nForce 590 Intel Edition - when? And do you think it'll be stable?

[dancingmatt]

Hi

So when are any nForce 590 Intel Edition boards being released? There's lots of talk of Bad Axe, 975x, 965, etc etc - this nForce 590 looks great but I've heard nothing about release dates for it!

When I was planning an AM2 system I was definitely getting this chipset, now I'm really keen on buying it for Intel but having not had an Intel system since the original Pentium I gather nVidia haven't had much stable success with previous nForce chipsets.

SO any idea of release dates for it? And with previous nVidia chipsets, have instablities shown up straightaway (and so suggest any with the 590 will be apparant in early reviews), or come about later?

Thanks

DM

[aidanjt]

If you want to go Conroe, save yourself a load of headaches and get a board with Intel chipsets.

[charleski]

nVidia made a lot of mistakes with the Intel version of the nForce 4 SLI chipset, and this has rightly hurt their reputation. It's also true that (obviously) Intel understands their processors' needs very well.

Instabilities will show up with overclocking. You want to look for reviews that test how high they can push the FSB and maintain real stability. The nForce 4 had real problems with that even in early reviews.

[dancingmatt]

Thanks guys, any one else have any more thoughts on this?

I'm amazed it's only 2 days before Conroe is released and not a sign of an nVidia board - were they caught out by the date change?

[spazman]

I have no choice but to go the nForce 590 route as im going to be running an SLi setup, why cant nvidia do what ATi has done and open up the format so you arnt locket to one board for SLi/Crossfire.

[DR]

August

[dancingmatt]

I have no choice but to go the nForce 590 route as im going to be running an SLi setup, why cant nvidia do what ATi has done and open up the format so you arnt locket to one board for SLi/Crossfire.

I thought all motherboards were either SLI or Crossfire - what do you mean by ATI opened up the format?

Thanks

DM

[dancingmatt]

August

Is this a guess or do you know this for sure?

August isn't that far away...

[aidanjt]

I thought all motherboards were either SLI or Crossfire - what do you mean by ATI opened up the format?

ATi shared the crossfire chipset requirements with Intel, so Intel has the i975X chipset with crossfire support. nVidia on the other hand cares more about it's crummy nForce sales.
ATi has the stronger GPU atm too.

[kalniel]

1st generation chipsets often lack a bit of refinement anyway - NVidia's always seemed to be quite agressively fast at the expense of something or other.

So agreed, go with intel. SLI isn't a feature worth worrying about.

[dancingmatt]

ATi shared the crossfire chipset requirements with Intel, so Intel has the i975X chipset with crossfire support. nVidia on the other hand cares more about it's crummy nForce sales.
ATi has the stronger GPU atm too.

Both nVidia and ATi opened their format/shared their requirements with AMD, that's why there are boards supporting either for AM2 etc, but I'm sure there aren't any boards supporting both. So even if they did share the nForce chipset, wouldn't we still have to pick one or the other?

So agreed, go with intel. SLI isn't a feature worth worrying about.

SLI is worth worrying about, not for buying 2 cards at the same time (unless you are made of money and maxing out on a pair of 7950s) - but I can buy a £200 7900GT now and then another for £100 a few years later when they have come down in price to have an SLI pair - rather than £200 now and then £400 on a top of the range standalone card in future.

DM

[-ChEM-]

the only way you could use crossfire previously was on an ATI chipset

but now that they have opened it up, intel chipset will be compatible

whereas sli will only work on nvidias own chipsets

edit: i think a £400 standalone would beat 2x7900gt in that scenario too

[aidanjt]

Both nVidia and ATi opened their format/shared their requirements with AMD, that's why there are boards supporting either for AM2 etc, but I'm sure there aren't any boards supporting both. So even if they did share the nForce chipset, wouldn't we still have to pick one or the other?

Well nVidia and ATi design their chipsets around AMDs socket architecture, not the other way around. And no, it's possible to design a chipset to handle both Crossfire and SLi in one chipset if there was a colabouration, and there really should be, quite frankly I think it's rediculous that you have to buy your motherboard based on what graphics architecture you chose.

[spazman]

I thought all motherboards were either SLI or Crossfire - what do you mean by ATI opened up the format?

Thanks

DM

i mean that not just nvidia can make SLi chipsets, ATi didnt make the 975x yet it is crossfire capable.

[charleski]

There's a hacked nVidia driver floating around that will allow SLI on Intel chipsets (usual disclaimers, if your cat explodes don't blame me).

Since nVidia make money from chipsets, they obviously have no interest in removing the artificial block on SLI.

[kalniel]

SLI is worth worrying about, not for buying 2 cards at the same time (unless you are made of money and maxing out on a pair of 7950s) - but I can buy a £200 7900GT now and then another for £100 a few years later when they have come down in price to have an SLI pair - rather than £200 now and then £400 on a top of the range standalone card in future.
DM

That just means you can play todays games really fast - you still won't have the features needed to play tommorows games. Better to just buy a replacement card for 200 and sell your old one for 100. Same cost, but better features and probably performance.