Is the CPU more important or the GPU? Up until now, that’s mostly been a topic suitable for Usenet arguments. But this fall, consumers shopping for uber-rigs may actually be forced to pick a side when Intel’s next-generation Nehalem CPU will likely ship without SLI support.
Although Intel and Nvidia won’t comment on whether SLI would be offered in Intel’s Tylersburg chipset for Nehalem or through a new Nehalem-ready nForce chipset, a half-dozen PC builders told Maximum PC that this dream configuration is definitely not going to happen when the chip launches.
“(this situation) really hurts us,” said one vendor, who asked to remain anonymous. “If someone wants a Nehalem with two SLI cards, we can’t do it. It kind of sucks for system integrators.”
The bad news, PC vendors say, is that faced with such a conundrum, consumers may simply decide to buy nothing while the issue gets hashed out. Unfortunately, it’s not clear when a compromise will happen or even if it will happen. It’s even more difficult to find someone to blame. With both companies tossing quotable stink grenades at each other every other week, many OEMs believe it’s not just “coopetition” any more but World War III – with OEMs and enthusiasts caught in the crossfire.
SLI was originally developed and marketed on an Intel chipset. Many were skeptical of its potential for success but it hit a vein with gamers who had to have everything and was also a hit with the “buy one, get one later” crowd. And although many believe SLI will work fine on Intel’s current X48 chipset, Nvidia has never supported Intel desktop chipsets with SLI. Nvidia has always attributed this incompatibility to “validation” issues but most observers believe it’s more of a business decision to help sell nForce SLI chipsets. For the last few years, enthusiasts who wanted to pair SLI and Intel CPUs could only do so by buying [Nvidia designed] nForce SLI-based boards. That won’t work with Nehalem as the new chip and its LGA1366 socket is incompatible with existing LGA775 motherboards.
When asked about SLI for Nehalem, Intel spokesman Daniel Snyder said: “Tylersburg (the chipset for Nehalem) will work mechanically and electrically with multiple-graphics-card solutions.” He added that AMD plans to fully support the Tylersburg chipset with CrossFire and other vendors could as well – if they wanted to.
Nvidia spokesman Brian Burke would not comment on any upcoming SLI chipsets for Nehalem but he appeared to nix any ideas of SLI running on an Intel chipset as a solution.
“SLI is not just plugging in two boards; that’s not what SLI is. Crossfire may be that but we view SLI as the experience and the brand, we want to protect our brand with an ecosystem that works,” Burke said. He said how the GPUs interact with the chipset is also a very important part of the equation, so Nvidia’s plans are to continue to support SLI through an nForce chipset. “We do have full licensing in our licensing agreement (to build for Nehalem),” Burke said. “We don’t have a product for Nehalem. Right now.”
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More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7430768.stm
Even more:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-99...l?tag=nefd.top
More * 2:
http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/show...968#post847968
This is awesome: Atom vs Tegra/Nano
WTF! Noone here to share my excitement?
Intel and Nvidia's Secret War -- Very Interesting Read
Long Live nVidia !!!! 
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