14 DAY TRIAL // Tri SLI is the newest and hottest multi graphics cards setup from Nvidia these days and this new technology is expected to hit the market soon. While the traditional SLI technology that has been around for some time can already put to work, on a single compatible mainboard, two graphics cards in order to increase the 3D performance of the computer system, the new approach calls for three cards to work at the same time, hence the name Tri SLI.
In order to make a desktop computer system that supports such a technology like Tri SLI users need a compatible mainboard and of course chipset as well as three graphics cards powered by Nvidia graphics processing units that can work in this new mode. As Nvidia uses bridge connectors between the cards in order to synchronize them and as the Tri SLI was designed to work with three cards, it results that users will need cards that are equipped with two not one bridge connectors.
Unfortunately for most users that may be interested in the new graphics technology, when Nvidia is going to officially launch its new SLI configuration, only two cards will be around to support it, the 8800 Ultra and the 8800 GTX. For a successful Tri SLI configuration users will need to get either three 8800 Ultras or three 8800 GTX graphics cards, as nothing else will work, not even the upcoming 8800 GT.
As the Tri SLI technology needs two SLI connectors in order to synchronize the image rendering between the three graphics cards the middle card will need two available SLI ports to connect with the other two cards and this feature is only implemented on the Nvidia 8800 Ultra and 8800 GTX cards, so nothing else will work, not even the lower end 8600 or 8500 series as they are considered to be entry level and the manufacturing company hopes to promote and market the Tri SLI technology as a high end feature.