Best as I can understand, the benefit for a non SLI system is that one +12V rail goes solely to the CPU (although this might differ dpeending on the board manufacturer), and the other +12V rail goes to the motherboard and all the components connected to the motherboard. Because the CPU gets its own rail, there won't be a hiccup in power delivered to it even if something else in the system suddenly drains a lot of power.
Originally posted by: Jack31081
Best as I can understand, the benefit for a non SLI system is that one +12V rail goes solely to the CPU (although this might differ dpeending on the board manufacturer), and the other +12V rail goes to the motherboard and all the components connected to the motherboard. Because the CPU gets its own rail, there won't be a hiccup in power delivered to it even if something else in the system suddenly drains a lot of power.
There are some dual rail PSUs that have the CPU & motherboard on the same +12V rail. As you've noted, not all manufacturers implement which component goes to which rail the same way.
okay, i am convinced dual 12v rails dont make sense for SLI.
do they ever make sense for a standard pci-e board? if so, under what circumstances?
I'm not, I'm convinced older (specifically but not limited) dual rail implementations aren't suited for SLI since they weren't built for it from the getgo in contrast to newer & by going single rail you're pretty much safe from deciding which dual rail PSU is more SLI compatible than another. For single PCIe cards, I agree with Jack that it's the main reason you should go with dual rail. Seperate the +12V rails so that the possible problems that could surface from one component doesn't affect the others - on the other rail.
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