The logo of  Hybrid-SLI technology. Left is HybridPower, right is GeForce Boost.

NVIDIA official announcement

NVIDIA announced Hybrid SLI in CES2008 just half day ago. Now let’s have a overview on it. Hybrid SLI have two main features, one is called GeForce Boost. GeForce Boost can let chipset GPU and discrete GPU work together using SLI, for a better performance. And the other feature is HybridPower, it can let you switch between chipset GPU or discrete GPU to save unnecessary power.

Hybrid SLI’s Hybrid Power Overview. Integrated chipset GPU and video card can be switched.

Hybrid Power uses System Management Bus to shutdown or repower the discrete GPU

 SMBUS
System Management Bus (SMBUS) is a serial bus protocol, used to management devices on the motherboard. These devices include temperature sensors, fan speed controllers, and SPD devices used by memory modules.

It seems when discrete GPU is working, the main video output will be those video slots on the mobo.

Here is the actual power consumption of the VGA card when using HybridPower to switch from discrete GPU to chipset GPU.

HybridPower and NVIDIA SLI can be combined. Of course, the output will also using mobo’s video slot. This time even a high-end 780a have a integrated chipset GPU.

Hybrid Power can help the power-sucking SLI save some power when we don’t run any games. But personally I don’t think a rich geek with three 8800 Ultra cares about the power leeching issues.

This part is interesting. Turn off the unnecessary VGA cards to lower the noise level of the extreme rig, make it sounds like a mainstream PC.

GeForce Boost Overview. A discrete GPU and a chipset GPU SLI together, boost the actual performance. But we also wonder, how much performance will gain when we SLI a 8400GS and chipset’s 8200? Does it have any meaning while facing todays DirectX10 games?

Like the normal SLI, different GPU renders different frames, and the final visual can be output to any slot you want. NV said the display option will have “flexible configurations”.

User interface of Hybrid SLI. The HybridPower mode is not in NVIDIA control panel but in Vista Power Plan.

Hybrid SLI in notebook market will have a better future. But we haven’t see any actual products yet.

In the first quarter, lots of motherboard with Hybrid SLI support will be announce. The old 8500GT and 8400GS also can support Geforce Boost.

nForce 780a SLI overview. With the nForce 200 chip, the board can provide three PCIe 2.0 for 3-Way SLI(x16,x8,x8).

Without NF200 chip, 750a SLI only can provide two PCIe 2.0 for SLI(x8,x8).

different from 780a SLI’s last show off, the layout of the board seems have some changed. Click here for a comparison.

Pic by PCwatch

The I/O panel of 780a SLI. Pic by PCwatch

Geforce 8200 overview.

GIGABYTE M78UM-GA-S2H Pic by PCwatch

Providing HDMI and optical output, the board is born for HTPC. Pic by PCwatch

NVIDIA mention that GeForce 8200 can support h.264, MPEG-2 and VC-1 100% hardware decode.

So with all this pics and words, we have a basic for what’s coming in the mainstream market. Will Hybrid SLI perform well? What about its rival, the Hybrid Crossfire? Let’s wait and see.