14 DAY TRIAL // NVIDIA is said to be planning the release of SLI 2, a new brand that should ultimately improve the graphics quality of today's high-end desktop gaming rigs. Although the details of the upcoming product are rather scarce, it seems that this is just another NVIDIA strategy to try to get back on the high-performance saddle, from where it fell because of AMD and its Radeon 4870 X2.
According to Fudzilla, SLI 2 will basically improve computer graphics by combining two of the company's current technologies, namely SLI and PhysX. The specific details of NVIDIA's new SLI brand are not available at this point in time, but the general belief is that SLI2 will enable users to boost their system's graphics performance by upgrading to an additional GeForce card, pretty much the same way as the current SLI technology works. The only difference is, they say, that PhysX will have a more significant role.
We don't really know when the new SLI 2 will be made available for consumers or whether NVIDIA plans to enable SLI 2 on all of its cards or just on the upcoming products. It is, however, interesting to note that the company is trying to get back in the high-performance game by using the entire arsenal it currently has at its disposal, especially since most of the upcoming Intel X58-based motherboards will not provide support for NVIDIA's SLI, but rather for ATI's CrossFireX technology.
In the meantime, the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker is still expected to release its upcoming GeForce lineup, which should deliver a new level of graphics performance, and allow it to reclaim the high-performance graphics crown. The new GeForce cards should be ready for next year's CES show, although some technical details on it could become available even before the year's end, as we've seen happen with other unofficial products. It could very well be that SLI 2 will be a basic feature of the next-generation GeForce graphics cards.