SLI Flexibility

Jean-Marc also took some time to explain the flexibility of NVIDIA's SLI system. Although many people assume that you should buy an SLI-capable motherboard only if you wish to run two cards in SLI, that is only one of the many possibilities.

SLI capability need not be restricted to those who only intend to run cards in SLI. Some users might want the option of upgrading to SLI cards in the future. For these users, the second PCIe X16 slot will not be wasted. This chart explains NVIDIA's vision.

As long as you have one SLI-capable card in the system, your options are open. You can choose to buy a second card and run them in SLI, or you can install any other PCIe card.

NVIDIA has worked hard to ensure that their SLI-capable chipsets can auto-negotiate the appropriate protocols for each PCIe slot. So, there's virtually no performance loss even if you install a PCIe x1 card.

For example, you may have an NVIDIA 7800 GTX in the first PCIe X16 slot. Even if you install a RAID card that supports only PCIe X1 transfers, the NVIDIA chipset will autonegotiate both slots and ensure that the first PCIe slot runs at full X16 while the second PCIe slot runs only at X1.

Possible SLI Developments

We also took the opportunity to query Jean-Marc about the possibility of getting two different NVIDIA graphics card models to run in SLI. This would naturally be a great advantage to people who are upgrading.

Instead of selling their older card at a loss, they can harness its processing power and use it to improve the system's graphics processing power. For example, if you have a GeForce 6800GT, wouldn't it be great if you could just buy a new GeForce 7800GT and run both cards in SLI?

Jean-Marc said that it was a possibility but when queried on whether it was a possibility that NVIDIA might actively pursue, he refused to comment. According to him, NVIDIA will definitely develop such a feature if there's truly a lot of interest in it.

So we should all make a big hoo-hah about it and then maybe NVIDIA will develop it! We think it would be a great feature and give upgraders the option to extend the working life of their old cards.

Now, let's take a quick look at some key features of the new NVIDIA chipsets.