SLI for 7 series WHEN Options

[Randy Myers]

I have been a big supporter of nVidia for several years now. In my home we currently have a 6600 in my server, 3x 6800 in our three boys computers (all with nforce 2 chipsets). Less than a year ago I put together new computers for my wife and myself. 2x Asus An8SLI (nforce 4 chip set) and 4x 7800GT cards. That is about $1600 in video cards for our two computers just under a year ago.

It is not our fault that nVidia has decioded to release two new generations of graphic cards in less than a year. Actually that is really bad for the consummer.

I have been running a legitimate copy of Vista RTM for two months now. I have been patiently waiting for the official retail release, giving nVidia a break; thinking I was being a fair and reasonable person. All this time I have had an expensive hunk of silicon sitting there doing nothing more then generating heat.

At this point I feel that nVidia has dropped the ball. I feel that they decided to put their entire effort into drivers for their new expensive card (that a very very very small portion of the customers own) and decided to leave us other SLI owners hanging. After all, we bought into their advertising push and put together SLI rigs to only have the company DECIDE to not support us. I would have been better to have put that money into a single card solution. nVidia is not the only game in town. I could/should have bought top of the line ATI cards instead.

I want to know when.... WHEN (as in, "soon" is not a good enough answer) are they going to have functioning Vista SLI drivers for the rest of us. And I also feel that nVidia as a company owes us an explanation (they have totally forgotten about the old concept that communication means everything), and nVidia owes us and me an apology.

Also, they had better have drivers out soon, as in less than a WEEK, that gives full SLI support on 6/7 series cards. If not I might just say screw it once and for all with nVidia because if they are not going to support what their advertising hype got us all to buy then why do they deserve any more of my hard earned money.

My e-mail address is randypmyers@charter.net if nVidia feels that a good customer deserves to hear from them. After all, I have spent a ton of money on their products. Maybe an explanation or a personal apology would be in order.

[charpman]

I couldn't agree with you more.

I have 10 PC's in my gaming room/office, all but 2 of them are Nvidia products (the other two are ATI). 7 of them are 6800Ultra or better. My main gaming rig is 7900GTX in SLI. And this doesn't count my servers, another 9 PC's quite a few with older Nvidia cards.

In short I have chosen to give Nvidia quite a bit of my money of the years. I've tried ATI and even when they have the performance advantage I have never enjoyed the Catalyst drivers. For that reason I have stayed with Nvidia.

I looked forward to installing Vista and did so when Action Pack arrived only to discover no SLI support.

I consider this entirely unacceptable from a company that has tied their marketing for the past 6months+ to Vista.

To those who say I didn't have to move to Vista and can't expect working drivers I say BS!

Vista is available. It wasn't a secret. Nvidia has promised either directly or through implication via thier marketing that they would work when Vista came out. If no such promise had been made then you are correct. After all I'd have no basis for a complaint.

But the reality is different. Nvidia has positioned itself through various press releases and marketing (check out thier main web site) as THE video card to have for Vista. As such, and in these terms, what they have done with the drivers is beyond unacceptable.

At this point I am done with Nvidia. I will wait for working SLI drivers for 7series cards and use them when they come out. But when I upgrade later this year (and as you should be able to determine from what I said above about the PC's I have, I upgrade frequently and usually at the higher end) I will most certainly be going with whatever R600 offering ATI has.

Will Nvidia care? Of course not. What's a few thousand dollars more or less in the overall scheme of things?

The sad thing is they SHOULD care. Customer loyalty is everything. And this issue was easily avoided at best, easily mitigated at worst.

They have taken an approach below worst.

At this point realistic answers other than "soon" and "in the future" would have gone a long ways to being non-patronizing to people who represent some of their best customers. Maybe an explanation as to how this came to be in the first place.

[hotshotmedic_SLI]

i 3rd that ^^. I feel the same way as you guys do. I've spent too much money to WAIT for drivers that should have been completed long ago or at least presented along with the 8800 series drivers. Come on Nvidia, take care of the people who represent your biggest customers.
my 7950gx2 is half crippled in vista because of this nonsense
ATI will be my new vid card. I wish EVGA manufactured ATI cards.



Athlon 64 X2 4400+ | A8N32-SLI Deluxe | OCZ 2gigs Premium Dual Channel PC3200 | 150gig Raptor X/250 gig WD Sata ll | EVGA 7950 GX2 | 22" Dell Widescreen Monitor | SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS | Logitech Z-5500 5.1 | Antec PlusView 1000

This post has been edited by hotshotmedic: Feb 3 2007, 10:52 PM

[WOWAddict22]

If they don't get something done this week, I am ditching nvidia all together

I couldn't agree with you more.

I have 10 PC's in my gaming room/office, all but 2 of them are Nvidia products (the other two are ATI). 7 of them are 6800Ultra or better. My main gaming rig is 7900GTX in SLI. And this doesn't count my servers, another 9 PC's quite a few with older Nvidia cards.

In short I have chosen to give Nvidia quite a bit of my money of the years. I've tried ATI and even when they have the performance advantage I have never enjoyed the Catalyst drivers. For that reason I have stayed with Nvidia.

I looked forward to installing Vista and did so when Action Pack arrived only to discover no SLI support.

I consider this entirely unacceptable from a company that has tied their marketing for the past 6months+ to Vista.

To those who say I didn't have to move to Vista and can't expect working drivers I say BS!

Vista is available. It wasn't a secret. Nvidia has promised either directly or through implication via thier marketing that they would work when Vista came out. If no such promise had been made then you are correct. After all I'd have no basis for a complaint.

But the reality is different. Nvidia has positioned itself through various press releases and marketing (check out thier main web site) as THE video card to have for Vista. As such, and in these terms, what they have done with the drivers is beyond unacceptable.

At this point I am done with Nvidia. I will wait for working SLI drivers for 7series cards and use them when they come out. But when I upgrade later this year (and as you should be able to determine from what I said above about the PC's I have, I upgrade frequently and usually at the higher end) I will most certainly be going with whatever R600 offering ATI has.

Will Nvidia care? Of course not. What's a few thousand dollars more or less in the overall scheme of things?

The sad thing is they SHOULD care. Customer loyalty is everything. And this issue was easily avoided at best, easily mitigated at worst.

They have taken an approach below worst.

At this point realistic answers other than "soon" and "in the future" would have gone a long ways to being non-patronizing to people who represent some of their best customers. Maybe an explanation as to how this came to be in the first place.

[zombix_SLI]

Well i just heard from the harocp forums about a press lease or letter to the community about new drivers and programmers working very hard to get the drivers for the 8000 series out the door so no support yet for 7000 at all which i think there is not going to be drivers for 7000 series for a very long time including that they are never going to come out at all.

[Koris_SLI]

Well i just heard from the harocp forums about a press lease or letter to the community about new drivers and programmers working very hard to get the drivers for the 8000 series out the door so no support yet for 7000 at all which i think there is not going to be drivers for 7000 series for a very long time including that they are never going to come out at all.

then i guess there is no hope for the 6800 users?

[Tylendel]

then i guess there is no hope for the 6800 users?

Why they are busting their butts for the 8xxx line is beyond me.. people aren't going to RUN out and drop over 1K on 2 8xxxx line cards who have bought either 2 7x line or esp 2 7950s recently.

Nvidia has had a YEAR to work with Vista and drivers. They should have developed them for the existing base...

However.. it's all a marketing race. They want to beat ATI out and say " Look what we have! We have SLI AND Directx 10 FULLY capably in Vista, and you don't. So everyone come buy our cards."

Nice marketing idea.... TERRIBLE service to your existing customer base

[micromind]

Why they are busting their butts for the 8xxx line is beyond me.. people aren't going to RUN out and drop over 1K on 2 8xxxx line cards who have bought either 2 7x line or esp 2 7950s recently.

Nvidia has had a YEAR to work with Vista and drivers. They should have developed them for the existing base...

However.. it's all a marketing race. They want to beat ATI out and say " Look what we have! We have SLI AND Directx 10 FULLY capably in Vista, and you don't. So everyone come buy our cards."

Nice marketing idea.... TERRIBLE service to your existing customer base

Yea and what about 6000's people like me who like sli but arent hard core gamers. i like sli to work so if i wanna play a game i can, i can't even play battle field 2142 unless i drop everything to half. sucks hard nvidia has lost my vote

[ChrisRay]

then i guess there is no hope for the 6800 users?

No no. Theres plenty of hope. All SLI capable products will support SLI for VISTA.

Chris

[Randy Myers]

This is good news, however, when is the issue. nVidia saying "future driver" or "soon" is not an acceptable answer. My "spare" card will be worn out just sitting there creating heat and not doing it's job waiting for them. I have been running Vista since early December and thought I was being extremely patient waiting for the retail release. I feel so let down and disappointed by nVidia's push for 8800 users and leaving us SLI owners that bought our cards less than a year ago hanging.

They really need to come out and make an official statement; apology, offer of trade ins, or something; because this lack of information is killing their hard earned reputation. As I have stated before, their window of opportunity to resolve this is closing extremely fast. I would say, judging from my own feelings on this, if they do not get quality working SLI drivers out for our series 6/7 cards this week than they will have blown it. If they make us wait a month they will have lost most of us. And remember, we are the customers that will driver the next wave of graphic card upgrades. The 8800 owners have already done their upgrades. We are the majority of SLI owners and we are the ones who will be buying after both companies have drivers worked out. However, if nVidia leaves us hi and dry we will not be running out to buy nVidia cards during the next upgrade wave.

No no. Theres plenty of hope. All SLI capable products will support SLI for VISTA.

Chris

[trith]

I had a feeling that this was going to be a trainwreck when a month from release Nvidia didn't even have a functioning Beta driver with SLI support. It will be a long time before I move to Vista, and even longer before I have any faith in Nvidia products again. My next purchase I'm sad to say will probably be ATI.