Advantages and dis-advantages of using SLI Bridge

Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is basically a multi-GPU proprietary solution developed by Nvidia. Initially, it was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. This SLI allows two or more graphics cards to be linked together to split the information to be rendered.

Generally, having a couple of GPU gives more power to render by splitting the task between the cards. As one card renders the image, the other processes the rest. This SLI basically communicates across a special connector called an SLI bridge rather than through the PCIe ports on the motherboard.

Advantages

The Scalable Link Interface (SLI) is designed to give you a significant boost in performance by sharing the processing of a single card with one or more other cards

When it comes to performance, the SLI is best suited for those systems, which is aimed for significant performance greater than what high-end cards can achieve.

Another advantage over SLI is that it can be a more cost-effective way to see immediate gains, which is a single card will always be efficient at rendering than two cards trying to work simultaneously.

It has more calculation power and can have the performance of the best cards on the market for about 2/3 the price.

Disadvantages

One of the main drawbacks of SLI is huge power consumption and not compatible with every application as well. In some cases, the extra GPU power is bottlenecked by the capabilities of your CPU.

Sometimes due to inefficiencies of two GPUs coordination on a single task, some applications may go down in performance than they would with a single-card equivalent.

Another drawback is that the SLI configurations cost more than their single-GPU counterparts. As they are high-end products, it will cost you more than the added price of the second GPU.

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