Following yesterday's early unveiling from Foxconn, AMD has today officially announced the availability of its 790GX chipset.
The platform, which integrates AMD's Phenom processors and ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics, is said to provide the world's fastest motherboard graphics processor and is geared toward the budget-conscious gamer.
Seemingly unable to compete with Intel in the ultra high-end market, AMD has focused heavily on the complete bang-for-buck package, and 790GX is proof of its progress.
The chip, which slots in below the enthusiast 790FX, offers a feature set which on paper has the beating of certain competitors. In addition to the integrated ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics, the 790GX chipset introduces AMD's Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) technology. AMD states that tuning enhancements available for the new SB750 southbridge via ACC provide "the best platform for unlocking maximum AMD Phenom processor performance."
Though we've yet to put it to the test ourselves, early reports have shown that ACC can easily overclock Phenom CPUs to speeds in excess of 3.0GHz - that's without adjusting CPU voltage. Clearly, this is a platform that the overclocking crowd should enjoy.
Aside from pushing the relatively low-cost Phenom CPUs to their limit, 790GX's real party piece is its integrated graphics processor (IGP). The on-board ATI Radeon HD 3300 graphics provide DirectX 10 support out of the box, and AMD's Unified Video Decoder will tackle high-definition material with ease. Despite being, in our opinion, the best IGP to date, there's plenty of scalability options for those who demand more.
790GX features ATI Hybrid Graphics technology, allowing users to take advantage of both the IGP and a discrete graphics card. For gamers who want to take it one step further than most, there's ATI CrossFireX technology, allowing for multiple discrete graphics cards to work in tandem.
Stay tuned as HEXUS' Tarinder Sandhu will be providing an in-depth look at the 790GX architecture later today.
In the meantime, AMD lists the complete 790GX specification as follows:
Proven ATI Radeon™ Graphics Powering |
Powered by ATI Radeon™ Graphics, DirectX®10 introduces neverbefore-seen detail-rich images and dynamic interactivity for playing the latest DirectX® 10 games |
|---|---|
| HyperTransport™ 3.0 Technology | HyperTransport™ 3.0 more than doubles your CPU communications bandwidth to graphics as compared to HT1 |
| PCI Express® Generation 2.0 | Double your graphics bandwidth over earlier PCI Express for improved performance |
| Backwards Compatibility | Ensures flexibility to build platforms with previous generation CPUs as well as the latest AMD Phenom™ processors |
| Performance Cache | Performance and power improvements with AMD’s unique side port technology |
ATI Hybrid Graphics1 |
Improve your system performance by enabling the ability for both discrete graphics and integrated graphics to render simultaneously |
| ATI CrossFireX™ Technology | Upgrade to even greater 3D performance quickly and easily with plug-and-play ATI CrossFireX™ technology when you use two discrete ATI Radeon™ Graphics cards |
| ATI Avivo™ HD2 | ATI Avivo™ HD is the advanced image and video processing and display technology found in ATI Radeon™ graphics that enables:
|
| Low Power Design | Designed for power-efficient computing to help lower energy costs |
| AMD Cool’nQuiet™ 2.0 | Benefit from power saving features that help reduce power consumption at idle or during low usage |
| Enhanced Digital Display Integration | Supports Display Port interface for the latest displays. Includes a TDMS interfacen that enables dual-link DVI or HDMI 1.2 as well as HDCP 1.1 |
| ATI SurroundView™ | SurroundView™ feature allows support for up to four independent monitors for systems equipped with an additional Radeon™ discrete graphics card |
ATI PowerPlay™ |
Flexible power saving technologies that ensure optimal power efficiency to help reduce your electricity costs |
| SB750 Southbridge | Support for up to 12 USB 2.0 connections and 6 SATA 2.0 devices, including eSATA devices. Also includes support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 |
AMD OverDrive with Advanced Clock Calibration* |
Shift your system performance into next gear with Advanced Clock Calibration that allows you to get the highest overclocking out of your AMD Phenom™ CPUs. AMD OverDrive™ also enables control of the AMD 790GX to easily configure system settings in Microsoft Windows® in real-time |
AMD RAIDXpert™ |
Easily configure your RAID setup from remote locations to personalize your media for extra performance or enhanced reliability. Additional RAID 5 support with SB750 |
Official press release
The Best Gets Better: AMD Extends Its Desktop Platform Advantage for Performance PCs
Related reading
Foxconn launches 790GX-based A7DA family of motherboards
Leaked AMD slides hint at 790GX performance
Biostar showcases unannounced AMD 790GX chipset: the best IGP yet
AMD to put NVIDIA's DX10 IGPs to the sword: 790GX on the horizon
