Money makes SLI... SLI makes money
NVIDIA’S SLI PLANS for Tylersburg (the X58 chipset) have been widely dissected over the past few days. With the success DAAMIT’s been having with the RV700 family o’ chips, Nvidia’s throwing caution to the wind and letting everyone in on SLI on the X58… provided they pay the required license fee.
We’ve heard it from several sources and several sites, the latest of which was Expreview: In order to get the SLI running on the already… uhm… hardware-compliant X58, mobo makers will have to send off their prototypes for certification at Nvidia and pay a $5 fee for each mobo.
The Nvidia presentation that landed in our inbox yesterday tells us that at least four partners have become certified ODM/OEM: Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and DFI. Currently under certification are ECS, Foxconn and Evga. This means that, not only will you get mobos certified, but full systems will have SLI bragging rights at the store.
This idea keeps Nvidia’s work to a minimum and the cash doesn’t stop flowing, it's like a pay-as-you-go phone subscription. We just can’t avoid wondering how long will it take until some cunning runts hack the BIOS files to get to the SLI…
Either way, Intel is currently holding all the (graphics) cards.
L'Inq
Expreview
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Like Smoke test, Theres Ultimate test, yet Factory test for $5 that tells mfg. where compliance is lacking sounds like real sporting deal. At least drivers will affect all Passed mains same.Still I won't believe till reviewers pass smoke, errr..I mean Ultimate Test for X58 & Nahalem.
STeWie drashek

nVidias avarice becomes the main obstacle to their own advancement.

SLI only sells nVidia cards if it is present.
Notice the same mobo mentioned twice under gigabyte on that slide. Typo or what?
Why isn't AMD charging a $5 'licensing' free for crossfire. Maybe it is because AMD has a little more respect for their customers and doesn't want to gouge them like Nvidia is doing. But then again, AMD doesn't have defective chips it has to replace. This is nothing more than a Nvidia tax on X58 motherboards. Will manufactures offer non-SLI certified motherboards for $5 less?
Its not enough that your shelling out for two cards, they have to ding you some more for the privilege.
A decent article but with one glaring error - Nvidia's license scheme means that you pay a fee for EVERY X58 board, even if you don't use a single Nvidia card! If I use an ATI card, or my old 3DLabs PCI card, or my single 8800GTX, I still am paying that $5 SLI tax to Nvidia. "Pay as you go" means that when and IF I need SLI support, I can pay for it. 

Intel's chipsets are expensive enough without having to pay for something 99% of people will never use. Thanks ATI for not thinking like a monopoly! Most people don't like being taxed for things they don't use.