UPDATE: Adding slides from a presentation by Nvidia Corp.
There is always a trade-off between power consumption and performance in the world of 3D graphics cards. If one solution delivers high framerate per second, it most probably consumes significant amount of power, whereas another, which power consumption is minimal, cannot offer really high performance. But Nvidia recently announced that its new technology will meet low power consumption with high performance.
Nvidia’s new Hybrid SLI technology will have two modes and that will target different applications: the Power Saving Mode, which will switch off discrete graphics core and use only integrated graphics engine when high performance is not needed, whereas Max Performance Mode will make integrated graphics processor (IGP) to assist discrete graphics processing unit (GPU) and boost performance when it is required.
Even though Nvidia’s multi-GPU SLI technology enables significant performance increases, it also boosts power consumption, which means additional heat and higher noise levels. In this case, hybrid SLI’s power saving mode will allow to disable two high-performance graphics boards, such as Nvidia GeForce 8800-series when their 3D graphics firepower is not needed, Nvidia explained. The same mode will allow to integrate higher-performance graphics cores into notebooks without sacrificing battery life, as in case of battery operation only IGP will be used.

The max performance mode of hybrid SLI will allow systems featuring entry-level or mainstream GPUs from Nvidia to process graphics faster, as IGP will be able to help discrete graphics chip to render complex graphics, according to the company.

“[With] Hybrid SLI you have a discrete and a motherboard GPU in a system. When you switch between GPUs, you don’t have to unplug and plug monitor… What we have [implemented] on the core-logic site is [ability] to render in all cases through motherboard GPU,” explained Jeff Fisher, Nvidia’s general manager of GPU business unit, at a meeting with analysts.
Jen Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia Corp. said that the first systems featuring hybrid SLI technology will be available late this year. No other details were disclosed.
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Discussion started: 06/25/07 09:33:20 AM
Latest comment: 06/26/07 04:02:30 PM
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1.
yeh, surly it's just an AMD clone of Puma platform for notebooks, wich if there's discreet GPU in the laptop, that one could be turned on/off uppon request or by power... while turned off, the IGP is used instead to save power
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Posted by: Xajel

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Date: 06/25/07 09:33:20 AM]
2.
No, its totally different.
nVidia uses the IGP along with the discrete card, not just 1 of the 2, hence the name Hybrid SLi.
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Posted by: 1234

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Date: 06/25/07 09:59:16 AM]
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In practical terms though, the assistance of the integrated graphics core is hardly going to add much to the performance of the discrete part, is it? If the discrete card wasn't already much more powerful than the integrated chip then there would be no point in implementing this solution in the first place. On the up side, nVidia already has SLI ready to go so it's simpler and more seamless for them to use this approach rather than designing some kind of switch to control which adapter has the output duties at any given time.
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Posted by: MTX

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Date: 06/25/07 10:06:26 AM]
will you may read that article again, what you said is true, but thats only if more power is needed, or MAximum performance, but when the power save mode, the dicrete GPU will be turned off to let the IGP handle the job...
I know, they just added the Higher performance point where both GPU's will work together in SLI, but the point is the same...
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Posted by: Xajel

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Date: 06/26/07 02:37:39 AM]
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I wonder how this works out for multi monitor setups.
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Posted by: MonkRX

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Date: 06/25/07 01:13:58 PM]
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If someone get's a board without an integrated graphics, then
Hybrid sLI will not work?
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Posted by: asdf

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Date: 06/25/07 03:07:56 PM]
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intel GMA 950 for intergrated and some sort of mid or high end dedicated card. when unplugged it would run the GMA, and plugged in it would run the dedicated card.
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Posted by: they did that on a notebook a while back... - Joz

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Date: 06/25/07 04:42:02 PM]
6.
In the article they're talking about pluging ang unpluging the monitor in order to switch between the IGP and the discrete GPU for existant motherboard??
I guess you got to go to the bios too and make some change there right?
I'm getting ready to get this king of system for the sake of power saving when i'm just surfint the net for ecemple but did not know it was so complicated from one mode to the other!
Can anybody elaborate a little please?
Thank you?
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Posted by: Zaucube

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Date: 06/26/07 02:26:20 PM]
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Nothing you have to do as a end-user. If you are not running games, IGPU is running. If you are running any game or application that requires rendering power, discrete GPU kicks in. You don't really see what's happening except for the performance.
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Posted by: noname

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Date: 06/26/07 04:02:30 PM]
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