munkle said:maybe im wrong on this but isnt nvidia's internal bridge the same as ati's dongle? just ones on the inside and ones on the outside?
Correct. NVIDIA's implementation does allow for two 7800GTX's to operate in SLI mode without the bridge installed with reduced performance. I do not know if ATi's solution does this as well. The fact is both solutions (on the high end) need the bridge/dongle to work.
Most people seem to agree that the NVIDIA solution is more elegant and preferable to use and setup. This article is about a motherboard. Not Crossfire. Kyle has already addressed the point about the earlier speculation of this chipset getting rid of the need for the dongle. At this time it does not do that.