Quote Originally Posted by WhiteFireDragon View Post
wait... can someone explain this to me in n00b terms? i'm still a little confused but this is what i'm understanding from all this. x58 mobos are the new nehalem chipset from intel that will natively support xfire just like x38/48 because intel will not give nvidia permission to have native SLI on this new chipset.
True and wrong!
1. x58 will natively support CrossFire, NOT 'cos they don't want to give nvidia ANY permission but 'cos ATI supports CrossFire on Intel chipsets w/o ANY charge!
2. Intel DOESN'T want to sell to nvidia "QuaickPath" licence so nvidia can't make SLi chipset (or any other chipset) for Nehalem.
3. In this situation only thing left for NVIDA to sell SLi on Intel chipset is to:
a) "unlock" their drivers
b) "unlock" their drivers and charge money for that by selling something touchable to mainboard makers (I guess if NVIDIA try to sell them "patch" for ForceWare, they would go mad)
so to get around this, nvidia makes their own chipset for mobo manufacturers to slap on the board so the board has both x58 chip + nForce200 chip?
That's partially true. Only thing that you've got wrong is the fact that nForce 200 isn't a chipset... it's probably something like PCI Express bridge on 780i(a) mainboards... but only nvidia knows exactly what it its...
yup shady move. the more crap on the mobo, the more potential problem there will be. like mentioned before, some people just want a basic x58 mobo without all the other gunk on it because in the end, it'll just inflate the mobo prices.
someone correct me if I'm wrong but basically all of the Nehalem mainboards are finished in terms of the design/layout and manufacturers are doing polishing to be ready for the next quarter and the launch of Nehalem!

Who on Earth would do some serious redesign of this expensive mobo three months prior to CPU launch?

Can someone spot a place for nForce 200 on these mainboards:

http://www.nehalemnews.com/2008/06/s...boards-at.html