No SLI for Nehalem?

It has nothing to do with Intel at all. It will physically work. nVidia coded their drivers so it will not work on the Intel chipset. I think it is stupid on nVidia's part I will not do SLI because I prefer Intel's chipset so if I needed more graphics processing power then I can get in one card to ATI/AMD I go.

Who Cares SLI and Cross Fire are are not that impressive

nVidia has to give in to what intel wants, there's no other way around it. Intel will start selling systems with those beast-CPU Nehalem that will most likely leave AMD behind by a fair margin. No enthusiast (SLI users) in their right mind would pair $800-1000 worth of graphics with a slower CPU that can't feed their GPUs.

Intel can happily use Crossfire support and still sell high end systems, I'm sure anyone that wants to spend $1000 on graphics cards wouldn't mind using 2 HD 4870 X2s on a Nehalem as long as they perform a lot better than 2 GTX 280s on a Phenom/Deneb.

If AMD was competitive on the high end then it would be a different story, but it was a very stupid move of nvidia to try and take on intel. Instead of this whole ordeal, they could've sweetened their chipsets over intel offerings. For example, Intel X58 offering SLI support, but 880i would offer power down GPUs and use IGP while not in 3D (Hybrid SLI I think that is? Offer huge power savings)

i dont think this will be a problem. most games dont need much cpu power, any modern processor now can handle all the games fine.

I feel like they will be a bottleneck for the SLI/Crossfire configs unless we start seeing quad-threaded games soon, and I'm not saying that the phenom/deneb are bad by any stretch, but if I have to put myself in the shoes of someone spending $3000 on a gaming machine. If I am to spend $1000-1500 in graphics, I'm sure as hell spending $400-500 on fast enough CPU that can keep all those power hungry GPUs happy, not on entry level quads that can barely keep up with the Q6600 stock as it is, because I wouldn't want my machine to turn up to be a dud.

EDIT: People are putting a lot of hope on deneb, but as far as I know they are only disabling L3 cache and a die shrink, so it won't be enough to even catch Q9XXX, let alone what are shaping to be some insanely fast monolithic quads (finally...?)... which reminds me to start saving up for my Nehalem system.

Yeah definitely. If AMD can pull a Core 2 out of nowhere (which is basically what intel is doing again with nehalem...), then they will remain at least competitive and recapture the enthusiast market, because as long as the CPUs are not the bottleneck, everyone will want the faster GPU system.

Add this to poll!!

Amd gives Nvidia a call and tells them we are leaving Intel too

We are going to invest heavily in our own chipsets which will support crossfire and sli, Intel chipsets will not have any dual graphics card support, leaving the whole gaming market to ous, with our 10% slower cpu...

Or is this Nvida's chance to take over the red corner, Intel would be in a hole then...

damn consoles... Jk, but I am hateful of all the pathetic console gamers that think they know it all.. and I ask, what is a console made up of? They awnser: HALO!!! (this does not apply to all "console gamers" ). But back to the topic.. I would really rather buy dual nvidia cards on the intel chipset. And as others said: the only way to get ppl buy their chipset is to make it better than intel's.

Nehalem will require a new chipset because it will have an onboard memory controller. Since nvidia has just released the their chipset i doubt their willing to make the investment in releasing another so soon. However I don't think that means that intel systems will NEVER have SLI. It just might be a year or two after Nehalem launch.

Looks like NVIDIA is in trouble this time. Right now I'm looking for an SLI motherboard and its so hard to find one these days. Either that NVIDIA needs to give in to Intel or NVIDIA might start thinking about making their own motherboards soon.

I'm not exactly in a rush to go out and buy a max pc mag; is there an http source for that information?

Seems Nvidia is going at same fool way as 3dfx done before.

Will an nforce 800i come to fruition? Only time will tell if it happens.

why do they need sli when they have crossfire.

you really have no clue do you, fcuking trolls with your physx card question and now this and your damn avatar. do you even realise how big intel is? do you think they need nvidia dual gpu setups?

seriously, if you are wanting a reaction, good for you, you got one.

ha ha, lets say nvidia let intel use sli how on earth are they supposed to sweeten there chipsets when you can now buy an intel chipset with sli and crossfire who in there right mind would buy nivdia just to save some watts

This just makes me LOL. It was bad enough that, generally considered, Intel's chipsets, like their CPUs, are the superior ones. The fact alone that you can't have SLi on the best chipsets, but you CAN have CrossFire, is already a slap in nVidia's face. And given how well CrossFire now performs, and how rediculously more cost-effective AMD's video cards over nVidia's at this point... It's gonna sting again for nVidia.

I imagine that if anyone gives in, it will be nVidia. As cocky as they may have gotten by their prior ability to slap around ATi/AMD, they should know well enough that Intel's less of a Titan and more of an outright God; opposing them in the way that they are is sheer folley. They simply don't have any real bartering power against Intel, ESPECIALLY with nVidia losing its clutches on the high-end crown to the specter of the 4870X2, which should be out when we see Nehalem chips like the Bloomfield cores.

Really, in light of a potential combination of a 3.2GHz Bloomfield with a pair of 4870X2s... nVidia doesn't really have much of anything to counter as a threat. A pair of GTX 280s with a Phenom? That's laughable by comparison, and weaker all-around. Plus, of course, the Phenoms could use the 4870X2s anyway...

Really, the ONLY company that stands to lose out is nVidia. Intel will win, because they've got the hands-down best CPUs, and access to the most powerful video card setups. ATi will win, because they still will have the most powerful card in existence, the 4870X2. Even AMD will win a bit, as they'll have all the video card options open.

nVidia, however, will lose, producing a card they're now making a loss on and still not selling as hotly as they'd like/need, and can't be SLi'd on the best CPU there is, hence costing them the performance crown in more ways than one...

Because if you can reverse engineer both technologies you can ultimately combine any positives of SLI tech to your existing tech.

Once Intel releases its own GPU i'd say you can forget about AMD gpus on Intel platforms, because they are looking to dominate the market and will likely terminate the license around that point.

That is neither here nor now, but its one potential eventuality you have to face.

They are going to counter ATI with what? Larrabee? If they are stupid enough not to use either ATI cards on their Nehalem mobos (and not Nvidia either) they will lose the gaming / enthusiast sector of the market... since Larrabee is looking to be a low-end solution. I don't think intel will be able to deliver the capability Nvidia / ATI cards deliver right now, maybe years down the road if they really try to get into that.

I'm not quite so sure that Intel would be foolish enough to do such a thing. I think that they're smart enough to know that their own designs are a far cry from being able to dominate every segment of the market where multi-card setups matter, and as such, if they terminate that licensing, it could very potentially cripple and wipe them out of that market segment, effectively handing the market controlled by the likes of Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, etc. right over to AMD, on a silver platter. Even though it's not a massive market, there will always be a sector that wants the absolute most gratuitous power regardless of the cost... And that segment tends to have a much higher profit margin than the cheapie OEM segment Intel has traditionally catered to in the graphics world.

What? Are you arguing with the premises I present? For instance, are you arguing against my claim that Intel's CPUs are by far the most powerful available on the market, including in terms of gaming performance? Or are you doubting that a 4870X2 would fail to best a GTX 280, given that a single-GPU 4870 comes rather close in performance to the GTX 280, and typically ties or bests the GTX 260? Or perhaps the note that nVidia could wind up hurting itself by cutting off key market segments that it's relied upon for years? (i.e, "the best" )

As someone who completely abstains from even smoking and alcohol 100%, I must say I dislike your drug reference.

I totally agree about Intel(Ihave always used their cpu's)but their chipsets are not the superior ones.As for the the upcoming X2,in all fairness is only right to compare it against a pair of 280 GTX cards in SLI configuration.Dual GPU card vs Dual GPU SLI.

Without price being an issue,which will be faster is the point...

Im thinking the 4870x2 will hold its own against the G280 sli setup at half the price. Currently, the 4870 is about 15% slower than the G280, and if the 4870x2 is 15% faster than the 4870 in CF then its looking pretty close, for half the money too

Truth be told,Nvidia alots us a new card for display and show purposes every 6 months for mine and my wife's store front,but,on the other hand AMD/ATI sends us a display/demo card for every new release....there are no rich spoiled people on this end....There are alot of times may paycheck from my fulltime job pays the bills to keep our small buisness going.