No SLI for Conroe

Durzel · 20 Apr 2006 at 09:25

Well, not Nvidia SLI anyway.

As reported on XS forum:

Nvidia said:
Nvidia will not enable SLI support for Intel chipsets. Intel chipsets do not provide enough bandwidth to support SLI.

Sean Cleveland
Technical Marketing Manager
Platform Product Reviews
NVIDIA Corporation

So this basically means if you want Conroe, and fast graphics - you will have to switch to ATI and get Crossfire, which is supported natively on the 975X chipset.

(Before anyone mentions hacked drivers apparently these haven't worked since NForce4)

Thoughts?

(This should probably be in the Graphics Card forum - doh!)

Agent WD40 · 20 Apr 2006 at 09:38

If this is true then I think its good news for ATi but bad news for all your SLi buddies.

Well, maybe it'll teach you lot that nVidia sucked anyway!

*waits for barrage of insults and fan boy comments

*

Dave · 20 Apr 2006 at 09:46

Presumably nVidia will release their own chipset for Conroe, like they did for the P4's?

Kesnel · 20 Apr 2006 at 09:54

In the same thread it says that Nvidia will be offering no Conroe support even on a different chipset.

Not the smartest of moves by Nvidia I think.

Durzel · 20 Apr 2006 at 11:30

Kesnel said:
In the same thread it says that Nvidia will be offering no Conroe support even on a different chipset.

Not the smartest of moves by Nvidia I think.

Good point (I forgot to mention that!)

People are already ranting on XS, saying how Nvidia will drop out of the 3DMark ORB completely.

Seems like a very odd move by Nvidia, given how much hype Conroe is getting at the moment. ATI must be rubbing their hands together with glee.

Spyhop · 20 Apr 2006 at 11:56

Durzel said:
So this basically means if you want Conroe, and fast graphics - you will have to switch to ATI and get Crossfire

Or a decent single card from either company?

man_from_uncle · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:03

That's very curious. Maybe Nvidia know something we don't. Maybe DX10 will spell the end of dual graphics set-ups in the way that we know now and nvidia are planning to concentrate on that new graphics age.

paradigm · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:05

wush said:
Or a decent single card from either company?

Why do people constantly post this?

A single card WILL NEVER BE AS QUICK. If you want THE BEST, you need two cards (or now four). :rolleyes:

Seems like a very bad move from nVidia, however I would wait to see if anything crops up chipset wise from nvidia before giving them a full slating.

KizZ · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:05

Yes! Have that you Intel lovers

lay-z-boy · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:11

The 'fact'

Nvidia will not enable SLI support for Intel chipsets. Intel chipsets do not provide enough bandwidth to support SLI.

is utter bs, its due to ati being intels value line bum-chum not nvidia, they have decided to not bother with support, however no loss there, i personaly dont like large overheads.

Durzel · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:21

lay-z-boy said:
The 'fact'

is utter bs, its due to ati being intels value line bum-chum not nvidia, they have decided to not bother with support, however no loss there, i personaly dont like large overheads.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying, but that original quote is direct from Nvidia. It hasn't been paraphrased or spun.

Nvidia are saying that they won't allow SLI on Intel chipsets, nor will they produce a chipset to support Conroe themselves. This means, unless their policy changes, that SLI will not be supported with Conroe.

wush said:
Or a decent single card from either company?

Way to miss the point. As has already been remarked - whether you personally buy into SLI/XFire yourself, a dual/quad setup is demonstrably faster than any single card.

Kabaala · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:21

Makes me think AMD have something up their sleeve.

Durzel · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:24

Kabaala said:
Makes me think AMD have something up their sleeve.

What, AMD-Conroe?

This isn't an AM2 vs Conroe thread - I'm simply pointing out the fact that as things stand you won't be able to have an Intel Conroe chip with a SLI setup, only Xfire.

If we're gonna argue benchmarks - it's already been proven that Conroe is faster than AM2, which is the only thing on the horizon from AMD for the forseeable future (in Moores Law terms anyway). Maybe I should rephrase the original question - "if you want the fastest gaming system available, Conroe + Xfire is your only option"

lay-z-boy · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:30

Durzel said:
I'm not quite sure what you're saying, but that original quote is direct from Nvidia. It hasn't been paraphrased or spun.

Nvidia are saying that they won't allow SLI on Intel chipsets, nor will they produce a chipset to support Conroe themselves. This means, unless their policy changes, that SLI will not be supported with Conroe.

Yes, i was explaining the reason why, intel are 'mates' with ati, ati are competitors to nvidia, so nvidia is cutting intel out.

lay-z-boy · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:32

Durzel said:
What, AMD-Conroe?

This isn't an AM2 vs Conroe thread - I'm simply pointing out the fact that as things stand you won't be able to have an Intel Conroe chip with a SLI setup, only Xfire.

If we're gonna argue benchmarks - it's already been proven that Conroe is faster than AM2, which is the only thing on the horizon from AMD for the forseeable future (in Moores Law terms anyway). Maybe I should rephrase the original question - "if you want the fastest gaming system available, Conroe + Xfire is your only option"

dont compair conroe and am2, am2 is 939 with ddr2, conroe is a totaly new chip, the a64 is some 2-3 years old.

Durzel · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:35

lay-z-boy said:
dont compair conroe and am2, am2 is 939 with ddr2, conroe is a totaly new chip, the a64 is some 2-3 years old.

What should we compare Conroe against then? What else has AMD "got up its sleeve"?

I'm neither pro/anti Intel or AMD - but unless AMD has been hiding a completely revolutionary processor architecture in the cupboard for the past 6 months, with no rumours at all being spread (i.e. pretty much impossible) then the top dog is going to be Conroe, whichever way you cut it.

If you can agree this, then as far as "the fastest gaming PC available" goes - it's going to be Conroe, ergo - Conroe + X1900XTX Crossfire....

....which was my original point.

man_from_uncle · 20 Apr 2006 at 12:56

Does no one think that the arrival of DX10 might alter the graphical landscape to such a level that SLi, in it's current incarnation, and quite possibly crossfire as well will become redundant? Nvidia isn't going to give up on making the worlds fastest graphics solutions, so they must know something we don't about either AM2 or DX10. They might even have a newer dual card technology in the pipelines.

chaparral · 20 Apr 2006 at 13:03

I wonder if this is anything to do with Nvdia hoping that the PhysX Accelerator with give you all the cpu speed you need.

With nvidia trying to add this PhysX Accelerator to there own cards as well..

Looks like the next 6 to 12 months are going be very interesting..

chaparral · 20 Apr 2006 at 13:07

oops...double post.

man_from_uncle · 20 Apr 2006 at 13:10

Good point Chaparral, PhysX cards might also change the landscape and make SLi on conroe less important.