Why no love for nvidia chipsets?

[Fox5]

What ever happened to nvidia chipsets? They used to be the best back in the day, but now it's hard to find a review. Almost all coverage goes to AMD and Intel's latest releases.
I've built a few systems over the past year, using AMD, Intel, and nvidia chipsets. I've gotta say, the nvidia chipsets seemed to be the lowest power (or at least reported the lowest operating temperatures), the least hassle to set up, and the easiest to overclock. Plus, nvidia's integrated graphics seems less buggy than intel or AMD's. The differences between all 3 companies are small, but it seems like nvidia barely gets any attention despite having at the very least a roughly on par product, and superior in some ways.

 

[aka1nas]

On the intel side, Nvidia's chipsets have been crap for a few years. They botched the 680i, with the 780i basically being the same chipset with PCI-E 2.0 support. All of their current chipsets are poor overclockers compared to the first party platforms.

They basically started coasting since the Nforce 4 series, relying on SLI to give them vendor lock-in.

 

[Gillbot]

not to mention their extremely high failure rate

 

[Chubblez]

From my stand point, specifically with the nForce-4, I found that I was no longer able to use Windows Remote Install Service (Windows 2000/XP, Pre WDS) as the network driver was ran as a services, and not supported during the text mode installation.

Windows Deployment Services is all PE based now, so I guess it desn't really matter anymore, but that's why I quit using them...

~Nick

 

[Schadenfroh]

After the snafu that was the nForce 3's driver support, I am no longer an nVidia motherboard chipset customer.

 

[poohbear]

i was also surprised since i wanted to upgrade to a sli mobo to get 8800gt SLI, but i realized that nvidia has had mediocre chipsets after nforce4 and they are ridiculously overpriced. I guess they thought since we wanted SLI we'd pay the premium for SLI, but forget that. Personally, im just getting a cheaper 790gx AMD chipset which gives me Crossfire support, cooler running chipsets, and stellar overclocker performance for a lower price.

Nvidia wants to lock in SLI? fine, it wants to lock SLI to a mediocre AND more expensive chipset? not fine. (even their budget 750i sli is more expensive than a P45/790gx mobo). I'll just go the crossfire route which atleast gives me the freedom of having a good performing chipset and overclocking w/ no probs.

its like nvidia wants to screw itself over by restricting SLI? the more people that have it the more potential for people to buy your video cards. your number 1 sales is video cards, why jeopardize that by trying to force people to buy your mediocre mobo chipsets??? U think there isnt another video card company out there?? Now, im buying an AMD/intel chipset that gives me crossfire support @ no additional premium. Guess what my next video card upgrade will be based on my having crossfire for free?

it reminds me of Apple & IBM back in the day, IBM said anyone can develop for PCs, Apple said no only we can develop stuff for Mac. look at the market now.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Guys, we have X58 now.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem
Guys, we have X58 now.

Your're quite correct in this regard.

I take issue with the statement that newer 780i and 790i chipsets aren't "good overclockers."

But I think nVidia has been backed into a corner, with a licensing dispute with Intel as it pertains to the Nehalem/I7 cores. So unless you're running LGA775 Conroes, Kentsfields, Wolfdales or Yorkfields -- there isn't any nVidia option that I know of. I haven't heard of any . . . .

 

[LOUISSSSS]

nvidia chipsets were never reliable since the nf4 series. they always had high failure rates and were very picky with mb and hardware.

 

[Cookie Monster]

The only good nVIDIA chipsets atm are the MCP79 based intel platforms ala the 9300/9400 IGPs. I think the whole 680i/780i fiasco was mainly due to the flaky relationship between intel and nVIDIA. I mean, its intel whos supplying all the data to nVIDIA in order for their designs to be compatible with intel's standards. That being said, 790i's aren't that bad although it doesn't fix the problem entirely.

I guess this is why nVIDIA's AMD platform is much better when it comes to stability compared to its intel counterparts since AMD was a chipsetless company that required 3rd party chipsets for its CPUs i.e there was no need for locking 3rd parties from all the relevant data required to create a chipset that was compatible with their chip.