So far, we witnessed a lot of cases when the mainboard makers tackled the graphics card business. The reverse situation when the graphics card makers start mainboard business is a pretty rare thing to happen. At the same time, the general tendency is evident: the hardware manufacturers are trying to diversify the production, in order to become independent of what’s happening in some particular markets.

However, it is quite possible that there were totally different reasons that pushed Gainward to decide on opening the mainboard business. The sources claim that now they are talking only about the design and production of a mainboard based on NVIDIA nForce2 chipset. Taking into account that Gainward is a pretty close partner of NVIDIA, we dare suppose that the mainboard will be made upon NVIDIA request or under NVIDIA’s direct pressure. It is also quite possible that the cold welcome of the first nForce in the market, the mainboard makers are not very enthusiastic about the second chipset revision. Therefore, NVIDIA has to apply all its efforts to make sure that nForce2 based mainboards will appear in the market in time and in sufficient quantities.

At the same time, NVIDIA claims that the boards based on nForce2 should be produced by such manufacturers as: ABIT, AOpen, ASUS, Chaintech, EPoX, Leadtek, MSI, Shuttle and Soltek. The new mainboards are expected to start shipping in mass quantities in September.