NVIDIA Ends SLI Support and is Transitioning to Native Game Integrations (read terminated)

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 09/18/2020 07:15 AM | source: | 46 comment(s)

NVIDIA on its website is listing a new support entry, and while diplomatically written, if you read through the lines, it says SLI support has now officially ended.

It has been a sign of the times for a long time, SLI support. Even the new RTX 3080 did not come with an NVLINK connector. Interesting though is that they specifically mention RTX 20 and below, and not RTX 30.

NVIDIA SLI Support Transitioning to Native Game Integrations

With the emergence of low level graphics APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan, game developers are able to implement SLI support natively within the game itself instead of relying upon a SLI driver profile. The expertise of the game developer within their own code allows them to achieve the best possible performance from multiple GPUs. As a result, NVIDIA will no longer be adding new SLI driver profiles on RTX 20 Series and earlier GPUs starting on January 1st, 2021. Instead, we will focus efforts on supporting developers to implement SLI natively inside the games. We believe this will provide the best performance for SLI users.

Existing SLI driver profiles will continue to be tested and maintained for SLI-ready RTX 20 Series and earlier GPUs. For GeForce RTX 3090 and future SLI-capable GPUs, SLI will only be supported when implemented natively within the game.

What DirectX 12 games support SLI natively within the game?

DirectX 12 titles include Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Civilization VI, Sniper Elite 4, Gears of War 4, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, Strange Brigade, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Hitman, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Battlefield 1, and Halo Wars 2.

What Vulkan games support SLI natively within the game?

Vulkan titles include Red Dead Redemption 2, Quake 2 RTX, Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, Strange Brigade, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War

How about creative and other non-gaming applications -- will those still support multiple GPUs?

Yes, many creative and other non-gaming applications support multi-GPU performance scaling without the use of SLI driver profiles. These apps will continue to work across all currently supported GPUs as it does today.

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Undying
Senior Member

Posts: 14914
Joined: 2008-08-28

#5831830 Posted on: 09/18/2020 12:22 PM

I remember the time when nvidia and ati ware saying multi gpu is the future.

Deleted member 213629
Unregistered

#5831835 Posted on: 09/18/2020 12:30 PM

I remember the time when nvidia and ati ware saying multi gpu is the future.

This (7800GT) man... I still remember the ad and the man with his little jetpack backpack

geogan
Senior Member

Posts: 798
Joined: 2010-01-04

#5831863 Posted on: 09/18/2020 01:09 PM

It - the use of multiple GPUs to speed up framerate - is not dead. The requirement of the SLI bridge connector is dead. Game devs need to implement multi-GPU support directly into their code while writing their game engine. Probably not easy. But IMO should be compulsory for VR related games engines and code, so we could use one GPU-per-eye to get decent framerates in certain tough applications. Probably not as critically needed for desktop.

Anyway as always it suits Nvidia for it to be not used - sell more expensive high-end cards that way.

DeskStar
Senior Member

Posts: 1117
Joined: 2011-01-11

#5831864 Posted on: 09/18/2020 01:12 PM

The fact that the 3080 does not have a sli connector is very bad imho.
I understand pushing the 3090 more, but knowing that 2 3080 would make the 3090 useless and stopping it... seems bad.
No it wouldn't. 10gb of VRAM already makes the 3080 useless....

It's going to be obvious when playing any games that demand a lot of VRAM.

Get these reviewers to use the division 2 as a benchmark. Gone will be that 10gb of VRAM.

Run neon noir from cryengine. Chews up more vram than you've got.

DeskStar
Senior Member

Posts: 1117
Joined: 2011-01-11

#5831865 Posted on: 09/18/2020 01:13 PM

i feel bad for a friend that just bought a second 1080 ti XD

I would too.....!

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