Only GeForce RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti to support NVLink - No Multi GPU for 2070?


Right, you probably have read my news item yesterday about the GeForce RTX announcement, have might have noticed that I only have written down the RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti being NVLINK compatible? Well, it is exactly that, as the 2070 cards do not show or reveal either an SLI or NVLink connector.
So in the same news item, I mentioned a thing or two about NVLINK, it is the new and very fast (100 Gb/sec) interconnects allowing to link up the graphics card. The details are a little scarce as to what and how this is going to work like for the new 2080 cards, we'll learn more about that in the days to come.
The interesting thing here is that the RTX 2070 does not show any support for NVLink, neither does it have an SLI finger. Now it could be that NVIDIA is scrapping multi-GPU support for the series 2070 and below, however, they could also offer some sort of rudimentary support linked over the PCIe bus.
As to what the reasoning is, is not clear, the GeForce RTX 2070 in Multi-GPU mode could be canalizing the 2080 (Ti) in performance. However, it could still be a different GPU as well (TU105/TU106).
Senior Member
Posts: 148
Joined: 2015-01-28
No SLI in the 1060 and now they move up a line to the 2070. Makes me wonder if the 1080TI i really just a titan and they are playing musical chairs with the card names. Usually the TI never comes out at launch.
Senior Member
Posts: 11023
Joined: 2014-07-21
Honestly, I'd be more interested in how that new NVlink really behaves than what card is compatible.
Senior Member
Posts: 16438
Joined: 2012-05-18
Lol, they know 2x 2070 would kick 2080ti ass and be cheaper doing it.. 12tflop tensor perf vs 10 by 2080ti says it all..
Senior Member
Posts: 881
Joined: 2017-08-18
mind reader

Senior Member
Posts: 13542
Joined: 2005-08-13
Once you factor in all the negative side effect, compatibility issues and less than perfect scaling, it would probably match the 2080 Ti at best. I don't see why anyone would be stupid enough to buy 2x2070's when there's 2080 Ti available.
Senior Member
Posts: 16438
Joined: 2012-05-18
I would be stupid enough, enough to save 200-300€ and still have better perf. Why wouldn't tensor core perf scale properly. That thing is independent from normal render.
Senior Member
Posts: 5842
Joined: 2010-10-16
Yep, sounds about right.
Considering:
- the ludicrous release pricing for 2080 Ti (the 2080 isn't exactly affordable either)
- likely marginalish gains over Pascal in performance (to be confirmed but wouldn't expect miracles given number of CUDA cores)
this Turing release starts to look like NV throwing fancy names around with RTX, charging people for that and kind of seeing what sticks.
Wouldn't be surprised if they release GTX 2080 series later with slightly reduced price, without RT or Tensor (?) cores but practically the same performance in non-RT games.
From what was seen in Tomb Raider RTX demo, enabling RT cripples performance even with 2080 Ti.
Welcome to new generation of cinematic gaming where you can do FullHD at 30 fps!
Somehow this Turing release starts to look less appealing by the day...
(granted, any kind of ray-tracing at even 30 fps is impressive as such, but how many would really sacrifice half their frame rate for RT?)
Senior Member
Posts: 6657
Joined: 2010-11-16
Tensor cores are not the problem. They are used in purely computational tasks and will scale beautifully. SLI rendering OTOH........
2080 Ti is the way to go. But not for 1300 euros.
I would give 1000 euros for one. It's a good deal Nvidia, you should take it

Senior Member
Posts: 9762
Joined: 2012-07-20
While that's correct. nVLink does not make two physical cards into one logical. Therefore such user is still at mercy of multi-GPU support in game.
And if they are used just for those new compute features, then Cuda/OpenCL/DirectCompute can't care less about some bridge between cards as it will open new context for each.
Member
Posts: 28
Joined: 2004-08-23
"could also offer some sort of rudimentary support linked over the PCIe bus"
So.. AMD with Radeon R9 + have a rudimentary linked

Senior Member
Posts: 13197
Joined: 2005-03-30
is nvlink a monthly subscription?:p
Senior Member
Posts: 2272
Joined: 2008-02-25
Perhaps people that dont have Ti sort of money burning a hole in there pockets
Senior Member
Posts: 3598
Joined: 2010-05-16
If it's true that enabling "Ray Tracing" in Tomb Raider smashes a RTX 2080 Ti down to ~35 FPS at a mere 1920x1080 resolution, then well --- screw that. I haven't gamed at 1080p in 6-7 years and I don't consider any kind of action or "FPS" game playable at 35 fps either. :rage:
Senior Member
Posts: 1805
Joined: 2006-04-10
Nvidia have been engineering the market and pricing of their cards for a few years now to force people into buying more expensive cards. People used to get a x70 card and then get another in a couple of years time either new or second hand. I think Nvidia wanted to stamp that out.
If Nvidia wanted to, they could work with game developers to get sIi working but IMHO, they have decided it's not in their interest to do so.
Senior Member
Posts: 452
Joined: 2018-05-03
Sounds fine to me. SLI/CFX are long dead. the only situation when it is acceptable is for the top end cards where if you need more performance, you have nothing to upgrade to basically.
Finally its dead.