nVidia loosens the bonds on SLI even further

Yesterday we reported that with the latest ForceWare drivers you can actually use any GeForce 6-based graphic card in SLI-configuration, without SLI-bridge. This is of course a direct reply to ATI’s coming Crossfire-technology which is suppose to offer better compatibility than nVidia’s technology, among other you will be able to mix graphic cards in various Crossfire-configurations. Something that increase the possibility to upgrade a lot. Now it seems nVidia will also allow mixing of graphic cards with another driver update. According to Hexus.net nVidia will launch an “open driver” that will allow mixing of graphic cards.

Appearantly not only within the different series but also mix different series.

“We find it very likely that NVIDIA will release a new driver soon which will allow the support of ‘un-matched’ cards, and if what has been whispered to us turns out to be true SLi will deliver an impressive upgrade path.

We believe this NVIDIA driver will mean the use of 7 and 6 series cards in the same configuration.”

These are are the least to say interesting news and nVidia is really starting to work down Crossfire’s advantages one by one, I.e. even before ATI has launched its SLI-solution. This information hasn’t been confirmed by NVIDIA but if they are correct ATi won’t have much to go by when marketing its new product. Especially since R520 won’t arrive for a few months.

Source: Hexus