The death of SLI: the beginning of Nvidia's painful death

dattimr

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We learned that Intel is really upset with a little green thing called Nvidia and that the chipset that will support Nehalem CPUs codenamed Bloomfield won't support SLI.

First generation Nehalem won't do SLI, but it will support Crossfire, as Intel likes AMD more than Nvidia, which is kind of an awkward situation.

If there is a mechanism for Intel to remove Nvidia from its chipset list for future products, this is highly likely to happen. Just remember the Nforce 680i where Intel intentionally forgot to tell Nvidia that it changed the Yorkfield 45nm quad-cores and the final score is that Nforce 680i doesn’t run with 45nm quad-cores.

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6887&Itemid=37

Any fanboy needing a shoulder before crying in havoc for spending 400+ in the hopes of "future-proofing"? :cry:

If Nvidia doesn't get a CSI licence it'll be doomed. :bounce:
 

Gravemind123

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Intel hardly likes AMD more then nVidia, but ATI allowed Intel to use Crossfire on their chipsets and AMD never canceled the deal after buying out ATI. nVidia refuses to allow anything that doesn't have an nForce chip somewhere on it to run SLI, which is probably going to change if Intel tries to muscle them out of the market like this.
 

baddad

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As a matter of fact I'm in the process of going from my 680i platform to 790i using an Core 2 9450 quad and all three of my GTX's.
 

dattimr

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The 790i is quite a badass chipset. However, I read at Anandtech's web-site that they've been facing some data-corruption and memory issues while testing it.

I have nothing against Nvidia. It makes such great hardware pieces when it really wants to. I just think that it is doomed in the long run since Huang is such a greedy man. And with Larrabee coming "soon", I don't think that Intel wants it running on a Nvidia chipset or competing with Quad-SLI, both coming from a company that said Intel doesn't know how to make anything but processors and chipsets.

And it just CAN'T compete with mighty Intel.
 

rubix_1011

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Yep. We are all going to cry like babies.

The world will stop turning.

The wheel will be rendered useless.

I'm sure no one will think of any alternatives and this is completely set in stone for the rest of time. This is the end all-be all for computers here on out.
 

B-Unit

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This thread makes no sence. NO Intel chipset will run SLi, and thats because thats how nVidia wants it, not because Intel is pissed at them.
 

dattimr

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I don't mind the lack of SLI support, but people with 2x9800GTX do. :sweat:

And, if you cared to read the whole message on the link, the BIG DEAL here isn't simply the lack of SLI on Intel chipsets, but on Nvidia's too. I should reming you that Nvidia didn't get a CSI licence - and probably won't. :hello:

If this turns out to be the true then we, with single cards, might don't give a damn about the whole situation, but for people who spent nearly a fortune doing SLI it'll be the end of their rigs as they know it.

Nvidia losing its ability to make chipsets for Nehalem - this is the whole point of this post. :kaola:
 

B-Unit

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Yes, because as we all know, Fudzilla is based out of an Intel boardroom, and is deep in the know concerning plans to issue CSI licences...

nVidia will get a licence this time around. Intel wants to sell $1100 Extreeme edition procs to enthusiasts with tri and quad SLI setups. Now when Larabee is mature and ready to play, it MIGHT be a different story
 

sailer

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I trust Fudzilla a bit more than I trust the Inquirer, which isn't saying a whole lot. But so what if Nvidia looses SLI in future Intel designs? Most people don't run SLI, so it will have no effect whatsoever on them. Nvidia can also make GX2 cards to fit the single slots. Nvidia has plenty of options, so there's no need to count them out, unless you're just a die hard ATI fan.

 
If NVidia is still beating ATI coming Nehalem, I have a feeling they'll (Intel) change their tone. They've had a little falling out, but in the end it all comes down to money. If enthusiasts are still willing to pay big bucks for SLI (which I imagine they will), Intel will bend and let them start building from Nehalem.

edit: clarification.
 
I think some of us here need to think a little bit. Its not the nVidia fanboys. Its not the AMD/ATI fanboys. But I have a feeling that theres going to be alot of "stuff" put out here by Intel fanboys. Im not saying thisthread is any of it, but its out there, and we should recognize it when we see it.
 

dattimr

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They might come up with a "deal". But, with Nvidia spanking Intel's IGP with things like this http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/08/nvidia-spreads-anti-intel , I don't think they'll come to an agreement about the CSI licence. At least, it wouldn't be a "standard Intel action". Take a look at poor VIA. Besides, what's the point of caring about less than 0,5% of the market - the people who actually have SLI? You're probably very wrong if you think that people (enthusiasts included) will buy less Nehalems just because they won't be able to use two GTX cards, even if we're talking about some of Nvidia's fanboys. If AMD succeeds with Deneb - and I have some faith in this - THEN SLI might have some market share. But, if that's the case, AMD also has great chipsets and might want to bury Nvidia once and for all. I also have great expectations about FUSION. :pt1cable:

I "like" Nvidia (the hardware part and especially CUDA), but I just can't see a future for it without a x86 licence. :non:
 

mothhive

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I don't think this will be the death of SLI, but even if it was, I would think that would be a good thing. SLI isn't perfectly scalable in the first place, requires a ton of money, power and expensive PSU's/Motherboards in order to get it set up. No more SLI would actually force nVidia to innovate rather than just keep releasing refresh after refresh until AMD/ATI catch up. They would have to focus on a building single cards with enough power to to compete with multiple cards/GPU's from competitors. No more resting on their laurels, they'd have to work to be top again, releasing products we know they're capable of releasing, but are reluctant to right now as they are focused on milking their customers for all they can get.

Who knows, maybe modular cards could be a next step?

"Hmmm, my performance is a little lacking in these recent games, I think I'll just pop another GPU and some extra RAM into these handy spare slots on my current card."

I know someone will tell my why it won't work or why it's a bad idea, but c'mon, Nvidia glued 2 cards together for the GX2 ffs, how much worse could this be? :p
 

dattimr

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Agreed. :bounce:
 

victordilorenzo

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did ATI die all the years they were on the bottom. Did you forget crossfire is not perfect either? Why would intel want to help AMD?

CPU's went dual and quad core, now GPU's do.

Its not a big deal.
 
After reading Rob Enderle's article on Toms, I see it the same as he does. Intels trying to push their way into a market theyve never had success in before. In order to do this, theyre going to have to spend alot of money to truly be successful. After maybe their secong gen, they may have a decent product. They arent playing nice with nVidia, and they want to change graphics on PCs from rasterization to raytracing. Problem is, will anyone take to it? Or will it be just another physics experiment? AMD and nVidia both arent going to play nice towards Intel. And heres the kicker. As big, and as bad as Intel sets itself up to be, it has to do one thing before it can do anything, otherwise Intel is useless. And thats to get M$ on their side, and abandone AMD and nVidia in the process. I dont think thats going to happen either. Also, I think both AMD and nVidia will work hard to increase their quality and hopefully pricing affordabilities to us, to hedge Intel out of the market. Just a guess here, but Im not alone with this thought.
 

darkstar782

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The only people stopping SLi working on any chipset are nVidia, who have locked their graphics drivers to only allow it on an nVidia chipset, so that they may sell more of their overpriced, buggy, unreliable and unstable motherboards. (and I say that as someone who has owned 2 780i boards and a 680i board, and wishes he could go back to his old x38 board).

If nVidia don't get a CSI license, they will whine for a couple of months about it, then decide to enable SLi on Intel chipsets, which will be good news for all of us.
 

dattimr

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But don't you think that there's no real point in giving Nvidia a CSI licence after all that Huang has been saying about Intel? I know that it's all business, yet, I don't know what advantages Intel could get out of this deal. If Nvidia cards improve a lot, just as SLI scalability, it could be a menace to Larrabee (and the actual cards are already a bit of challenge for it). :heink:

It might be just me, but I guess that it's the perfect time to dump Huang's team if Intel really wants them out of the game - and with nForce chipsets and SLI out of Nvidia's product line (at least regarding Intel processors) they will feel the "true competition" arriving. At least, NOW Intel has quite an excuse for doing so. :ange: "Stay only with Crossfire for now and deal with it later."

Even if Nvidia could allow SLI to work with future Intel chipsets through new drivers releases I guess that Huang wouldn't let it happen. He's probably driving his company to hell - win everything or die.

It's probably a *PERFECT* time for DAAMIT to get its act together.
 

Dream Operator

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I think all this competition will be good for the consumer in the end. It might be a bit of a bumpy ride though! Hopefully the companies will feel the need to put out better products. We all know it's been a bit stale lately in GPU land.
 

darkstar782

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Intel can't block SLi and Crossfire yet, larrabee is a long way off.

If nVidia don't get a CSI license then they cant make intel motherboards. Why would they cut off their chance to sell two graphics cards?

nVidia drivers have been hacked to allow SLi on Intel before, nVidia could allow it any time they want.
 

Crazy-PC

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This is the battle between Intel and Nvidia and/or AMD. I won't feel happy if only Intel could control both Chipset and graphic architecture, no competition is normally not good for consumer.