Nvidia-based chipsets, and platforms?

[VirtualLarry]

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...hh-nvidia-ceo-interview-about-intels-actions/

Came across this page, when Intel cut off NV from making chipsets for their CPUs, for anything newer than the FSB bus interface. IMHO, Intel really sneakily screwed NV here. Selling them a bus interface license (to their current bus standard), for a period of time, without any indication that Intel was going to radically change that bus interface, and then claim that they were no longer licensed for the new bus interface, was just dirty pool.

NV had a pretty good run making chipsets for AMD's platforms, too, namely the 6100/6150/6150SE/NV410/430, which were used in many OEM PCs way back in the day, likely because they were inexpensive.

Anyways, would NV be able to, and would they have any interest, in producing chipsets for Zen / AM4?

AMD has, as I understand it, essentially outsourced the chipset development for AM4 to ASMedia.

Whether this is an exclusive agreement I don't know.

Then again, NV always had a pretty *hitty implementation of SATA and USB. Data-corruption issues abounded with their chipsets. So, possibly, it's better that they haven't announced any chipsets for Zen.

 

[UsandThem]

Since AMD is a competitor (although Nvidia controls roughly 79% of the discrete GPU market), no way. Plus, Nvidia is making too much money right now on their graphics division. Not to mention the rumor that the new Nintendo system is going to use some kind of Nvidia Tegra SoC. Maybe if Nintendo actually can sell a few systems this time around, that would be an extra income stream for them.

I really wish another larger company had bought ATI. AMD just doesn't have the resources to deal with the two 800 pound gorillas, Nvidia and Intel, at the same time. Their R&D budgets just dwarfs AMD's.

I wish AMD would become really competitive again. My first system I built was a AMD K6-2 300 mhz, and a Asus super socket 7 motherboard. It's funny that I can even still remember that. I was just so proud that I did it, I guess.

 

[nerp]

Not sure if there's a ton of money to be made making chipsets for a company like AMD or NVIDIA these days.

I absolutely adored my Nforce4 boards back in the day. Those puppies ripped.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Thing is once the memory controller moved onto the CPU itself the "chipset" lost its main source of differentiation. Memory performance and compatibility with different types. Which is why nForce3 series was so unexciting. It had temper though. What's left is mostly a bunch of I/O. Which doesn't make for a very exciting product. Nvidia were properly smart exiting the chipset market when they did. Otherwise they'd be stuck doing a possibly inferior PCH and worse, doing qualification on it.

I still have fond memories of the nForce(2) though. Those where the days.

 

[nenforcer]

I ran an nVidia nForce 2 Athlon XP based system for 5 years (2002 - 2007) which is quite a long time for me. The first dual channel DDR memory controller and onboard Dolby Digital encoded Soundstorm audio made it the best chipset around IMO. I skipped nForce 3, 4 and 5 as their was no need to upgrade. I then built an Intel based nForce 680i based system in 2007 for myself which I later upgraded to a nForce 790i. I have also built several nForce 8 and 9 based systems for family members which are still running to this day. I also had a nvidia ION chipset HTPC with Intel Atom 330. I don't blame nVidia at all - they made decent money when they were double dipping on Intel and AMD chips but when Intel stopped producing the FSB and put the memory controller on chip and AMD bought ATI it no longer made sense to produce a top notch chipset for a competitor. nVidia still does SoC in house with their Tegra platform with Geforce graphics and nVidia Denver ARM CPU.