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SLI can run on any X58 board, even without NF200 chip
Nvidia announces plan to support SLI natively on X58 motherboards via a ‘cookie’, providing they go through Nvidia’s SLI Certification Labs
You probably already know that some high-end motherboards based on Intel’s forthcoming X58 chipset will support SLI via Nvidia’s nForce 200 chip, but Nvidia has also just announced that the X58 chipset can support SLI natively via a ‘cookie’ from Nvidia.
Nvidia’s PR manager for the UK and Northern Europe, Ben Berraondo, explained to Custom PC that ‘We are now extending our SLI ecosystem to include a new, native licensing program for X58-based motherboards. This is a new business model for us, but native SLI does NOT require the use of our nForce 200 MCP.’
There’s a slight catch, though, which is that boards without the NF200 chip won’t be able to support three-way and four-way SLI. Berraondo listed three possible configurations for running SLI on an Intel system. The first is obviously nForce 790i for Penryn and prior CPUs, then there’s X58 with an NF200 chip, which will allow four-way and three-way SLI setups, with each slot getting 16 PCI-E 2.0 lanes. Finally, there’s the new licensed native SLI setup on X58 boards, which allows standard two-way SLI via two PCI-E slots with either 16 or eight lanes.
The other catch is that motherboard manufacturers have to send their X58 boards to go through Nvidia’s SLI Certification Labs in order to receive the ‘cookie’ that will then be embedded into the BIOS to enable full SLI support. According to Berraondo, SLI support is only ‘turned on only when our drivers determine that the motherboard has passed a special check that makes sure the key and chipset ID are a match and are in fact, certified to run SLI.’
Minor catches aside, this is a major deal, as it effectively means that any Intel X58 motherboard will be able to run basic SLI, as well as CrossFire. We’re sure that there will still be high-end X58 boards with NF200 chips to enable three-way and four-way SLI, but these will be at a premium cost, as the board manufacturer will have to pay for the Nvidia chip on each motherboard as well as the Intel chips. With native SLI, board manufacturers will only have to pay for the Intel chipset.
Does this mean that SLI never technically needed an Nvidia chipset after all? Apparently not. After speaking to Nvidia’s Tom Peterson, The Tech Report explains that ‘SLI had previously relied on two functions specific to nForce chipsets, PW Shortcut and broadcast. Now, however, PCI-E 2.0 has made peer-to-peer writes a standard feature, eliminating the need for PW Shortcut. Nvidia's driver team, he said, is modifying its driver to handle the broadcast function in software.’ This all sounds a bit suspicious to us, though. After all, SLI worked fine on Intel's Tumwater Xeon chipset natively when SLI was first launched.
Reddit | Technorati
as its only the newer intel chipsets that support Crossfire, it's probably that same peer to peer writes that allows crossfire to work on them... all Nvidia have done is try and retain some control over which boards can claim to support it... whether you think this is for purely monetary, or quality control purposes depends on how cynical you are. For my part I think its most likely a mix of the two. I think its good for people who dont read tech reviews to find out which boards will offer the most stable support. No doubt someone will 'crack' the driver to get SLI running on non certified boards.
Comment by NewParadigm at 1:33pm 29th August 2008
lol I think pedantic is the word, ok think of every intel board which supports crossfire that is what I was referring to.
Comment by tiff_lee at 12:31pm 29th August 2008
tiff_lee "The only reason sli doesn't work on non-sli boards..." ok I know im being picky but surely you meant non-nvidia chipset boards as a lot of non-sli boards simply only have one PCI-e slot hence could never work.
Comment by pveater at 8:21am 29th August 2008
i should clear this up what i stated as not to mislead, sorry i didnt mean to get too many hopes up this soon! at the moment it will NOT work with any combo of mixed ATI/nvidia GPU's. only in THEORY its possible, but not yet due to operating system and driver restrictions. however there is still hope for the future mixture, thats why i mentioned it. but for now they are concentrating on supporting ati and nv seperately with hydra (nv+nv, ati+ati) its a step forward at least allowing a more widescale implementation of the mixing allowed by some ati cards into generational mixing. i.e 7900GT + 8800GT SLI. if nothing else, this tech with correct implementation, development and support will deliver big performance boosts very soon for crossfire and SLI setups. in the further future (but not too far) with intel on the graphics scene, ati and nvidia may just be forced into developing combined multi GPU support utilising an advanced version of this tech. anything is possible in this industry lol
Comment by vulcanproject at 11:24pm 28th August 2008
that has to be the most crazy thing I've heard... people are allowed their opinions and preferences... in it's extreme of course this is idiotic, but thats just as true for people who proclaim ATI to be gods gift as well as those in Nvidia's camp... and, you really want Nvidia to disappear? competition is GOOD for everyone. Making silly comments like yours doesn't portray you in any better light than those you are bashing.
Comment by NewParadigm at 10:33pm 28th August 2008
u being serious ? one day soon u can cross multiple gpus like ati and nvidia ?
Comment by higson92 at 10:18pm 28th August 2008
u being serious ? one day soon u can cross multiple gpus like ati and nvidia ?
Comment by higson92 at 10:18pm 28th August 2008
u being serious ? one day soon u can cross multiple gpus like ati and nvidia ?
Comment by higson92 at 10:18pm 28th August 2008
generally work very well these days, in all the popular games they can make an awful lot of financial sense against a new generation of cards. for example, SLI 8800GT is actually faster than 4870 easily for similar money, and even a nose ahead of GT280 for quite a lot less. two card setups have matured and come a long way. true, they arent perfect, but they are considerably better than most think. this news has to be good news surely, it will probably only improve performance and compatability further as SLI and crossfire will be in direct competition on the same chipset. besides, theres a new rendering technique for multiple GPU setups that will scale almost perfectly and be introduced soon where cards can be intelligently assigned areas of a scene to render independently and then combined. not only that, cards from ATI and nvidia can be mixed and matched and still work sweet pixel harmony. basically, multiple GPU machines are gonna get a whole lot faster and more stable in the next few years, and the divide between crossfire and SLI camps is probably going to vanish http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=607
Comment by vulcanproject at 10:06pm 28th August 2008
nvidia fan boys give up ur like people that use macs. up them selfs and refuse to admit the truth. ati are doing well. nvidia please jump of a cliff. ty.
Comment by higson92 at 8:39pm 28th August 2008
nvidia fan boys give up ur like people that use macs. up them selfs and refuse to admit the truth. ati are doing well. nvidia please jump of a cliff. ty.
Comment by higson92 at 8:39pm 28th August 2008
All versions of multiple cards are pretty bad. Just look at the improvements you get as you install each additional card, mostly its only a 50% improvement with only COD4 scaling perfectly at 100% and this is only after the second card adding more (i.e. triple and quad set ups) frame rates actually fall. Multi-card set ups for me are only effective on the X2 cards i.e. 7950GX2, 9800GX2, 4870X2 etc. as there is no communication via the FSB for inter-card communication and therefore more efficient. and this is not of course including the amount of electricity these set ups use. Usually the best option is selling your old card and buying the next generation better card if needed.
Comment by Isitari at 7:34pm 28th August 2008
frankly ur WRONG ATi cards don't scale better in fact many gamers and other apps that aren't configured for crossfire doesn't RUN there cards aren't better theres just more of them the frankly with the tat nvidia has been releasing rehashs of older cards with higher clock speeds it wasn't long before ATI noticed and triple and quad crossfire are a frightening JOKE will never be able to give the kind of performance gain on a TRIPLE or quad SLI System
Comment by Mizugetsu at 7:25pm 28th August 2008
i just wanna hear what nicobellic thinks!! he da man !!! ;D lol
Comment by manxspike at 7:03pm 28th August 2008
The only reason sli doesn't work on non-sli boards at the moment is restrictions in the nvidia drivers. It was proved a couple of years ago sli worked on non-sli boards providing the pci-e bus could read and write or something to that affect I can't remember the details..
Comment by tiff_lee at 4:53pm 28th August 2008
I really think Nvidia should be made to take a running jump....they are continually trying to screw everyone over for SLI...first by making their chipset compulsory and now with this motherboard licensing scam....the cost will ultimately be passed on to you and me...so here's some news for you Nvidia...ATi do crossfire for free....it scales better than SLi and their cards are better...so stick it where the sun don't shine
Comment by technogiant at 4:44pm 28th August 2008
.... does that mean non X58 motherboards with PCI-E 2.0 could also eventually work with SLI??
Would be nice, wouldn't it?
Comment by cjagusz at 4:27pm 28th August 2008
surely motherboard companys will favour ati instead of nvidia as to use nvidia there will be a charge for there certificate ? could this be an epic fail for nvidia ?
Comment by higson92 at 4:15pm 28th August 2008
Woopee dooo...Nvidia bullied the consumer into buying its overly expensive chipsets by placing unnecessary restrictions on its hardware use....now they have been bullied into removing those restrictions by intel. The consumer should remember this when making their hardware choice.
Comment by technogiant at 4:08pm 28th August 2008
i7 & X58 here I come! So glad I wont have to use Intel Chip Sets anymore. Definatly good news for the consumer. More choice is always a good thing.
Comment by mardon85 at 2:33pm 28th August 2008
Nvidia:"We're going to open a can o woop ass on Intel" Intel:"Really? Well, you cant have a QP licence then" "oh... well we'll have to allow you to use Sli on your chipsets then" Intel - 1 Nvidia - 0
Comment by NotFred at 2:36pm 28th August 2008
If crossfire could do it so can nvidia, they just enjoyed their chipsets until intel upstaged them.
Comment by DudQuitter at 1:50pm 28th August 2008
"There’s a slight catch, though, which is that boards without the NF200 chip won’t be able to support three-way and four-way SLI". Catch? Didnt I read a CPC article that was struggling to justify 2-way SLi nevermind 3 and 4. Still its good news for the consumer. To be able to buy a board that will allow upgrades to EITHER Ati or Nvidia 2-way is (as an 80's child would say) skill!
Comment by pveater at 1:04pm 28th August 2008
the only question that will hang is performance versus nvidia chipsets with SLI. will nvidia make sure that they dont screw SLI on intel chipsets. consumers demand absolute parity
Comment by vulcanproject at 1:04pm 28th August 2008
Everyone knew all along sli was technically possible without an nforce chipset.
Comment by tiff_lee at 12:48pm 28th August 2008
Sorry, Custom PC comments are now closed.
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