ASUS Intros a No-frills NVIDIA SLI HB Bridge

btarunr · Dec 15, 2016

Want SLI to work right on your GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or TITAN X Pascal without having to spend $50 on a fancy SLI bridge with an LED light-show you don't need? Look no further than the "no-frills" NVIDIA SLI HB bridge by ASUS. The bridge is just a fiberglass PCB with SLI slots where you'd want them, and simple ASUS ROG branding printed on the PCB, nothing too fancy. The bridge comes with 60 mm or 2-slot spacing (1 slot between two dual-slot thick graphics cards). The bridge will be sold separately for a fraction of the price of the company's LED-lit bridges; as well as being part of some of the company's upcoming motherboards' accessory packages.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Assimilator · Dec 15, 2016

Oh thank God.

cadaveca · Dec 15, 2016

Meanwhile, ASRock gives the same thing for free with their newer motherboards for some time now... nice to see other OEMs starting to catch up. Anyway, I has to wonder about that slot spacing... which seems to be the same for nearly every HB bridge so far. I wonder if NVidia dictates that...

silentbogo · Dec 15, 2016

Common sense wins! FATALITY!

peche · Dec 15, 2016

so in the news... asus charges a lot of money for a crappy, plain, no leds or finishing sli bridge identical to the ones supplied with every Gigabyte, MSi, EVGA, Asrock and all the well known board manufacturers ? well....

Regards,

thesmokingman · Dec 15, 2016

cadaveca said:
Meanwhile, ASRock gives the same thing for free with their newer motherboards for some time now... nice to see other OEMs starting to catch up. Anyway, I has to wonder about that slot spacing... which seems to be the same for nearly every HB bridge so far. I wonder if NVidia dictates that...

Does Asrock bundle a HB bridge or a regular bridge?

cadaveca · Dec 15, 2016

thesmokingman said:
Does Asrock bundle a HB bridge or a regular bridge?

Both, on the last two X99 boards I reviewed. Check the front page.

I am working on other reviews that also include both as well. It is only natural that boards would include one as time goes forward, since the way things are going, these HB bridges might be required hardware for future GPUs and high-res monitors.

It's actually nice to see that those of us with pre-existing systems that did not have a HB bridge in the box have options to purchase one, and aren't tied into the flashy ones that cost a fair bit..

peche · Dec 15, 2016

thesmokingman said:
Does Asrock bundle a HB bridge or a regular bridge?

most of them, at least here yes!

cyneater · Dec 18, 2016

only big of wank about these bridges is the ROG logo the rest is how it should be...

personally I don't see the point of a zillion dollar bridge that lights up...

Ungari · Dec 18, 2016

The words ASUS and NO FRILLS are an oxymoron at the premium prices they charge.

newtekie1 · Dec 18, 2016

peche said:
so in the news... asus charges a lot of money for a crappy, plain, no leds or finishing sli bridge identical to the ones supplied with every Gigabyte, MSi, EVGA, Asrock and all the well known board manufacturers ? well....

Regards,

ASUS is including these with their new packaging for their motherboards as well. This is just for people, like me, that bought a motherboard long before HB SLI Bridges were even a thing, and need to buy one separate. Also, since we don't know pricing, you can't say they are charging a lot of money.

But considering ASRock's "no frills" HB SLI Bridge is $30, I'm not holding my breath for a cheap price. But once there are more actually on the market(ASRock and ASUS seem to be the only ones available separately) and once ebay starts getting flooded with the direct from China ones, we'll see the prices go down.

And really, buying the nVidia one direct from nVidia is only $40. And while they aren't as no frills as these, I also don't think they are as tacky looking as some of the others. And $40 isn't a terrible price when you consider the $1,000+ people are paying for the two graphics cards. Though really couldn't they throw one in with the cards at that price?

cyneater said:
only big of wank about these bridges is the ROG logo the rest is how it should be...

personally I don't see the point of a zillion dollar bridge that lights up...

Yeah, but I spray paint my bridges so they are all a solid color and the metal pins don't look like ass anyway, so not a big deal breaker.+

cadaveca said:
Anyway, I has to wonder about that slot spacing... which seems to be the same for nearly every HB bridge so far. I wonder if NVidia dictates that...

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/sli/bridges

The nVidia site lists 2, 3, and 4-slot versions. So I doubt they dictate the slot spacing. I'm guessing 3-slot is just the most common configuration, so that is what we see the most.

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Firelance.
Processor	Threadripper 3960X
Motherboard	ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming
Cooling	IceGem 360 + 6x Arctic Cooling P12
Memory	8x 16GB Patriot Viper DDR4-3200 CL16
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 2X OC
Storage	2TB WD SN850X (boot), 4TB Crucial P3 (data)
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Case	Enthoo Pro II Server Edition (Closed Panel) + 6 fans
Power Supply	Fractal Design Ion+ 2 Platinum 760W
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Logitech G613
Software	Windows 10 Professional x64

System Name	WS#1337
Processor	Ryzen 7 3800X
Motherboard	ASUS X570-PLUS TUF Gaming
Cooling	Xigmatek Scylla 240mm AIO
Memory	4x8GB Samsung DDR4 ECC UDIMM
Video Card(s)	Inno3D RTX 3070 Ti iChill
Storage	ADATA Legend 2TB + ADATA SX8200 Pro 1TB
Display(s)	Samsung U24E590D (4K/UHD)
Case	ghetto CM Cosmos RC-1000
Audio Device(s)	ALC1220
Power Supply	SeaSonic SSR-550FX (80+ GOLD)
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Modecom Volcano Blade (Kailh choc LP)
VR HMD	Google dreamview headset(aka fancy cardboard)
Software	Windows 11, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

System Name	Athenna
Processor	intel i7 3770 Dellided
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Rev. 1.1
Cooling	Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro + Tt Riing12 x2 / Tt ThunderBlade / Gelid Slim 120UV fans
Memory	16GB DRR3 Kingoston with Custom Tt spreaders + HyperX Fan
Video Card(s)	GeForce GTX 980 4GB Nvidia Sample
Storage	Crucial M4 SSD 64GB's / Seagate Barracuda 2TB / Seagate Barracuda 320GB's
Display(s)	22" LG FLATRON 1920 x 1280p
Case	Thermaltake Commander G42 Window
Audio Device(s)	On-board Dolby 5.1+ Kingston HyperX Cloud 1
Power Supply	Themaltake TR2 700W 80plus bronce & APC Pro backup 1000Va
Mouse	Tt eSports Level 10M Rev 1.0 Diamond Black & Tt Conkor "L" mouse pad
Keyboard	Tt eSports KNUCKER
Software	windows 10x64Pro
Benchmark Scores	well I've fried a 775' P4 12 years ago, that counts?

Processor	AMD 5900x
Motherboard	Asus x570 Strix-E
Cooling	Hardware Labs
Memory	G.Skill 4000c17 2x16gb
Video Card(s)	RTX 3090
Storage	Sabrent
Display(s)	Samsung G9
Case	Phanteks 719
Audio Device(s)	Fiio K5 Pro
Power Supply	EVGA 1000 P2
Mouse	Logitech G600
Keyboard	Corsair K95

ASUS Intros a No-frills NVIDIA SLI HB Bridge

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Assimilator

cadaveca

My name is Dave

silentbogo

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peche

Thermaltake fanboy

thesmokingman

cadaveca

My name is Dave

peche

Thermaltake fanboy

cyneater

Ungari

newtekie1

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