2-way sli vs quad-gpu sli ? what is the differences ?

[andi okem]

link
Pls see the attachment. This is the comparison between 2 motherboards :
left : asus x99 deluxe II , right : asus rog strix x99

both motherboards support 2-way sli and 3-way sli (max 3way). But in the description there, on the left side (deluxe II), rather than write '2-way sli' , it's written as 'quad-gpu sli' . So what is the differences? and what should i am aware of while choosing the vga.

 

[getochkn]

Quad means 4, so it supports 4 GPU's over 2.

 

[andi okem]

Quad means 4, so it supports 4 GPU's over 2.

so then what the difference between quad gpu sli and 4-way sli ?

 

[weberdarren97]

Quad GPU SLI means it can support two dual GPU cards like a pair of GTX 690's.

Four way SLI would mean that it can support four separate cards, like four 980 ti's if you really hate your money.

The drawbacks of SLI still exist:
1) Not all games support SLI. many will only use a single GPU even though multiple are readily available. This applies to dual GPU cards as well.
2) Power consumption and heat output. I think this one speaks for itself.
3) Non-linear scaling. Very few games are coded well enough to get even 1.8x performance out of two GPUs vs a single GPU. Many scale much worse, some do not scale at all (don't support SLI).
4) Microstutter. While you may achieve a much higher framerate than with a single GPU, you may notice sudden spikes of stutter and/or your minimum FPS may take a significant hit when using multiple GPUs.

 

[offroadguy56]

2 way SLI is 2 video cards, 3 way is 3 cards, and 4 way is 4 cards. Quad SLI is 2 cards with 2 gpu's on them, for a total of 4 GPUs. You can't have 4 cards with 2 GPUs each. The drivers just don't support that. But they can be used individually like in a virtual machine application.

 

[andi okem]

Quad GPU SLI means it can support two dual GPU cards like a pair of GTX 690's.

Four way SLI would mean that it can support four separate cards, like four 980 ti's if you really hate your money.

The drawbacks of SLI still exist:
1) Not all games support SLI. many will only use a single GPU even though multiple are readily available. This applies to dual GPU cards as well.
2) Power consumption and heat output. I think this one speaks for itself.
3) Non-linear scaling. Very few games are coded well enough to get even 1.8x performance out of two GPUs vs a single GPU. Many scale much worse, some do not scale at all (don't support SLI).
4) Microstutter. While you may achieve a much higher framerate than with a single GPU, you may notice sudden spikes of stutter and/or your minimum FPS may take a significant hit when using multiple GPUs.

Thanks , very good information. So my question is if the motherboard like x99 deluxe II said to support quad-gpu sli, does it mean only support quad-gpu like xx90 series ? or will the single gpu like 980ti or 1080 work well ?

 

[weberdarren97]

Quad GPU SLI means it can support two dual GPU cards like a pair of GTX 690's.

Four way SLI would mean that it can support four separate cards, like four 980 ti's if you really hate your money.

The drawbacks of SLI still exist:
1) Not all games support SLI. many will only use a single GPU even though multiple are readily available. This applies to dual GPU cards as well.
2) Power consumption and heat output. I think this one speaks for itself.
3) Non-linear scaling. Very few games are coded well enough to get even 1.8x performance out of two GPUs vs a single GPU. Many scale much worse, some do not scale at all (don't support SLI).
4) Microstutter. While you may achieve a much higher framerate than with a single GPU, you may notice sudden spikes of stutter and/or your minimum FPS may take a significant hit when using multiple GPUs.

Thanks , very good information. So my question is if the motherboard like x99 deluxe II said to support quad-gpu sli, does it mean only support quad-gpu like xx90 series ? or will the single gpu like 980ti or 1080 work well ?

You can run up to three cards (any cards), with up to four total GPUs between all the cards.

Possible SLI configurations:
1) Two single GPU cards (like the GTX 1080 or 980 ti)
2) Three single GPU cards (like the GTX 1080 or 980 ti if you really hate your money)
3) Two dual GPU cards (like the GTX 690)