rangers :
if true its pretty sad i was expecting sli through the drivers instead of the BR04 chip, intel should have held out
"But even they give permit, it doesnt means you can see lots of SLI enable X58 everywhere after Q4. First of all, the chip BR04 is as expansive as $30 USD, and secondly a reference X58 can not add BR-04 by not changing the PCB layout, that means if a mobo maker wants to make SLI and non-SLI X58, they need two different PCB layouts. All these just keep the mobo production cost rising, so we can expect second tier mobo maker may not going for SLI enable X58."
As the quote states, its unlikely that BR04 added x58 boards are going to be the norm - this seems like a lot better deal for Nvidia than Intel. It also seems likely that while Intel could design an SLI enabled x58 reference board, they could also just leave that headache to the manufacturers, which implies any SLI x58 could be a flop..
Well anyways, time will tell on this i'm sure - but I think if Nvidia releases another motherboard with as many problems as the 790I at launch then they'll have to get their heads examined because that particular launch hurt their credibility quite a bit.