HybridSli
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EVGA GeForce GTX 275 co-opts a GTS 250 for PhysX duties
Ready for some more dual-GPU madness, only this time in the resplendent green of NVIDIA? EVGA has gone and concocted a special Halloween edition of the GTX 275, which has sprouted an entire GTS 250 appendage solely for PhysX gruntwork. Dubbed a new form of Hybrid SLI, EVGA's latest combines -- for the first time, from what we can tell -- two different GPUs and assigns them with specific and mutually exclusive tasks. Whether this concept takes off will depend to a large extent on the effectiveness of PhysX acceleration and whether it can show more efficient scaling than regular old SLI with two boards or more conventional dual-GPU setups like the GTX 295. Color us intrigued, either way. P.S. - That's what the actual card will look like, we're not making it up.%Gallery-77092%
Microsoft disses Hybrid SLI and CrossFire, won't support them in Windows 7
We're expecting a ton of new laptops to support hybrid graphics thanks to chipsets like NVIDIA's soon-to-be-ubiquitous GeForce 9400M, but Microsoft isn't as enamored with hybrid graphics as most everyone else seems to be -- it says it won't be natively supporting them in Windows 7. In a just-released document titled Guidelines for Graphics in Windows 7, the company discourages manufacturers from shipping systems with hybrid graphics like ATI's CrossFire and NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI, claiming they're "unstable and provide a poor user experience." Oh, snap. One less reason to install Windows 7 on your MacBook Pro, eh wot?
New MacBook Pro running Hybrid SLI? UPDATE: Nope.
Alright, something's fishy here. When Apple announced that the new MacBook Pro has two NVIDIA GeForce chips -- the 9400M and the 9600M GT -- the focus was on what that means for battery life. Absent any mention of Hybrid SLI, we assumed that was all, but PC Mag has posted some eyebrow-raising benchmarks comparing the new MacBook Pro to HP's Pavilion HDX16t, which also features a 9600M GT. While the MacBook Pro test model fell behind the Pavilion in most benchmarks due to its slower processor, its Crysis framerate beat that of the Pavilion by 24.1 frames per second -- 41.9 over 17.3. That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you look at benchmarks of a desktop with NVIDIA's similar GeForce 9300 chipset and a GeForce 8500 GT -- turns out Crysis runs 12.63 frames per second faster (29.19 over 16.56) in Hybrid SLI than it does on the 8500 GT alone. Is the MacBook Pro running in SLI mode when set for performance? We don't have confirmation of that, but we'll put it to the test in our forthcoming review -- until then, feel free to grab a grain of salt while freaking out anyway.Update: Sorry, folks -- NVIDIA's just posted a support doc that says the MBP doesn't support Hybrid SLI in either OS X or Windows -- and when running Windows, it's locked into using the 9600M GT. We're not sure where that Crysis boost is coming from -- GDDR3 vs GDDR2, perhaps -- but we'll dig deeper in our review. Stay tuned.Read - PC Mag (MacBook Pro benchmarks)Read - Hot Hardware (NVIDIA GeForce 9300 desktop motherboards benchmarks)
Shuttle's SN78SH7 supports Hybrid SLI, launches Friday
Shuttle's SN78SH7 was briefly caught struttin' its stuff at CES this year, but after months on end of waiting, the thing is just about ready to start shipping to eager consumers. Hailed as the first small-form-factor PC to support NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI technology, this block can be equipped with AMD's Phenom X4 processor, 4GB of RAM and Windows Vista (among other things). No word on a price, but it should be quite apparent come Friday.
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]
NVIDIA prepping power-saving Hybrid SLI technology
X-bit Labs reports that NVIDIA is working on some new SLI technology that'll not only cut power consumption, but boost performance (sort of) as well. Key to this so-called Hybrid SLI technology are two different operating modes that kick in depending on the application: a Power Saving mode that switches off the discrete graphics core when it's not needed, and a Max Performance mode that turns on the juice for games or other demanding applications. In addition to desktops, NVIDIA also sees this solution as a boon to laptops, which could take advantage of the low power mode when on battery power, and kick into high gear when plugged in. Unfortunately, NVIDIA isn't sayin' too much else at the moment, but it is promising that the first Hybrid SLI-based systems will be available "late this year."[Thanks, Mack S]
