Currently nVidia has no way to put their cards in SLI on a Nehalem, ever. Will this change? http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9956256-7.html

It has nothing to do with Intel at all. It will physically work. nVidia coded their drivers so it will not work on the Intel chipset. I think it is stupid on nVidia's part I will not do SLI because I prefer Intel's chipset so if I needed more graphics processing power then I can get in one card to ATI/AMD I go.

nvidias going to be stupid like they always are and completely shut out intel...

idk but I see that happening...


what should have happened is Nvidia should have joined with intel... like AMD buying ATI... would make for a nice bit innovation if you ask me... I know it would take some of the competitiveness out of it... but w/e

Who Cares SLI and Cross Fire are are not that impressive

Theres no way Otellini and Jen-Hsun could even be in the same business , let alone the same building together

nVidia has to give in to what intel wants, there's no other way around it. Intel will start selling systems with those beast-CPU Nehalem that will most likely leave AMD behind by a fair margin. No enthusiast (SLI users) in their right mind would pair $800-1000 worth of graphics with a slower CPU that can't feed their GPUs.

Intel can happily use Crossfire support and still sell high end systems, I'm sure anyone that wants to spend $1000 on graphics cards wouldn't mind using 2 HD 4870 X2s on a Nehalem as long as they perform a lot better than 2 GTX 280s on a Phenom/Deneb.

If AMD was competitive on the high end then it would be a different story, but it was a very stupid move of nvidia to try and take on intel. Instead of this whole ordeal, they could've sweetened their chipsets over intel offerings. For example, Intel X58 offering SLI support, but 880i would offer power down GPUs and use IGP while not in 3D (Hybrid SLI I think that is? Offer huge power savings)

Ive posted several threads in the cpu forum about the cpu being a bottleneck for the new gpus. They didnt believe it. Are you saying the same thing? Or ONLY that people want the fastest cpu?Wont it possibly push people towards AMD? And Deneb will be out a little later, so then or by then it wont matter maybe which cpu is used

i dont think this will be a problem. most games dont need much cpu power, any modern processor now can handle all the games fine.

From a gamers POV, it looks like Intel is missing the mark. From the enthusiast in me, I wish they all could get it right. Intel holds all the cards. Will they deny AMD as well? NO. Why? Because they need them around for their monopolistic reasons. I agree with you to an extent, but frankly, I dont want to see nVidia harmed like VIA,AMD cant remember all the others. Fanboys will say, its because of better tech, thats why Intel won out. Im not so certain. Ask a nVidia fanboy that question. All we have is slides of Larrabee, and currently, nVidia is superior in gpus. And I like ATI too. Just telling it true. Thats why Im taking this as a sorta win win. For AMD somewhat

I feel like they will be a bottleneck for the SLI/Crossfire configs unless we start seeing quad-threaded games soon, and I'm not saying that the phenom/deneb are bad by any stretch, but if I have to put myself in the shoes of someone spending $3000 on a gaming machine. If I am to spend $1000-1500 in graphics, I'm sure as hell spending $400-500 on fast enough CPU that can keep all those power hungry GPUs happy, not on entry level quads that can barely keep up with the Q6600 stock as it is, because I wouldn't want my machine to turn up to be a dud.

EDIT: People are putting a lot of hope on deneb, but as far as I know they are only disabling L3 cache and a die shrink, so it won't be enough to even catch Q9XXX, let alone what are shaping to be some insanely fast monolithic quads (finally...?)... which reminds me to start saving up for my Nehalem system.

I understand. If AMDs cpu solution works out, Im hoping that will change, at least in the minds of heavy spending gamers. I see all of us being forced with this issue. Ill be interested to see how this pans out, and whos trying to work it out, and who isnt. This could be a bad thing for nVidia, and if its a situation where Intel doesnt eventry, well Intel will still be here, andwe will be stuck with that.

Yeah definitely. If AMD can pull a Core 2 out of nowhere (which is basically what intel is doing again with nehalem...), then they will remain at least competitive and recapture the enthusiast market, because as long as the CPUs are not the bottleneck, everyone will want the faster GPU system.

But at this stage of the develoment, are they really bothered?

Coming from a point of virtually nowhere, i.e. IGP, Intel don't really have anything to lose as long as they get their development right. If the first offering is anywhere near competitive both in terms of performance and price, they'll jump into being a top player overnight.

Add this to poll!!

Amd gives Nvidia a call and tells them we are leaving Intel too

We are going to invest heavily in our own chipsets which will support crossfire and sli, Intel chipsets will not have any dual graphics card support, leaving the whole gaming market to ous, with our 10% slower cpu...