I think nvidia goofed.

The GTX1060 does not support SLI, not through software but based on the fact that it does not have the SLI fingers. Initial rumored benchmarks (still under NDA as of 7/8/2016) it is currently around 10% faster than the RX480 at stock, at the same price (8gb version). Speculation leads us to believe that at around $200 cheaper ($500 for 2x 1060) or $100 cheaper @ $300 each, two of these cards rivaled or beat the GTX1080 flagship cards well enough for them to not even include the feature.

That being said, if NVIDIA chose to increase the bus speed of the 1080 to 384 bit (usually reserved for the Ti/Titan) vs its 256 perhaps they could justify its price, have increased performance and not killing the option of SLI for a historically weaker and not as long lasting lower end card. A xx60 card that perhaps now may have finally been resurrected (is good) could greatly benefit from having another thrown in for low cost. Of course this is all speculation and maybe this is all the 1080 was capable of or they didn't feel the need for people to SLI their 'entry level' gaming card anymore. Bad move IMO because if the x60's actually were to actually turn out to be better than a 1080 in a dual card configuration for less cost they would have made a lot of sales, but it does make sense if the 1080 chip is at its limit of capability and they didn't want to lose money on it.

Just some thoughts.

I think Nvidia did the right thing by tailoring their card to their target audience. x60 series cards were always only meant for the lower end gaming rigs. Serious gamers always opted for a x70 (best perf/cost ratio) or x80 (best perf). Not all games are even SLI compatible, and even some of those that are have terrible issues when using SLI, so that feature isn't necessarily even a huge downfall.

Regard the sales, assuming the SLI'd 1060's do beat a single 1080 with no drawbacks: this just doesn't make business sense. They would have 1080's sitting on shelves (wasted manufacturing cost) and would have to reactively boost 1060 production to try to meet new customer demand. It's not cheap to just change manufacturing operations at a whim to support this kind of demand. Also, I couldn't imagine manufacturing two 1060's is cheaper than a single 1080.

Agree completely, it's a weird change since they supported it for so long which does lead me to believe that it did actually perform better at a lower cost. Enough that they would not include the feature because it wouldn't make sense as a business move. Sli support is meh nowadays anyway but money talks if you can get more for less.

So not so much goofed as weird historically speaking because it's always been there.

SLI has always seemed like a stop gap solution to me when you consider all of the glitches and gotchas it can, and often does, cause. From a business perspective it makes sense for nVidia to drop SLI from the 1060. The question is can the aftermarket companies add SLI headers to the 1060 and make it work or is it completely disabled at the firmware/hardware layer?

That's what I was wondering. I know a lot of people at least mention of doing SLI down the line for a cheaper upgrade than buying a new card as long as their PSU is capable. I did that with the GTX460 and it held up great until I went to a 670. With NVIDIA killing off 3x/4x SLI for anything but benchmarks or developers that wish to support it It's days as we know it are becoming numbered at least in its current state and with single cards becoming more powerful.

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Originally Posted by AOD_Qrow

That's what I was wondering. I know a lot of people at least mention of doing SLI down the line for a cheaper upgrade than buying a new card as long as their PSU is capable. I did that with the GTX460 and it held up great until I went to a 670. With NVIDIA killing off 3x/4x SLI for anything but benchmarks or developers that wish to support it It's days as we know it are becoming numbered at least in its current state and with single cards becoming more powerful.

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I opted for a SLI 980 Ti build and im pretty happy with it. Most of the titles I enjoy (BF4, GTA V, The Witcher) really do well in SLI. For some games I'll disable one card to get better FPS, but its pretty easy to do.

I really do think that SLI performance will improve in the near future. DX12 is assumed to be the tipping point, with async compute and other nice features that will help cards share a load more efficiently.