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Intel and SLI


toastycheese678

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Still none of the iNTEL chipsets will support SLI. HP made his own (voodoo) chip that can be placed on an iNTEL based mobo but for now only the gaming systems of HP have it. Future iNTEL based boards will support SLI by the way...

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I wish I could give you more information on this subject but you never know the facts until they pre-release information/products. The only thing I can say is that HP just came out with it and I think they will not make a chip that will be useless in just a few months... I would say in 9 to 12 months or even longer from now it could be that iNTEL will be SLI ready...

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i thought i heard about some of the x38 mobos supporting it, but i think it was for some special type of gaming mobo that supports 2 cpu's..

Those are the ones from HP, but only sold in there gaming systems ;).

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Still none of the iNTEL chipsets will support SLI.

It's not the chipsets that don't support SLI. NVIDIA specifically blocks SLI support on Intel chipets in their drivers. It's been this way for quite some time (even the 965/975 chipsets are capable of running SLI). This is from Anandtech's brief X38 article:

Although the chipset is fully capable of supporting NVIDIA's SLI technology (it runs it very nicely we might add), there will not be support for it within NVIDIA's drivers at this time.
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First time I see this; there MUST be people who did this already by there self... Let’s see what Google shows up ;).

--- EDIT ---

Looks like a bended story; the driver of nVidia is not supporting SLI on X38 based systems but also it seems that still a hardware "bridge" is missing or need to be implemented on the board. All are rumors and I have seen none of the end-users run SLI on iNTEL based chipsets...

However the report hints that it won't be "plain" X38 that supports NVIDIA SLI, but rather a configuration of X38 that pairs it with an nForce MCP processor to ensure the support, with MCP72 the likely candidate for the actual silicon. MCP72 supports PCI Express 2.0.

Good source found here.

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I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware limitation. The ATI (now AMD) chipsets didn't require this to support SLI and you can bet they certainly weren't using any NVIDIA parts along with their chipsets. Here's another quote from a different Anandtech article. Note that it specifically mentions a modified driver that made it work and not any additional hardware:

It appears that SLI will not be officially supported at this point although we have seen it running on one of the early boards with drivers that were modified but not provided or supported by NVIDIA. NVIDIA's answer to the X38 will be their upcoming MCP73 series that is targeting both AMD and Intel products. It appears the Intel variant will not launch until the fourth quarter with the AMD version launching in late Q3 according to our sources.

The MCP72 (and upcoming MCP73) is NVIDIA's southbridge. I don't see Intel licensing the X38 northbridge without one of the ICH9 variants to go with it (and we certaintly won't see dual southbridges).

This has actually been going on for years. NVIDIA has specifically blocked SLI on Intel chipsets in their driver for a long time. It's more matter of NVIDIA wanting Intel to pay for SLI licensing, and Intel not wanting to pay the fee. As a side note, SLI won't work on VIA or SiS chipsets for the same reason.

You are right though, there is a bunch of misinformation out there and it's hard to figure out what's right and what's not. I've always trusted Anandtech as a source (and they're always quick to point out when they were wrong, as well as providing updated information).

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You are right though, there is a bunch of misinformation out there and it's hard to figure out what's right and what's not. I've always trusted Anandtech as a source (and they're always quick to point out when they were wrong, as well as providing updated information).

Anandtech is a good source indeed, but I think they didn’t modify the drivers there self, nor do I see end-users have done this. The only lead they have is the test setup from iNTEL with SLI... Believe me, this is driving me nutz and almost impossible to believe it’s only software related. :wacko:

Any way, for now, when you want SLI, you have to go with an nVidia 650/680 chipset.

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Techarp just came with some info about SkullTrail.

  • he SkullTrail is only meant to be a temporary flagship or proof-of-technology product, not a permanent Intel product.
  • The SkullTrail will use Socket 771. That means only Intel Xeons (like the upcoming 45nm Harpertown) can be used.
  • The SkullTrail will require the use of FB-DIMMs (Fully Buffered DIMMs).
  • The motherboard will have a 10-layer PCB.
  • There will be a very limited production run, with only 2000 units to be manufactured.
  • At this moment, Intel will only sell the SkullTrail motherboards online, directly from Intel.
  • The SkullTrail motherboard will be very expensive, at > US$ 600.
  • The SkullTrail motherboard is set for final tests in Week 50, 2007, in time for a launch in Q1'08.

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