ATI/Intel: CPU, GPU?

[pcguideuser745]

According to http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35245

"Talking about Nvidia, the Kentsfield demo was this time based on SLI - no CrossFire to be seen, anymore. Further to that, I had no luck getting a ATI RD600-based Core2 mainboard from any of the vendors... it is just a no-no, it seems unfortunately. Everyone is waiting for the new Nforce high-end rev for Core 2, the one with three PCI-E X16 slots and upwards of 2GHz FSB capability, sometime in December. Soo, it seems... good bye, ATI on Intel - we'll miss you! µ"

Hmm, this greatly disturbs me. For those people who are planning on building a computer with the latest and greatest hardware next year, this could prove to be a problem if no companies are planning on creating chipsets such that ATI cards will work on an Intel board.

The above is assuming that ATI R600 will be faster than Nvidia G80...and Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad CPUs will remain faster than any of AMD's multi-gpu offerings.

So, users would have to choose whether they want:
1. Faster CPU but slower GPU (Intel and Nvidia)
OR
2. Slower CPU but faster GPU (AMD and ATI)

As I mentioned before, should Intel and ATI turn out to have faster offerings than AMD and Nvidia, it would not be possible to have BOTH of the latest and greatest, since you wouldn't be able to choose both. You would have to choose either/or.

I am really hoping that there will be Intel chipsets supporting ATI Crossifre configurations.

Comments? Thoughts?

[rond36]

The Intel P965, and 975X chipsets support Crossfire and Core 2 CPUs. I don't know if future chipsets will, or how long Intel's contract period is for Crossfire technology, but I am sure it won't be renewed when it expires.

Given the choice I would choose a faster CPU but slower GPU (Intel and Nvidia)

Intel could buy Nvidia and cut AMD out of Nvidia chipset motherboards and SLI, and even go as far as making the Graphics card slot proprietary so that ATI video cards could not be used on a motherboard with an Intel CPU, that would cut ATI out of about 80% of the desktop market.

[jlreich]

The above is assuming that ATI R600 will be faster than Nvidia G80...and Intel's Core 2 Duo/Quad CPUs will remain faster than any of AMD's multi-gpu offerings.

That's a lot of assumptions there. :p Six months down the road, or even three, things can once again be very different.

I am with rond36, it doesn't make sense for anyone to cut anyone out of the picture. I think things are just kind of crazy right now with AMD buying ATI. But things will settle down and chipsets will be released, new GPU/VPU's will astound us on both Intel and AMD platforms. :D