A
First off, this will be a technical discussion. Please refrain from fanboyism in this thread (nVIDIOTs and fanATIcs please stay away 
).
Now that we've got this over with... let's talk about nVIDIA's SLI (scalable link interface). For those of you who don't know, SLI is a technology that allows the use of 2 (or more) PCI-E graphics cards on a single motherboard, that will theoritically double the performance.
Now I feel that nVIDIA's is doing a big mistake. 2 graphics cards not only mean a lot more heat and noise, but twice the power. That means tha one would need atleast a 600 Watt PSU to run this technology. Apart from that, a compliant motherboard (costing no less than $300) and perhaps a new processor would be required.
Also, there will be marketting issues. Say nVIDIA releases its NV50 about an year from now. We would need to consider 4 cases :-
1. The NV50 (say priced at $550) is faster than 2 GeForce 6800 (say by then they would cost $300 each) cards together and is cheaper than 2 of those as well. Then who would buy 2 GeForce 6800s?
2. The NV50 is more expensive than 2 GeForce 6800 cards, but since it has a better feature set and would naturally consume lesser power than 2 cards, who would go in for SLI?
3. Two GeForce 6800 cards with the SLI tech cost lesser than one NV50 and perform better. Then who would buy the NV50?
4. Two GeForce 6800 cards cost more than the NV50 but would perform much better than one NV50. People requiring performance only would naturally settle for the SLI tech. So, who would buy the NV50?
So, in the end if gamers don't need it, developers won't develop for it.
Because of these reasons, I feel nVIDIA's SLI will flop. What are your thoughts?
).Now that we've got this over with... let's talk about nVIDIA's SLI (scalable link interface). For those of you who don't know, SLI is a technology that allows the use of 2 (or more) PCI-E graphics cards on a single motherboard, that will theoritically double the performance.
Now I feel that nVIDIA's is doing a big mistake. 2 graphics cards not only mean a lot more heat and noise, but twice the power. That means tha one would need atleast a 600 Watt PSU to run this technology. Apart from that, a compliant motherboard (costing no less than $300) and perhaps a new processor would be required.
Also, there will be marketting issues. Say nVIDIA releases its NV50 about an year from now. We would need to consider 4 cases :-
1. The NV50 (say priced at $550) is faster than 2 GeForce 6800 (say by then they would cost $300 each) cards together and is cheaper than 2 of those as well. Then who would buy 2 GeForce 6800s?
2. The NV50 is more expensive than 2 GeForce 6800 cards, but since it has a better feature set and would naturally consume lesser power than 2 cards, who would go in for SLI?
3. Two GeForce 6800 cards with the SLI tech cost lesser than one NV50 and perform better. Then who would buy the NV50?
4. Two GeForce 6800 cards cost more than the NV50 but would perform much better than one NV50. People requiring performance only would naturally settle for the SLI tech. So, who would buy the NV50?
So, in the end if gamers don't need it, developers won't develop for it.
Because of these reasons, I feel nVIDIA's SLI will flop. What are your thoughts?
) GPU's or one absolutely high-end GPU are the only minuses...not the overall cost per se.
U mean the performance equivalent I guess, but we're talking abt cards that we're going to install right 
Not theoretical shootouts.