SLI Anytime Anywhere

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SLI, for those who don’t know, is the process of taking two Nvidia graphics cards and allowing them to work in parallel to render to a single monitor. In theory this doubles the power, getting more FPS for video games. Great right? Except due to encryption, only a limited amount of motherboards can actually support SLI.

That is, until now. Russian hackers at xDevs discovered that the newer encryption is based around string identifiers. This can be modified within the operating system itself, so in theory any motherboard could work. Be wary, this could brick your system; but if successful, you’ll have more power without shelling out for an officially SLI supported motherboard.

37 thoughts on “SLI Anytime Anywhere

  1. That’s pretty cool, But isn’t the price difference marginal especially anything with a x8 or x16 pcie slot most all have SLI anyways. I have ice cream waiting :) So I won’t look it up right now. But I’m pretty sure It’s probably only $15 – $20 am I right?

  2. “When is it not Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Turkish, or German hackers? These days American hackers just sit behind desks doing boring stuff most kids can do”

    I think it’s more like American hackers can get paid to do it, instead of hiding underground so the government doesn’t throw you in a dark hole for the next century.

  3. Finally, took us long enough. I hate when companies waste our time by encrypting when eventually it WILL be broken. Such bullshit when they do that….

    Shouldn’t the motherboard standards prevent such preventions? I mean seriously wtf!?

  4. SLI motherboards are sooo cheap now I hardly see why this hack was worth it. Seriously, I got my P5N-E on eBay for 25$ free shipping. Nothing to it.

    On the other hand, it’s still a great hack, I wouldn’t want to imply otherwise.

  5. Has anyone ever seen a mobo with two 16x pci-e slots that ISNT SLI? what would be the point of it… if any. A real challenge would involve modding the mobo to allow two cards when it originally only accepted one.

  6. Great hack, pretty useful to anyone wanting to make a budget SLI system. Definitely long overdue though, I remember a few years back when choosing your motherboard was literally choosing between whether you wanted SLI or Crossfire

  7. Dude

    The X38,X48 got both 2 pci-E slots with full 16X speed but they dont support sli

    There are many motherboard build on this both chipsets. If you want 2 cards on a mobo that accepts 1 pay a bit more and get 1 with 2 card LOL

  8. Hey that is pretty sweet. I’m a gamer myself don’t get me wrong, but… wouldn’t it eventually put to much stress on the mother board and CPU..due to how fast the CD ROM is moving in the CD drive, and how much heat the computer puts out while playing….

    Still, I think it totally rocks!

  9. I have an AMD 790X (Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P), one of the boards tested. It is an ATI crossfire board by default. I have a 9800 GT because I prefer nvidia cards under linux. The article does not mention any efforts on modifying nvidia’s blobs, or anything else, for linux. It would certainly be wonderful to be able to run SLI mode in the future too.

  10. @Spork

    Got a feeling that if you went to the US R&D departments of any major tech company you will see plenty of Indian, Chinese, Nordic, etc etc guys and only a few born and breed Americans. Co-founder of Nvidia was born in Taipei for example.

  11. @hukrepus
    one of the method mentioned on xDev is using hacked BIOS tables, they use windows hack to add own table, its easy to add new DSDT to your bios, people on Linux-ACPI list do it all the time to fix bugged ACPI tables. This method however also requires anotehr hack to convince driver that your using “Intel X58”, dont know how its done under linux. you might want to mail guys at xDev and ask. Im sure they will eb happy to take the challenge

    @american bashing and americans
    lol, at least you got your Arduinos so stop complaining :D

  12. @cantido
    Yeah, I know. We are talking about geographic locations, not nationalities.
    If I hack something while living in Japan, I am a ‘Japanese hacker’ they would not say ‘an Irish hacker living in japan’.

  13. This makes me think of Lucid Logix’ Hydra chips, which are vendor neutral, and have better scaling than either crossfire or SLi. I’ve been waiting for them to get to the production stage for a while, and now the first motherboard sporting it is due out next month.

  14. Ok sorry to double post but i checked it out, the author of that xdevs tutorial is one of the people working on it at techpowerup, however he’s not the original creator. Check out the “discussion” link for techpowerup at the bottom of the page.

  15. @ arduinoneededinthishack

    what do you mean…”nonsense” to me it kind of seems like common sense or simple logic..then again we do all think differently. So can you enlighten me kindly on the whole nonsense please?

  16. @Spork

    No, you would be an ‘ish hacker in Japan. If you’ve ever been involved in the “hacking” community in Japan you’ll know how different the mindset is, so unless you dream in H8 assembly, post detailed accounts of obscure chips that have no English datasheets on 2ch and have a credit account with AkizukiDenshi you can’t really call yourself a Japanese hacker.

    Oh you also need a 通称名 that isn’t some retarded munge up of your western name.

  17. @djdrewsgrl I believe arduinoneededinthishack was refering to the fact you have no idea what you are talking about (my intension is not too offend you). CD drive speed has nothing to do with this. Dual graphics cards do not put any extra stress on the computer.

    Computers do not work like cars, i.e running the engine faster = more force on gearbox/wheels ect. If anything daul cars = less cpu stress. Peace

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