I'm sure some of you have heard by now about SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology, which allows a system to run two graphics processors in tandem, resulting in a substantial improvement in performance. Naturally, some of you have also heard that it's been making its way into the notebook sector.
This is rumor control. Here are the facts.
SLI is available in some notebooks, but appearing only in the largest, heaviest of desktop replacements. These machines will be loud, heavy, oversized, and have comically low battery life. They barely qualify as notebooks and are better described as "portable computers."
Additionally, these notebooks demand a high premium. If you simply must have the fastest gaming performance available in a portable package, and you're willing to spend for it, then you may want to seek one of these beasts out.
SLI appears only using nVidia Go 7800 and 7900 series parts, as it is an nVidia technology. ATI has a similar technology in the desktop market called CrossFire, but it has yet to make the transition, and I haven't heard of any plans to do so. This is an extremely niche market.
A crucial point to make about SLI on either platform is that the performance increase is NOT linear. Two graphics processors will NOT double performance. Typical gains are between 30% and 50%. This is due to latency with the two graphics processors communicating with one another, and driver support. Some games run better with SLI than others; in some isolated cases, SLI may even slightly reduce performance on a game that the driver hasn't been coded to run it on. However, most mainstream games will see a substantial performance increase.
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