Ever since NVIDIA announced the original nForce for AthlonXP, the market has buzzed and hummed with speculation over whether or not we?d ever seen support for Intel chipsets from the graphics card manufacturer.  Up until now, speculation is all we?ve had?but today, and for the first time, NVIDIA is launching its new SLI product line specifically designed for Intel processors.  Its called the nForce4 SLI Intel Edition, and we?re here to run it through its paces, and discuss the strategic partnership between these two major manufacturers.

 

NVIDIA and Intel:  Too Good to Last?

Its undeniable that NVIDIA and Intel have much to gain from working with each other; NVIDIA gains the right to build Intel chipsets, Intel gets an SLI provider without having to do the work itself, and each has undoubtedly found useful patents and technologies within the other?s patent portfolio.  In the short term, it?s a match that makes perfect sense; the long term is considerably more questionable, and its hard to see the two companies not colliding at some point. 

The past three years have seen NVIDIA first invade, then dominate mindshare in the AMD market segment, aggressively displacing VIA in the process.  From Opteron to AthlonXP, NVIDIA has repeatedly stated its intent to drive chipsets into all markets and price points, particularly at the higher end of the industry, and in business segments.  NVIDIA?s first Intel product is, to be sure, a niche enthusiast / SLI product, but SLI has appeal for more than just gaming enthusiasts.  Its not hard to see how NVIDIA could leverage SLI technology in certain rendering and computationally-intensive environments where a significant portion of the workload could be offloaded into the GPU subsystem(s). 

Intel, for their part, has shown little interest in relaxing licensing restrictions or welcoming third-party chipset makers.  On the contrary, Santa Clara?s trend over the past four years has been to tighten guidelines, increase licensing fees, and aggressively sue anyone who doesn?t fall into line.  Of all the charges and mistakes you could claim Intel has made, giving their technology away isn?t one of them. 

The problem here, of course, is that NVIDIA is probably the only North American chipset manufacturer that could actually threaten Intel?s market share.  VIA has yet to recover significant mindshare from their early setbacks in the P4 chipset race, SiS is effectively moribund, and ATI has yet to put significant marketing muscle or design wins behind their own efforts.  Of all the contenders, NVIDIA stands out, but their past success is one more reason for Intel to be wary.  Bringing NVIDIA into the Intel-side of the chipset industry seems a bit like hiring a reformed fox to guard the chicken coop; time will tell how stable and enduring this partnership is.

NVIDIA?s goal is for the SLI moniker to become a decisive marketing focal point, and a hub upon which buying decisions turn.  This would effectively change the ?first question? of computing from ?Intel or AMD?? to ?SLI or non-SLI??  This type of marketing shift would give NVIDIA tremendous mindshare (and doubtless market share as well); clearly the company has serious long-range plans around the SLI concept. 

Although only the Intel SLI version is being announced today, NVIDIA has stated it intends to offer a variety of chipset options priced into different market segments. 

next >

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• SLI and Prescott, Features of the Intel Edition. (1 of 4)
• System Configuration, 3DMark Scores. (2 of 4)
• Doom 3, Half Life 2: (3 of 4)
• (Preliminary) Conclusion: (4 of 4)