nVidia in chipset / SLI trouble

[Kaotik]

As everyone probably knows, Intel isn't too happy with the situation that nVidia is keeping SLI limited to nVidia chipsets, and now even forced Intel to use nForce 100 chip to support it on Skulltrail.

But - Intel has an Ace up their sleeve, called CSI (Common Serial Interface).
Intel is apparently keeping nVidia out from getting a licence for CSI, used with their next gen Nehalem CPUs, which would leave nVidia in really nasty situation, only being able to make chipsets for AMD platform where AMD has their own chipsets aswell nowadays.
So what can nVidia do - lose ton of revenue and Intel CPUs, or release SLI support for Intel chipsets and probably again lose ton of revenue due lost chipset sales since people aren't forced to go nVidia chipsets for it anymore?

Nvidia’s SLI May Disappear, or SLI Policy May Be Changed If Nvidia Fails to License Intel’s Next-Gen Processor Bus.

Nvidia May Have to Drop or Open SLI Due to Issues with Processor Bus License

If rumours about Nvidia’s inability to get a license to produce Intel Common Serial Interface (CSI) bus compatible chipsets are correct, its multi-GPU technology SLI may either disappear from the market or Nvidia may change its SLI licensing policy and open up the technology for others.

....

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/...o_License_Intel_s_Next_Gen_Processor_Bus.html

 

[INKster]

As everyone probably knows, Intel isn't too happy with the situation that nVidia is keeping SLI limited to nVidia chipsets, and now even forced Intel to use nForce 100 chip to support it on Skulltrail.

But - Intel has an Ace up their sleeve, called CSI (Common Serial Interface).
Intel is apparently keeping nVidia out from getting a licence for CSI, used with their next gen Nehalem CPUs, which would leave nVidia in really nasty situation, only being able to make chipsets for AMD platform where AMD has their own chipsets aswell nowadays.
So what can nVidia do - lose ton of revenue and Intel CPUs, or release SLI support for Intel chipsets and probably again lose ton of revenue due lost chipset sales since people aren't forced to go nVidia chipsets for it anymore?



http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/...o_License_Intel_s_Next_Gen_Processor_Bus.html

Considering the flip-flopping of the main source, i'll hold my judgement about CSI/Quickpath+Nvidia for the time being.

 

[Davros]

I hope Intel shaft them
serves them right for limiting sli to nvidia chipsets

 

[Arun]

The necessary licenses were likely negociated a long time ago if they exist, AFAICT the only real risk for NV is a lack of collaboration that forces them to do 50 respins before CSI actually works as expected on all of Intel's CPUs... Of course, that's potentially a show-stopper if some things really aren't clear in the docs that NV would presumably already have.

 

[Albuquerque]

I really really really really really (really, really) want SLI on an Intel chipset.

If that were ANY sort of option two months ago when I bought my new rig, I'd be sporting a pair of 8800GTS's right now, which would have put another several hundred dollars in NV's pockets without a single chipset sale.

But nope, here I am with a pair of 3870's instead. And I'm not complaining per-se, but that's just more money for their competitor because ATI gave me what I wanted.

 

[Arun]

I certainly wish NVIDIA was more aggressive at selling BR04 chips to motherboard manufacturers. I feel that's a pretty good trade-off between their greed and the market situation; plus, it's not like they'd just be selling SLI, they'd also be selling 2x16 PCI Express 2.0 that way...

 

[suryad]

I echo Davros and Albuquerque's sentiment.

 

[AlexV]

I really really really really really (really, really) want SLI on an Intel chipset.

If that were ANY sort of option two months ago when I bought my new rig, I'd be sporting a pair of 8800GTS's right now, which would have put another several hundred dollars in NV's pockets without a single chipset sale.

But nope, here I am with a pair of 3870's instead. And I'm not complaining per-se, but that's just more money for their competitor because ATI gave me what I wanted.

Skulltrail...now available at an Intel outlet near you, for just 649$

 

[Albuquerque]

Skulltrail...now available at an Intel outlet near you, for just 649$

Eff that! I'd rather pay $339 for one of the 780i chipsets at that point

 

[AlexV]

Eff that! I'd rather pay $339 for one of the 780i chipsets at that point

No you wouldn't...they're too crappy....maybe you would pay that for a 790i+another large ammount for DDR3, as the 790i seems to be an actually new chipset, and also seems to be quite decent

 

[I.S.T.]

Not that I'm doubting you people, but could somebody explain why the 6/780i chipsets suck? A link would do too.

I guess due to bad drivers?

 

[AlexV]

Not that I'm doubting you people, but could somebody explain why the 6/780i chipsets suck? A link would do too.

I guess due to bad drivers?

No, not bad drivers. Bad reference design in terms of power circuitry, very high temps, bad handling of Quad-cores in terms of overclocking, dodgy Penryn support, trouble with RAID when using the typical 570 Southbridge, sometimes trouble with networking, a tendency to burn Ram, a tendency to die suddenly....and a few others. Try these on for size:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1280286&highlight=680i

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1279380&highlight=680i

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=170055&page=3

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178234

Also read-up on the DFI 680i incarnation, that was fairly painful in its own right. And probably a bunch of other threads all around the net.

 

[Kaotik]

Not that I'm doubting you people, but could somebody explain why the 6/780i chipsets suck? A link would do too.

I guess due to bad drivers?

At least they're damn powerhungry (identical system with i780 consumes ~24.4% more power at idle compared to one with Intel X38 chipset instead, at load the difference is bit only around 11-12%, but still major difference)
Also they have severe problems with 45nm Core2's IIRC

 

[ShaidarHaran]

Let's not forget piss-poor memory performance in a multi-thread environment compared to modern Intel chipsets.

 

[I.S.T.]

Good lord! I had no idea things were so bad...

 

[Thorburn]

At least they're damn powerhungry (identical system with i780 consumes ~24.4% more power at idle compared to one with Intel X38 chipset instead, at load the difference is bit only around 11-12%, but still major difference)
Also they have severe problems with 45nm Core2's IIRC

I've not had any problems with 750i and 45nm parts.

Let's not forget piss-poor memory performance in a multi-thread environment compared to modern Intel chipsets.

I have seen this in my testing, P35 performs much better than 750i in multi-threaded applications.

 

[John Reynolds]

Good lord! I had no idea things were so bad...

As someone who fought with a Yorkfield sample part and a XFX 680i mobo, I sure found out the hard way. I was literally tempted to run over the mobo with the family van after that weekend.