The winds are changing at Nvidia. After testing the waters by letting Intel add SLI support to its pricey dual-CPU Skulltrail platform, Nvidia has announced that Intel's X58 Express chipset will also support SLI multi-GPU configurations. Code-named Tylersburg, the X58 chipset should complement next-gen Nehalem desktop processors in the high-end enthusiast space.
Like in the Skulltrail platform, SLI support will come at a price: Intel will be forced to use Nvidia PCI Express bridge hardware, in this case the same nForce 200 SLI chip Nvidia pairs with its nForce 780a and nForce 780i platforms. We noted in our Skulltrail review that Intel's use of Nvidia chips may be more of a business move than a technical one, since Intel chipsets could be capable of SLI support without any extra hardware. It'll be interesting to see whether Intel continues to support AMD CrossFire multi-GPU setups, as well.
Intel's latest roadmaps hint that Nehalem will start showing up in the fourth quarter of this year. As we reported this morning, the cheapest Bloomfield CPUs may cost as little as $284.
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