Unlike Nvidia, AMD’s Radeon RX 480 won’t kill support for extreme multi-GPU setups - ramoshisabought

Things weren't looking angelic for multi-GPU enthusiasts around the time of the GeForce GTX 1080's launch.

Prior to the card's release, Nvidia said it would only plunk fo 3- and 4-way SLI multi-GPU setups if users unlatched the ability by registering at an Nvidia web site and receiving a special "Partisan Key" puppet. Past, when that site failed to look, Nvidia announced that it wouldn't be supporting 3- and 4-way SLI setups for games in its driver after all. It mystifying-sixed the Partizan Key idea and offloaded multi-GPU support onto the backs of developers utilizing DirectX 12 and Vulkan. (Unlike with DirectX 11, developers tin can choose to encode multi-GPU financial support directly into DX12 and Vulkan games.)

Farther reading: Radeon RX 480 review: Redefining what's latent with $200 graphics card game

Extreme 3- and 4-mode SLI setups were always a melt off nonage, but with much a move, Nvidia is ready to entirely but kill them completely going forward. At least, that's the case for DirectX 11 games—a.k.a the overwhelming absolute majority of games relieve existence released today. DirectX 12 and Vulkan are still in their relative infancy, so gaming with trinity operating theatre four GTX 10-series cards now is but a dream for the foreseeable future.

Naturally, we wondered if AMD would go the same route with the Radeon RX 480, the first graphics board based on its revolutionary 14nm Polaris GPU.

In a word: Nope.

In umteen more official AMD words:

"The response to your call into question about 4x CrossFire put up is multi-layered. In DirectX 12, it volition always be up to the developer to do this, and with LDA [linked expose adapters] you posterior scale actually even boost if you like. CrossFire will quieten exist in DX11, and we're not restricting it to two GPUs, merely it's sometimes difficult to extract scaling beyond 3 GPUs."

So it looks like CrossFire support for 3- and 4-direction setups will retain trucking with Polaris. That's not totally surprising, since AMD has mentioned rigs with multiple RX 480s arsenic an affordable alternative to the pricey, powerful GTX 1080.

The story behind the story:AMD's statement hints at a greater point, though: 3- and 4-manner multi-GPU setups usually scale horribly, falter frequently, and aren't really meriting the money. They'Re best used for top-flight extreme benchmark leaderboards rather than actual gameplay—and Nvidia really plans to provide in-device driver support for that eccentric of use with its GTX 10-series cards. (So fine, yet to that extent.) All the same, the crotchety partizan in Maine is still smiling inside, forthwith that I know 3- and 4-way CrossFire setups will tranquilize body of work impartial elegant—surgery at least as elegant as ever. Sometimes it's fun to throw as much firepower as realizable at things sensible because you can.