SLI requires two video cards? a single card cannot be upgraded?

hi and thanks for reading this. i hope this isn't too stupid of a question.

a laptop will initially have to come with TWO graphics cards for it to be SLI correct?

that means... a sager np5791 will never be able to have SLI? thank you!

 

SLI - Scalable Link Interface: NVidia's method of connecting 2 or more video cards together to produce a single output.

*plagiarized from Wikipedia
**no longer plagiarism since I cited the source.

 

i nearly shot myself in protest there. thanks for the sane answer lithus

laptop graphics (generally) can't be ugraded. therefore if you only have one, that is all you will ever have.

 

thanks both for the answers. damn it i thought i was getting one of the top of the line video cards with my sager np5791.

i just found out about the SLi ones now.

 

the sli ones only have the old generation cards i believe.

 

hi jeff. what do you mean old generation cards? thanks.

 

SLi requires two seperate Videocards. That's how it works. If you're interested the following chassis support SLi:

Clevo D901c (Sager, Prostar, HPVoodoo, Falcon Northwest, WidowPC, Blackhawk, NPC) - currently supports 7950GTX's and 8700M-GT's.
Arima W835-DI (Alienware) - currently supports 7950GTX's, set to receive 8700M-GT's this month.
Dell XPS 1730 (Not really SLi, more like an 8700M-GT GX2)
Toshiba X205-SLi(uses lower end 15.4" videocards for SLi) - 8600M-GT

 

thanks phritz! that definitely is something interesting to know.

so SLI is really only for the TRUE SUPER MEGA POWERED gaming monsters.

 

the 7xxxx series rather than the 8xxxx series.

 

speaking of voodoo...what in zeus's butthole are they thinking????? soooo 'spensive......i mean its not even logical.

 

They have the 8700m GT's SLI'd nowadays. When the 8800m comes out, they're going to be SLI'd too.

 

oh, my bad then. once i got my laptop, i kind of stopped keeping on top of everything.

don't listen to me anymore then.

 

Edited my post to show the GPU's they support
The Clevo is 2.5" thick and 13lbs.
The Arima/Alienware is 1.5" thick and 8.5lbs.
The Dell is ~2" thick and 11lbs.
The Toshiba is ~2" thick and also ~11lbs.

 

whoa. heavy stuff. alienware seems like they know what they're doing when it comes to cramming all that stuff in a practical package!

 

Well it's basically just a major motherboard revision of the late Arima W830-DA (Alienware m9700, died last week ) which supported an AMD Turion + 7900GS SLi setup (in theory it is possible to upg to 7950GTX's and even 8700M-GT's but due to the limitations of the Turion not recommended lol)

 

From what I've seen on the manufacturers/retailers website your numbers are pretty high. (Are you including the power brick in your estimations?)

Sager 9261 (sli 8700s) 11.55 lbs
http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php/products_id/1932

Alienware m9750 (sli 7950s) 8.5 lbs http://www.alienware.com/product_de...PC-LT-AREA51M9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT#pdp-nav

Dell 1730 (sli 8700s) 10.6 lbs
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1730?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

Toshiba x205-sli (sli 8600s) 9.37 lbs
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?coid=-33936

 

Ah, I think I included the powerbrick with the Clevo and the Toshiba and Dell were estimates based on thickness.

 

how does SLI increase performance other than increasing the dedicated memory ? ... is SLI better or shud i opt for single card (8600 GT) ...dont laugh if its funny....just answer..

 

Ha <--- not laughing 'cause it's funny.

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface.

 

so SLI is to GPU as dual core is to processor chips? rite?

 

no SLi is nVidias method of connecting two GPU's together... 1+1=2 (actually more like 1.7)...
AND NO, SLi DOES NOT DOUBLE THE TEXTURE MEMORY AVAILABLE. Each processor has to have the same memory to work from as they are just processing the same scene with the exact same texture set, no external connecter can handle the bandwidth required for GPU's to actually work together instead of "taking turns" at the same scene

 

No, did you even read that thing? SLI is to GPU as Using 2 processors is to CPU.

 

pretty much one GPU has to do half of the work with SLI. one card renders the top half of the screen and the other renders the bottom half. usually you never get 100% performance boost tho, more like 50% or slightly more.

 

That's one SLI mode, but there are others, e.g. alternating frames, AA, etc. The trick is to optimize your SLI mode for the game you're playing (assuming the game doesn't have built in SLI support) and the settings you want to use.

 

Well, a) luxury b) customer service c) extreme high end


What do you mean by kind of 8700gt gx2 ?!?!?! that means we can have 8700gt gx2 sli... omg!!!! (well based on you info...)

 

well i dotn have an sli rig, so i didnt know you could configure it to run that wayu you want..

 

i don't know about the high end part...i mean if you're gonna pay 5000+ for a notebook it better come with somethin good. besides alienware...even the malx was logically expensive but the envy is goes up to 6500-7000 with only a couple of upgrades.

 

Eh, you haven't seen Falcon Northwest customizations yet. Max customization is about $16000. Yes, 3 zeros.

 

Theoretically your assumption is correct however:

a) It is a proprietary Dell card for the XPS 1730 maybe Alienware can have access to it
b) It's huge, much much larger than any MXM card and won't fit in any other laptop
c) The second PCI-E "slot" in the XPS is reserved for the Ageia PPU and there is a lot less space.

 

Now I see you, man I was thinking about the 3 pci express slots in a laptop then I was like... no way! lol

So... this is why dell took so long?

 

They have high grade paintjobs, insane customer service, you laptop comes to your door in a wood box filled with srawlike material as if your laptop is an artifact... its just for people who can affford it,

Voodoo=Luxury, weirdness

Alienware=High end, Coolness/sweetness

Falcon North west=High end, Coolness