The new HB SLI bridges will be able to offer twice as much transfer bandwidth as opposed to the older SLI bridges. It's also supposed to make Surround Gaming better, but I don't understand how the SLI bridge affects Surround.

So, with this new BRIDGE, we are going to have more "compatibily" on sli? 
right now in maxwell the SLI is not working at 200% (2 gpus at 100%)   we will be able to achieve that % with pascal??

octy96
So, with this new BRIDGE, we are going to have more "compatibily" on sli? 
right now in maxwell the SLI is not working at 200% (2 gpus at 100%)   we will be able to achieve that % with pascal??

Not likely. This move is likely being done not because the current SLI bridge is exhausted but they're laying the groundwork for future advancements. (whatever comes after pascal)
 
The SLI bridge is really only used for frame syncing so it's not like super intense data is being exchanged between the multiple cards.
 
High utilization requires (100% per card or at least 90%+) requires high quality drivers. It takes a lot of effort to make games and drivers scale out to multiple cards. Most of the time they aim for middle road and we get left with poor multi card scaling.
 
My first gaming rig was 2 way SLI GTX 275. My second and current rig is 3 way Titans. I honestly wouldn't do SLI of any kind ever again. Scaling is poor. I'd rather upgrade every generation than deal with poorly written SLI drivers.

XrayMan
 
The new HB SLI bridges will be able to offer twice as much transfer bandwidth as opposed to the older SLI bridges. It's also supposed to make Surround Gaming better, but I don't understand how the SLI bridge affects Surround.

Throughput.  All the data created on the second (and third card and possibly fourth) is translated to the master card before being output.  Faster throughput allows that card to move the larger the amounts of data needed for multiple screens at a more significant rate with less scheduling.  Not all of the improvements are directly related to the bridge.  It sounds like they did more with the bridge than they actually did when you hear them say it...

I would be careful of SLI at this point. I have seen a number of articles that with DX12 games the developer of the game is responsible for getting sli/xfire to work with that game. This is the opposite of DX11 where Nvidia/ATI did the drivers. A number or places have said that gamers should get the biggest single card they can afford as sli/xfire will be in trouble if the game developers have to get SLI/xfire working in their own games.

Are they going to do a proper implementation of SLI/xfire if only 3-5% of gamers use multi gpu?

I sold my 970's in sli for a EVGA 980ti hybrid 3 months ago for this reason.
 
Good discussion on another forum.
 
[link=http://www.overclock.net/t/1594316/is-dx12-killing-sli-or-is-it-just-really-that-difficult-to-implement]http://www.overclock.net/...difficult-to-implement[/link]
 
I will be waiting for the proper 980TI replacement that should come along in 6-10 months.

EVGATech_ChrisB
Hi,
 
I can confirm that the older SLI bridges will work, but the performance will not be as high as with the new bridge.
 

A nice little premium tax on SLI users. Oh you bought the $30 bridge did you? (I did) Now you need this new one that gives extra performance.

Looks like an LED SLI bridge will work fine in most cases:
 
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/GeForce-GTX-1080-8GB-Founders-Edition-Review-GP104-Brings-Pascal-Gamers/SLI-C

Will slapping two regular SLI bridges on the two sets of fingers work the same as the new bridge or is there some kind of magic going on in there too?

OK, I found an answer courtesy of the Guru3D review as far as SLI bridges are concerned...
 
"Beginning with NVIDIA Pascal GPUs, the two interfaces are now linked together to improve bandwidth between GPUs. This new dual-link SLI mode allows both SLI interfaces to be used in tandem to feed one Hi-res display or multiple displays for NVIDIA Surround. Dual-link SLI mode is supported with a new SLI Bridge called SLI HB. The bridge facilitates high-speed data transfer between GPUs, connecting both SLI interfaces, and is the best way to achieve full SLI clock speeds with GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs running in SLI. The GeForce GTX 1080 is also compatible with legacy SLI bridges; however, the GPU will be limited to the maximum speed of the bridge being used. Using this new SLI HB Bridge, GeForce GTX 1080’s new SLI interface runs at 650 MHz, compared to 400 MHz in previous GeForce GPUs using legacy SLI bridges. Where possible though, older SLI Bridges will also get a speed boost when used with Pascal. Specifically, custom bridges that include LED lighting will now operate at up to 650 MHz when used with GTX 1080, taking advantage of Pascal’s higher speed IO. "

Now the question is, will EVGA be selling the HB bridges alongside the FE on the 27th?
 
I also find it strange that the LED versions of the SLI bridges are deemed compatible for higher refresh rate displays than the old ribbon/pcb bridges. I didn't think there was any actual performance difference between the two.