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nanofrog

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
Looking around, I stumbled across an article that might interest those who plan to purchase a Nehalem Mac Pro.

NVISION — If you want to combine a pair of GeForce graphics cards with a new Core i7 processor from Intel later this year, you're in luck. Just after the grand finale for its Nvision conference, Nvidia gathered reporters to inform them of a somewhat surprising and apparently very recent decision: the firm plans to enable its SLI multi-GPU scheme to work with Intel's X58 chipset—without the need for an nForce 200 PCI Express bridge chip on the motherboard.
Article link.

There will be some sort of certification process, and fees will be involved.

I've no idea if Apple would submit to this, but it may be possible.
 

Elven

macrumors 6502a
May 13, 2008
862
1
UK
Looking around, I stumbled across an article that might interest those who plan to purchase a Nehalem Mac Pro.


Article link.

There will be some sort of certification process, and fees will be involved.

I've no idea if Apple would submit to this, but it may be possible.

I very much doubt they will, but boy if they did :eek:
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
I also came across another article in Fudzilla.

Once the board design has been verified by Nvidia, they will provide the motherboard manufacturer with what is currently known as a "cookie," which is a key that has to be embedded into the BIOS of that motherboard model to enable SLI support.

Interestingly, the article is also suggesting that it could be possible to hack a motherboard BIOS and extract the "cookie" and then implement it into a BIOS for a motherboard that doesn't have SLI support and Nvidia is meant to have said that it won't clamp down on the community for doing this.

Provided this is correct, a hack might be possible. :)
 

kabunaru

Guest
Jan 28, 2008
3,226
5
Do you guys really think that the next Mac Pro will have SLI/CrossFire support in Mac OS X? :confused:
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
Do you guys really think that the next Mac Pro will have SLI/CrossFire support in Mac OS X? :confused:
I honestly don't know, but I think it would make a lot of people happy. Not to mention help close the gap in graphics performance between Macs and PC's. :)
 

Pressure

macrumors 603
May 30, 2006
5,038
1,378
Denmark
They were forced to enable software SLI on the next big hardware platform from Intel as nVIDIA does not hold a license to make chipsets for Nehalem and the motherboard makers weren't pleased to pay extra money for a chip that were basically not needed.

This would have left the entire multi-GPU market for AMD.

Just marketing and a slight death-rattle.
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
Original poster
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
It was on the Nvidia website long before Nvision.
I hadn't seen it. I've spent more time on ATI research, as their products currently perform better under OS X. ;)
They were forced to enable software SLI on the next big hardware platform from Intel as nVIDIA does not hold a license to make chipsets for Nehalem and the motherboard makers weren't pleased to pay extra money for a chip that were basically not needed.

This would have left the entire multi-GPU market for AMD.

Just marketing and a slight death-rattle.
To me, they've failed to wrest control via the chipset market, and this is just the next iteration. Not just keep them in the market segment. :p

I don't know if Apple will enter any certification/licensing agreements with nVidia or not. I tend to doubt this.

My primary reason for even posting this was all of the questions about SLI and Crossfire under OS X that get asked. Another would be the possibility of additional graphics options on the way. Many members seem to be interested for some reason. :D
 
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