Nvidia Quadro User Manual

SLI for NVIDIA Quadro: Installation Guide

This document provides the information necessary to successfully install and configure your SLI­capable graphics boards and system. You may also review the full Installation Guide for
additional information. Topics covered in this document include:

• NVIDIA SLI technology

• Motherboard and power supply requirements

• SLI hardware setup and configuration

• Display driver installation and enabling SLI

• SLI questions and answers

NVIDIA SLI Technology

NVIDIA SLI (Scalable Link Interface) technology allows users to install and benefit from two PCI
Express (PCIe) graphics boards in a single PC. Just as dual processors or dual core CPUs
improve compute performance, SLI allows dual GPUs (Graphics Processing Uni t s) to significantly
accelerate graphics performance. Professional users benefit by using SLI technology on dual
NVIDIA Quadro GPUs to span an OpenGL window across multiple displays, or to run a single
application per GPU. Additionally, the SLI connector offers dual GPU performance on a single
display by leveraging the capabilities of two NVIDIA Quadro GPUs.

SLI for NVIDIA Quadro – Definitions

SLI Frame Rendering: Combines two PCI Express graphics boards with an SLI connector to
transparently scale application performance on a single display by presenting them as a single
graphics card to the operating system.

Benefits:

- Visual simulation, broadcast, and video applications that are fill rate-limited will benefit from
using the split frame rendering (SFR) mode.

- SPECviewperf® and other applications that are geometry-limited will benefit from using the
alternate frame rendering (AFR) mode.

Requirements:

- Two identical NVIDIA Quadro FX boards (4400, 3400, 1400)

- SLI connector

SLI Multi View: Combines the power of two NVIDIA Quadro PCI Express graphics boards to span
a single hardware-accelerated OpenGL application window across multiple displays, run a single
application per GPU with multiple display outputs, or enable other flexible usage of two PCI
Express graphics boards.

Benefits:

- View professional applications over multiple displays to increase visual real estate.

- Run a single application per GPU to offload geometry processing to a second GPU.

Requirements:

- Any two NVIDIA Quadro PCI Express graphics boards: NVIDIA Quadro FX 4400, 3400, 1400,
1300, 540, 330

Motherboard and Power Supply Requirements

To support SLI, your PC motherboard must be PCI Express-based, with two available and
adjacent PCI Express expansion slots. Both slots must be x16 mechanical with the following
allowed electrical slots:
x16 + x16
x16 + x8
x16 + x4

Since SLI supports up to two high-end graphics boards, the load on the system’s power supply
can increase significantly. A minimum of a 450W Power Supply Unit (PSU) is recommended. An
inadequate power supply will result in erratic and unpredictable system behavior.

SLI Hardware Installation

Figure 1. below shows an SLI-capable NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 professional graphics board
along with SLI Hardware Bridge Connector. The NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400 and 4400 also support
SLI and require an auxiliary power connector cable, which is also shown. Please rememb er the
following:

- SLI is supported only on PCI Express-based motherboards

- Two available and adjacent PCI Express expansion slots are required, one must be x16, the
second slot can be x16, x8, or x4

- Some SLI capable graphics boards require an external power cable (FX 3400, FX 4400) make
sure that these cables are properly connected to ensure reliable system operation

- An SLI bridge connector (provided with your graphics board) must be installed to utilize the full
capabilities of SLI Frame Rendering

Figure 1.

Figure 2. shows two SLI-capable graphics boards installed in PCI Express expansion slots with
the SLI bridge connector and auxiliary power connector cables installed. From a hardware
perspective this system is ready for SLI driver installation and configuration.

Figure 2.

Now that we have reviewed SLI system requirements let’s proceed with the hardware installation
by performing the following steps in the order given. Obtain the SLI-capable display driver (on the
Quadro Utilities CD included with your NVIDIA Quadro graphics board or on the FTP site). You
may also visit

www.pny.com or www.nvidia.com to download the latest SLI-capable driver.

* Before removing current graphics boards and installing two NVIDIA Quadro FX boards, please
uninstall any current drivers and save the SLI drivers provided on your Windows desktop. When
removing current NVIDIA drivers (using Start/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs) please
make sure to ONLY REMOVE NVIDIA DISPLAY DRIVER (In the “Remove NVIDIA Components”
window, select “Remove only the following” and then select “NVIDIA Display Driver”). You ca n
erase all saved nView profiles as well when asked in the next window that appears.

1. Power off the system and remove the power cord from the power supply.