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Nvidia may not be licensed for future AMD chipsets
Author: Ben HardwidgePublished: 24th April 2009
Nvidia's nForce 680a SLI chipset was the only chipset that supported AMD's top-end dual-processor Quad FX platform.
Betanews reports that AMD’s server business unit vice president Pat Patla claimed that “for 2010 moving forward, the solutions coming out from AMD will be AMD and on AMD at this time.” The site says that Patla “did not believe the licensing situation between his company [AMD] and Nvidia would enable Nvidia to produce chipsets that support future AMD platforms.”
The comment was made at a press conference where AMD unveiled its new six-core “Istanbul” Opteron CPUs, as well as a future Opteron processor roadmap that showed plans to release its 32nm “Bulldozer” 16-core Opteron CPUs in 2011. According to betanews, Patla said “we don't expect to see new chipsets from Nvidia or Broadcom for server implementations in 2010. But they will continue to support all existing platforms moving forward through 2010."
It’s unclear at the moment whether Patla was only referring to AMD’s Opteron platform when he said “the solutions coming out from AMD will be AMD and on AMD”, or whether this applies to AMD’s desktop platforms as well. As well as producing SLI chipsets for AMD's desktop CPUs, Nvidia has previously had a notable presence in AMD’s high-end workstation platforms too. The nForce 3 Pro 250 chipset was made specifically for AMD’s Opteron CPU, and Nvidia also developed the nForce 680a SLI chipset, which was the only chipset that supported AMD’s dual-processor Quad FX platform.
If this is does indeed pan out to AMD’s desktop platform, then Nvidia’s going to have a tough time in the chipset business. With Intel’s claims that Nvidia has no licence to produce chipsets for Intel CPUs with an integrated memory controller, plus Intel’s plans to tie its “Pineview” Atom CPUs to Intel chipsets with integrated graphics, this would only leave Nvidia with support for old Nvidia and AMD CPUs and VIA’s Nano CPU.
We’ve asked both AMD and Nvidia to comment on this, and to confirm whether the licence restriction applies to just AMD’s Opteron platform, or to its desktop platforms as well. We’ll give you an update as and when we have more information.
Would you be sad to see Nvidia shut out of the AMD chipset market? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Second, these proprietary techs that nvidia has and they way they use them don't have in mind the best for its consumers.
Not to mention support... they've killed it for nforce 2 which is very well capable to support current gen OS's and is limited just to old software support. Again, not the best form a consumer point of view.
"Would you be sad to see Nvidia shut out of the AMD chipset market?"
I for one, won't be!
Should be "If this does"? & "would leave Nvidia with support for old INTEL?? and AMD CPUs" ???
Kinda a sham really, I have always been a fan of the Nvidia based chipsets.
Are AMD trying for a more profitable license deal? Will Nvidia go crazy and start making their own CPUs?
Or they might allow AMD and Intel to buy a license and not keep it to themselves or use it as a "trade" argument.
Guess if nvidia goes ATI could be cheeky and in there drivers make it so it runs crap on intel chip sets then AMD ATI rules the world? lol
Garbage AMD chipsets with their supbar southbridges do not impress me nor will it impress the masses given the choice between that and Intel excellence.
Nvidia chipsets were the only reason for me to consider AMD CPUs at all for my next rig. Instead it will be Intel CPU all the way in the future for me with Intel or Nvidia chipsets if they are allowed to make a chipset for Core i7 and i5.
Enthusiasts (and even AMD fanbois) will be all the poorer if Nvidia are forced out of the chipset market...
But seeing as most i7 sales have probably originated from performance systems, my guess is that they are afraid that nVidia's chipset might not have the QPI max frequency problem(222mhz bclck) or offer lower multipliers/better tweak options.
This would certainly give nVidia's chipset more leverage than intel's and seeing as Intel wants to sell more of those 965/975 unlocked chips, even MORE OC potential for the lower $ processors wouldn't do them any good now would it? :p
@ The guy above me:
The P45 is the chipset that matters now for the soon to be EOL LGA775 and the X58 is mediocre at best. Intel's engineers knew it wouldn't allow bclck's higher than 222 to be stable and they didn't do anything about this. There hasn't even been a respin, just so they can sell more Xtreme editions...
I'm confident that if x58 was that superb chipset you're cranking it up to be, i7 wouldn't have to hit a wall at 222.
Not to mention that AMD's integrated graphic chipsets rule supreme. So plz, less smooth talk about intel and more facts about both Intel& AMD plz :)
I would never recommend an nv chipset unless I knew I'm dealing with a fanboy, in which case I wouldn't have any other choice.
And no... Zero_UK, isn't right. He got confused... it's not THE MARKET... it's the CHIPSET market... they won't go out of business for this... nv will continue to produce gpu's even if they lose the chipset licenses!
Anyhow, whateva with the "We need Nvidia chipsets to keep Intel and AMD honest about prices" like nv has EVER sold anything at a fair price!
AFIAK, they're mApple... just green!
That being said, NVIDIA's recent lack of respect for its customers has soured me on the brand as a whole, so I'm not too upset about this news.
Part of the problem. nVidia don't have an x86 licence, and the chances of Intel granting them one is about as likely as pigs flying after some of the stuff nV's CEO has said recently.
...
I liked my nForce2 board (and SoundStorm - why did they kill off the only decent integrated audio I've heard before Azalia came out) and nForce 4 was good; nForce 3 didn't really live long enough for me to form a solid idea on that... but since then the chipsets have been a bit... flaky. At least on the Intel side; hot, SATA corruption and all sorts of fun. I've not had the pleasure of the latest AMD-compatible nVidia chipsets.
They wouldn't get my moonies
Everyone knows 780G/790GX rules supreme for IGP
Nvidia great chipsets huh?
http://news.softpedia.com/news/NVIDIA-nForce-980a-SLI-Chipset-Slated-for-March-Release-103883.shtml
It's completely irrelevant whether nVidia acts in a profit maximising way - of course they do, every company does and it's just good business. The point is, if you take away a significant competitor, the capacity for a manufacturer to control the market increases.
No, it's not! You can't act for profit unless you are the market leader and have a significant market share enough to have influence of the sales! If that's not the case and you only care for profit, you cheat on your clients... which implies a low moral standard and such a company should never be supported, unless people like to be ripped off!
And I can disagree with you on that for profit thing... AMD for example held the 999 bucks CPU a few years ago... a 5-something FX. Now, it's Intel who has the 999 bucks CPU... that's because AMD became 2nd and Intel advanced with their C2, i7 platform. This left AMD with a significant lees market share... and people were screaming that AMD will go bankrupt! The only way to increase the VALUE is to think for the consumers. Give the people good products at attractive prices that won't burn holes in their pockets and you'll get it... bit by bit, With PH/PHII, 700 series chipsets and HD4000 they started to recover.
How or why is nv a "significant" competitor?... it's the smallest of the 3... it also drove VIA out of the K7 and K8 chipset business.
From what I've seen... if people wanted AMD and Crossfire they went for a Phenom platform with an AMD chipset... if they wanted the best gaming rig and SLI or Crossfire they went for C2Q and an Intel chipset. Only fanboys and curious people opted for nv chipset ... some regretted. And if nv would have been that good, Intel's chipsets wouldn't have been so successful.
As to the controlling the market thing... it's already in place and no one is affected. We can live without nv in this market.
To the last line...Maybe YOU can live without Nvidias competition in the chipset market but are those of us who welcome it.(particularly SLI users) If that is your logic then I am quite happy to live without AMD chipsets and CPUs and still enjoy more performance for my money by going Intel.
I am not denying that there have been issues with Nvidia Intel chipsets, but in my experience at least (I run two XFX 780i boards and one DFI nForce 9400 board) and I have had zero issues with them. Maybe that is due to Nvidia fixing the issues with new BIOS's and drivers but they have been rock solid and I run all 24/7.
Actually FYI there is a market for Nvidia chips as evidenced by Apple using Nvidia MCPs across their highest selling products like Macbook and iMac. Nvidia Ion is gaining traction as well and is definitely a hard launch so its a little premature to celebrate Nvidia's demise just yet. ;)
That's the thing... you're not. More performance, yes... for your money, doubtful.
"Apple using Nvidia MCPs"
Some have to cut deals... others don't need to. And AFAIK, nv and mapple have been friends for a long time.
"Nvidia Ion is gaining traction "
Where?... in Imaginary land?... lots of companies were impressed... only few jumped on board. FACT!
"its a little premature to celebrate Nvidia's demise just yet. ;)"
You're really stubborn, aren't you?
It's not about the demise of THE company... just their chipset department.
And I can celebrate that... wanna know why? THEY GOT NO LICENSES!
You can, take a good look at Apple.
(I'm not taking a shot at Apple here, just making a point. I happen to like a lot of their stuff, just not willing to pay the extra they demand.)
But that is not the issue at hand.
NVIDIA lacks a complete platform because they got no x86 license and that nags them a lot.
Intel, AMD and VIA can provide a complete x86 based computer platform. NVIDIA has to borrow from the other three. See the problem?
NVIDIA could push ARM more though, give Microsoft a clue that ARM might be the future instead of x86. If nobody bothers to push it, it will never happen. The MID segment can work with ARM and some sort of NVIDIA mGPU setup though.
I think AMD will be losing a big part of their sales with the loss of Nvidia. I could be wrong but time will tell.
I agree, all the dealings I had with 680i and 780i systems were horrid. Overheating northbridges, memory compatibility issues, useless overclocking, buggy BIOS revisions..... bleh.
Nvidia passed it prime around the S939/NF4 days.
I also thought this was about Nvidia and AMD and not Nvidia and Intel? Or am I not reading the title correctly?