Ever since the first SLI systems appeared computers with dual graphics cards have been the real dream for those hunting extreme 3D performance. ATI claimed that SLI was far from an optimal consumer technology but also realized that it could not be without this magnificent PR stunt. When NVIDIA launched Quad SLI we pointed out that this was up to 99.9 percent also just for PR as very few will actually invest in such an expensive platform. But now it seems that very few overall invest in a system with dual graphics cards, even fewer than many of us thought.
According to a survey made by Jon Peddie Research systems with dual graphics cards has sold for a worth of $28.4 million during the second quarter of 2006. This may sounds pretty sweet but compared to the total market for external graphics cards it is just a drop in the ocean. The total market for the second quarter $5.883 billion, in other terms, multi GPU systems make up about 0.5% of the total graphics card market. So, it seems many wants dual graphics cards, but few actually buy them.
