Alienware 15 triple SLI possible?

[System Error Message]

With the alienware laptop 15 with a gtx 1070, using the alienware graphics amplifier and thunderbolt 3, would it be possible to SLI 3 gtx 1070s? Perhaps it could be something that linus could test.

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can't do sli over thunderbolt3 or the egpu plug, so no.

[System Error Message]

what about dual SLI using the bridge? So thunderbolt 3 and graphics amplifier but using an SLI bridge between them?

[themctipers]

oh god, the bottlenecks .. 

[The Sloth]

2 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

what about dual SLI using the bridge? So thunderbolt 3 and graphics amplifier but using an SLI bridge between them?

no

[System Error Message]

I have an alienware 15, the graphics amplifier, a couple of compatible GPUs and bridges so even AMD CF is a go too but i dont have the thunderbolt 3 adapter to test with. Its not a question of bottlenecks, more of addressing multiple GPUs.

 

There are many things you could consider especially if gaming using the laptop screen. Dx12 can make use of multiple GPUs that arent the same with no SLI/CF needed. So if a game or compute program could make use of multiple GPUs, considering the alienware 15 can have a total of 3 dedicated GPUs, what sort of performance could you expect using a compute program like luxmark or a dx12 game that is made to make use of multiple GPUs?

[Natsoup]

Not only would that not be possible because of thunderbolt 3, GTX 10 series doesn't support over 2 GPU's in SLI.

[System Error Message]

While SLI may not be possible (dell US has alienware with AMD GPU btw), the other question is how effective would it be at addressing multiple GPUs at once.

 

If you took luxmark and used all 4 GPUs (intel IGP, onboard nvidia + 2 GPUs) or even dx12 games that can leverage multi GPU without SLI/CF and measure how different the performance would be.

[Himommies]

14 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

While SLI may not be possible (dell US has alienware with AMD GPU btw), the other question is how effective would it be at addressing multiple GPUs at once.

 

If you took luxmark and used all 4 GPUs (intel IGP, onboard nvidia + 2 GPUs) or even dx12 games that can leverage multi GPU without SLI/CF and measure how different the performance would be.

Unless you already have 3 1070s.Sure you can measure the performance but there is literally no practical benefit  and I do not belive it is possible as SLI is not supported over Thunderbolt

[System Error Message]

Just now, Himommies said:

Unless you already have 3 1070s.Sure you can measure the performance but there is literally no practical benefit  and I do not belive it is possible as SLI is not supported over Thunderbolt

i dont have 3 1070s, i do have 2 titans but i lack the thunderbolt 3 adapter for attaching GPUs for it. I still have my old expresscard adapter.

[Himommies]

1 minute ago, System Error Message said:

i dont have 3 1070s, i do have 2 titans but i lack the thunderbolt 3 adapter for attaching GPUs for it. I still have my old expresscard adapter.

Unless you already have evrey single thing you need.Just don't

[Jurrunio]

First of all, does the eGPU docking you use have more than 2 PCIe slots?

Secondly, in order to give usable bandwidth, does your laptop have 2 thunderbolt 3 connectors?

[System Error Message]

the eGPU docking i had was for expresscard, the adapter itself has multiple cable slots to allow for multiple pcie links but it would be a matter of finding a thunderbolt varant.

 

The alienware 15 has a thunderbolt 3 connector and a seperate alienware graphics amplifier which is their own proprietary connector for attaching PCIe cards.

[Himommies]

3 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

the eGPU docking i had was for expresscard, the adapter itself has multiple cable slots to allow for multiple pcie links but it would be a matter of finding a thunderbolt varant.

 

The alienware 15 has a thunderbolt 3 connector and a seperate alienware graphics amplifier which is their own proprietary connector for attaching PCIe cards.

You need at least 2 thunderbolt 3 ports

[System Error Message]

2 minutes ago, Himommies said:

You need at least 2 thunderbolt 3 ports

not sure how thats relevant as alienware has both thunderbolt 3 and its own graphics amplifier port which allows for 2 GPUs. I think linus did test both on the alienware when comparing the razor blade with an eGPU and the alienware however he did not test games/programs that could make use of multiple GPUs at the same time and using both the alienware graphics amplifier and thunderbolt 3 at the same time.

[Himommies]

5 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

not sure how thats relevant as alienware has both thunderbolt 3 and its own graphics amplifier port which allows for 2 GPUs. I think linus did test both on the alienware when comparing the razor blade with an eGPU and the alienware however he did not test games/programs that could make use of multiple GPUs at the same time and using both the alienware graphics amplifier and thunderbolt 3 at the same time.

The Graphics Amplifer has 1 pci slot how do you put 2 gpus in

Edit:Im worng

 

You want to spend 900 to also buy a razer core to do this

[System Error Message]

Just now, Himommies said:

The Graphics Amplifer has 1 pci slot how do you put 2 gpus in it

by using a thunderbolt 3 adapter. 1GPU goes into graphics amplifier, the other goes into thunderbolt 3 adapter.

[Himommies]

1 minute ago, System Error Message said:

by using a thunderbolt 3 adapter. 1GPU goes into graphics amplifier, the other goes into thunderbolt 3 adapter.

You just have a extra 400 lying around and another 1070 

[System Error Message]

unfortunately i dont have 800 laying around to see what 3 gtx 1070s can do combined with a 7th gen intel IGP but linus has many things laying around that he could make use of to test. I've already spent on things i needed including high capacity drives and more ram.

 

So perhaps this could be an idea for one of his videos, packing as much GPU power into a laptop and seeing what it can do in multi GPU software and games.

[Pendragon]

why has no one mentioned Kaby Lake mobile CPUs literally don't have enough PCIE lanes to do this shit. 

[System Error Message]

they dont need to, i suspect the internal GPU will be linked down to x8 for both thunderbolt (x4) and alienware graphics adapter (x4).

 

According to intel ark, you can have Up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8+2x4

[Pendragon]

6 hours ago, System Error Message said:

they dont need to, i suspect the internal GPU will be linked down to x8 for both thunderbolt (x4) and alienware graphics adapter (x4).

 

According to intel ark, you can have Up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8+2x4

mhm. and i assume the 2  nvme slots on the motherboard are completely useless then, running PCIE 1x0.

 

TB3 on Alienware's run through the motherboard PCH which is shared with the NVME drives. AGA is dedicated PCIE direct. Internal GPU is directly linked. 

 

This would vastly more difficult than other eGPUs that have known been to run through SLI. (There are cases of eGPU sli, but all of them were done through the same input tb2.). When you have 3 different methods it will literally never work. All have different protocols. 

 

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/5751-2013-13-mbp-gtx780ti-sli16gbps-tb2-sonnet-ee-sel-win81-squinks/

^ here's a link to someone sling 2 gpus via the same type of port. 

[System Error Message]

54 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

mhm. and i assume the 2  nvme slots on the motherboard are completely useless then, running PCIE 1x0.

 

TB3 on Alienware's run through the motherboard PCH which is shared with the NVME drives. AGA is dedicated PCIE direct. Internal GPU is directly linked. 

 

This would vastly more difficult than other eGPUs that have known been to run through SLI. (There are cases of eGPU sli, but all of them were done through the same input tb2.). When you have 3 different methods it will literally never work. All have different protocols. 

 

https://www.techinferno.com/index.php?/forums/topic/5751-2013-13-mbp-gtx780ti-sli16gbps-tb2-sonnet-ee-sel-win81-squinks/

^ here's a link to someone sling 2 gpus via the same type of port. 

good link, so it is possible to SLI. This could mean that the GPUs config is 1x8 for the onboard dedicated, 1x8 for alienware graphics amplifier, 1x4 for thunderbolt 3. Alienware US offers AMD GPU as an option so perhaps a triple CF could be done.

 

Perhaps this can be made even more insane with one of the older nforce PCIe chips to provide more switching for more PCIe slots on the graphics amplifier, chaining 2 GPUs on thunderbolt 3 to allow for a maximum of 6 GPUs, which may not be great for gaming but definitely good for compute with the quad core i7 and dual channel ddr4 being the bottleneck.