NVIDIA To Exit Chipset Business 185
The rumor that we discussed a few months back is looking more real. Vigile writes "Once the darling of the enthusiast chipset market, NVIDIA has apparently decided to quit development of future chipsets for all platforms. This 'state of NVIDIA' editorial at PC Perspective first highlighted the fact that the company was backing away from its plans to develop a DMI-based chipset for Intel's Lynnfield processors due to legal pressure from Intel and debates over licensing restrictions. That effectively left NVIDIA out in the cold in terms of high-end chipsets, but even more interesting is the later revelation that NVIDIA has only one remaining chipset product to release, what we know as ION 2, and that it was mainly built for Apple's upcoming products. NVIDIA still plans to sell its current offerings, like MCP61 for AMD platforms and current generation ION for netbooks and nettops, but will focus solely on discrete graphics options after this final release."
Re:Bad idea?? (Score:2, Informative)
This would be more interesting... (Score:2, Informative)
... if it weren't a complete fabrication [hardocp.com].
This is False (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite right... From Ken Brown at Nvidia... (Score:5, Informative)
Reported at HardOCP... http://www.hardocp.com/news/2009/10/08/nvidia_statement_on_chipset_business
NVIDIA's Ken Brown wanted to give us NVIDIA's thoughts on the current state of its chipset business. So here it is in its full text.
Hi,
We've received a number of inquiries recently about NVIDIA's chipset (MCP) business. We'd like to set the record straight on current and future NVIDIA chipset activity.
On Intel platforms, the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/ION brands have enjoyed significant sales, as well as critical success. Customers including Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer, ASUS and others are continuing to incorporate GeForce 9400M and ION products in their current designs. There are many customers that have plans to use ION or GeForce 9400M chipsets for upcoming designs, as well.
On AMD platforms, we continue to sell a higher quantity of chipsets than AMD itself. MCP61-based platforms continue to be extremely well positioned in the entry CPU segments where AMD CPUs are most competitive vs. Intel
We will continue to innovate integrated solutions for Intel’s FSB architecture. We firmly believe that this market has a long healthy life ahead. But because of Intel’s improper claims to customers and the market that we aren’t licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we’ll postpone further chipset investments for Intel DMI CPUs.
Despite Intel's actions, we have innovative products that we are excited to introduce to the market in the months ahead. We know these products will bring with them some amazing breakthroughs that will surprise the industry, just as GeForce 9400M and ION have shaken up the industry this year.
We expect our MCP business for both Intel and AMD to be strong well into the future.
Let me know if you have any questions, and thanks for your interest.
Best,
Ken
Re:Bad idea?? (Score:3, Informative)
ONLY for the new i5/i7 architecture and beyond...
Um... the facts for this were obtained where? (Score:1, Informative)
NVIDIA has clearly stated that this is not the case in a press release as recently as... yesterday:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-gpu-graphics-chipset,8821.html#xtor=RSS-181
Who modded this up? (Score:3, Informative)
That has absolutely nothing to do with the story in question. It is a refutation to the ridiculous claim that "Nvidia is abandoning the entire high end and mid-range graphics market".
Re:This would be more interesting... (Score:4, Informative)
That's a different fabrication that was rebutted a couple of days ago. The exiting of the chipset market appears to be real, as they've put [techreport.com]. [techreport.com]
This is FUD and should be removed. (Score:4, Informative)
nVidia has published an official response.
http://hardocp.com/news/2009/10/08/nvidia_statement_on_chipset_business
Re:Not Intel (Score:5, Informative)
That's GPUs, not mobo chipsets.
Any pretty much every manufacturer has had screwups. That being said, nVidia has made some nice performance chipsets in the past, and it's a shame to see them go. Really, for my experience, and in terms of reliability, they are have been the only company to produce chipsets that could compete with Intel.
Re:Not Intel (Score:3, Informative)
Yup, you are right, but the same thing happened with their chipsets, same problem. Look up the recent Sony admission on the same topic, and Dell, HP along with many others. I won't keep spamming my own links/stories here, you can find them an a lot more with a little searching.
I would not say their chipsets are reliable, nor bug free, but they did have speed at times. This may be OK for a home user, but looking at the data corruption problems for their RAID setups, drive controller issues in general, networking features that never functioned right, and others, for any real use, people avoided them. The only reason they looked good is that up until recently, the competition, ATI, VIA and Broadcom, was far far worse.
Intel was almost always more reliable, more stable, and less bug ridden. ATI cleaned up it's act with the release of the 6xx series chipset, and has been moving steadily upward since. The others went away.
If you want a good example of Nvidia reliability, go get the NUFI lawsuit against them, it details 10 (From memory, I might be off) of the chips that died, the companies affected, and Nvidia's claims (financial) about them. Mike Magee did that one on TGDaily, I went into it a bit more on The Inq, but the lawsuit is well worth reading if you think NV can produce a reliable chip. It isn't fanboi ranting, it is legal filings. If you can't find it, email me at semiaccurate.com and I will send the PDF. Make sure your mail can take a big attachment though, I think it was in the 5-10MB range.
-Charlie
Re:Since you asked (Score:3, Informative)
Thanks Charlie. You don't have to say any more about ATI, because the cat's already out of the bag (some site broke the Tuesday NDA). They'll be moving exclusively to GDDR5 on 128-bit bus for their midrange parts. This means that right now, they could sell a cheap 512MB 5850 with 4 memory chips for next to nothing. And once the 2Gbit GDDR5 parts ship next year, those 1GB 5770 parts can be paired with just 4 memory devices, and could probably be sold for the same cheapo $100.
The power of a 4890 (almost) for around $100 six months from now? It's certainly possible, and it's just amazing what GDDR5 brings to the table!
Sounds to me like the venerable GDDR3 is finally headed for that big tech dump in the sky. It only took five years!
Re:Intel? (Score:3, Informative)
You've been blinded by market speak. (Score:4, Informative)
The summary and the official response say the same damn thing. Furthermore, if you would have RTFA, you would know that it quotes the official statement that every one is posting, giving a paragraph by paragraph critique of how it does not refute anything, just tries to spin it nicely for the stockholders.
NVIDIA currently has no plans to create any new AMD or Intel chipsets after the ION2. Period.
Re:Doesn't look good for Nvidia (Score:3, Informative)
And I'm not really sure why they got into the chipset business in the first place. Intel and AMD had it helmed up
You must have a very warped memory of when nVidia entered the chipset business. The first chipsets were before AMD bought ATI and nForce mostly killed off a terrible line of VIA chips. They were really good at their best, they're just being squeezed out of the market.