SLI

Stands for "Scalable Link Interface."

SLI is a discontinued NVIDIA technology that enabled two or more graphics cards to work together to render 3D graphics. It was primarily used in high-performance gaming computers to improve frame rates and support higher resolutions and graphics settings.

An SLI configuration typically used two matching NVIDIA graphics cards installed in separate PCI Express slots. A small SLI bridge connected the cards, allowing them to exchange data directly. The system divided the graphics workload between their GPUs, often by assigning alternating frames to different cards.

SLI required support from the graphics cards, motherboard, NVIDIA driver, and individual game or application. These requirements limited compatibility, and the additional card increased the computer's cost, power consumption, and heat output. As individual GPUs became more powerful, game developers and hardware manufacturers gradually moved away from multi-card gaming systems. NVIDIA stopped creating new SLI driver profiles in 2021, effectively ending support for the technology.

SLI and AI

While SLI is no longer used for modern gaming systems, multi-GPU processing has become increasingly important for artificial intelligence, scientific computing, and other data-intensive workloads. These systems do not use SLI to render alternating graphics frames. Instead, software divides computing tasks across multiple GPUs, which may communicate through high-speed connections such as NVIDIA NVLink. Large AI systems can link hundreds or thousands of GPUs together to train and run complex machine learning models.