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NVidia Reportedly Will Exit Chipset Business

xav_jones sends along a story from X bit Laboratories claiming that NVidia is ready to quit making chipsets. That story links one from DigiTimes, which reports that NVidia has denied that it's getting out of the business. "[NVidia] is about to quit chipset business, which automatically means that the company's much-hyped multi-GPU SLI technology is either in danger or re-considered. Moreover, several mainboard makers have already ceased making high-end NVidia-based mainboards. [NVidia has]... reportedly decided to quit core-logic business to concentrate on development of graphics processors and following failure to secure license to build and sell chipsets compatible with Intel Corp.'s microprocessors that use Quick-Path Interconnect bus."

173 comments

  1. Damn by Enderandrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nvidia released nice overclocking tools, had good BIOS options, nice features (such a firewall built directly into the NIC), etc.

    I always buy NForce chipsets.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Damn by WaroDaBeast · · Score: 3, Interesting

      nice features (such a firewall built directly into the NIC)

      Actually, NAM can be very buggy. My system had never been really stable when it was installed; for example, I wasn't able to install a game without getting a BSOD. Just playing music in Winamp with nothing else open would crash my computer at times as well.

      --
      "The body may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient." -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
    2. Re:Damn by makomk · · Score: 1

      Did NVidia ever manage to get the hardware firewalling support to actually work properly? Last I heard, they ended up having to disable it because it was causing corruption of network data...

    3. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      indeed. on my system it leaked an enormous amount of memory and was dropping packets. It also took quite some effort to remove the driver.

    4. Re:Damn by mariushm · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't have much experience with ATI chipsets but what I can say about nvidia's chipsets is that they're usually HOT and consume a lot of power.

      I have an Asus mainboard with an Nforce2 chipset, it was great, with a great onboard soundcard (Soundstorm). Now, nVidia won't use a good soundcard anymore, to make their chips cheaper.

      Now, I have an Asus mainboard with the Nforce4-SLI chipset... you can make eggs on it, that's how hot it is (see the P5ND2-SLI motherboard on google if you want). It's good, it's stable otherwise but nothing special.

      Speaking about video cards...

      Two or three years ago I had a Gigabyte Radeon 9200.
      Gave it to my brother and bought an Asus nVidia 6600.
      Now, I bought a Sapphire Radeon 4850.

      What I can say is... maybe you don't realize it, because you have a LCD monitor, but me, with a 21" CRT monitor running at 1280x960, 100Hz... can definitely notice the improved 2D quality of the Radeon cards, compared to nVidia.
      On nVidia cards the image is very slightly blurry.

      ATI video cards are great, so are nVIDIA. On 2D ATI wins for sure, on 3D I don't know what to say.

      The only thing I notice on 3D is that when a very new game is just released, some games have issues with ATI cards, which are (even when I had the Radeon 9200 was the same) solved in a week or so with the next video driver. Other than this minor inconvenience, I never really had problems with either ATI or nVidia.

    5. Re:Damn by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have an NForce5-SLI chipset with just air cooling. The whole system runs pretty cool, even with a 10% overclock.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    6. Re:Damn by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 2, Funny

      you can make eggs on it, that's how hot it is

      Well, I think you can cook eggs at around 60 deg C (140 deg F), which isn't that much, considering that you're trying to convey the image of a hotplate (mine can hit around 200 deg C).

      --
      We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
    7. Re:Damn by EveLibertine · · Score: 1

      This news report is idiotic and old news, and has been proven to be false. Yesterday. Get with the program Kdawson. On second thought, don't. That might cause some sort of apocalyptic catastrophe, as it's never happened before.
      http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2008/08/01/nvidia-to-ars-were-not-leaving-the-chipset-market

    8. Re:Damn by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 0, Troll

      Nvidia doesnt support their Nforce chipsets. Folks like me, who are running Vista on their Nforce 3 boards learned that the hard way.

      I wont miss Nvidia's chipsets, because i never thought they were serious about it in the first place.

    9. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. I made the mistake of installing this POS "feature" and regretted it almost immediately.

    10. Re:Damn by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Old motherboard and new OS.

      Not necessarily a situation where you can expect great support.

      People always blast "driver" issues on Linux, which I find funny. Manufacturers rarely update old drivers on Windows, and sometimes finding old drivers is impossible.

      You'll find that Nvidia wrote first-party Linux drivers for their motherboards which is nice. However, many people have complained that Vista is difficult to write good drivers for.

      Their focus is likely newer chipsets, not getting old ones to work well with Vista.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    11. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm still a little upset that my laptop has the broken nForce 430. The built in firewall on it is useless. I haven't had any issues with audio, but I don't really play games on it.

    12. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nvidia is gearing up to develop a hardware-based ray-tracing solution. I'll be happy to see the day arrive when they're ready to roll out.

    13. Re:Damn by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 1

      Yeah but.... :)

      Isnt the entire point of a PC, is to have decent hardware support, even older stuff?

      At the time, the Nforce 3 board wasnt that old. Nforce 4 had been out a little while but not long enough to really make nforce3 old.

      Especially when Vista came out.

      Linux users would be furious if this were the case. Hell the only reason we have driver support in linux, is because the furious intent on making linux compatible with all kinds of hardware, new and old... by the passionate user base. Often it is the giant companies that ignore linux driver support. Granted that is not as much the case these days... but thats because of the die hard user base that forced hardware to work on linux for generations.

      Its common for a shitty company to pump and dump hardware... but Nvidia? I would have never expected them to just drop support for a fairly recent (at the time) chipset.

      Luckily i run vista 64 on a quad core intel machine as well. I keep the older amd machine with the nforce board for web use, extra render muscle when needed etc.

      The nforce 3 issue, was a big deal at the time. Users were furious, but of course their dollars were forced out of their wallet earlier than expected... to make up for Nvidia's laziness.

    14. Re:Damn by Jarik_Tentsu · · Score: 1

      For the last few years, most benchmarking and reviewing sites have suggested that unless you want SLi features, the Intel's lineup have been a lot better. Cheaper, faster and with better and more effective features. The mainboards that are sold with the Intel chipsets seem to be cheaper too (in general).

    15. Re:Damn by Pyrion · · Score: 1

      Do you inevitably start wondering what the hell is up with all of those TCP checksum errors when you run a packet sniffer on traffic handled by the onboard NIC?

      It's an old bug that nvidia still has yet to fix, started in the nForce4's and has remained in all nforce boards since. You have to disable TCP checksum offloading, otherwise the NIC will continuously discard otherwise perfectly good packets as failing their checksum (and of course, request resends, which will also fail, ad infinitum).

      And ActiveArmor was garbage.

      --
      "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
    16. Re:Damn by Fweeky · · Score: 1

      nice features (such a firewall built directly into the NIC)

      Um, wasn't that so buggy they never actually hooked it up? Which isn't really a problem because it's about the most useless feature ever, is packet filtering on your Windows box really that big a CPU hog?

      And their NICs are a fucking joke; no documentation, and awful binary blob drivers which barely worked and required Linux and OpenBSD to reverse engineer the damn thing to make working open source ones (which can still be wobbly). I'll never forgive Sun for replacing the Intel 1000/Pro NICs in their Galaxy line of servers with nForce junk (Intel write and support very high quality BSD licensed drivers).

      And then there's their SATA stuff, with its undocumented NCQ support which again, required reverse engineering to get working. Way to waste the time of a limited pool of developers because you can't be bothered or are too anal to make public documentation about the most trivial aspects of a chipset. Anyone would think they don't *want* people to support them.

      And let's not mention their recent spate of overheating problems, and DMA bugs. I used to like nForce stuff, but now I barely even trust them in Windows, and I don't appreciate nVidia treating their chipsets like top secret weapons when things like their NICs are the primary networking option on £1000+ servers.

      Which isn't to say I want them to exit the business, we certainly need the competition, I just want them to suck less.

    17. Re:Damn by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well I think that I'm about to get called a troll but I've owned several systems over the last few years. Some have had nforce chipssets and others a mixture of AMD, Intel, and VIA. When I setdown and think about the systems that I have had the most trouble out of have nforce chipsets.

      My current system has a AMD chipset in it and it has been the most stable and trouble free system I've. I bought two systems a few years ago. One for a linux server and the other for a HTPC. The linux server was a VIA / Bisostar system and the other was a Suttle nforce3. The biostar is now living in my sons room as a game machine and the shuttle is still a htpc. There has never been an issue with the biostar. But the shuttle has been the most troublesome system I've had. I've replaced everything in it from the graphics card, memory, cpu, and the PS and it still every 6 months eats itself. Last night the screen turned blue and it scragged the OS.

      The system I had before this one was a Nforce4 and it had issues. Sometimes I had to cycle the power a couple of times to get it to boot. Once it was up it would run fine for months but would do some strange things.

      I've know other people with nforce chipsets that have had no issues with them. But I do find it interesting that I do.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    18. Re:Damn by Raaayzor · · Score: 1

      It caused MY H.P. to crash . I 've got $1300 piece of pidgeon poop because of Nvidia's settings that tend to override my personalized settings that ; evidently , clashed with Windows Default Settings .

  2. print page by A+little+Frenchie · · Score: 2, Informative
    1. Re:print page by A+little+Frenchie · · Score: 2, Informative

      oops... I forgot the second link: http://www.digitimes.com/print/a20080801VL203.html

    2. Re:print page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well played.

  3. In other news, by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 2, Funny

    Several senior personnel who worked for the foundries which provided the faulty chips have been found dead in their homes. Though the deaths appear to be suicides, foul play has not been ruled out.

    1. Re:In other news, by pxlmusic · · Score: 0, Troll

      ummmmm....

      --
      "If for any reason you're not satisfied with our service, I hate you."
    2. Re:In other news, by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 1

      Read this before you try to get the joke.

  4. Open SLI by MrStabby · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Hopefully this will mean that NVidia will open SLI support to the superior intel chipsets.

    1. Re:Open SLI by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

      AMD / ATI chipsets are better and intel on board video is dead last.

    2. Re:Open SLI by MrStabby · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm referring to the motherboard performance, everybody knows that any on board graphics chipset is horrible, especially intel. But the X48 chipset has dual PCIx16 v2.0 and supports ATI Crossfire however nVidia's drivers refuse to allow X48 motherboards to support SLI with nVidia graphics cards, and many people have speculated that it could work if nVidia cooperated with Intel on the matter.

    3. Re:Open SLI by TomHandy · · Score: 2, Informative

      NVidia licensed SLI for the Intel X58 chipset (which will support both crossfire and sli). Pretty sure Skulltrail supports SLI as well.

    4. Re:Open SLI by Kamokazi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They already have-X58 and Skulltrail (Extreme Gaming platform or whatever BS they decided to call it). And the Intel chipsets are just as good as the nVidia ones. Sometimes the nVidia's perform better, and sometimes the Intel's perform better. And that can of course vary by application too. Claiming the Intel chipsets are superior is just plain ignorant.

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  5. AMD / ATI chipsets are good on board with ram by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1, Informative

    AMD / ATI chipset are good on board with side port ram, nice overclocking tools, hyper flash, pci-2.0. Cross fire works on any chip set as well.

    1. Re:AMD / ATI chipsets are good on board with ram by negRo_slim · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Yeah I wouldn't buy a computer in this day and age without side port ram or hyper flash by AMD/ATI teams, as they have proven their expertise in these fields for years.

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    2. Re:AMD / ATI chipsets are good on board with ram by paganizer · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      explain to me what side port ram is, and why it is necessary?

      --
      Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
    3. Re:AMD / ATI chipsets are good on board with ram by Calinous · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You could connect memory to be used ONLY by the video card on a special slot - it was used for laptops, I think. Also, if I remember correctly, Intel had an option to add a special card with RAM in the AGP port, and the chipset would use it as video memory.
            This was used as the video part of the chipset can use more memory bandwidth than the main RAM allows it, and using integrated graphics with main memory lowers the available bandwidth to the processor.

  6. Nvidia Says: Bullshit; Chipset Business Strong by AbsoluteXyro · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is the correct title to this story. See here. "The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business."

    "Mercury Research has reported that the Nvidia market share of AMD platforms in Q2'08 was 60%," Del Rizzo said. "We have been steady in this range for over two years."

    "We're looking forward to bring new and very exciting MCP products to the market for both AMD and Intel platforms," Del Rizzo added.

    1. Re:Nvidia Says: Bullshit; Chipset Business Strong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Yeah, I don't see why they would. nForce chipsets are even shipped in servers these days: you won't even find Via there, so they're clearly doing something right.

      The only thing that grates on me with nVidia chipsets is that for some reason they felt compelled to design yet another Ethernet controller of their very own, instead of just cloning an existing design. Ethernet controllers seem to be proliferating while every other technology is converging on a handful of core chips. I've never understood why.

    2. Re:Nvidia Says: Bullshit; Chipset Business Strong by rpillala · · Score: 1

      "in danger" and "reconsidered" aren't even the only two options. Even if Nvidia decided to stop working on chipsets themselves, they wouldn't just destroy all the work in progress. They'd sell it or license it or something. The work already done is still an asset.

      --
      When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
    3. Re:Nvidia Says: Bullshit; Chipset Business Strong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Mercury Research has reported that the Nvidia market share of AMD platforms in Q2'08 was 60%," Del Rizzo said. "We have been steady in this range for over two years."

      Brian Del Rizzo is the former (and only) editor of the excellent MaximumLinux Magazine. And a great guy.

  7. Ars Technia says this isn't true... by metalcup · · Score: 5, Informative

    Joel Hruska at Ars Technia appears to have spoken to NVidia, and the article he's written says NVidia is not going to quit the chipset market anytime soon. Looks like its just a rumor... http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware.ars/2008/08/01/nvidia-to-ars-were-not-leaving-the-chipset-market

    --
    "Laziness is an optimisation protocol"
    1. Re:Ars Technia says this isn't true... by Rinisari · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Please mod++ parent. Plus, Nvidia wouldn't exit on top.

    2. Re:Ars Technia says this isn't true... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, you mean the author of an article actually did some research?! If this catches on, it could be a whole journalism revolution! Hey, maybe people can actually hold Bush and MS to what they do/say... Nah, that would never happen.

    3. Re:Ars Technia says this isn't true... by Miseph · · Score: 1

      "Hey, maybe people can actually hold Bush and MS to what they do/say..."

      Whoa there, don't go rocking the boat there. Wouldn't want people to think you're a commie terrorist furinner or something like that.

      --
      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
  8. i'll be missing you... not by theblondebrunette · · Score: 1

    I doubt this.. Anyway, one one hand, this won't be good for the market - less competition.
    On the other, no flame here, recent NVIDIA products that I've used (although this is graphics, not a chipset as mentioned in the article), like in T61p, were quite buggy. So I won't be missing NVIDIA products.

  9. Dubious at best. by bluephone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Successful companies don't usually just pack it in and go home in market segments they've been in for a long time. Sure there are issues with some chipsets and certain features, but they're not going to just call it a day. Also, "failure to secure license"? So, what, Intel said "You can only make one bid to get a license," and nVidia failed and now quits? What about "ongoing negotiations"? This is for some IP, this isn't like the Yahoo-MS deal. It's in Intel's best interest to license QPI to nVidia, because it means more sales of Intel CPUs.

    --
    jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
    1. Re:Dubious at best. by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      It's in Intel's best interest to license QPI to nVidia, because it means more sales of Intel CPUs.

      Is that really true? How many Intel CPU sales would be lost to AMD if there were no nVidia chipset for them? How many people that bought an nVidia-based board would just buy a board with Intel chips anyway?

      I know that the SLI drivers do require nVidia boards, but I seem to hear that the installer or driver gets regularly hacked to remove that silly requirement.

  10. Does this mean that by PC+and+Sony+Fanboy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    So ... nVidia doesn't need to fix the thousands (possibly many many more) laptops that they've supplied bad parts for?

    Or are they still in the graphics game, but not in the chipset game (can you do that?)

  11. Please note... by niteice · · Score: 1

    When the article says chipset, they mean the nForce, not the GeForce.

    --
    ROMANES EUNT DOMUS
    1. Re:Please note... by Lord+Ender · · Score: 1

      GeForce is a chip. nForce north/south bridges are motherboard chipSETS. No clarification is necessary.

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    2. Re:Please note... by pleappleappleap · · Score: 1

      A chipset is just a SET of multiple CHIPS working together to solve a problem. You're oversimplifying. There's nothing stopping nVidia from providing a chipset which implements the GeForce architecture.

    3. Re:Please note... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most people were taking it to mean they were exiting the GPU industry.

  12. Nforce was great by corychristison · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I really like the Nforce chipset.

    In my experience they have always been stable and well supported.

    Where does this leave us AMD users... I'm still not quite the fan of the AMD chipsets as they haven't been around long enough... all of the "performance" boards were Nvidia based. My current board has an Nforce 570.

    How does the AMD 780 compare? Anyone?

    1. Re:Nforce was great by John+Pfeiffer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Don't have a 780 chipset myself, I have a 790, but I figure this ought to be just as relevant. I felt the same way when I built my latest machine back in February. I didn't want to go with an AMD chipset and ATI cards. I've been an ardent AMD fan for CPUs, but for the last two builds, I went from ATI to nVidia for graphics...

      Of course, when I looked into it, it turned out that the latest ATI offerings beat the pants off of nVidia's, and the new CrossfireX SLI system looked like they took nVidia SLI, and changed everything that was wrong with it. Besides, there were no decent nVidia-based mobos that could socket a Phenom that I could find at the time. So I went with an AMD-based quad CrossfireX motherboard from ASUS (The M3A32-MVP Deluxe), and slapped a Phenom, 8gb of RAM, and a Radeon HD 3850 in it. (I later added a second 3850...technically I can still put two more in, too!)

      I barely missed dual-NICs, the thing that got me most, was the lack of RAID5 support on the SATA chips... (Though I still haven't been in a position to need it.) As far as performance, it's been rock solid for me. My nVidia-based machine crashed and hung a hell of a lot more when gaming. As it is, I know this one HAS, but I can't clearly recall any one time. Even the onboard audio, despite being the same chip as my last nVidia machine, doesn't have the problems my old machine did. (Some audio samples being replaced with static and screeching in certain games.)

      It's not all fun and games though, I also use the machine for graphics work. When I first put it together, I tested my passive CPU cooling setup by running an unbiased render of a complex scene in Fryrender for roughly 72 hours, keeping the cores maxed the whole time... Solid as a rock, AND never went above 41 degrees C. (Spent most of the time at 38C, when I wasn't heating up the apartment making dinner.)

      So, all things considered, I'd say they make a damn good chipset. :D

      --

      Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
    2. Re:Nforce was great by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      In my experience they have always been stable and well supported.

      bah!!

      as much as I like amd (as the little guy) their cpu's are not competitive with intel and the chipset story is even worse!

      ethernet drivers are the biggest nightmare. 'force death' ??? huh? totally reverse engineered. and that's a bad thing.

      I did not find this production quality on linux and VERY bad on freebsd.

      lets not even talk about sata bugs and 'behavior' from nv chipsets.

      please LET NVIDIA DIE, ENTIRELY. competition is good but they just flat out suck in so many ways.

      (I don't do windows much and I'm talking about reliable months-at-a-time uptime for samba servers on gig-e with sata-2 md-device raid. nv can't keep up with intel ICH*R series (must have R for ahci) and nv can't even touch intel on their pro1000 gig-e chip. nv should just die.)

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Nforce was great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Please let people making good, reliable hardware go out of business just because they won't conform to my very restrictive idea of freedom."

    4. Re:Nforce was great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really like the Nforce chipset.

      In my experience they have always been stable and well supported.

      Except that when you get an nvidia chipset, it always comes with one or two unusable ethernet ports and you are "nforced" to buy a separate ethernet card and waste one slot.

    5. Re:Nforce was great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please let people making good, reliable hardware

      maybe you didn't read what the parent wrote ? Go buy a Sun x2100-M2 server equipped with 4 Gig-E ports, and see how you're forced to sacrifice the two nforce ones because they can't keep up with gigabit and regularly freeze. This ethernet controller was designed with DSL in mind, nothing more. Poor design has to die.

      Also, nobody talked about power consumption. Show me one of their GPUs which does not need a heatsink. Show me one of their chipsets which runs reliably under load without a fan !

    6. Re:Nforce was great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a 790G board and it works gloriously. Probably equal to my good 'ol Asus nforce2 board.

    7. Re:Nforce was great by corychristison · · Score: 1

      Really? I have never, ever, in my entire life had an onboard ethernet port that didn't work (under Linux).

      Can you list some boards so I know which ones to avoid?

    8. Re:Nforce was great by downix · · Score: 1

      Not competitive? Find me a quad-core Intel at the same pricepoint as the Phenom which can keep up in performance. Oh wait, you can't because they don't make it.

      Yes, the Phenom cannot compete with Core2 Quad, but the Core2 Quad costs 2x-4x as much as well. Price vs Performance. 98% of the performance for 1/2 the price, sign me up!

      --
      Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
    9. Re:Nforce was great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Frankly, you're an idiot who needs to learn about using the right tool for the right job.

    10. Re:Nforce was great by MojoStan · · Score: 1

      Of course, when I looked into it, it turned out that the latest ATI offerings beat the pants off of nVidia's

      I barely missed dual-NICs, the thing that got me most, was the lack of RAID5 support on the SATA chips...

      I don't have personal anecdotal experience with recent NVIDIA and AMD/ATI chipsets, but I enjoy reading chipset reviews at sites like Tech Report, Ars Technica, and Anandtech. From the reviews, I've noticed that AMD/ATI might have significantly inferior "south bridge" performance (hard disk, USB, ethernet, etc) compared to NVIDIA.

      AMD's most glaring problem might be flakey AHCI (SATA, NCQ, hot-swap) support. The Tech Report thinks it's so bad, AMD chipset SATA ports should be run in legacy IDE mode. They recently made this recommendation in a July 21 review:

      • "We've had numerous problems getting the 790FX chipset's SB600 south bridge component working correctly in AHCI mode. Not only do you need an auxiliary storage controller (or a slipstreamed SP1 disc) to install Vista, but we've found that you also have to choose between drivers that offer strong performance with poor CPU utilization or those that exhibit low CPU utilization with weak performance. Given these issues, you're better off running the SB600 in native IDE mode, which we did for our testing. The nForce chipsets have no problem running in AHCI mode, which is what we used for those platforms."

      That same review showed AMD's 790FX chipset being significantly outperformed by NVIDIA's nForce 780a and 750a in multiple read/write performance and general write performance due to the lack of NCQ support when running in IDE mode.

      Unrelated to the AHCI issue, AMD's 790FX is also significantly outperformed by nForce 780a/750a in USB performance according to that review.

      Note that AMD's 790FX has used the older SB600 south bridge, but AMD's newer SB700 south bridge (used in AMD's newer 780G chipset with integrated graphics) also has similar problems with AHCI reliability, the resulting SATA performance, and USB performance.

      Also, AMD is supposed to launch a new south bridge, the SB750, this week. It looks like it's initially going to be paired with the 790FX north bridge. Maybe the AHCI and USB issues will be solved with this new chipset.

      I would hope that this AHCI problem can be fixed with a BIOS update, but the 790FX/SB600 chipset combo was released in November, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

      --
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      PRESS ANY KEY

      Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...

    11. Re:Nforce was great by julesh · · Score: 1

      That's an interesting board. Thanks for the info. I've been planning on building a large multi-monitor config for some time, and had been thinking of nForce boards that would let me get 3 x16 graphics boards in, but if this one'll take four boards that's even better. I don't suppose you know if there's any issue using the boards independently, rather than joined for faster rendering...?

  13. What does Netcraft have to say? by syousef · · Score: 1

    Never mind the actual truth! Has Netcraft confirmed it? Or at least has Gartner predicted it will happen?

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    1. Re:What does Netcraft have to say? by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 1, Troll

      Or at least has Gartner predicted it won't happen?

      There, fixed that for you.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    2. Re:What does Netcraft have to say? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Troll? Haw haw haw, 'cause Gartner's not Always Wrong(tm)...
      Fucking astroturfers.

  14. Ties between chipset and CPU by owlstead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Although this story seems groundless, it does look like the ties between CPU and chip set are getting stronger. This seems to be one of the reasons for ATI to be taken over by AMD. Intel was already creating its own chip sets and has a monopoly on defining an interface between the two. This is an interesting relationship since it would seem that the CPU is only part of the machine nowadays. I'm expecting that this relationship will turn around somewhere in the distant future.

    With Intel it was always hard to sell your own chip set against theirs (for the desktop market). Now it will get harder with AMD as well, since they have the ATI chip sets to think about. It would be strange if there would not be some casualties. Hopefully nVidia is big enough to keep some chip sets around for some time. VIA has already given up, I hope their gamble on the embedded market pays off, although they will have pretty strong competition there as well.

    1. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Vanders · · Score: 5, Interesting
      If you notice, what you have is essentially four companies, who break down as:
      1. Intel, who have their own CPU, chipset & video
      2. AMD, who have their own CPU, chipset & video
      3. Via, who have their own CPU, chipset & video
      4. nVidia, who have their own chipset and video

      Notice the odd one out? What do you think the logical long-term plan should be, if you were nVidia?

    2. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by owlstead · · Score: 1

      Well, I heard they were trying to build their own CPU, but building a x86 compatible one - and more importantly one that can compete - will take some time and work. They should better be quick with it though, otherwise they will be missing the boat. AMD and Intel are both very well capable of building chip sets and video. Just the high end video market just won't cut it.

    3. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Vanders · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, it's not like the good old days when anyone with enough capital could just buy up the IP of an existing CPU like Cyrix or the IDT WinChip and rework the core until it was usable: there isn't anyone left. One route for them might be to license the IP for something like Transmeta Efficeon and try to bring the core up-to date, but the overhead and effort required may make it more effort than it's worth.

    4. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by NerveGas · · Score: 1

      You would think so, wouldn't you?

      But it's not that easy. For a few years, AMD beat Intel at the CPU business because Intel made some very, very stupid decisions, and AMD made some very smart ones. But assuming that a company doesn't make such stupid decisions, then the CPU game comes down mostly to "Who has the best fab technology?". Intel has some of the (if not THE) best fab tech in the world, and is thusly returning the favor to AMD. NVidia doesn't have any fabs at all, they would have to go to 3rd-party fabs, something that proved not to work out so well for AMD.

      --
      Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
    5. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by fostware · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah...

      Via CPUs are crap, VIA chipsets are extra crap, and VIA video blows chunks.

      nVidia have stuck to the things they do well.

      --
      "We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." - Aneurin Bevan
    6. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let's not forget Sun and IBM, who are also major CPU manufacturers. Certainly more so than Via.

    7. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Deanalator · · Score: 1

      Sell out to intel? :-)

    8. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Vanders · · Score: 1

      Which is why they've done the sensible thing and built themselves a niche with the low end small-form-factor market, instead of trying to compete directly with Intel or AMD.

    9. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Neither of whom build IA-32 CPUs, which is what we're talking about here.

    10. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by owlstead · · Score: 1

      Well, which part should they have stuck to then? Or are you saying they are crap whichever way you look at it?

      The've server quite a few of my computers with their chipsets and pretty well, but they are in a corner. Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX are great ideas and they've got groovy things like crypto hardware acceleration and decent video decoding facilities.

      And don't forget that their latest VIA Nano CPU is an interesting, "all new" design, which is faster than the Intel Atom.

    11. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

      If Via CPUs are "crap", then by your standards the AMD Geode and Intel Atom are a complete joke? Right?

      Just because you can't play cookie-cutter FPS games on them doesn't mean they're "crap".

    12. Re:Ties between chipset and CPU by fostware · · Score: 1

      I use Geode's in quite a few embedded systems, and TBH I haven't played with an Atom yet...

      But the VIAs try hard to be something they're not, so for the purpose they're intended for... they're not worthy.

      --
      "We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." - Aneurin Bevan
  15. Thanks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank god! Nvidia chipsets aren't good.

  16. The right thing to do... by rmdyer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I was never happy that nVidia got into the chipset business in the first place. If any company has a talent to specialize and do one thing really really well (in a competitive environment), then that is what they should continue to concetrate on. nVidia seems to have talented people who can ultimately bring us photorealistic graphics at high performance for our games, as well as other engineering, and creative needs. I really frown on companies that water down their core business by diversifying into areas which they shouldn't be messing about in.

    This kind of thing seems to happen quite often and in other ways. For example, John Carmack seemed to really have a talent in producing great engines for games on the bleeding edge of what is possible with new PC technology. John drove PC gaming technology. But what does John do? John goes off to create rockets. And then he journeys off to work on pocket devices, which are basically PCs from 1995 running Win31 with 16 bit graphics. ;( John has allowed Crytek and other engine creators to walk all over id software. (Or maybe John and his company never really were that great to begin with?)

    The whole nVidia chipset fiasco is what brought about the feud between Intel and nVidia so that we, the consumers, could not buy a Intel motherboard chipsets with nVidia SLI graphics. Shame.

    Focus! Focus! You will never be great at something unless you do it well and are the best at it. A jack-of-all-trades rambling about between different technologies will not make you great, or competitive.

    1. Re:The right thing to do... by quadrox · · Score: 1

      Nvidia as a company does not consist of a single person. If Nvidia hires 50 new engineers to start working on chipsets, instead of GPUs, how would that affect their GPU development at all?

      Certainly, there will be some level of cooperation between the two departments in order to ensure it works well together, but it doesn't suddenly make the GPU engineers less competent than before.

      Assuming that the chipset business is able to cover for it's own cost, the only likely effect would be positive, as Nvidia could more easily ensure that the chipset and the GPU work well together. How you can construe something like this to become negative is simply beyound me.

      Companies expand into different market sectors all the time. And developing chipset is after all not too far a cry from developing GPUs.

    2. Re:The right thing to do... by gujo-odori · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Simple: resources put to developing the chipsets are resources that are not being put to developing GPUs. I work for a company that up until a year and a half or so ago had a single product, which had then and has now the largest market share among vendors in that market. Then we launched a new product in a complementary market sector in which there is a dominant player. Sure, we hired new staff to work on this product and it has gained considerable traction in the last nine months and the dominant player in that market is probably starting to sweat :) However, some staff from our existing product line also moved onto that new product line and while development has continued on our core product and new features continue to be released and we continue to be number one in that market, we could have done more, faster if we were focusing on a single product line.

      That doesn't mean nv was wrong to get into the chipset business. Certainly, my employer was not wrong to enter the complementary market sector we entered. Sales are going very well and there are great cross-sell opportunities between our two product lines. I can see us becoming the dominant player in this new market. However, that doesn't mean that entering a new market will not have an effect on your existing products, especially in the short term. I assure you it does.

      The problem nv has in the chipset market, as I see it, is that they entered a very crowded market with a dominant player (Intel), which didn't really need another player, and they put themselves in direct competition with Intel, something they weren't when they only made GPUs. It got more complicated when AMD bought ATI, since that also put them in direct competition with AMD. If nv were to exit the chipset business they could make nice with Intel as a hedge against AMD. Thus, exiting the chipset business, even if they are profitable in it, could make business sense.

      Sure, they deny it. Of course, a lot of these sorts of denied stories later turn out to mostly or wholly true. Time will tell, but I shan't be surprised if we see an announcement from nv in 3 months that they are leaving the chipset business. Who knows? They might even be able to sell some of their IP to Intel and recover some of their initial investment.

    3. Re:The right thing to do... by mikael · · Score: 1

      If you look at the evolution of supercomputing, one of the fundamental components to such as a system is the scalability from multi-cores (many processors per single chip die) to multi-processor cards (many GPU's per card) to rack mounted systems (multiple cards - SLI technology) and multiple racks (ultimately needing high-performance data networks).

      As the PC can support multiple GPU cards, that forces nVidia to need some motherboard real estate to support SLI. I can hardly imagine the other manufacturers agreeing to reduce the size of the motherboard so that Nvidia could have their own custom motherboard within the PC.
      So the only solution is for Nvidia to make their own motherboards.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    4. Re:The right thing to do... by Fuzzy+Eric · · Score: 1

      nVidia moved into chipsets in order to support their core business of graphics -- the busses had become bottlenecks. When Intel controls the busses and Intel only makes crap-tastic video, then the busses are only crap-tastic. Being able to vastly outperform Intel's video "offerings" required taking control of the busses and making them something that could actually do the job. This required going into the chipset business.

      There really was no alternative.

    5. Re:The right thing to do... by quadrox · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but absolutely nothing in your post proves my point to be wrong. At most you are saying that your own project lost a few people to the other project. And yes, the same is probably true for nvidia. But you admit it was a good idea to do for your company, and you admit development on the "primary" product is still going strong.

      A company is not a single person that can only concentrate on exactly one thing. It is just unlikely that nvidias chipset department will have or has had a (noticable) negative impact on GPU development. I will admit that there are indeed possibilities for a company to screw up when they expand into a different market sector, but postulating that this is bound to happen from the very beginning is foolish I think.

    6. Re:The right thing to do... by MojoStan · · Score: 1

      I was never happy that nVidia got into the chipset business in the first place. If any company has a talent to specialize and do one thing really really well (in a competitive environment), then that is what they should continue to concetrate on.

      The problem nv has in the chipset market, as I see it, is that they entered a very crowded market with a dominant player (Intel), which didn't really need another player, and they put themselves in direct competition with Intel, something they weren't when they only made GPUs. It got more complicated when AMD bought ATI, since that also put them in direct competition with AMD.

      I freakin' celebrated (not literally) when NVIDIA entered the chipset business way back in 2001. The way I remember it, AMD finally had a very nice CPU (the original Athlon) but, unlike Intel, AMD refused to get into the consumer chipset business and left that part to the three Taiwanese "cheapset" makers: VIA, ALi, and SiS.

      I know Intel made a few blunders with their chipsets (think RAMBUS-to-SDRAM translater), but I trusted Intel's reliability way more than VIA, ALi, and SiS. NVIDIA, using their experience with the Xbox, brought much more credibility (IMO) to the AMD platform with their reputation and great chipset features like a dual-channel DDR memory controller, integrated GeForce2 MX based graphics, and a HyperTransport link between the north bridge and loaded south bridge.

      I agree that NVIDIA may not be needed anymore after AMD bought ATI's GPU/chipset business. However, way back in 2001, I thought NVIDIA's entry into the chipset business was just what the AMD platform needed to be competitive with Intel.

      --
      TO START
      PRESS ANY KEY

      Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...

    7. Re:The right thing to do... by gujo-odori · · Score: 1

      You apparently read neither my post, nor even your own.

      Your point was "If Nvidia hires 50 new engineers to start working on chipsets, instead of GPUs, how would that affect their GPU development at all?" (verbatim quote, in case you forgot what you said). I showed you exactly how that could, would, and almost certainly did affect their GPU development, with a real world example. To make that point more clear to you: if you launch a new product line, it is impossible for that new product line to not have a negative effect on your existing product line.

      That doesn't mean launching a new product line is bad, or that nVidia was wrong to get into the chipset business. Heck, I'm glad they did. All of my desktop machines have AMD CPUs, and most of them also have nVidia chipsets, and I'm very happy with them. The only non-AMD machine I use is a MacBook Pro. However, none of that is relevant to your argument, which is that developing a chipset business would not affect the GPU business. If it did nothing else, it would slow the pace of development of GPUs, especially when the chipset business was in its infancy.

      Been there, done that, know what I'm talking about. You haven't, and don't.

    8. Re:The right thing to do... by quadrox · · Score: 1

      You apparently read neither my post, nor even your own.

      I find that remark to be offensive and unnecessary. Furthermore, take a look at this:

      I was never happy that nVidia got into the chipset business in the first place. If any company has a talent to specialize and do one thing really really well (in a competitive environment), then that is what they should continue to concetrate on.

      and this:

      That doesn't mean launching a new product line is bad, or that nVidia was wrong to get into the chipset business. Heck, I'm glad they did.

      In my book you just completely and utterly pwned yourself, thank you.

      Anyway, I forgot to point out in my previous post that your example of your own companies experience does not necessarily hold for other companies. Just because your company was unable to expand without affecting existing business, does not make this true for all other companies.

      And yes, I admit that there may be some short term effects in expanding to a different sector, but depending on how the company manages it, it can have minimal impact on the existing product development. For example, assume Nvidia simply bought an existing chipset company. Certainly, there would still need to be some cross-communication to make it work together well, but the number of people you would have to pull from the GPU development (semi-permanently) would be minimal.

      Let me reiterate: Yes there will be some impact, but it will a) possibly be rather small, and b) be only short term. Your original quote up there sounds to me like "Oh no, they are expanding, their GPUs are gonna suck/get worse from now on", which I frankly find completely unwarranted.

      Been there, done that, know what I'm talking about. You haven't, and don't.

      And you would know that because? Perhaps I am withholding personal experiences because I, unlike you, know that singular examples neither prove nor disprove anything.

    9. Re:The right thing to do... by quadrox · · Score: 1

      Whoops - only just noticed that you are not the OP I wrote my first reply to, sorry. Nevertheless, the remaining points remain true.

    10. Re:The right thing to do... by dumb_jedi · · Score: 1

      That is just half-true. While you can concentrate on one market or product, that's not a very viable survival strategy. Sure, when you're a small business, you need some leverage so people buy your product instead of the dominant player's. But when you reach no 1, there's just one place to go...

      If you specialize, all your eggs are on just one basket. If that market fails ? What if another company makes a better product ? What if another technology makes your market obsolete ? Yes, by specializing you can be VERY good at one thing. But you don't have to very good, just good enough on the eyes of your market. By being good enough on two markets, you have extra security for your company.

      NVidia saw an opportunity, to make chipsets. And they're great at it. It complimentary market to GPU because it lets NVidia do things like SLI for their cards. If they don't, who will ?

      Another thing is that competition is always good. Sure, Intel has the CPU crown again, but a while ago AMD had some GREAT CPUs, better than Intel's. See what that did for us ? It forcet Intel to make a better CPU line, bottom line is, we customers always get some good options to buy from. I personally think is bad for the market to have several companies concentrating all parts (CPU, chipset, GPU).

  17. Yeah what about ATI??? by tristian_was_here · · Score: 1

    Well what we gunna do with ATI?

    1. Re:Yeah what about ATI??? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Oh dear! What will we do with AMD?

      There, I fixed it for you.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  18. It appears this story is bogus by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Link

    Nvidia (NSDQ:NVDA) has asked Digitimes for "a full retraction" of a story appearing Friday in the tech journal that claims the Santa Clara, Calif.-based graphics chip maker "has decided to throw in the towel and quit the chipset business."

    Link

    Nvidia said Friday that there's no truth to a Taiwan report that claims it's exiting the chipset business.

    That report was published by Digitimes, a normally fairly reputable IT publication that claimed that Nvidia met with its main motherboard clients this week and asked for support for its next-generation chipsets.

    The motherboard makers' response? Silence.

    Although such a withdrawal would be highly unlikely, ExtremeTech asked Nvidia for comment. "The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business," said Bryan Del Rizzo, a company representative, in a statement. (The same statement was later resent as an official company statement.)

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
    1. Re:It appears this story is bogus by eonlabs · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Where the hell did this rumor even start?

      It's like IBM stopping all work with Java or Starbucks announcing it will no longer sell baked goods at its stores.
      Who even comes up with this stuff? On your mark, get set, castrate the company of your choice...

      --
      I wouldn't consider the mad hatter mad. Just reality impaired. He sure can make a mean cup of tea.
    2. Re:It appears this story is bogus by mentaldrano · · Score: 1

      It's a shame that the EEtimes reports such unreliable crap sometimes. When they run articles on solar cells, new products, and tech business they're usually pretty good. Whenever I see an EEtimes article about superconducting circuits, MRAM, FE-RAM, or any tech coming out of research labs, their articles SUCK. Classic case of 'the new journalism' - unless there's a press release they can quote from, they're lost.

    3. Re:It appears this story is bogus by lewp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, to be fair, this is about core logic chipsets (nForce). They aren't exactly core to NVIDIA's business. Besides, given how poorly AMD is fairing in the enthusiast market, the merger of ATI/AMD making NVIDIA an AMD competitor (nForce originally made its splash, and had its "glory days", for AMD), and the desire of Intel to push its own chipsets (which have also been quite good recently, lessening the room for an "enthusiast" class third party) I wouldn't be incredibly surprised to see them make this move -- even though they apparently aren't doing it now.

      According to Ars, the original source was one of the motherboard manufacturers. Aside from NVIDIA themselves, they'd be most likely to know. But again, according to NVIDIA, this is a load of crap.

      --
      Game... blouses.
    4. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apple announced today that it will stop selling actual products and will only sell hype, in pretty packages of course.

    5. Re:It appears this story is bogus by j01123 · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's like IBM stopping all work with Java or Starbucks announcing it will no longer sell baked goods at its stores

      or, Slashdot will only post stories after they've been fact-checked.

    6. Re:It appears this story is bogus by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Let us look at the facts. 1. The inquirer,in a story I submitted over a day ago and is still rotting in pending BTW,reported that a several vendors are dropping the 790i chipset due to data corruption issues. 2. Nvidia has had a bad run of chips lately,and since the 790i boards are being pulled,it looks like that bad run is across the board(no pun intended). 3. Nvidia makes a BUTTLOAD of money from SLI,as there are way too many gamers that like having dual Nvidia monsters if nothing else for the bragging rights. 4. And finally the ONLY way you can go Nvidia SLI is with an Nforce board,which even with the economic downturn is still a VERY popular seller,at least it was last time i looked at the sales numbers.

      So I think it is quite safe to say that the article is BS. BTW,if you want to read the inquirer story about the canceled 790i boards and which manufacturers are involved,it is right here. But considering they had to set aside 150 million for repairs and replacements of mobile GPUs,to kill the Nforce which is the only way they can sell two high priced boards to the same customer frankly would be suicide. The last thing they would do is a move like this that would make them look weak after the mobile GPU fiasco. So even if they have come up with some way to add SLI to a single board by some kind of drop in chip most likely they'd wait until the whole mobile GPU mess has blown away. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    7. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Kamokazi · · Score: 5, Informative

      Look at the editor who posted it...you suprised? Time to bust out the kdawsonfud tag.

      --
      As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
    8. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Mephiska · · Score: 1

      This story was debunked almost as soon as it came out. Why is it appearing on Slashdot a day after it broke? Is nobody paying attention?

    9. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is. (1 Aug 2008)

      However, earlier today, reports began to spring up stating that NVIDIA would drop its 790i motherboards and leave the chipset business altogether. The reports cited "sources" close to top Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers.

      NVIDIA recently contacted DailyTech to squash the information regarding it leaving the chipset business. NVIDIA's Brian Burke made it clear that NVIDIA's chipset business is stronger than ever and touched on these three points:

              * Mercury Research has reported that the NVIDIA market share of AMD platforms in Q2 08 was 60%. We have been steady in this range for over two years.
              * SLI is still the preferred multi-GPU platform thanks to its stellar scaling, game compatibility and driver stability.
              * nForce 790i SLI is the recommended choice by editors worldwide due to its compelling combination of memory performance, overclocking, and support for SLI.

      Burke went on to say that "we're looking forward to bringing new and very exciting MCP products to the market for both AMD and Intel platforms."

      Isn't there some means of validating this shit before it lands on /. ??

    10. Re:It appears this story is bogus by rarel · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you think about it, Starbucks abandoning Java would make for interesting news as well...

    11. Re:It appears this story is bogus by giminy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Who even comes up with this stuff?

      Probably someone trying to make money on stock...

      Hopefully nVidia catches whoever started this one and successfully sues them for conspiracy to affect stock price, defamation, and a slew of other fun charges that I no doubt have never heard of...

      --
      The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
    12. Re:It appears this story is bogus by p0tat03 · · Score: 1

      Who even comes up with this stuff?

      People going short on the stock? You can generate a pretty penny doing this stuff.

    13. Re:It appears this story is bogus by hedwards · · Score: 1

      Actually, they wouldn't have to, it's the domain of the SEC to handle these sorts of things.

      nVidia could sue for trademark infringement and probably a few other things, but enforcing the stock market regulation portion would be the domain of the SEC.

    14. Re:It appears this story is bogus by hedwards · · Score: 1

      I don't believe that this is the time to throw in the towel. Depending upon how the antitrust investigations against Intel go, they could very well be required to make it easier for third parties to provide chipsets for pentiums.

      Even neglecting that specific possibility, people do still buy AMD based computers with nVidia chips in them, my new barebones has both an nForce chipset as well as an integrated nVidia video card onboard. I'll probably ditch the onboard, but it's a huge step up over any intel integrated video card.

      Having a third chipset provider helps a bit with the competition. Sure the way that AMD and Intel have been going at it, there's a fair amount going on, but having a third company involved helps keep it going.

      And besides, they've already said that they aren't getting out of the chipset business anyways.

    15. Re:It appears this story is bogus by earnest+murderer · · Score: 1

      Or slashdot readers insisting that this is a news site and not a blog built around discussing things that interest the editors.

      --
      Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
    16. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      Well, they could get out of the the chipset business and license SLI to AMD and Intel increasing their market for multiple NVidia cards. AMD might be a little hesitant, but if Intel buys it, they would buy it too.

    17. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Calinous · · Score: 1

      AMD already has CrossFire, and no desire to help NVidia sell more video cards, when AMD has to sell video cards of its own.
            This would be great for Intel, but they might want to get the SLI technology so that they would be able to use it on their own (maybe) future video cards.

    18. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Barny · · Score: 1

      Well, the rumour about their mobo partners dropping chipsets was probably started by the Inquirer (long history of fact deficient articles), they were purporting that Gigabyte had dropped their 700i series chipsets, when, in fact, they had never started making them (as I pointed out here in the first comment).

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    19. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Earered · · Score: 1

      What's weird, is that a company dealing with rumors should say : "we do not comment rumors"

      If they do not deal this way, you can know what's true and what's false :
      - denial : false or too early
      - no comment : true

      My guess in this case, is that nVidia is not planning to abandon chipset, it's just planning to outsource (i.e. it probably gives revenue, though, it's margin is inferior to the core of nVidia business -> outsourcing)

    20. Re:It appears this story is bogus by idlehanz · · Score: 1

      Pretty funny - tweaked one work. Apple announced today that it will stop selling actual products and will only sell hype, in pretty RECYCLEABLE packages of course.

      --
      Changing the world... one research project at a time.
    21. Re:It appears this story is bogus by NitroWolf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Apple announced today that it will stop selling actual products and will only sell hype, in pretty packages of course.

      That's not funny. Their garbage will still sell to the mindless assholes who buy their current packages of hype.

      Except for the iPod. You'll have to pry my shiny iPod from my cold, dead hands.

    22. Re:It appears this story is bogus by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      I doubt seriously Intel would want SLI,as they can simply tie their GPU straight into their CPU via CSI Interconnect. So Nvidia killing SLI would IMHO be slitting their own throat. It would give ATI a huge advantage as they could say they had the only tech that can tame the most graphics intensive games thanks to Crossfire, and with Intel owning the integrated graphics market I don't see them pushing hard for the discrete market. More likely they'll take their new chip and drop it into a slot connected to the CPU via CSI Interconnect and make it easy for OEMs to choose the onboard graphics for their boards.

      So if Nvidia kills SLI they will IMHO be shut out of the multiple graphics card game,and as someone who has watched customers spend $1200+ dropping graphics boards into computers that I have built for them,I can say that is a pretty nice market to be in. We all know the margins on the high end graphics cards are the nicest,and with SLI it gives them a chance to either sell 2 of the expensive boards at once,or even if the customer can't afford the second board at the point of sale,it stills give them a chance to sell more of the last gen GPUs when they drop from top to second tier because of those with SLI grabbing one to go with the one they already have. Both the SLI and Nforce brands have simply made them too much money to just pull the plug.

      No,more likely they had a seriously bad run on chips,just like the Motherboard manufacturers had a bad run of caps in 2000,and Maxtor had a bad run of HDDs in 2002. Whenever you have something made in those quantities bad runs are going to happen,occasional mistakes will be made. Nvidia will simply take the hit and quietly remove the bad product from the channel and it will be forgotten when the next round of chips comes out. I know that next year when I am ready to begin building my Quad monster I'm going to be looking for an Nforce board,as I have never had problems with Nforce as far as reliability and by then the bad product will be out of the channel. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    23. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      If you think about it, Starbucks abandoning Java would make for interesting news as well...

      You're saying you wouldn't be equally intrigued if you found out that IBM are leaving the baked goods market?!

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    24. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Brain+Damaged+Bogan · · Score: 1

      it started over at intel's marketting and FUD deptartment

      --
      -- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
    25. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Surt · · Score: 1

      I'd be shocked if slashdot even reached spell-checked.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    26. Re:It appears this story is bogus by Surt · · Score: 1

      EETimes did not report this story. Digitimes did.

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    27. Re:It appears this story is bogus by RMH101 · · Score: 1

      it would probably improve the quality of their enterprise support if they put those pastry chefs back to work on the phones...

    28. Re:It appears this story is bogus by julesh · · Score: 1

      Well, to be fair, this is about core logic chipsets (nForce). They aren't exactly core to NVIDIA's business

      Based on their 2007 financial statements, core logic (what they call MCP) accounted for $660M of revenue, compared to $1990M for GPUs. I'd hardly call a clear quarter of their business "not exactly core".

  19. Re:Problems with Nvidia graphics drivers and softw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This story isn't about graphics. Please try to pay attention.

  20. Didn't I just say the other day their chipset drivers - at least the IDE ones - were crap? I spent a fair amount of time reinstalling Windows XP for a client on a box with the NForce chipsets, and it was the IDE drivers that were hosing the install.

    Stick to graphics, Nvidia, maybe you know how to do that.

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
    1. Re:Hah! by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      Considering their driver issues for Vista, I wonder if they should stick to hardware (they seem to be good at that) and just outsource their driver development. Possibly just open the specs and let open source drivers get written.

  21. !news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    NVidia Reportedly Will Exit Chipset Business ..claiming that NVidia is ready to quit making chipsets.
    NVidia has denied that it's getting out of the business.

    Wait, what was this news about again?

  22. I doubt they'd leave by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 1

    Especially since AMD still seems to suck at making chipsets for their own boards. I use Intel processors myself but all the AMD fans I know recommend nVidia chipsets. As long as AMD doesn't do a good job in that market, I can't see nVidia leaving entirely.

    Also as far as I know, nVidia has been able to get a QuickPath license. Basically Intel was annoyed that nVidia was playing hardball on SLI licenses. You may note that nearly all Intel boards are Crossifre only, despite ATi now being owned by AMD. Reason was they didn't have the license to implement SLI technology on their boards. So as far as I'm aware nVidia and Intel worked out a deal so Intel gets to use SLI and nVidia gets to use QuickPath.

    1. Re:I doubt they'd leave by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Especially since AMD still seems to suck at making chipsets for their own boards.

      Maybe I'm behind the times, but I thought that AMD just didn't make chipsets at all.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  23. Bogus, Nvidia denied this by Man+in+Spandex · · Score: 1

    "The story on Digitimes is completely groundless. We have no intention of getting out of the chipset business."

    The rest is here http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15240

    At least the article isn't a dupe, but Slashdot found a way of making this news for nerds since we geeks have to fix ze mistakes :X

    1. Re:Bogus, Nvidia denied this by rrhal · · Score: 1

      They sent a similar message to Ars Technica:

      nvidia-to-ars-were-not-leaving-the-chipset-market

      --
      All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
  24. 1 nail in the coffin for GLSL by heroine · · Score: 1

    After 4 years, they're the only ones supporting GLSL. In today's inflation, you need to have 40% earning growth in dollars to break even. nVidia isn't doing that.

  25. Instead of talking trash... by wshwe · · Score: 1

    Nvidia should have been managing their company properly! What a bunch of wimps! Intel will get a hearty laugh out of this.

  26. If only by AmishElvis · · Score: 1

    it was true. Then nVidia could focus on debugging their Vista video card drivers

    1. Re:If only by techno-vampire · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'd be happy if they'd just do a little debugging on their Linux drivers. After I bought an nVidia card for my Fedora 9 box, installed the drivers and got Compiz running, my system started hanging, sometimes several times a day. It was always when I was trying to come back from xscreensaver. After considerable googlemancy, I found an nVidea forum (Sorry, I don't have a link for it.) that had several hundred threads about screensaver issues with Linux. Apparently, there's a problem coming back from screensavers that do "line drawing." I don't know how true it is, or if it's been fixed, but I do know that ever since I set it to one screensaver only instead of random there hasn't been a problem. There's been an update, and I really should try again, but I haven't had the time for it as yet.

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    2. Re:If only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After I bought an nVidia card for my Fedora 9 box, installed the drivers and got Compiz running, my system started hanging, sometimes several times a day.

      Linux hanging? IMPOSSIBLE! You sir are wrong.

    3. Re:If only by Obsidian+Butterfly · · Score: 1

      Then nVidia could focus on debugging their Vista video card drivers

      Real World: Nvidia lays off the people who debug Vista video card drivers, and give themselves a nice fat bonus.

    4. Re:If only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      set screen saver to blank screen use idle cpu for other projects, SETI@HOME... and try ALL their drives until u get a good steady benchmark.

  27. I hope this is just a rumor... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I had been using an Nvidia Nforce4 SLIx16 chipset for two years and it is the best chipset I have ever used. If Nvidia quits the chipset business, even if it is not right now, I will be very disappointed. Ok, it had some minor glitches, like the heat pipe melts the plastic tabs off my graphics cards. But, that was probably my fault because I have got seven fans on it, and it is water cooled, so it is pulling the heat too rapidly. But, honestly, I would not trade it for any other chipset on the market today.

  28. The word in the silicon valley... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...is that NVidia is working on an Intel-compatible CPU.

    My speculation:
    They're probably shuffling resources internally, Their chipset designers might be working on the chipset to interface with their CPU.

    You haven't heard this from me ;)

    1. Re:The word in the silicon valley... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they do that, they are dead.

      How are they going to fab it ? It'll cost them a huge amount of money, will put them in direct competition with Intel, and will weaken their resources on GPUs, at a time where they have serious issues with them.

      And, in top of that, they will loose focus.

    2. Re:The word in the silicon valley... by Lord+Ender · · Score: 1

      When INTC gloated that they were working on a GPU core for their CPU, NVDA shot back that customers don't really benefit from better CPUs anymore, only from faster GPUs.

      NVDA's GPUs are way way way better at parallel tasks than INTC's CPUs. INTC's chips really are only good at serial tasks. Perhaps if NVDA released a massively parallel GPU, INTC really would be in trouble?

      --
      A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
  29. In Other Random Speculation... by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Funny

    Slashdot Founder CmdrTaco reportedly plans to shut down the popular Slashdot web destination. "People forget my website was once largely just a portal for enlightenment themes. The purpose of Slashdot is to report on news that matters."

    Slashdot will be replaced with a new web portal, OMGPonies which will focus on over reacting to all pony news that someone might have remembered reading on 4chan.

    CmdrTaco has asked that the community assist him by submitting stories and drawings in the idiom of a otatu-catgirl and jacked up on pocky. We were unable to substantiate the rumor that the site will feature bedazzler fan art of Hannah Montana, despite CmdrTaco's legendary collection.

    (Man, I'm just picking on that guy today!)

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  30. NVIDIA probably won't leave chipsets...yet by Vigile · · Score: 1

    This is a highly unlikely move for NVIDIA. Check out this article for good info on why not:

    http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=601

    Maybe out in 5 years, but not anytime soon.

  31. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    amish people stop selling pies, and gas stations no longer sell cigarettes.

  32. Thank god that's not true! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Phew. For a second I thought I would have to go back to VIA chipsets. *shudder*

  33. Not surprised by JaySSSS · · Score: 1

    Their NIC teaming software blows chunks.

  34. In other news.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intel is going out of the CPU business. True story!

  35. Re:Problems with Nvidia graphics drivers and softw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The story is about Nvidia managing badly.

  36. Nvidia is managing badly recently. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    MOD PARENT UP.

    Nvidia is managing badly in other ways, also, than supplying poor quality software; this Slashdot story is not an isolated occurrence. For example, All Nvidia G84 and G86s are bad. Or see All Nvidia G84 and G86 chips faulty?. Or, Nvidia Likely to Confirm Scale of Chip Troubles Soon.

  37. But it sounds realistic by DrYak · · Score: 1

    But given the mutual problems with licensing (NVidia refusing to license SLI technology to Intel, and Intel paying back by making it difficult to license Quickpath for nVidia), this could sound realistic. They could actually stop producing Intel chipset for Nehalem.

    It' prank, but at least it's one which sound realistic.

    It's actually possible that they'll drop the towel for Nehalems, and shift to only support AMDs and lower end Intel Cores still running with an actual north bridge, and require that hardcore gamer wanting to have both SLI and Nehalem on the smae high end PC to buy expensive motherboard that feature both intel chipset and an additional nVidia to enable SLI like on current SKull Trail mother board (basically just a glorified PCIe 2.0 bridge with additional licensing icing on the cake).

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:But it sounds realistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That might have some merit to it. There's a big difference between dropping a chipset and dropping chipsets.

  38. And so, what ?.... by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Apple announced today that it {...} will only sell hype, in pretty packages of course.

    I fail to see how this is any different from the current situation. :-P

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:And so, what ?.... by tyrione · · Score: 4, Funny

      Apple announced today that it {...} will only sell hype, in pretty packages of course.

      I fail to see how this is any different from the current situation. :-P

      BeOS lost. Get over it.

  39. Anyone else think that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone might be in bed with some stock-shorters?

  40. slashdot can suck it by HeavensTrash · · Score: 1

    I don't care about karma at this point.. I'm sorry, but has google news under the Tech category become the new Slashdot?

    I saw this article YESTERDAY before it hit here on slashdot. I'm sorry /. ... it's been a good ride but you're outdated.

  41. this is good news. by DragonTHC · · Score: 2, Informative

    The nforce 6xx series chipsets were a striking failure. They did not work properly.

    No motherboard manufacturer can claim 6xx boards with few problems.

    --
    They're using their grammar skills there.
  42. A bit late by uarch · · Score: 1

    Kdawson is a bit late on this one... The NV story came out a few days ago and was then proven incorrect.

  43. check those backups by dwater · · Score: 1

    I always shied away from using nforce raid (instead using md-raid), since I could never be sure the array would work on newer versions (though I'm led to believe that it would actually work).

    If this is even half true, I hope it scares nvidia raid users enough to check their backups (or start making some), or perhaps purchase a second motherboard to use as replacement, while they still can.

    With md-raid, I've switched motherboards several times and the array just comes up without any trouble.

    --
    Max.
  44. good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope it's true. After the 700 series chipset video corruption/freeze crap, they should exit the chipset business forever.

  45. nForce2 was the best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The nForce2 Chipset with SoundStorm, Hardware based realtime 5.1 Dolby Digital encoding was something great...
    But since then i don't think nForce chipset where anything special. Sure, supposedly great overclocking, but only with boards that cost $300.
    Then there was the never ending tale of Data corruption, supposedly fixed 2 billion times, but apparently never fully.
    And the Firewall features? Well, great, but since it's uses the CPU anyway so i rather use ZoneAlarm, more control that way too.

    It's too bad though, with no real competition left, i don't think i will ever see that truely awesome board with hardware based gigabit nics and hardware based 7.1 dts/dd encoding :(

  46. why IA-32 or even IA-64? by Joseph_Daniel_Zukige · · Score: 1

    Put the brain in idle for a moment. Forget the market dependency on MSWindows. Assume that Linux will actually compete in the games market in a year or two.

    PPC core(s) with NVIDIA chipset. Or maybe ARM, multi-core, cranked up to 2GHz and extended to 64 bit. Use their graphics cores instead of the traditional vector units.

    (Don't nobody wake me up, this is a sweat dream.)

    1. Re:why IA-32 or even IA-64? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Assume that Linux will actually compete in the games market in a year or two.

      I keep trying, but the pink elephants keep getting in the way.

      The chance of someone like nVidia trying to create an entire consumer market around a non-IA32/x86-64 CPU is so utterly never going to happen. The money is in IA32/x86-64, with Windows. Unless they could secure a contract from someone like Microsoft to supply CPUs for the next XBox or something, which wouldn't necessarily be IA32/x86-64, but that's also not a long term strategy.

  47. Digitimes --goes best with pinch of salt. by ahfoo · · Score: 1

    I applied for a job there a few years ago. I live in Taipei where it's headquartered. They told me I wanted too much money so it never happened. The staff is almost entirely Taiwanese with just a couple of native English speakers and they pay a basic local salary which is not that much while expecting long hours in the office. Because of the low wages and long hours, they have high turnover and most of the staff aren't really all that geeky, they're just doing a job. The guy who interviewed me was hoping I would sign on because he was like the lonely geek who actually loved computers and he thought it would be nice to someone who was genuinely enthusiastic about tech.

    So the job they do there is not to actually do any original reporting. All they do is subscribe to the local Taiwanese print newspapers and go through the tech sections looking for stories to translate and summarize. This is why you get so many bogus stories coming out of there. Anything you can get published in any small-time local newspaper that has anything to do with tech is likely to get picked up there. Rather than trying to confirm anything, they just print retractions constantly.

  48. Other Processors by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Then forget Intel and their closed patented Quick-Path Interconnect and make chipsets for other processors that aren't so anal about people trying to improve their products. Hummm, who could that be?

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  49. nVidia + HP/Alpha by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hands-down, that will be the day they lay me to rest, but I've got a friend in Jesus. 'Cause when Carly laid me to die, the spirit of the Alpha continued to sparkle in the sky. When they try to lay me down to die, I'm goin'a raise-up the next couple of days to the spirit in the sky, because that's where is the best, 'cause I've got a friend in Jesus that won't let me rest...

    nVidia/Alpha_21364!

    Alpha was the only one that was optimized for Rambus, hand-coded to the clock, and it has the highest bandwidth.

    I don't see a nVidia solution to Sun Microsystem's Sparc line though. Do you all see what Intel has done to the market? Intel is as rotten as Microsoft. Break Intel down for Anti-Trust violations it committed in the past.

  50. Just because they deny it... by wshwe · · Score: 1

    doesn't mean it isn't true. Companies deny things than backtrack all the time.

  51. nVidia + HP Alpha 21364 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nt

  52. Oh gee, darn by macdaddy · · Score: 1

    Is anyone brought to tears by this announcement? Is anyone other than myself rejoicing? Every Nvidia POS I ever bought was a complete piece of junk. I'd buy something worthless like the ASUS VT333 w/ RAID and get screwed by the onboard Nvidia shit. I'd swear off Nvidia but forget about it in a year or two only to find myself pulling a dumbass move and buying another Nvidia piece of shit. Of course I'd get burnt again. Nvidia and their chipsets can rot in hell for all I care. There's no love lost here.

  53. Re:Starbucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hate to break it too ya but Starbucks is closing most of its stores around Australia http://news.smh.com.au/business/starbucks-to-close-61-australian-stores-20080729-3mkx.html

    Bit worse than it not selling baked goods.

  54. Good for servers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank $DEITY nVidia is exiting! Sun will be forced to throw aay shitty nVidia NICs and back to proven Intel ones.
    From 4x intel in x4200, thru 2x intel + 2x nvidia in x4200 m2, to 4x nvidia in x4240...

  55. Nvidia Performance. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about the Tesla Systems.
    Nvidia has some serious number crunching compared to ATI and a better Tool Kit in Cuda then ATI with CTM.
    I don't understand how the best GPU company isn't doing good?