Earlier this month we reported that EVGA would be producing its own version of Nvidia's SLI High Bandwidth bridges (aka SLI HB). Today, the company unveiled all the details on its new bridges that we did not know previously, particularly pricing and what the connectors look like.
EVGA is calling the new SLI HB bridges the EVGA Pro SLI HB Bridge and it will be available in several sizes to accommodate your particular card spacing. Note that the 0 slot, 1 slot, 2 slot, and 4 slot spacing bridges are all for two graphics card setups; you will not be able to use these bridges for Tri SLI or Quad SLI setups. While Nvidia did not show the underside of the HB bridges when it first announced them alongside the GTX 1080 graphics card, thanks to EVGA you can finally see what the connectors look like.
As many surmised, the new high bandwidth bridges use both fingers of the SLI connectors on each card to connect the two cards together. Previously (using the old-style SLI bridges), it was possible to connect card A to card B using one set of connectors and Card B to Card C using the second set of connectors for example. Now, you are limited to two card multi-GPU setups. That is the downside; however, the upside is that the HB bridges promise to deliver all of the necessary bandwidth to allow for high speed 4K and NVIDIA Surround display setups. While you will not necessarily see higher frame rates, the HB bridges should allow for improved frame times which will mean smoother gameplay on those very high resolution monitors!
The new SLI bridges are all black with an EVGA logo in the middle that is backlit by an LED. Users are able to use a switch along the bottom edge of the pcb to select from red, green, blue, and white LED colors. In my opinion these bridges look a lot better than the Nvidia SLI HB bridge renders from our computex story (hehe).
Now, as for pricing: EVGA is pricing its SLI HB bridges at $39.99 with the 2 slot spacing and 4 slot spacing bridges available now and the 0 slot and 1 slot spaced bridges set to be available soon (you can sign up to be notified when they are available for purchase). Hopefully reviews will be updated shortly around the net with the new bridges to see what impact they really have on multi-GPU gaming performance (or if they will just be better looking alternatives to the older LED bridges or ribbon bridges)!
Also read:
Should be free with
Should be free with card………Its a rip off
Welcome to NVidia Marketing
Welcome to NVidia Marketing 😛
To be fair, we’ll see if AMD comes up with anything similar and how they market it (will be honest that I don’t know current Crossfire bandwidth speeds or how they compare here). Especially with AMD stating to push towards multiple card setups, higher bandwidth could become a (slight) selling point.
DX12/Vulkan new GPU
DX12/Vulkan new GPU multi-adaptor support will be used in the future games so the graphics API and the gaming engines/games will be managing what GPUs get what tasks. So it will not matter what GPU makers GPUs are plugged into the PCIe slots or what GPU is on the SOC, the GPUs will just be listed as another available resource to the OS/Graphics API with the game able to dispatch work to the GPU/s by a Vulkan, or DX12, call. The Drivers for the GPU/s will be much simpler once the gaming industry/game engine makers make use of DX12’s and Vulkan’s GPU Multi-adaptor support.
New SLI bridges? 1990s here
New SLI bridges? 1990s here we come! 😀
Oh wait…
They’ve been extremely
They’ve been extremely misleading about these bridges, and you at PC Per are culpable in the confusion on this one.
Go back to the 1080 Tom Peterson interview where he said 980ti SLI 4K users would absolutely need these for 1080 SLI 4K performance and that the 980ti SLI at 4K had been gimped the whole time.
Now it’s much more clear that these are only useful for 4K OVER 60fps or extreme surround setups.
Even now they are all misleading about what 1 ribbon vs 2 ribbons, 1 led vs 2 led, or an hb bridge differences even are with real world performance improvements.
Only slide to back these things has been a cleaning of frame times at like 3x 4K surround.
Really disgusting. Please have clarifying coverage on the worth or worthlessness of this product.
To be fair, Ryan did try to
To be fair, Ryan did try to get clarification on the new SLI bridges but Tom was the one skirting around the issue. It’s not like Ryan could have done anything else about it at the time as he didn’t have anything to test.
Once they get one of these new ones in, I would assume they are going to test it against both using both a single ribbon, as well as two ribbons. Most people are guessing the difference will be fairly marginal, if at all.
If they perform identically then nVidia is going to have a lot to answer for. But, if the new bridges perform even slightly better they will say that they only recommend using the HB bridges as it is the “best” experience. It is the same argument they use for 2-way SLI. I would agree with most people and say that is a dumb argument, but we are talking about a $40 bridge, if somebody is buying two 1080s and extra $40 on top of $1200+.
At the end of the day, if these new bridges actually make a difference then that is great. And if they don’t, we all get to call them on their bullshit.
Really hoping PCPer does some
Really hoping PCPer does some benchmarks on these. Everybody has been speculating from the start about whether or not you could just use two ribbon SLI cables to get the same result as these fancy marketing bridges. If these actually offer better performance then great. But, if not, you guys will get to call nVidia on their bullshit.
LOL.. having to PAY for
LOL.. having to PAY for bridges of ANY sort = FAIL
Having to pay EXTRA for “HD/PRO/UHD” bridges and at same time being limited to 2 cards = nVfail Uber Extreme Edition
Don’t forget the extra for
Don’t forget the extra for the early, Nvidia is charging $100.00 extra for that founders sticker that cost about 25 cents to make! That’s one hell of a markup for a two-bit sticker for even more of that traditional Nvidia style sticker shock!
Overpaying is a nvidia
Overpaying is a nvidia tradition!