NVIDIA gets official with Hybrid SLI technology

We had a hunch NVIDIA was prepping Hybrid SLI technology, and although it's taken over half a year for it to go official, we suppose now's better than never. As we already knew, the tech's primary purpose in life is to increase graphics performance and decrease power consumption simultaneously, and apparently, it will soon be incorporated into a "wide variety of graphics and motherboard desktop and notebook products." In case you've forgotten, Hybrid SLI enables NVIDIA motherboard GPUs to work cooperatively with discrete NVIDIA GPUs when paired in the same PC platform, and only the GPU(s) needed will be called upon in order to save energy (and battery life in laptops). For more on what upcoming products will sport the technology, head on down to the read link.

[Via HotHardware]

[kojo87 @ Jan 7th 2008 9:00PM]

kinda interesting but why would you not use one of your system's GPUs? if you have an SLI setup wouldnt you always want to be running both cards (usually just for the hell of it)?

and does anyone really play games (other than minesweeper) while their laptop isn't plugged in?

[Dan Z @ Jan 7th 2008 9:04PM]

The main point is you don't need one or two 300W (or how ever much) video cards chugging away when you are reading Engadet. It allows your system to save power, and in turn heat, and then lower or no fan speeds, which is obviously a good thing

[aguiluz @ Jan 7th 2008 9:07PM]

I did play Stronghold 1 on my old laptop (1.6 GHZ Celeron, Integrated GFX, 128MB ram) and it "shortened" the waiting time on my mom's meeting and my doctor's appointment.

Played from afternoon to night time (of course with some hibernates along the time) and the battery called it quits after 7 missions.

How I miss that laptop.

[jay.viz @ Jan 7th 2008 9:08PM]

@Dan Z
They don't do that anyway.
This is just another gimmick to stab ATi with.

[aguiluz @ Jan 7th 2008 9:10PM]

And, yes, no plug-ins, no charges, just pure battery power.

My laptop is a FOSA (link below) and the Frame Rate did not dip along the game.

http://www.fosa.com

P.S: My laptop is already discontinued, but I say it was great when it came out. Spent $1000 on it.

[aguiluz @ Jan 7th 2008 9:10PM]

And, yes, no plug-ins, no charges, just pure battery power.

My laptop is a FOSA (link below) and the Frame Rate did not dip along the game.

http://www.fosa.com

P.S: My laptop is already discontinued, but I say it was great when it came out. Spent $1000 on it.

[Hung @ Jan 7th 2008 9:27PM]

aguiluz, thanks for the bio. *PAUSE* Not.

[kojo87 @ Jan 7th 2008 9:28PM]

i dont think they are tryingf to stick it to ATi so much as they realize ATi is making a comeback. i could understand the commotion when the HD 2000 series flopped but the new HD 3000 series is really giving NVIDIA a go. the 3870 is pretty hard to beat for the price and the Spider platform is gonna kick some ass.

[jay.viz @ Jan 7th 2008 9:03PM]

I wish they'd stop using SLI for everything. It's getting old. Even if they paid a ton of money for Voodoo Graphics, it's not Scan Line Interleave anymore.

[LegendZ28 @ Jan 7th 2008 9:12PM]

How exactly is this a hybrid system? Or are they just trying to milk the terminology to move product?

[kojo87 @ Jan 7th 2008 9:21PM]

im pretty sure thats exactly what they are doing. Hybrid is just a buzz word now that doesnt have a definite meaning anymore. its like the Madison buses that say "hybrid electric" By definition it is electric if it is a hybrid but either people dont get that or whoever painted the bus is dumb.

same with HD. HD Radio does not stand for High Definition like they'd like you to think. it actually stands for Hybrid Digital but they're just riding that HD wave.

[FrankTheCrank @ Jan 7th 2008 9:31PM]

Hybrid. tee-hee! Ya-sure...

Can't wait for AMD to go E85.

Nvidia...you are dumbasses.

[KirkH @ Jan 7th 2008 9:39PM]

When I use 3d interfaces in Linux/Vista my loud vid card kicks in. It would be great to see a base level 3d available and integrated into motherboards for UI with the beast only kicking in when gaming.

[Joshua Walters @ Jan 7th 2008 9:42PM]

Oh, so its nothing I will end up using (probably).

Lame.

Cool for those who will use it, but lame for me.

All of this assumes I understood the fact that its mainly for Laptops and portable computers, right?

[Samuel.N.Woods @ Jan 7th 2008 10:13PM]

Nice try Nvidia, too bad ATI has been getting every new advance out before you in the couple of months..this is no exception.

[Bert154 @ Jan 8th 2008 12:30AM]

It seems to me that they are trying to conserve power in PCs with an onboard integrated GPU *AND* a dedicated graphics GPU. It will use the integrated GPU to conserve power when the PC is being used for processes that aren't graphic intensive and kick in the dedicated GPU when it is needed for gaming and whatnot. Of course how does that translate to Windows Vista and how it has to use your GPU all of the time to take advantage of the AERO interface? And I am still not sure as to how that applies to laptops either.

At least that is what the "new" technology sounded like it was all about to me. Still think nVidia kicks "A" though!!!

[Sam Winter @ Jan 8th 2008 1:00AM]

God, all the people in the comments are stupid gamer fanboys. Get over it and look at the big picture.
This is an excellent feature and a lot of people should find it quite useful. I myself have a Dell 17" with a geforce go 7800. It would be great to be able to shut the damn thing off and use an intel GMA when I'm not using a 3D app.

[OneLove @ Jan 8th 2008 12:38PM]

All these graphics manufacturers want is to fill your case with GPU's. nothing but GPU's