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25-596: Skulltrail was one of the first platforms to support SLI on chipsets not designed by Nvidia . It achieves this by including two NVIDIA nForce 100 PCIe 1.1 switch chips (two x16 to one x16). The implementation of SLI supports Quad SLI technology, which is achieved through the use of two dual-GPU graphics cards from NVIDIA, including the GeForce 9800 GX2 . This gives a total of four graphics processors. Owners of Skulltrail systems can also make use of up to four ATI graphics cards using ATI CrossFireX technology, which made SkullTrail

50-597: A GeForce 8400 GS video card. HybridPower was later renamed as Nvidia Optimus . In May 2016 Nvidia announced that the GeForce 10 series would feature a new SLI HB (High Bandwidth) bridge; this bridge uses 2 SLI fingers on the PCB of each card and essentially doubles the available bandwidth between them. Only GeForce 10 series cards support SLI HB and only 2-way SLI is supported over this bridge for single-GPU cards. SLI HB interface runs at 650 MHz, while legacy SLI interface runs at slower 400 MHz. Electrically there

75-457: A master–slave configuration. All graphics cards are given an equal workload to render, but the final output of each card is sent to the master card via a connector called the SLI bridge. For example, in a two graphics card setup, the master works on the top half of the scene, the slave the bottom half. Once the slave is done, it sends its render to the master to combine into one image before sending it to

100-418: A comparable base functionality. Scan-Line Interleave Scan-Line Interleave ( SLI ) is a multi-GPU method developed by 3dfx for linking two (or more) video cards or chips together to produce a single output. It is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics , meant to increase the processing power available for graphics. 3dfx's SLI technology was first introduced in 1998 with

125-476: A major limiting factor for Skulltrail. although this limitation can be mitigated by purchasing specially designed Kingston HyperX FB-DIMMS that have a lower latency than generic FB-DIMMs The base Skulltrail platform consists of an Intel D5400XS mainboard which cost upwards of US$ 600 when it hit the market as a standalone part. Computers based on the Skulltrail platform also require high-output power supplies for both

150-414: A scene where the top half of the frame is mostly empty sky, the dividing line will lower, balancing geometry workload between the two GPUs. Each GPU renders entire frames in sequence. For example, in a two-way setup, one GPU renders the odd frames, the other the even frames, one after the other. Finished outputs are sent to the master for display. Ideally, this would result in the rendering time being cut by

175-461: A single output. SLI is a parallel processing algorithm for computer graphics, meant to increase the available processing power. The initialism SLI was first used by 3dfx for Scan-Line Interleave , which was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. After buying out 3dfx, Nvidia acquired the technology but did not use it. Nvidia later reintroduced

200-478: Is little difference between the regular SLI bridge and the SLI HB bridge. It is similar to two regular bridges combined in one PCB. The signal quality of the bridge improved, however, as the SLI HB bridge has an adjusted trace-length to make sure all traces on the bridge have exactly the same length. A PC gaming magazine did a comparison between SLI bridges and their SLI HB successors with X-rays, and found differences in

225-416: Is recommended for monitors up to 5K and surround. The following table provides an overview on the maximum theoretical bandwidth for data transfers depending on bridge type specifications as found on the open market: This analyzes the rendered image in order to split the workload equally between the two GPUs. To do this, the frame is split horizontally in varying ratios depending on geometry. For example, in

250-404: Is the generic name for two technologies, GeForce Boost and HybridPower. GeForce Boost allows the rendering power of an integrated graphics processor (IGP) and a discrete GPU to be combined in order to increase performance. HybridPower, on the other hand, is another mode that is not for performance enhancement. The setup consists of an IGP as well as a GPU on MXM module. The IGP would assist

275-466: Is traditionally included with motherboards that support SLI and is recommended for monitors up to 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 at 60 Hz. The LED bridge is sold by Nvidia, EVGA, and others and is recommended for monitors up to 2560×1440 at 120 Hz and above and 4K. The LED bridges can only function at the increased pixel clock if the GPU supports that clock. The high-bandwidth bridge is only sold by Nvidia and

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300-531: The Voodoo2 line of graphics accelerators. The original Voodoo Graphics card and the VSA-100 were also SLI-capable, however in the case of the former it was only used in arcades and professional applications. NVIDIA reintroduced the SLI acronym in 2004 as Scalable Link Interface . NVIDIA's SLI, compared to 3dfx's SLI, is modernized to use graphics cards interfaced over the PCI Express bus. 3dfx's SLI design

325-769: The 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas , Nevada . Skulltrail has a front side bus rate of 400 MHz (1600 MHz QDR ), and was demonstrated with two 45 nanometer High-κ processors running at 3.2 GHz. During the IDF , a 4.0 GHz phase cooled Skulltrail system was demonstrated. Then on October 22, 2007, the two processors were demonstrated running at 4.4 GHz with water cooling . They were demonstrated again on October 31, 2007, this time running at 5.0 GHz, with phase change cooling . On April 18, 2008, Tom's Hardware, reporting from an Overclocking Enthusiast site, reported that an overclocked speed of 6.006 GHz

350-576: The CPU and graphics cards, along with a computer chassis capable of accommodating the motherboard, which is based on an Extended ATX form factor design. However, Atomic reported that they could accommodate cheaper Xeon server microprocessors that fit in the LGA-771 socket, which was corroborated by Intel's official processor support list. Intel's Skulltrail D5400XS motherboard was made with two nForce chips. The Skulltrail D5400XS motherboard became now just one of

375-451: The GPU to boost performance when the laptop is plugged to a power socket while the MXM module would be shut down when the laptop was unplugged from power socket to lower overall graphics power consumption. Hybrid SLI is also available on desktop Motherboards and PCs with PCI-E discrete video cards. NVIDIA claims that twice the performance can be achieved with a Hybrid SLI capable IGP motherboard and

400-471: The PCB tracing allowed clock rates to go up from 400 MHz to 650 MHz and thus the data rates along with that. With the increased bus width a noticeable bandwidth increase should be expected; however tests with a GTX 1080 GPU showed the improvements in gaming performance were marginal. Newer HB bridges are LED illuminated (often back-side-illuminating some logo) and as a result more costly than earlier bridges at

425-437: The SLI name in 2004 and intended for it to be used in modern computer systems based on the PCI Express (PCIe) bus; however, the technology behind the name SLI has changed dramatically. SLI allows two, three, or four graphics processing units (GPUs) to share the workload when rendering real-time 3D computer graphics . Ideally, identical GPUs are installed on the motherboard that contains enough PCI Express slots, set up in

450-411: The frame is not reduced – which means that AFR is not a viable method of reducing input lag. This is a standalone rendering mode that offers up to double the antialiasing performance by splitting the antialiasing workload between the two graphics cards, offering superior image quality. One GPU performs an antialiasing pattern which is slightly offset to the usual pattern (for example, slightly up and to

475-412: The monitor. The SLI bridge is used to reduce bandwidth constraints and send data between both graphics cards directly. It is possible to run SLI without using the bridge connector on a pair of low-end to mid-range graphics cards (e.g., 7100GS or 6600GT) with Nvidia's Forceware drivers 80.XX or later. Since these graphics cards do not use as much bandwidth, data can be relayed through just the chipsets on

500-471: The motherboard. However, if there are two high-end graphics cards installed and the SLI bridge is omitted, the performance will suffer severely, as the chipset does not have enough bandwidth. Configurations include: Nvidia has created a set of custom video game profiles in cooperation with video game publishers that will automatically enable SLI in the mode that gives the largest performance boost. Nvidia has three types of SLI bridges: The standard bridge

525-409: The motherboards available, along with motherboards with X58 and P55 chipsets, that runs both nVidia 's SLI and ATI's Crossfire platforms out of the box with public hardware drivers . Scalable Link Interface Scalable Link Interface ( SLI ) is the brand name for a now discontinued multi- GPU technology developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce

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550-400: The number of GPUs available. In their advertising, Nvidia claims up to 1.9 times the performance of one card with the two-way setup. While AFR may produce higher overall framerates than SFR, it also exhibits the temporal artifact known as micro stuttering , which may affect frame rate perception. It is noteworthy that while the frequency at which frames arrive may be doubled, the time to produce

575-515: The only platform (other than Intel X58 and P55 Chipset) to support both SLI and CrossFire with public drivers at the time of release. The HP Firebird 803 also supported SLI on one (proprietary, MXM) motherboard at the time, but the drivers were special and only available for Firebird hardware. Intel demonstrated Skulltrail at the Fall 2007 Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco , California , and at

600-547: The right), and the second GPU uses a pattern offset by an equal amount in the opposite direction (down and to the left). Compositing both the results gives higher image quality than is normally possible. This mode is not intended for higher frame rates, and can actually lower performance, but is instead intended for games which are not GPU-bound, offering a clearer image in place of better performance. When enabled, SLI antialiasing offers advanced antialiasing options: SLI 8×, SLI 16×, and SLI 32× (for quad SLI systems only). Hybrid SLI

625-447: Was achieved on an 8-core Skulltrail setup. Although found to be an extremely powerful computing platform, Skulltrail was criticized by media outlets for being "ahead of its time". This is in part due to the lack of support for multi-core computing with almost all popular game engines at the time, in addition to the extremely high price of the components involved. The use of FB-DIMMs due to the workstation chipset has also been pointed at as

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