support for something that should benifit from the latest api "if implimented properly by game devs"
...

Accuse me of being cynical, but it's probably the exact reason why it not being supported going forward. Imagine an API that is so good that performance is directly proportional to the number of cards installed. People will skip new generations of GPUs and instead install multiples of old/existing GPUs to gain that performance, thus creating a great second hand market but poorer sales of new gen.

I know I would rather install 2 additional 2nd hand 980Ti's for the performance 4 x 980Ti's (if only!) that only cost the same as one new gen GPU, when that single new gen GPU barely achieves the same performance of 2x 980Tis.

Directly proportional multi-GPU performance would be utopia and is technically possible, but is being driven out of town.

 

[SeekaX]

Accuse me of being cynical, but it's probably the exact reason why it not being supported going forward. Imagine an API that is so good that performance is directly proportional to the number of cards installed. People will skip new generations of GPUs and instead install multiples of old/existing GPUs to gain that performance, thus creating a great second hand market but poorer sales of new gen.

I know I would rather install 2 additional 2nd hand 980Ti's for the performance 4 x 980Ti's (if only!) that only cost the same as one new gen GPU, when that single new gen GPU barely achieves the same performance of 2x 980Tis.

Directly proportional multi-GPU performance would be utopia and is technically possible, but is being driven out of town.

How would that change anything? The same concept already applies to 2-way sli/cf, it's not like that stops the sale of new GPUs. A next gen 4 way sli setup would slaughter a last gen 4 way sli setup, there's always a reason to upgrade.

 

[Mysterae]

How would that change anything? The same concept already applies to 2-way sli/cf, it's not like that stops the sale of new GPUs. A next gen 4 way sli setup would slaughter a last gen 4 way sli setup, there's always a reason to upgrade.

And slaughter your bank balance too . Money spent and it's return drives our behaviour, unless your rolling in it.

Think of it like this with some arbitrary Made Up Scale, if performance was directly proportional the number of GPUs installed:

1x 980Ti - 1000mus
2x 980Ti - 2000mus

So in the utopian world I buy some more second hand 980Tis:

3x 980Ti - 3000mus (£300)
4x 980Ti - 4000mus (£300)

Compared to new gen, assuming that the 1080 is 20% greater than a 980Ti:

1x 1080 - 1200mus (£620)

So, as the owner of 2x 980Tis with a performance of 2000mus I have a few options:

A. Sell the two 980Tis for £600, add another £20 and buy a single 1080 for a significant downgrade.
B. Sell the two 980Tis for £600, add another £640 to buy two 1080s for a performance bump of 400mus (less than 2.5x 980Tis).
C. Buy a second hand 980Ti for £300 for a big performance bump.
D. Buy two second hand 980Tis for £600 for a major performance bump

In summary, spend £600 for 4000mus or sell up and spend £1240 (£640 net) for 2400mus. I know what I'd do.

Thus the second hand market would improve, people would hold on to their existing cards for longer and sales of new GPUs would drop as would their price to entice buyers.

Now, remember this utopian, so 4 way sli scales perfectly every time, every game. In the real world it's the exact opposite, hell sometimes running 3 or 4 GPUs degrades performance! This currently works as a deterrent except to the hardcore few.

If an API was created that enabled DPS (Directly Proportional Scaling, quick, trademark it !) it would change the market in my opinion.

 

[SeekaX]

And slaughter your bank balance too . Money spent and it's return drives our behaviour, unless your rolling in it.

Think of it like this with some arbitrary Made Up Scale, if performance was directly proportional the number of GPUs installed:

1x 980Ti - 1000mus
2x 980Ti - 2000mus

So in the utopian world I buy some more second hand 980Tis:

3x 980Ti - 3000mus (£300)
4x 980Ti - 4000mus (£300)

Compared to new gen, assuming that the 1080 is 20% greater than a 980Ti:

1x 1080 - 1200mus (£620)

So, as the owner of 2x 980Tis with a performance of 2000mus I have a few options:

A. Sell the two 980Tis for £600, add another £20 and buy a single 1080 for a significant downgrade.
B. Sell the two 980Tis for £600, add another £640 to buy two 1080s for a performance bump of 400mus (less than 2.5x 980Tis).
C. Buy a second hand 980Ti for £300 for a big performance bump.
D. Buy two second hand 980Tis for £600 for a major performance bump

In summary, spend £600 for 4000mus or sell up and spend £1240 (£640 net) for 2400mus. I know what I'd do.

Thus the second hand market would improve, people would hold on to their existing cards for longer and sales of new GPUs would drop as would their price to entice buyers.

Now, remember this utopian, so 4 way sli scales perfectly every time, every game. In the real world it's the exact opposite, hell sometimes running 3 or 4 GPUs degrades performance! This currently works as a deterrent except to the hardcore few.

If an API was created that enabled DPS (Directly Proportional Scaling, quick, trademark it !) it would change the market in my opinion.

My point is that if you have a 980ti adding a second 980ti is already a more viable choice than getting a single 1080. The same concept applies to 4 980tis vs 2 1080s if they'd scale well. Why would 4 way sli hurt nvidia if 2 way sli doesn't, makes no sense.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Wonder if they are doing this because of limitations of Gen 3? Waiting on Gen 4 or a new standard for GPUS thank allows more bandwidth?? Hence the need for a higher bandwidth Bridge?

 

[Mysterae]

My point is that if you have a 980ti adding a second 980ti is already a more viable choice than getting a single 1080. The same concept applies to 4 980tis vs 2 1080s if they'd scale well. Why would 4 way sli hurt nvidia if 2 way sli doesn't, makes no sense.

Ninja edit - because 4 way SLI currently sucks ass.

Not so ninja edit - If 4 way SLI actually meant four times the performance a lot more people would take the cheaper option and buy additional cards to compliment what they already have, rather than sell up and buy the new gen.

Currently SLI/Xfire is inefficient and a bit crap - it scales poorly and is infrequently supported.

Using my now patented Made Up Scale:

1x 980Ti - 1000mus
2x 980Ti - 1750mus
3x 980Ti - 2450mus (if you're lucky, if it's supported at all)
4x 980Ti - 2940mus (a bit of an educated guess this one, but usually nets SFA)

The new GPU is only 20% higher than the existing GPU but suffers the same crap SLI limitations of scaling as above:

1x 1080 - 1200mus
2x 1080 - 2100mus (75% gain on 1x GPU)
3x 1080 - 2940mus (40% gain on 2x GPU)
4x 1080 - 3528mus (20% gain on 3x GPU)

So 3x 1080s achieve the same performance as 4x 980Tis but cost a damn sight more to move up to.

 

[SeekaX]

Ninja edit - because 4 way SLI currently sucks ass.

Currently SLI/Xfire is inefficient and a bit crap - it scales poorly and is infrequently supported.

Using my now patented Made Up Scale:

1x 980Ti - 1000mus
2x 980Ti - 1750mus
3x 980Ti - 2450mus (if you're lucky, if it's supported at all)
4x 980Ti - 2940mus (a bit of an educated guess this one, but usually nets SFA)

The new GPU is only 20% higher than the existing GPU but suffers the same crap SLI limitations of scaling as above:

1x 1080 - 1200mus
2x 1080 - 2100mus (75% gain on 1x GPU)
3x 1080 - 2940mus (40% gain on 2x GPU)
4x 1080 - 3528mus (20% gain on 3x GPU)

So 3x 1080s achieve the same performance as 4x 980Tis but cost a damn sight more to move up to.

I'm fully aware that SLI and CF scale like crap beyond two cards, i just don't see 3/4 way sli scaling well hurting nvidia one bit. You can get a second 980ti, which is cheaper than a 1080 and have more performance right now, 2 way SLI scales just fine and it's a lot more affordable and sensible than 4 way sli. Why would 4 way sli be hurting nvidia if 2 way doesn't? Why not shut down SLI in general if it's actually hurting next gen sales, nvidia can pull pretty much anything they want right now anyways.

 

[shambles1980]

not having 3-4 way sli could hurt them if dx12 happens fast enough for amd to gain a decent market share. again if dx12 scales really well with multi gpu setups.. "which it really is designed to allow" then a lot of people may end up buying 4 amd cards that scale really well in dx 12 vs 2 nvidia cards that are more expensive and dont really scale that well.. or even if they do scale really well. you are still limited to 2.

i dont really understand why they would limit it. i know you are arguing that they want to sell next gen cards so want to limit the performance of current gen.
But thats suicidal if the competition "amd" arent doing it, and if 3 cheap amd cards give better performance than 2 nvidia cards for the same money AND also have an optional 4th card they can add later if they want, i dont see hw anyone at nvidia could have been sitting down and saying "I have a great idea how to keep selling our newer cards" then saying "lets not support more than 2 way sli then people will have to keep buying the new cards instead of using the epic scaling ability of dx 12"
Well i cant imagine them saying that then not getting fire for being an idiot..

Like i said though.. i cannot understand why they would limit it. if they were the only gpu mfrs then sure id get it.. sell more cards. but if amd support 4way xfire and scale well in dx 12. then its not a good move.

 

[SeekaX]

not having 3-4 way sli could hurt them if dx12 happens fast enough for amd to gain a decent market share. again if dx12 scales really well with multi gpu setups.. "which it really is designed to allow" then a lot of people may end up buying 4 amd cards that scale really well in dx 12 vs 2 nvidia cards that are more expensive and dont really scale that well.. or even if they do scale really well. you are still limited to 2.

i dont really understand why they would limit it. i know you are arguing that they want to sell next gen cards so want to limit the performance of current gen.
But thats suicidal if the competition "amd" arent doing it, and if 3 cheap amd cards give better performance than 2 nvidia cards for the same money AND also have an optional 4th card they can add later if they want, i dont see hw anyone at nvidia could have been sitting down and saying "I have a great idea how to keep selling our newer cards" then saying "lets not support more than 2 way sli then people will have to keep buying the new cards instead of using the epic scaling ability of dx 12"
Well i cant imagine them saying that then not getting fire for being an idiot..

Like i said though.. i cannot understand why they would limit it. if they were the only gpu mfrs then sure id get it.. sell more cards. but if amd support 4way xfire and scale well in dx 12. then its not a good move.

Who knows if the mid range cards will be capable of 4 way SLI. I mean who except for Kaapstad maybe is going to say 'Oh hell yea, let me spend 2k+ on GPUs for performance nobody needs'. AMD having 4 way CF for Vega wouldn't let them dominate the high end market, that's a niche of a niche.

 

[shambles1980]

im just thinking of all the people happy to go 2x1070's may decide 3x480's is just a much better decision.

i guess the 4x 1080 buyers who do it just for the bench results can still do that though so its not going to lose them that market. but there are a lot of people who buy a decent card then a year later buy a second one.. (970/1070 buyers)
Those people may end up going amd if xfire-sli scaling works brilliantly under dx12 but they can only use 2 nvidia cards when they could use 4 amd cards for the same price and get masses more performance..