CES 2008: NVIDIA and its hybrid SLI
Now officially announced thanks to the exhibition.
Surely many have heard of many things about NVIDIA’s latest SLI technology. In connection with the official announcement, let us pour a little clear water into the glass!
The essence of being a hybrid is that the integrated GPU on our motherboard and the "dedicated" video card inserted in the PCI Express rail can cooperate without any hiccups and also efficiently. Basically, "Hybrid SLI" will have two modes: minimized consumption (HybridPower) and maximized performance (GeForce Boost). Since the two are the opposite of each other, it is completely logical that there can be no question of simultaneous operation.
The explanation of the two modes is actually extremely simple. HybridPower means nothing more than SMBUS being given the task of turning the dedicated video card on and off. From here, the formula is clear: if we crawl on our operating system desktop, for example, we don't need our muscular 3D card, so we can safely turn it off - resulting in a significant reduction in consumption.
GeForce Boost is the opposite, though. If we launch an application that requires 3D computing - don't give me a game - my God - both the dedicated and the integrated GPU can be put to war - at the same time. In this way, they help each other create the image - it doesn't matter which control output we connect our monitor to - by distributing the frames to be created in proportion to the power. According to our information so far, only the GeForce 8500 GT and 8400 GS support GeForce Boost so far.
Of course, all of this requires compatible motherboards, which is (among other things) why NVIDIA created the nForce 700A chipset family, which is naturally designed to serve the AMD platform. The following models will be released in the near future: 730A, 750A, and 780A, priced at US$80, US$120, and US$250, respectively. The 780 also supports triple SLI, while the newcomer in the middle "only" supports the normal version; the 730, on the other hand, is not compatible with HybridPower.
