AMD Set to Launch PCIe 2.0 Chipsets this Year

AMD and ATI are integrated and the first complete wave of chipsets will arrive in second half of this year. Dubbed Series 7, AMD’s line-up consists of four chipsets.

RD790 (790 CrossFire or 790X) is a high-end chipset, the features of which were already mentioned on these pages. It brings PCIe 2.0 support, and Quad Crossfire is also possible due to four supported PEG (PCI Express Graphics) connectors. With PCIe 2.0 bringing 150 Watts through the motherboard, even juice-hungry R600 will be able to work with a single 6-pin power cable. The second chipset is RX780 (780X), nothing else but a mainstream version of the above mentioned RD790, but without CrossFire support.

Then, there are two models with integrated graphics, one of which is supporting DirectX 9, and another bringing HD2000 series into the integrated market - DirectX 10 compliant part. RS740 or 740G will support DX9 and is nothing more than a pumped up 690G, while RS780 (780G) is a base for AMD’s Bulldozer platform (in mobile terms, RS780 chipset is called Puma), supporting UVD and DX10.

the Inquirer