Nvidia will authorize native SLI support on Intel X58 motherboards without the need for its nForce 200 chip, according to Tom Peterson, director of Technical Marketing for MCP products at Nvidia. Peterson detailed that the company"s partners will need to certify their X58 motherboards through Nvidia and, after certification, will receive an approval key to place in the system BIOS. Nvidia"s drivers will check for the approval key and the device ID of the chipset before determining whether to enable SLI support on the system.
Nvidia will charge motherboard makers for certification, but the price will be cheaper than that for its nForce 200 chip, costing around US$30, which until recently Nvidia insisted was required to enable SLI on motherboards not using its own chipsets. Peterson also noted that Nvidia will continue to support the nForce 200 solution.