So far, any time any news item was popped up about NVidia Hybrid SLI and ATI’s CrossFire technologies it brought a lots of hope and excitement for hard-core gamers. But, it seams that Microsoft is going to convert this excitmen a terrible headache for enthusiast gamers. The problem is MS doesn’t like these two technologies, MS thinks that these two Hybrid SLI and CorssFire not only boost the graphics performance even they make the system unstable and even deliver poor performance. It also believes that these two technologies force the users to reboot their laptops (or their desktop PCs) for each time switching between GPUs.
Custom PC reported:
In Microsoft’s Guidelines for Graphics in Windows 7 document, which was released yesterday, Microsoft outlined its feelings about hybrid graphics, stating that ‘Windows 7 does not offer native support for hybrid graphics systems.’ Not only that, but Microsoft added the reason for the decision saying that hybrid graphics systems ‘can be unstable and provide a poor user experience,’ and that it would ‘strongly discourage system manufacturers from shipping such systems.’ Microsoft also added that ‘such systems require a reboot to switch between GPUs.’
Nvidia introduced the SLI name from 2004 and so far has released many products using SLI technology or multi-GPU solution. Today, I checked out wikipedia and according to it MS is some how is right to have this idea about Hybrid SLI. According to wiki, there are many limitations that users have to be aware of when they want to use hybrid SLI. For example, “Currently, all SLI configurations work only with a single digital video output” or “Cards from two separate retail companies will work together in SLI mode, but they must be the same GPU model (e.g. G70, G73, G80, etc)” or “SLI doesn't always give a performance benefit – in some extreme cases, it can lower the framerate due to the particulars of an application's coding”.
Additionally, CrossFire (multi-GPU solution) made by ATI Technologies- the rival of Nvidia Hybrid SLI, suffers some limitations as well. According to wiki , “Application support for Crossfire is not very good, meaning many games may see little to no added benefit of adding a second card, where games that support it may see up to 100% increase”.
So, I think we should take the MS’s opinion more seriously and check out all the news items and reviews release about these two technologies to get real idea about them. Whast do you think? Do you agree with MS? Have you ever had any experience of using SLI or CrossFire? Please share them with us in the comment section.
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