The most talked about graphics technology of this year has easily been SLI. Designed by NVIDIA, SLI allows two select graphics cards to work together. The ability to link two powerful NVIDIA graphics cards together does sound impressive. However I believe that the most important reason that NVIDIA has received so much attention is because they were the first to deliver AMD followers with PCI Express technology.
They did this with the nForce4 chipset series which of course does come in an SLI flavor. SLI (Scalable Link Interface) allows a single system to combine two NVIDIA graphics cards to scale system performance. This technology takes advantage of the increased bandwidth of the PCI Express bus. Currently the ability to operate the GeForce 6600 GT, 6800 GT and 6800 Ultra in SLI mode is possible. The two cards are linked together using what is known as a bridge chip.
While this technology has the power to almost double the frame rates when operating in SLI mode, you have to remember it will also cost twice as much to use. For example, a GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI setup will cost around $1000 US for the graphics cards alone. Sadly there are few games that take full advantage of SLI technology, or more to the point NVIDIA have only optimized their drivers for a handful of games. The fact still remains that SLI technology is better optimized for benchmarks, rather than the actual games it will be played with.
After almost a year of playing with SLI related hardware it is safe to say the technology is more of a marketing scheme than a technology. Time and time again representatives from various companies try to convince me that two GeForce 6600 GT's in SLI mode are far better value than a single Radeon X850XT. They believe this because the GeForce 6600 GT cards are able to produce higher 3Dmark scores. However, when it comes to real world performance the only game the Radeon X850XT might fall behind in is Doom 3.
Although I am yet to be sold on NVIDIA's SLI technology there are plenty that will swear by it. Originally when the technology was released late last year only AMD users had the option of upgrading to it. Now NVIDIA are offering the technology on both AMD and Intel platforms using the nForce4 SLI chipset. This chipset which was originally designed for AMD 939-pin processors featured a single chip design. The modified ?Intel Edition?nForce4 chipset now features a North/Southbridge chip design.
The Intel version still goes by the same model name; now there is simply an AMD and Intel version. The list of supported features is very extensive, covering everything from SLI support to built-in firewalls. While the chipset itself offers a wide variety of features, EPoX has also included a few of their own inventions to the list. The EPoX 5NVA+SLi is certainly not the most feature packed SLI board on the market. However, it will be one of the more affordable nForce4 SLI motherboards available.
EPoX EP-9NPAJ SLi Review (2005-08-30)