It is my understanding that applications under windows need to be written specifically to support SLI, and this is a result of the windows windowing subsystem. Specifically, because windows uses one set of commands for the GUI and another for 3D gaming (I know the second is directX, the first I forget the name of - and they're starting to work things out, but slowly). OSX uses OpenGL for everything, from games to gui. As a result if Apple were to implement SLI (or similar) it would be able to increase the response of all applications, not just those specifically written for SLI.
This is a major FOR argument for SLI, as a lot of graphics and video editing programs offload their processing to the video cards. Adding a second video card could almost double your rendering speed (in my perfect word). In OSX, which a large number of professional artists use for editing, this would certainly be benificial!
Another major FOR argument is that the second PCIe 2.0 slot is clearly designed for a video card. I can't think of anything else that would require that much bandwidth. If Apple wants you to use two video cards and has the ability to implement load balancing (SLI) for most or all applications, I think they might just do it.
However, an AGAINST: Apple is known for not doing things that people want, and SLI is a proprietary interface that is limited to NVidia cards. Apple still sells an ATI card at the lower end. I believe that Apple won't implement SLI because they won't want to tie themselves to one manufacturer.
However, I strongly believe we will see some load balancing or card virtualization coming up in later releases of the operating system. Apple now has the hardware and infrastructure in place and, unlike windows, most or even all graphically intense programs (including the OS) will see the benefit of more horsepower without a major re-write.
This is a major FOR argument for SLI, as a lot of graphics and video editing programs offload their processing to the video cards. Adding a second video card could almost double your rendering speed (in my perfect word). In OSX, which a large number of professional artists use for editing, this would certainly be benificial!
Another major FOR argument is that the second PCIe 2.0 slot is clearly designed for a video card. I can't think of anything else that would require that much bandwidth. If Apple wants you to use two video cards and has the ability to implement load balancing (SLI) for most or all applications, I think they might just do it.
However, an AGAINST: Apple is known for not doing things that people want, and SLI is a proprietary interface that is limited to NVidia cards. Apple still sells an ATI card at the lower end. I believe that Apple won't implement SLI because they won't want to tie themselves to one manufacturer.
However, I strongly believe we will see some load balancing or card virtualization coming up in later releases of the operating system. Apple now has the hardware and infrastructure in place and, unlike windows, most or even all graphically intense programs (including the OS) will see the benefit of more horsepower without a major re-write.
