nVidia cancelling upcoming AMD chipsets?

Last week, nVidia reported that the plans to created chipsets for Intel's Lynnfield platform have been cancelled. The chipset wouldn't add much value to Intel's own P55, since the PCI-Express controller is already integrated in the processor. This makes it impossible to use an integrated videochip and unlikely for nVidia to gain any benefits from the creation of such a chipset. The latest rumors however state that the manufacturer is also cancelling development on AMD-based chipsets.

At the moment, nVidia has a number of nForce chipsets for motherboards featuring socket AM2+ or AM3, making it possible to combine an nVidia SLI configuration with an AMD processor. According to nVidia, this platform doesn't hold a future anymore either though, reason being that AMD isn't doing very well in the processor market lately, with its market shares diminishing continuously. As a result, nVidia loses customers and effectively profit.

It appear that after several years with the nForce 4, nForce 680i and nForce 790i chipsets, the manufacturer will be leaving the high-end motherboard market. nVidia does however have full confidence in its Ion chipset, given the large market and better profits in ths segment. An Ion 2 is already under development, sporting a graphics core with twice the power of the current version.

Is the nForce 780a nVidia's last AMD chipset?

Tags: nforce sli socket-am2 tegra socket-am3 p55 ion corei5

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