NVIDIA SLI to be available with upcoming Intel desktop computing platform

Monday 14th July 2008, 09:46:00 PM, written by Rys

NVIDIA has put ink to paper to seal a deal that'll see their nForce 200 logic be the backbone of SLI support on Intel's upcoming desktop computing platform.

Their new CPU architecture, codenamed Nehalem, is the star of that new platform, and it looks set to bring a new memory controller architecture and a healthy per-clock, per-core boost in basic processor performance to the table.  Gamers salivate, even this far from launch, so it's key for NVIDIA to get the "SLI will be supported" message out as soon as possible.

The nForce 200 approach to enabling SLI support is getting short shrift from many, though.  Its implemenation in Skulltrail and nForce 780i SLI hasn't set the world alight, with the PCIe 2.0 implementation coming under fire especially, along with heat output and power consumption concerns.

Industry partners seem happy enough, though, and any nForce 200-equipped X58 mainboard should support both SLI and Crossfire at the same time, unless NVIDIA decide to be particularly mean.  With Crossfire enjoying a renewed push in popularity because of the GPUs you can use with it now, boards that allow both multi-GPU technologies should be especially attractive in some quarters.

Those with an existing investment in SLI that look to take their GPUs to X58 and Nehalem should breathe a sigh of relief at least.

The announcement about support can be found at NVIDIA's website.

Discuss on the forums

Tagging

nvidia ± sli, nehalem, bloomfield, x58, charlie, loves, jen, hsun


Latest Thread Comments (134 total)
Posted by neliz on Friday, 27-Mar-09 06:58:22 UTC
Quoting Sinistar
Just came across this:



http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN2644137020090326
Wow, so nVidia's losses over the past quarter are actually intel's fault? I think they just installed some new coils, they're spinning harder than ever.

Posted by Arun on Friday, 27-Mar-09 13:46:56 UTC
Quoting neliz
Wow, so nVidia's losses over the past quarter are actually intel's fault? I think they just installed some new coils, they're spinning harder than ever.
I have no idea where you got that from? :) Their claim is clearly that they're losing *future market share* because of this, i.e. since Intel decided to formally sue NVIDIA. It's not hard to see how this would scare OEMs into not adopting Ion, for example, because if Intel is being aggressive on the chipset license why couldn't they be on other things too? To be clear... I'm not convinced that's worth much from a legal point of view, but I just don't think they were trying to claim any previous loss.

Posted by neliz on Friday, 27-Mar-09 14:49:37 UTC
well...

Quote
In its counterclaim, filed on Thursday, *Nvidia said Intel has attempted to steer customers away from Nvidia products for months* by claiming there was a licensing dispute. By officially disavowing the licensing pact through its lawsuit, Intel has breached the contract, Nvidia said.
It doesn't say anything about future losses there. These disputes obviously wouldn't concern Ion or anything like that. It looks like intel is letting these be heard everywhere in the channel.

Posted by Arun on Friday, 27-Mar-09 15:11:42 UTC
Quoting neliz
It doesn't say anything about future losses there. These disputes obviously wouldn't concern Ion or anything like that. It looks like intel is letting these be heard everywhere in the channel.
Present design win losses result in FUTURE profit losses, not present profit losses! It takes more than 2-3 months to get a design win to market and generating revenue...

Posted by Arnold Beckenbauer on Saturday, 28-Mar-09 00:54:04 UTC
Me hopes, it's not un-new:Intel accused of using gamesmanship to force Nvidia out of the market, Drew Henry discusses Nvidia counter suit (http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090327VL200.html)
Quote
Meanwhile, Henry pointed out that Intel continues to benefit from its side of the cross-licensing agreement. Nvidia believes that Intel is using Nvidia IP in currently shipping IGP products and the company also believes that Intel would not be able to develop its Larrabee graphics chips without making use of Nvidia's IP portfolio, said Henry. Henry went on to say that, Nvidia may ask the courts to terminate Intel's rights to these IPs in the event that it is found that Intel is in beech of contract.

Posted by ChrisRay on Saturday, 28-Mar-09 04:37:03 UTC
Honestly. Who didnt see that coming?

Posted by Blazkowicz on Monday, 30-Mar-09 03:15:00 UTC
funny : here are given the BIOS difference between a SLI-approved and non SLI-approved X58 mobo. one string!link in French but I guess you'll understand most of it.http://www.canardpc.com/news-34340-Canard_PC_vous_revele_quelques_secrets_sur_le_SLI.html

Posted by neliz on Monday, 30-Mar-09 05:11:19 UTC
Quoting Blazkowicz
funny : here are given the BIOS difference between a SLI-approved and non SLI-approved X58 mobo. one string!

link in French but I guess you'll understand most of it.
http://www.canardpc.com/news-34340-Canard_PC_vous_revele_quelques_secrets_sur_le_SLI.html
Nice, Break Windows OEM Activation and build some Sly Bridges with one bios flash!

Posted by Blazkowicz on Monday, 30-Mar-09 18:51:06 UTC
you mean you bork your windoze with a mere BIOS update? is it so brittle?

Posted by BRiT on Monday, 30-Mar-09 22:06:16 UTC
Blaz, no. By "break" they mean hack around the Windows Activation requirement by spoofing itself as an OEM machine.


Add your comment in the forums

Related nvidia News

So long, Chris, and thanks for all the fish
NVIDIA GF100 graphics architecture details
NVIDIA Fermi: new GPU architecture, starting with GF100
NVIDIA release OpenCL GPU drivers for Linux and Windows
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 at $250 to fight HD 4890
A look at NVIDIA's SLI Multi-OS and new Quadros
Ahead Nero gets CUDA support for video encoding
G92b renamed again, this time for notebooks
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 announced
New NVIDIA display driver for Windows 7 beta