Confirmed: Radeon RX Vega won't get 4-way multi-GPU support in games

From PC World: On Thursday, AMD released Radeon Software 17.9.2, a driver that unlocks 2-way multi-GPU support in the company’s newly released Radeon RX Vega graphics cards. Great! But also weird. Previous Radeon generations supported up to 4-way CrossFire configurations. No more. In response to a PCWorld follow-up question, AMD confirmed that RX Vega will top out at 2-way configurations—at least in games.

“We have delivered two-way mGPU support in games,” and AMD representative told PCWorld via email. “Three- and four-way configurations will continue being supported in compute and professional applications.”

AMD’s move isn’t unprecedented. Nvidia nerfed SLI (its brand name for multi-GPU support) with the launch of its current-generation graphics cards, the GTX 10-series, which also tops out at 2-way support in traditional games. Like AMD, Nvidia killed support for these extreme enthusiast setups quietly, only 'fessing up to the change when asked for comment by the press.

There’s a caveat to all this. CrossFire and SLI enable multi-GPU support in DirectX 9 and DirectX 11 games via AMD and Nvidia profiles, respectively. The new DirectX 12 tech found in Windows 10 requires developers to explicitly build multi-GPU support into their games instead of relying on those profiles. More advanced 3- and 4-way multi-GPU support will still work in DirectX 12 games that want to take the time to bake in that capability. But considering how few DX12 games currently support multi-GPU whatsoever, and how deeply niche 4-way fire-breathing gaming PCs actually are, don’t expect to see it embraced by DX12 games often.

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