In a move that is long overdue, NVIDIA’s Tom Peteresen announced on a blog post that SLI multi-GPU support was finally going to be offered on AMD platforms with the upcoming launch of the AMD 990FX, 990X and 970 chipsets. On previous AMD platforms users have not been able to use multiple NVIDIA graphics cards in SLI because NVIDIA simply did not allow licensing of the technology on them. As of this month, that policy is changing.
According to the post, NVIDIA has had a change of heart and wants to "make sure gamers can benefit from the new CPU competitive landscape and ensure they have NVIDIA SLI – the highest performance, most stable multi-GPU solution – to game on!" The lack of SLI on previous chipsets was the result of Intel being the dominate CPU platform of choice for gamers in recent years.
ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI are going to be the first out of the block with motherboard based on the AMD 990FX, 990X and 970 chipsets with SLI support according to NVIDIA’s Petersen.
This doesn’t change NVIDIA’s stance on the whole licensing and charging motherboard vendors to integrate SLI thing, however. In an ideal world, NVIDIA would have announced that they were opening up SLI to work on ANY motherboard, future or present, that has enough PCI Express slots on them, just like we see today with AMD’s own CrossFire technology. Despite pressure to do that, NVIDIA is standing by its current formula and expanding into the realm of AMD chipsets.
Regardless, today is a good day for AMD fans and gamers alike that want more choice and more variety in their system build options for the future. The AMD Llano and Bulldozer-based processors just got a little more gaming friendly.
The Blog post hyperlinks to
The Blog post hyperlinks to “http://y/Final%20Images/news/amdsli.png”
Odd…fixed now?
Odd…fixed now?
Does anyone else wish they
Does anyone else wish they would offer it on current 800 series motherboards too? I mean it can’t take that much work.
Yeah, it would be nice… but
Yeah, it would be nice… but a lot of this is about branding and new licensing agreements. Plus, mobo manufacturers want to give you another reason to buy another board!
great news, I just might keep
great news, I just might keep my dual core until next gen AMD cpus are out.
Me too… Gotta wait for the
Me too… Gotta wait for the great Blue and Green battle 🙂
I am very curious how many
I am very curious how many people were “asking for this” as the NVIDIA post seems to indicate.
You all excited about this?
Yes. I already had a GTX 460
Yes. I already had a GTX 460 with the intention of upgrading to the second one when I was looking to upgrade my CPU/mobo combo. I seriously thought about an X6 since it was so much cheaper than an i7, but the lack of SLI stopped me. Its addition is a huge win for AMD
I wonder if AMD’s GPU team
I wonder if AMD’s GPU team sees it that way. 🙂
I`m still rocking my AMD
I`m still rocking my AMD NVIDIA combo on my ASUS M4N98TD-EVO. I haven`t wanted to upgrade because I love AMD CPUs and Nvidia GPUs but there was no way to upgrade my motherboard, and Intel CPUs where just to expensive for me. I am glad to see that when the new AMD 8cores come out I`ll finally have an upgrade path for AMD NVIDIA Combo. It`s also great news for consumers who want more choices in there gaming rigs.
I built my current PC late
I built my current PC late last year/early this year/still am, and I don’t plan on upgrading anything major until at least Ivy Bridge peeks its roaring head out, along with LGA 2011. If the performance is a big enough improvement over Nehalem, I’ll upgrade to that. Otherwise, I’m sticking with AMD, and I guess I’ll be getting a 900 series Chipset then. 😛
Yes, yes, this is something
Yes, yes, this is something I’ve been waiting for!
Admittedly, I decided against a buying a GTX580 as my next pixel cannon and ordered a 6970 instead – but only did so because of the lower price.
With the next generation of highend-GPUs, I’m very certain I’ll go NVIDIA again, though. Might as well buy a triple screen setup until then – just hope NVIDIA cards can do DP1.2 when the time comes.
Wow AMD is gradually invading
Wow AMD is gradually invading Intel’s spectrum with these chipsets. I just hope it will not force me to learn how to fix my computer once I have them running in my system unit.
I seriously thought about an
I seriously thought about an X6 since it was so much cheaper than an i7, but the lack of SLI stopped me. Its
celexa dosage addition is a huge win for AMD