SLI which stands for Scalable Link Interface is one of the major breakthroughs in computer technology today. This technology was originally conceived by Nvidia and works solely with their brand of graphics cards. This technology allows you to operate two graphic cards in the same system using SLI to link them together, effectively doubling your graphics processing performance.
Crossfire is another technology that operates just like SLI. However, this technology was developed by ATI and like SLI, only works with video cards made by ATI. The only major difference between the two technologies is that SLI only works with two identical Nvidia cards, meaning both cards must have the same clock speed, GPU and memory. Crossfire on the other hand works with any two ATI cards that support the technology.
In order to be able to use these technologies from both ATI and Nvidia your motherboard must have support for it. Your motherboard must also have at least 2 free PCIe 16x slots for a 2 way setup or 3 PCIe slots for a 3 way configuration. Most of the graphics cards that you purchase today, from ATI and Nvidia, come with Crossfire and SLI support.
If you're interested in SLI, then I recommend motherboards with the x58 chipset and a socket 1366, as these motherboards support the new Bloomfield hex core and Intel i7 quad core processors, making it ready for any future upgrades. One of the best things about these motherboards is that they have support for both technologies. These chipsets also support DDR3 memory.
Uchenna Ani-Okoye has been writing articles online for nearly 3 years now. Not only does this author specialize in health, computers and weight loss, you can also check out his latest website network fax software at http://www.freecomputerfaxsoftware.info/network-fax-software/
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