SLI on X58 without nF200 Chip

[Chri$ch]

Some good news

original source is german, its translated with google..

Enthusiasts have already been a long time the possibility of two or ATi Nvidia graphics cards on their motherboard to build, to increase performance. However, it is either a cross-fire or a board-certified SLI will be needed.

While Crossfire both on its own AMD as well as on the Intel chipsets works, you can SLI (with a few exceptions) only on Nvidia motherboards. Nvidia acquaintance will be the start of the new Bloomfield Intel CPU (Nehalem) does not have its own chipset have done - it would also be really no SLI for the Next-Gen GPU. Intel and Nvidia, however, have been known for some time, that for the Intel X58 SLI chipset unlock when the board partners nForce 200 chip from Nvidia construction.

The last act on the house exhibition Nvision, the chip specialist announced that it now has decided, on the X58 SLI chipset also without a nForce 200 free to give what it never before has been made. However, it stresses explicitly that it will only apply to the Intel X58 and for no other chipset will.

Read More @ source (Computerbase)

[MomijiTMO]

Thanks for the article. Hmm 2 n200 = Quad SLI???

I wonder what kind of cooling systems will be needed.

[Chri$ch]

Quad SLI is also without nF200 Chips possible, but only with PCIe x8. Mainboards with nF200 Chips have 4 x16 lanes.

[oohms]

I wonder how much its going to cost for them to get boards certified by nvidia

[Mk]

NVIDIA will provide approval keys that will be integrated into the BIOS

Awesome then some one gonna crack it

[twwen2]

Yesss!!!!!!! i just saw this at techreport:

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15405

Thank goodness for that!

[BulldogPO]

Just excelent news!

[Roch]

More here and here

[XS Janus]

So they caved?
Simple SLi on Intel is a go?

[zsamz_]

nice maybe now we can have sli on x48 n p45with some help from coders

[Blacky]

excellent news !!

[Blauhung]

haha, can't wait to see the perf/watt tests showing how worthless nf200 is on a platform

[safan80]

I'll believe it when it actually works.

[OBR]

Big surprise!

[JumpingJack]

They are beginning to buckle under the pressure. They must be getting a lot of flack push back from the board makers.

[MomijiTMO]

Anandtech also have it up as news. Hooray!!!!!!

[Jamesrt2004]

haha, can't wait to see the perf/watt tests showing how worthless nf200 is on a platform

wouldnt be surprised if they did something in the driver though tbh

[MomijiTMO]

You know this is actually pretty smart from nVidia. Instead of having to manufacture another chip, they can just charge us [since we will pay a premium on the enabled mobos] without any cost. I think they should promote whoever came up with that

[JumpingJack]

You know this is actually pretty smart from nVidia. Instead of having to manufacture another chip, they can just charge us [since we will pay a premium on the enabled mobos] without any cost. I think they should promote whoever came up with that

Yep, brilliant -- so instead of selling the OEMs/ODMs a hot, expensive chip ... they will sell them a key to embed into their BIOS (probably for the same as the chip would cost)....

[OBR]

My P6T Deluxe will support SLI next month ... great!

[STaRGaZeR]

This can only mean one thing: Core i7 is gonna kick some serious ass.

Yep, brilliant -- so instead of selling the OEMs/ODMs a hot, expensive chip ... they will sell them a key to embed into their BIOS (probably for the same as the chip would cost)....

It's only a piece of (inofensive?) code in the BIOS, way better than a physical piece of crap in the mobo.

[JumpingJack]

It's only a piece of (inofensive?) code in the BIOS, way better than a physical piece of crap in the mobo.

Yep, and you are gonna pay extra for that piece of inoffensive code ...

nVidia doesn't need that crappy 200 PCIe splitter to make SLI work, they just want to sell more silicon.... if they can't get the money selling the silicon, they will get it some other way.

Every SLI enabled x58 board will be more expensive... wait and see.

[MomijiTMO]

Well if it's just 50 bucks I think almost everyone would pay it [not me though]. However if nVidia get greedy and whack on say 100 then they suck and not everyone would jump on.

[Macadamia]

They'll probably sell it at a $20-30 markup to the OEMs, which will probably put it only in the top SKUs, costing another lovely $50.

At least it doesn't use more power or cripple Radeons now. Sheesh.

[Sr7]

Yep, brilliant -- so instead of selling the OEMs/ODMs a hot, expensive chip ... they will sell them a key to embed into their BIOS (probably for the same as the chip would cost)....

To clarify.. obviously the nf chip still has a purpose.. it gives maximum throughput to the sli configuration and facilitates communication. So I'm thinking maybe we'll see some performance differences between an NF chip setup and a non NF chip setup. If it legitimately affects SLIs performance it makes sense why they've wanted to keep it limited to the chip based SLI... to show the products in the best possible light and control the SLI ecosystem better.