Intel: If you support Nehalem, you don't support SLI

[Kaotik]

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6887&Itemid=1

Fudzilla as source, but still, they claim that Intel has finally lost it's temper for good with nVidia, and put limitation for any chipset that supports Nehalem - you're not allowed to support SLI at the same time, which leaves nVidia in really hard position.

 

[pjbliverpool]

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6887&Itemid=1

Fudzilla as source, but still, they claim that Intel has finally lost it's temper for good with nVidia, and put limitation for any chipset that supports Nehalem - you're not allowed to support SLI at the same time, which leaves nVidia in really hard position.

Surely NV can create their own chipset though that will support both Nehalem and SLI? Isn;t this only referring to Intels own Nehalem supporting chipset?

 

[Kaotik]

Gah, I misread what Intel said, that's what you get for trusting other forums, this is only Intel chipset specific, nV can still do their own chipsets supporting Nehalem + SLI apparently

So in other words, this wasn't news at all, as Intel has never said they'd support SLI, since it still requires extra chips from nV to do so

 

[Arun]

[In response to the original post]

That's not how I read it; afaict, it's just a huge dose of sensationalism around the fact Intel's own chipset won't support SLI and that NVIDIA might not have a chipset ready to go at the same time as the Nehalem launch.

As Jen-Hsun said at Analyst Day, they've got a cross-license deal with Intel. I suspect what that deal means is that they can do as they see fit in the chipset business and Intel can do as they see fit in the GPU business. He also said that if Intel wanted to get rid of that deal, he'd be delighted to do so (i.e. that'd imply Intel couldn't sell its SM3.0/4.0 IGPs anymore or develop Larrabee without infringing on NV's patents, so that'd be an even better position for NV even if they couldn't sell Intel chipsets anymore).

Either way, I am expecting NVIDIA to come up with a 'bridge chip' along these lines: IN: 1x16 PCI Express 2.0/OUT: 3x16 PCI Express 2.0 (BR04 is 2x)/Integrated GPU for HybridPower. They can simply sell such chips straight to motherboard manufacturers and not to Intel. It wouldn't even need a single bit of support from Intel AFAICT, and should pair up fine with Socket 1160 and 1366, no matter what southbridge is used.

 

[Kaotik]

Garun, I already corrected myself on that

 

[Jawed]

It'll be interesting to see if NVidia will support SLI on Nehalem.

After all, enthusiast gamers won't need Nehalem, a C2D with SLI should be more than enough. A Nehalem is "unbalanced", too much CPU.

Jawed

 

[Arun]

Garun, I already corrected myself on that

I know, but I wrote my post before that, I just forgot to submit it until after your correction, and I wasn't going to scrap it just for that!

 

[Davros]

this is bloody stupid, if the board has 2 pci-e 16x slots it should support 2 cards sli/crossfire/whatever - what happened to the pc being an open system

 

[Thorburn]

It'll be interesting to see if NVidia will support SLI on Nehalem.

After all, enthusiast gamers won't need Nehalem, a C2D with SLI should be more than enough. A Nehalem is "unbalanced", too much CPU.

Jawed

My works would beg to differ

Maybe not for every game, but quite a few.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Could we just delete this thread (or at least rename it)?

 

[Bludd]

It'll be interesting to see if NVidia will support SLI on Nehalem.

After all, enthusiast gamers won't need Nehalem, a C2D with SLI should be more than enough. A Nehalem is "unbalanced", too much CPU.

Jawed

This makes no sense. Give me more power and let the technology advance.

 

[aaronspink]

this is bloody stupid, if the board has 2 pci-e 16x slots it should support 2 cards sli/crossfire/whatever - what happened to the pc being an open system

The fault for any SLI/CF system not working on a board that can support two or more graphics cards is solely on the drivers. If ATI or Nvidia wanted to they could support CF/SLI on any chipset without much work at all.

But then again, as currently implemented both CF and SLI are major wastes of money. Hey look mom, I can display the same frame twice and it makes the fps counter go up!

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.

 

[swaaye]

Intel should just make an SLI chipset and laugh as NVIDIA's lawyers try to defeat them, all the while they sell millions of Intel SLI chipsets with glee! Maybe buy NVIDIA in the end, or some such.

 

[Thorburn]

Intel should just make an SLI chipset and laugh as NVIDIA's lawyers try to defeat them, all the while they sell millions of Intel SLI chipsets with glee! Maybe buy NVIDIA in the end, or some such.

They have, there is no 'secret sauce' to an SLI chipset as far as I'm aware. SLI is disabled at a driver level, if the drivers don't see an NVIDIA SLI certified chipset then there is no option to enable SLI.