Nvidia Halts Chipset Developments

By Jane McEntegart
published

Nvidia yesterday confirmed that the company is halting development of its chipsets because of legal issues with Intel.

Robert Sherbin, lead corporate communications spokesman for Nvidia, told PC Magazine that the company will postpone further chipset investments until legal issues with Intel are resolved in court next year. Intel says that its four-year agreement with Nvidia doesn't cover the Nehalem or Core series of processors and, while the legalities have nothing to do with Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia has stopped developing chipsets for AMD as well.

"We have said that we will continue to innovate integrated solutions for Intel's FSB architecture," Sherbin told PC Magazine in an email. "We firmly believe that this market has a long healthy life ahead. But because of Intel's improper claims to customers and the market that we aren't licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we'll postpone further chipset investments."

Check out the full story on PC Magazine.

Jane McEntegart
64 Comments Comment from the forums
  • apache_lives
    Your chipset drivers (and even your video drivers) were stupid anyhow - anyone who has tried integrating nvidia driver packages into any mass/unattended install images will agree here - they all clash and cant all get along at all.

    I say good riddens.
    Reply
  • dan101rayzor
    Does this mean the GT300 cards have come to a stop?
    Reply
  • nicklasd87
    definitly, especially with the x58 chipset, there is no need for that nforce crap. When nvidia says they will stop making gpu's is when I will start loosing sleep over it. I don't think nvidia can afford to stop developing gpus.
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    Robert Sherbin - Nvidia"But because of Intel's improper claims to customers and the market that we aren't licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics"
    You just have to laugh at this, Nvidia one of the most unethical companies of recent times (in the tech industry) complaining about unfair business tactics.

    Tell us Mr Sherbin is it fair business tactics to get developers to enable things like anti aliasing on your products and disable on competitors products a la Batman Arkham Asylum?

    Tell us Mr Sherbin is it fair business tactics to disable PhysX on users who want to use their old Geforce cards for dedicated PhysX and use a Radeon as the primary video card?

    Tell us Mr Sherbin is it fair business tactics to take advantage of the greedy and stupid by initially charging an unprecedented $650 for a GTX280 video card? (this one might be ok)

    The sad thing is if this was AMD I would back them up since it's Intel and no doubt Intel as being a-holes to Nvidia but this time around I don't really care. This is a classic case of the the pot calling the kettle black.
    Reply
  • EXT64
    No, GT300 is still alive and well. This is the Chipset, like nForce 4, etc.
    Reply
  • dan101rayzor
    EXT64No, GT300 is still alive and well. This is the Chipset, like nForce 4, etc.ok thanks
    Reply
  • Inneandar
    @dan101rayzor: no, this has nothing to do with GT300

    Geez, what's with all the hate...
    What this means is intel is killing decent integrated graphics for intel CPU's. If you don't want to invest in discrete graphics, an nvidia chipset is often your best option (unless you choose AMD of course).
    Reply
  • EXT64
    I guess if you want a decent mid/low end integrated graphics PC, you'll have to go AMD/ATI, as ATI has pretty decent integrated too. I for one never had much problem with NVIdia chipsets, but I have heard of a lot who did.
    Reply
  • ceteras
    nvidia chipsets might not have been the greatest, but less competition is never a good thing for us, consumers.

    I say this is another example of how intel's aggressive ways could translate to less innovative products on the market, and possibly higher prices for us.
    Reply
  • skora
    Maybe we can convince Nvidia to spin off the chipset section and allow for open source hardware design and they make the products and sell them. Its seems to be a fad to take down overbearing monopolistic companies by going open source. If you can't work with intel, and you can't beat them, take their legs out from under them. Follow the OS and virus scan paths. Look at all the big money companies those initiatives have pissed off!!!!

    I'm against any company that thinks courtrooms are a place to gain market share. But it is more lucrative to hire a law firm than build a better cheaper product than then next guy. And the bottom line is the only line.
    Reply