NVIDIA Forceware 77.72 - SLI without bridge
Bluetooth 23 June 2005

Introduction

Today, NVIDIA announce that the 6600 will be able to run in SLI. It wouldn't be difficult to guess that both cards do not need any BRIDGE to interconnect the cards to run in SLI mode.

According to various source, it seems that the new driver allows one to run two cards in SLI mode. In fact, even 6600GT, 6800GT and even the 7800GFX can run in SLI mode without the bridge. Although it works, there is a drop in performance. In fact, I heard that 6200 can be run in SLI too.

Is this NVIDIA's strategy to ensure its position in both the graphics and platform chipset by introducing this software update ? The answer is very clear.

We went ahead and tested our 6600GT with and without bridge on a NF4 SLI mainboard. Previously my system was running 71.89. I removed the bridge and 71.89 was able to allow SLI without bridge to work (preliminary)? Anyway, I installed the 77.72 and rebooted.

On startup, it detected an SLI capable system and asked if I want to enable SLI. Yes of course. A pop up window says that Performance will be better if a bridge is installed. Another reboot confirms SLI is setup and I am back to WinXP, ready to run some benchmarks to test the performances of SLI capable 6600GT with and without bridge connected.

On next page, you will see the screen shots of 3Dmark2003 and 3DMark2005.

Discuss in Forum

Next >>>

(C) Copyright 1998-2009 OCWorkbench.com