MSI Launches 3-way and 4-way SLI Bridge Kits

[btarunr]

MSI launched what could be the first custom NVIDIA SLI bridge cables that do more than look fancy - help ventilate your tightly stacked up graphics cards. The company announced a pair of new 3-way and 4-way SLI bridge kits, which combine a hardened bridge PCB shroud with a 120 mm fan mount. A silent 120 mm spinner is bundled, which is oriented to push air into the gaps between your graphics cards, but one that you can orient to pull air, too. The bridge shroud is styled along MSI Gaming red+black design language, and under it is a hard fiberglass PCB, with reinforced bridge connector slots. Thumb-screws and washers hold the fan mount in place between your graphics cards. MSI didn't reveal pricing.



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[RazrLeaf]

Honestly, I'd want to be able to use this fan with a 2-way SLI configuration as well.

 

[peche]

looks nice... i wonder if it makes a difference or it just pushes the hot air from the second card in the gap between cards...

 

[newtekie1]

Honestly, I'd want to be able to use this fan with a 2-way SLI configuration as well.

You can use a 3-Way SLI bridge with just 2 cards.

 

[trog100]

i have two 120 mm case side fans which do pretty much the same thing.. better because they feed cool room temp air directly onto my pair of cards.. two cards generate a fair amount of heat.. four would toast without some extra help..

trog

 

[NorthboundOcclusive]

that bridge reminds me of the Asus Ares cards

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

Good idea, plastic looks cheap. Not at all useful if you already have a good case like HAF series from CM, with 20cm fan in the side panel to blow on the cards.

 

[EarthDog]

Saw these at CES.. pretty neat.

For those that think these are useless if your case already has a side panel fan(s).... think again.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Why only 1 connector for 2nd and 4th card? On the tri-sli one I can see doubles for each card

 

[trog100]

Saw these at CES.. pretty neat.

For those that think these are useless if your case already has a side panel fan(s).... think again.

i think they would be useless in my case with two side panel fans sitting very close to the cards and top down cpu cooler but as a general concept they are pretty useful.. and with a side window they would look good..

what happens is the backplate on one card (the lower one) gets very hot.. pretty close to full gpu chip tempts.. the fans on the higher card pick up this heated air and suffer from it.. with two cards its bad with four it would be very bad..

we are talking a solid block of heat.. this heat then rises card by card and then gets picked up by a normal side flow cpu cooler which also sufferers from it..

basically anything that helps spreads this heat about is a good thing.. with my own machine its an essential thing..

case side fans provide cool room temp air directly where it matters.. they are not popular because of windowed cases..

the downside with fans sat on the bridge is they have to work with case temp air.. case side fans work with room tempt air..

i am of the opinion that high end quad sli or cf needs custom loop water cooling to stop one card cooking the other but that is another matter..

trog

 

[nickbaldwin86]

I am guessing they left out the ugly wire for the fan just for the pictures? (I cant imagine the bridge powering the fan) Hopefully they sleeve it and make it look nice because nothing can look worse than that big fan covering your cards. I am sure it is functional but how much does it really help?

 

[newtekie1]

Why only 1 connector for 2nd and 4th card? On the tri-sli one I can see doubles for each card

That is how 4-Way SLI works.

 

[nickbaldwin86]

That is how 4-Way SLI works.

They literally should just put the plugs on there and just not connect them so they do nothing just to remove these kinds of comments and questions. LOL

 

[EarthDog]

i think they would be useless in my case with two side panel fans sitting very close to the cards and top down cpu cooler but as a general concept they are pretty useful.. and with a side window they would look good..

what happens is the backplate on one card (the lower one) gets very hot.. pretty close to full gpu chip tempts.. the fans on the higher card pick up this heated air and suffer from it.. with two cards its bad with four it would be very bad..

we are talking a solid block of heat.. this heat then rises card by card and then gets picked up by a normal side flow cpu cooler which also sufferers from it..

basically anything that helps spreads this heat about is a good thing.. with my own machine its an essential thing..

case side fans provide cool room temp air directly where it matters.. they are not popular because of windowed cases..

the downside with fans sat on the bridge is they have to work with case temp air.. case side fans work with room tempt air..

i am of the opinion that high end quad sli or cf needs custom loop water cooling to stop one card cooking the other but that is another matter..

trog

TL;DR

If you think these won't help and you have side fans... think again.

 

[R-T-B]

Looks like a nice idea, but I can only imagine what digi-spirits will I be angering by sticking these on my EVGA twin cards... The fan will probably go berserk and chop them to bits or something. As you all know, my luck with electronics has been extremely poor lately.