Notebook SLI and Final Thoughts
SLI Enters the Notebook Realm
Though we don’t have very much information at this point in time, NVIDIA is announcing the release of SLI notebook computer configurations. That’s right, dual GPUs in a portable notebook computer; portable being the debatable term.
The first products released with notebook level SLI will be based on the GeForce Go 7800 series of parts, not a derivative of the just announced 7900 G71 parts.
Performance numbers on SLI notebooks are few and far between and I didn’t get one for any kind of testing, but the results from NVIDIA above comparing their own parts show a 50% or more improvement on a few benchmarks.
Technically, the only information I was able to gather at this point is that the connection between the GPUs on a notebook SLI configuration uses a custom cable from each GPU to the notebook motherboard and then back to the other GPU. At this time NVIDIA says there was not official standard for SLI design in a notebook form so all the systems that you might see for sale online are using custom hardware that NVIDIA helped them individually develop.
NVIDIA is claming availability of notebook SLI today, but I have my own doubts on this. While it might show up on vendor’s websites today, I would imagine that shipping units are still several weeks off at the least.
Final Thoughts
While ATI’s CrossFire was beginning to look very strong with the latest iteration of it, NVIDIA’s SLI is looking even more impressive with integration options like these shown here. Only a platform that has become very stable and accepted in the market would be able to pull out all the stops this early and introduce both a four GPU configuration SLI and notebook SLI simultaneously.
I for one can’t wait to get hold of both of these top of the line gaming desktop and notebook systems.
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