Nvidia denies planned MCP exit

Nvidia has been quick to dispel rumours that it is planning to exit the motherboard chipset business, concentrating instead on its core graphics chipset market.

A report in Digitimes claims that the company "has decided to throw in the towel and quit the chipset business", quoting "sources close to the situation at one of Taiwan's top motherboard makers" as the originator of the rumour. It seems that this un-named motherboard manufacturer is claiming that Nvidia called a meeting to gauge the level of support motherboard makers would offer should the company continue creating its popular range of nForce chipsets. A deafening silence from the OEMs has lead to the conclusion that Nvidia has just been granted the go-ahead to drop out of the motherboard market altogether.

However, Nvidia was quick to debunk the rumour. When queried on the subject by ExtremeTech, Nvidia's Bryan Del Rizzo stated that "the story on Digitimes is complete groundless," and went on to assure people that "[Nvidia has] no intention of getting out of the chipset business."

According to Del Rizzo, it wouldn't make financial sense: "our MCP business is as strong as it ever has been for both AMD and Intel platforms, [with] Nvidia market share of AMD platforms in Q2'09 [at] 60%." Speaking as someone currently using an AMD-based system on an nForce-based motherboard, I have to agree with him.

Although the article at Digitimes has since been updated, the reasoning behind its original post remains: with "some makers" cancelling their nForce 7-series products and "lukewarm" reception for the nForce 200 chipset's ability to use SLI graphics technology on Intel X58 motherboards, the report of reticence from a single manufacturer was enough to form visions of the entire Nvidia MCP platform tumbling down. Let's hope that Del Rizzo's comments are evidence that there's life left in the nForce platform yet.

Anyone here think that nForce chipsets are the bee's knees, or has Nvidia been surpassed in the motherboard chipset stakes by other companies? Would it really be that much of a mistake for the company to pare back on its MCP efforts in order to concentrate on its line of graphics cards? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

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