AMD Also Wants To Spoil NVIDIA's Chipset Party

At the same time that it unveiled its roadmap for future processors, AMD did say that it doesn’t believe that NVIDIA could produce chipsets for future platform because their licensing terms do not cover upcoming processors. If you remember, Intel basically said the same thing a short time ago. If AMD was to win this argument, it would be very bad for two reasons. First, that would cut an enthusiast market in which NVIDIA has dominated for years. Most importantly, it would deprive NVIDIA from a possible leverage against Intel, because NVIDIA can’t pitch both CPU companies against each other.

For AMD, it might work as long as ATI’s graphics chips, motherboard chipsetand drivers perform, and for now, there’s no reason to think that they won’t, and it’s a good way to poke NVIDIA in the eye. Intel is preparing their own stand-alone GPU, so there is little incentive to help NVIDIA, although the legal battle is not over on that side.

It is certain that NVIDIA’s current position is not comfortable, butNVIDIA could conceptually get multi-GPU to work without controlling the chipset, although this is not the easy way (cards might get more complex and expensive). In the end, it’s too early to tell how this will end, but it is clear that each side has enough confidence in their own products to engage in trench warfare. If AMD obtains “gaming superiority” because Intel does not have a multi-GPU solution, Intel might have to rethink its NVIDIA licensing deal. For now, this seems to be a “last resort” solution.

Filed in Computers >Top Stories..

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