NVIDIA SLI Natively Supported on Upcoming Intel X58

Did hell freeze over or something? I guess nVidia didn't like ATI hogging up all the intel mobo's.
 
id already read about this few weeks ago... i was hoping you'd be saying we could use nvidia cards on todays intel chipsets lol.
 
nightwalker said:
id already read about this few weeks ago... i was hoping you'd be saying we could use nvidia cards on todays intel chipsets lol.
Click to expand...

Actually what you read was that SLI would be supported via a NF200 chipset. This is 2 card SLI supported NATIVELY by the X58 chipset. Or if you had better information than we did on this that was firm, please let me know next time. :)
 
So from reading im assuming this will be backward compatable with present 200 series cards. If so i am in have been waitng for sli on a intel chipset.
 
So Nvidia finally gave up the ghost and will partially enable SLI without out one of their precious chipsets. This is big news, and I hope it leads to an eventual use whatever video card you own, and mix and match, etc...
 
Wow 2 card sli support NATIVELY on x58?? Damn...thats pretty sweet news. On the bit-tech interview with Asus, they mentioned a non-sli version of ther new x58 board as well as a sli enabled version...but if x58 natively supports 2card sli...?
 
sweet NATIVE

no BS nv crap chips on my intel mobos please, now i might have to go nehelam
 
Thank god I'll never have to go through that Nvidia chipset hell for Sli again
 
siliconnerd said:
So how long before we will see modified BIOS for non-SLI certified X58 motherboards?
Click to expand...

lol I was thinking the same thing. What kind of "key" are we talking about here? Could be done in such a way where the key (bios embedded) interacts with some part of the hardware that will only be present in certified motherboards.

Of course things can always be hacked...
 
This is great news on the nVidia front.
I think their sales will go up from this news.
It makes choices much easier for the end user.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a suggestion to nightwalker & pfunkman - don't do that stuff in Kyle 's Thread.
 
If only this came three years ago, when I had an intel dual PCIE motherboard, and two 6800 cards - since as of now, I won't be going SLI ever in the future, as I won't be using any non-SFF systems in the future.
 
I would be happier if they had promised SLI support by driver only. SLI running on any board would be more worthwhile. The fact that Nvidia has only partially given up on proprietary technology is not so exciting. I would be happier if they would just forgo it entirely.
 
Note that part about "This is for X58 only. No other Intel chipsets." Quite prominent.
 
This is from Anand's blurb on the same topic:

" The timing of the announcement is very last-minute. Most motherboard manufacturers weren’t even aware that NVIDIA was opening up SLI to X58 until tonight, they received phone calls shortly after NVIDIA briefed us earlier this evening."

Sounds to me like NVidia's scrambling, hard. He also mentioned that a lot of OEMs were simply not interested at all in building SLI X58 boards using the NF200 chipsets (is it that much of a power hog/thermal issue? or is it just flakey?). The second I read this I figured it might have something to do with that alternative CF/SLI tech, the Lucid Hydra 100 or whatever that's been on the news lately even tho there's no hard data on it yet... But it looks like it's much worse (for NVidia).

Anand also mentioned NVidia won't have a high end (trip-channel DDR3) Nehalem chipset at all, wow. Guess they're just giving up on their high-end mobo buisness altogether? And if the NF200 is still required for triple and quad SLI does that mean they're also giving up on that? Since no one seems to wanna use it... Not that there was really much of a market for triple SLI and such, but still. Guess people with really high end displays are gonna have to rely more on dual-GPU cards x2 in the future...

Definitely the funniest bit on Anand's blurb is this tho:

" NVIDIA is committed to enabling X58 SLI motherboard support by the time Nehalem launches later this year. We were also told that while Intel’s own X58 motherboard isn’t currently on the certified list, Intel is more than welcome to submit it for certification. "

Makes 'em look rather petty... Anyone else think this could turn into a major headache down the road when BIOS updates start rolling out? What's to stop people from hacking BIOS and including the keys in non-certified boards?
 
Wow really? Its about time actually. I would still never go SLI, but nice to have the option there.
 
But hey, at 'least it'll keep the cost of X58 boards down a bit... :p I still didn't expect NVidia to be seemingly giving up on it's high-end Intel mobo biz this early (relatively speaking), or on triple/quad SLI when it doesn't even have a GX2-equivalent for the 200 series yet. Could Intel simply have muscled 'em into submission by not providing them what they need to bring a triple-channel DDR3 Nehalem chipset to market in a timely fashion? Wouldn't be the first time...

Anyone concerned by the possible lack of competition in the future in this regard? Intel's mobo chipsets have always been a cut above the rest regardless of who was trying to scrape a piece of the pie (VIA, NVidia, etc.)... But competition and extra options are always nice.
 
Impulse said:
Anand also mentioned NVidia won't have a high end (trip-channel DDR3) Nehalem chipset at all, wow. Guess they're just giving up on their high-end mobo buisness altogether? And if the NF200 is still required for triple and quad SLI does that mean they're also giving up on that? Since no one seems to wanna use it... Not that there was really much of a market for triple SLI and such, but still. Guess people with really high end displays are gonna have to rely more on dual-GPU cards x2 in the future...[/I]
Click to expand...

IIRC, Intel never granted a chipset license to NVIDIA for Nehalem. Without a license, NVIDIA cannot build any chipset so they resorted to that so he can have a slice of the Nehalem pie via SLI licensing fees. That partially explain why they were scrambling a bit lately when they realized that Intel won't budge on the chipset licensing and motherboards makers is not all interested on the NF200.

This is all speculations for me but it's very plausible for me.

 
Looking at those slides, what is advanced about their "Advanced Configurations" using the NF200 chipset. What benefit do those motherboard designs get?

The native ones, according to the block diagrams, each card in a 2-card SLI setup gets it's own set of 16 PCIe lanes.

In the "Advanced Configuration" a single X58 x16 PCIe lane gets split across 2 cards. So it has half the apparent bandwidth of the native configuration.

:confused:
 
do you think this is a way for Nvidia to try and refocus on their bread and butter??
 
Good, now for NVIDIA users who want to do SLI don't have to buy a Nforce board anymore, wasn't a huge fan of them anyway.

So that does mean all boards can do both Crossfire and SLI or does that require a seperate board?
 
ryan_975 said:
While this is a humongous step forward for us, why are they only allowing it on X58?
Click to expand...

because nvidia desparately want to clling onto their high-end mobo business.. but realise that they cannot miss the SLi boat with Bloomfield.....
 
Menelmarar said:
Looking at those slides, what is advanced about their "Advanced Configurations" using the NF200 chipset. What benefit do those motherboard designs get?

The native ones, according to the block diagrams, each card in a 2-card SLI setup gets it's own set of 16 PCIe lanes.

In the "Advanced Configuration" a single X58 x16 PCIe lane gets split across 2 cards. So it has half the apparent bandwidth of the native configuration.

:confused:
Click to expand...

It's so you can do a four card SLI configuration, if you so choose. In order to enable four card SLI, you still need to have an NF200 chip on the board.
 
And I spoke a bit wrong about x3 and x4 SLI, they will be done natively as shown in the slide, but will have to divvy up the bandwidth. For the board to run in a true x16 X 3 or X4 mode, additional nf 200s will be needed. And if you are pushing that many pixels on a tremendously expensive setup like that, I would suggest a skinny PCIe bus would not behoove you.

From NV on that:

BTW, you can run x3 and x4 without nForce 200. But the lane configs will be a x16 + 2 x8s or 4 x8s.

nForce 200 lets you do full bandwidth of 3 x16s or 4 x16s (with multiple nForce 200s).
Click to expand...
 
I'm lovin' it. Triple SLI on a Intel platform with full x16 bandwidth is what I've been waiting for!

Thanks for the news! :)
 
The nForce 200 setup doesn't make any sense, since it's not "true" x16. The input from the X58 chipset to the nForce 200 is only x16, so the two cards have to share that bandwidth.
 
nVidia had to bite the bullet on this one or fade away to nothing in the chipset business. After the 680i and the 780/790i's nearly noone trusted nVidia chipsets. I know I don't. This is a VERY welcome addition. This may be what keeps me loyal to nVidia. All nVidia needs to do is release a card that can beat the 4870x2 before I make my final decision for my Nehalem rig and I will go with them.
 
Great News!! I'm sure some of the motivation for Nvidia to do this is because ATI now has a card that challenges Nvidia's top card and they could no longer ignore crossfire setups. Competition is always good for us consumers!
 
so 2xsli would be 16x16x but a 3xsli would be like 16x16x4x w/ the nforce?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top