Interesting question regarding HDCP and SLI

openwheelformula1 · Post by **openwheelformula1** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:07 am

If I buy a 7600GS that does not support HDCP, can I pair it with another HDCP compliant 7600GS in SLI? If it works, is such configuration HDCP compliant?

Another question: I can roughly gauge the performance difference between 7600GS SLI and 7600GT, but what would be the difference be for power consumption?

piglickjf · Post by **piglickjf** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:13 am

I could be wrong, but I've heard on multiple occasions from multiple sources that no current graphics cards on the market are HDCP compliant. I don't really follow HDCP so maybe some manufacturers have started making them, but just giving a word of caution to make absolutely sure before you buy anything.

PigLick

openwheelformula1 · Post by **openwheelformula1** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 11:10 am

yes, I know that currently there are none that supports HDCP which is why I raised the question above.

If I buy a none HDCP card now, can I pair it with a HDCP compliant card in the future? Is such SLI setup HDCP compliant as a whole?

Devonavar · Post by **Devonavar** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:12 pm

I think only nVidia knows the answer to that one. I would suspect that SLI will work, but the setup will not be HDCP compliant. Perhaps only the output from the HDCP card will work?

In any case, this is only speculation. There won't be a definite answer to your question until some HDCP cards get released.

Butcher · Post by **Butcher** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:55 pm

No guarantee that nvidia will even release a HDCP 7600GS (or any other current model for that matter).

stratusgd · Post by **stratusgd** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:13 pm

Well, nVidia has said that technically all 6X00 and 7X00 GPUs are capable of using HDCP, but the individual board manufacturer has to implement it during the actual build of the process. Thus far, none have done so.

Several vendors (I wish I could remember where I saw the info) have said that when Blu-ray or HD-DVD drives become available for PCs that they will begin producing HDCP-compliant cards.

However, let's consider that currently SLI requires 2 cards with identical specs (though manufacturers can differ). Previously, it required 2 IDENTICAL cards from the same manufacturer. So I'd say that, at least initially, I wouldn't count on it working as you're looking at 2 physically different cards.