First AMD 790GX Motherboard Pictured

[malware]

Pictures of the first prototype AMD 790GX motherboard with integrated Radeon HD 3300 IGP started sufracing yesterday. The upcoming AMD 790GX chipset not only supports CrossFire X and Hybrid CrossFire, but it also adds 3-way Hybrid CrossFire in the loop. 3-way Hybrid CrossFire combines an integrated graphics with two PCI-E 2.0 x8 slots that can be used in CrossFire mode. Just an example, imagine two HD 3870 X2 cards working in CrossFire X helped by an AMD Radeon HD3300 IGP graphics. When in 2D mode only the integrated graphics will be used and thus save power, but if the system is running at full throttle all three cards will be operating. Yes, the HD3300 IGP graphics won't give any significant boost in games and 3D apps, but at least it'll be built into the motherboard and will be working without requiring any additional interventions, so why don't use it? The AMD 790GX based products are expected to go on sale in May.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Dark_Webster]

WTF?? RAM on the motherboard?? On board graphics are evolving

 

[cool_recep]

I think the cooling blocks were removed. Right?

 

[newtekie1]

Now for that theory of two 3870's running in hybrid Crossfire they have to support more than just the low end GPUs.

WTF?? RAM on the motherboard?? On board graphics are evolving

Onboard RAM for IGPs has been around for a while.

 

[Dark_Webster]

Now for that theory of two 3870's running in hybrid Crossfire they have to support more than just the low end GPUs.



Onboard RAM for IGPs has been around for a while.

I just haven't seen them

 

[Disparia]

Other reports are saying that only RV620 cards are supported in Hybrid CrossFire...?

In other words, HD 3300 IGP + HD 3470 + HD 3470 for the max.

 

[ShadowFold]

AMD is leaping ahaid I hope these are priced right cause these look sweet!

 

[newtekie1]

Other reports are saying that only RV620 cards are supported in Hybrid CrossFire...?

In other words, HD 3300 IGP + HD 3470 + HD 3470 for the max.

Yep, Hybrid-Crossfire only works with the HD2400 and HD3400 series. By the time you paythe $65 a piece for the HD3470's you might as well just go for a single HD3850 which will probably give you better performance.

 

[a111087]

I think the cooling blocks were removed. Right?

lol, yep

 

[jbunch07]

board looks really nice i like the black....
i do wanna see some benches just to see how much the igp actually helps when gaming at full throttle

Edit:
wait a min i thought you could only use 4 gpus with crossfire x? am i wrong?

 

[panchoman]

hybrid CFX only supports the aforementioned cards ( hd34x etc.) for the time being. but ati has said that they the new drivers etc will support more hybrid crossfire scenarios like 3870 + onboard, etc.

 

[Braveheart]

oh yeah! AMD is back.

 

[jbunch07]

oh yeah! AMD is back.

didnt know they went anywhere?

i hope they eventually are able to put better igp on boards like a 3850 or 70

 

[devguy]

I just haven't seen them

My old Dell Inspiron laptop has an onboard IGP (Mobility 9000) soldered on the motherboard that has 2 16mb DDR1 ram chips (32mb total).

I actually thought IGPs with their own ram were fairly common (perhaps not in desktops, though).

 

[tkpenalty]

Yes! This is what i wanted on the 780G, the intergrated RAM, and hybrid CF for not only the lower end cards .

This board will cater for a WIDE range of consumers, from mainstream, enthusiasts, to budget consumers

 

[simlariver]

We want some benchmarks !!!

 

[WhiteLotus]

top right of the first pic - whats that LED number display type thing for?

 

[panchoman]

its for debugging, many boards have such things. like my board has just 2 leds that blink to let me know of problems (like no video card, no ram, etc.) and more advanced boards like some asus and evga ones have debugging with codes that are displayed, so like if there was memory failure on the mobo, it would display the code for memory failure on the leds.

 

[WhiteLotus]

ah nice idea

 

[panchoman]

that it is

 

[ShadowFold]

Oops

 

[WarEagleAU]

I love how my gigabyte board does that.

On the subject of hybrid crossfire. If crossfire down throttles to the lowest common denominator of two or more gpus/memory, how does this actually help?

 

[panchoman]

hybrid crossfire is different. it scales up to help your crossfired card, like it'll do say physics while the card renders etc, and when you're not using 3d applications, you can have it so that your seperate card shuts down and you use onboard, and then the card starts up again when you start gaming.

 

[tkpenalty]

I love how my gigabyte board does that.

On the subject of hybrid crossfire. If crossfire down throttles to the lowest common denominator of two or more gpus/memory, how does this actually help?

Hybrid crossfire means during 2D the GPUs will power down, and the IGP will run the 2D Hardware acceleration. I'd expect options, example video decoding could even be done by the IGP itself. There is no throttling, it adds extra performance. So you will expect a 1% perf increase relative to ur HD3870X2 for example XD.

What i love about this is that you get two more monitor ports-you dont have to plug the monitor onto the GPUs, instead the motherboard!

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Pictures of the first prototype AMD 790GX motherboard with integrated Radeon HD 3300 IGP started sufracing yesterday

Typo Mal