Intel’s Snyder downplayed reports of friction. At the end of the day, both companies are constantly cooperating on platforms such as the Skulltrail platform that supports CrossFire and SLI, he said. He admitted that hackles were raised at Nvidia when a contract employee at a tradeshow said in an interview that discrete graphics would “probably not” be needed eventually, but that’s not Intel’s official position.
“We completely expect discrete high-end graphics to be around for the foreseeable future,” Snyder said. If you are into video encoding and CPU centric tasks, spend your cash on a quad-core Intel CPU, Snyder said. If you’re a hardcore gamer, by all means, spend your ducats on a faster GPU. If you’re a storage pack rat, save on the CPU and GPU and buy big hard drives, he said.
Nvidia officials also seemed to be ratcheting back the hot talk and said that to describe the situation as World War III is sensationalizing it.
“We don’t hate Intel,” said Nvidia spokesman Brian Burke. “We think Intel is a great company. They are experts in the x86 architecture and they’re the leader in CPUs.” But without missing a beat Burke added: “but they’re not experts in graphics and they’re not the leaders in graphics.”
Which is ultimately what may be the issue here. Beyond SLI, and nForce and Nehalem, Intel’s push into graphics with its Larrabee project has made the stakes much higher for Nvidia.
Nvidia also feels that it was no low-level Intel drone making the statement about discrete graphics going away – it was clearly a shot across the bow. “When they attack us and say things like discrete graphics are going away, we defend ourselves,” Burke said. “When a big company like Intel starts saying something, people are going to believe it.”
Some are. One PC vendor who spoke to Maximum PC said from what they’ve seen, Larrabee will be a very competitive GPU part and Nvidia has good cause to be concerned. And despite the brand affinity that Nvidia has with gamers now, gamers and enthusiasts flock to where the price-to-performance ratio is best. That may be Nvidia now, but it may be Intel tomorrow, the OEM said. Still, other PC vendors Maximum PC spoke to believe that Nvidia’s brand is worth as much or more than Intel right now. PC gamers may very well decide to pass up Nehalem for an older Penryn if that’s the only way they can get SLI.
Burke said Nvidia isn’t sweating bullets about graphics competition from Intel. The same was said a decade ago when Intel got into the discrete graphics market.
“(Intel has) done this before with i740. Did it have money then? Did it have manufacturing then? Did it have engineering then? Was it big bad Intel then?” Burke asked. “They were all those things back then. And we all know how that all turned out.”
Comments are closed on this article
Chumly
June 15, 2008 at 3:09pm
Been an argument for a while really. Now it's time to play harder ballgames if there is such a thing. Totally nix nVidia from the Intel line...just cut them out and let them play with ATI. They'll adapt to consumers or just fade out.
Hate nVidia's PR replies as well as about everything they fire out with. Just read that reply and think about it: "SLI is not just plugging in two boards; that’s not what SLI is. Crossfire may be that but we view SLI as the experience and the brand". Really? Nothing technical, but an emotion. That's what SLI is then...wow. Little fluffy bunnies powers SLI.
Any hope for solving nVidia's Licensing ending amicably stopped when they started firing volleys that CPU's are useless, and the other drool about how Intel sucks. That's bad PR (trolling) and they know it. So, they're not making sense. They don't like CPU's and think they're the work of the devil, but want a chipset for Nehalem? They're just too ironic.
And if anyone is seeing the future of nVidia cards, you start to grasp this isn't just about graphics and SLI, but nVidia to make chipsets that support Intel procs. It's not pretty from all we've been shown on the 280GTX. This would be a good time for many to open up to the other side, as it's a great product. It'd be more clear if we'd not see ATI's constant low percent losses in Frame Rates, look at growth potential in the architecture, and actual down sides to having nVidia cards in the first place. I guess wait for the HD4870 and these things should be easier to see...nVidia is more of the same ol' same ol'.
curl2k1
June 09, 2008 at 5:44am
True enough nvidia is trying to sell its platform, but to artificially limit SLI to just work on its chipsets has always pissed me off. They can make the claim that there is special sauce in the nforce chipsets all they want, however I don't believe them.
I've owned nvidia based boards in the past and after getting bit by the data corruption issue twice now, I just can't see myself going back anytime soon. Besides, intel chipsets have always OC's better, ran cooler, and are generally a more stable platform to work with.
Although I'm not the guy to buy into the SLI hype anymore, it would be nice to have the option to use it without having to buy a new board to do so
mrlhxc
June 08, 2008 at 11:19am
....yea this does suck. I'm just gonna get the QX6850 and stick with my 8800GTS and hold out and see what happens. I like the idea of SLI but my 8800GTS is fine for everything but Crysis at 1680 x 1050. I am looking forward to see if Intel really can get into the GPU market.
pcfxer
June 07, 2008 at 4:57pm
w00t best pun ever: "..with OEMs and enthusiasts caught in the crossfire."
teahniobium
June 06, 2008 at 4:42pm
I agree with vistageek, this really hurts bad because intel goes really well with Nvidia. They should really try to Work it out.If they start shipping out the Nehalem CPU's without any SLI support it wouldn't be cool at all. And that really burns the question in whether the GPU is important or the CPU.
Jimlickster
June 03, 2008 at 7:47pm
It seems to me that they both need to take steps to protect their interests. Intel already seems to be taking those steps. In order for a company to grow, you have to shed your reliance on outside influences. Intel may not always be able to rely on Nvidia to create a Chipset for them. It would make more sense for them to learn this for themselves. Nvidia needs to swallow some pride if they're going to remain a GPU only driven company. That's the way things work. If you're a Manufacturer of Tires, and everyone else is making wheels a different size, you have to Work with the car manufacturer and adjust your size. The only other option is to Manufacture your own Wheels (Or CPUs as the case may be). In the Beginning, this will be kinda rough on the Intel Crowd, but it will ultimately turn out as a Boon for the Consumer. A Solution will have to occur. That solution will be What the consumer wants because we'll vote with our wallets, and that's what will make the companies involved money.
mag008
June 03, 2008 at 11:53am
This is not the first time nor will it be the last. The all-mighty dollar seems to be the only way to win. When the companies find that they are losing money because we are smart enough to just say no, they have to bend and flex to their market. If Intel and nVidia are not willing to play nice in the sandbox then I will just buy AMD with an ATI solution. The other side of this is do I really need to buy at all or can I just wait it out. Actually, for me I have no need for SLI so I am unaffected by all of this. However, my customers are so my reccomendations are based on whatever solution is availible at the time.
dc10ten
June 02, 2008 at 10:21pm
you want top performance with Nehalem, then you will use two ATI/AMD gpus.
you want top performance with Nvidia gpus, use AMD processors! (which will do the job for computing).
a win win situation for AMD
popstop785
June 03, 2008 at 7:47am
Am I going to have to educate myself with AMD and ATI tech now?
Like a civil war. :O
teahniobium
June 06, 2008 at 4:44pm
Don't worry man. I started asking myself the same question when i saw the article.
rjcouture1
June 02, 2008 at 9:41pm
Awsome comic series especially being the one where spidey got his symbiant suit and for the kiddies Mr. fantastic is the one that gets the symbiant off with a sonic gun.
Keith E. Whisman
June 02, 2008 at 4:31pm
What side do you choose when you love both companies? Nvidia grow up and unlock SLI on Intel boards. Intel grow up and let Nvidia make chipsets for Nahelem CPU's. God this is like my son and daughter.
vistageek
June 02, 2008 at 7:01pm
I am really pissed....I love nVidia and Intel...Maybe I will have to change to AMD/ATI. however, that would also be painful. This sucks.
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