The AMD 700 chipset series (also called as AMD 7-Series Chipsets) is a set of chipsets designed by ATI for AMD's Phenom processors to be sold under the AMD brand. Several members were launched in the end of 2007 and the first half of 2008, others launched throughout the rest of 2008.
Development history The existence of the chipsets was proven in October 2006 through two hardware websites in ChileATI targets next-gen Athlon 64 FX with four-GPU chipset? and SpainMadBoxPC reporting "ATI chipset update" which posted the leaked slides of an ATI internal event, "ATI chipset update". In the slides, ATI has shown a series of RD700 chipset variants codenamed RD790, RX790, RS780 and RS740 respectively. A SB700 southbridge was also mentioned in the event. The 790X (codename RD780) chipset was spotted in Computex 2007, exhibited by ASUS. The RS780D was first reported by HKEPC while the RX780H was first seen on ECS internal presentations.
After the acquisition of ATI Technologies, AMD started to participate in the development of the chipset series. And as a result, the first performance- and enthusiast-segment chipset products under the AMD brand, the 790FX, 790X and 770 chipsets were launched on November 19, 2007 as part of the desktop performance platform codenamed Spider. The 780 chipset series, first launched in China on January 23, 2008, and released worldwide on March 5, 2008 during CeBIT 2008,DigiTimes report. Retrieved January 25, 2008. mobile chipsets (M740G, M780G and M780T chipsets) were released on June 4, 2008 during Computex 2008 as part of the Puma mobile platform and the 790GX chipset was released on August 6, 2008, while some other members were released at a later date in 2008. The 785G was announced on August 4, 2009.
Line-up
790FX
Codenamed RD790, final name revealed to be "AMD 790FX chipset"Fudzilla report. Retrieved October 8, 2007. single AMD processor configuration Four physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8 or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, ChileHardware discussion thread the chipset provides a total of 38 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge HyperTransport 3.0 with support for HTX slots and PCI Express 2.0 ATI CrossFire X AutoXpress AMD OverDrive Energy efficient Northbridge design 65 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC Extreme overclocking, reported to have achieved about 420 MHz bus for overclocking an Athlon 64 FX-62 processor, from originally 200 MHz. Optional discrete chipset cache memory of at least 16 KB to reduce latencies and increase bandwidth Supports Dual Gigabit Ethernet, and teaming option Reference board codenamed "Wahoo"TG Daily report . Retrieved July 27, 2007. for dual-processor system reference design board with three physical PCI-E x16 slots, and "HammerHead" for single-socket system reference design board with four physical PCI-E x16 slots, also notable was the reference boards includes two ATA ports and only four SATA 3.0 Gbit/s ports (as being paired with SB600 southbridge). Will pair with SB750 southbridge with support up to six SATA ports and enhanced Phenom processors overclocking via ACC functionality, and will later support Socket AM3 with DDR3 SDRAM support in the first quarter of 2009. Enthusiast discrete multi-graphics segment Public documentation is not available yet
790X Codenamed RD780, final name revealed to be "AMD 790X chipset"TechConnect Magazine report. Retrieved October 17, 2007. Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 ATI CrossFire AutoXpress AMD OverDrive Energy efficient Northbridge design 65 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC Mobile version (codenamed RD780M) planned, supporting CrossFire for two AXIOM/MXM discrete mobile GPUs Can pair with SB750 southbridge with support up to six SATA ports and enhanced Phenom processors overclocking via ACC functionality. Supports Socket AM3 with DDR3 SDRAM depending on motherboard BIOS Performance discrete multi-graphics segment
790GX
Codenamed RS780D, final name seen on internal AMD presentation Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge Integrated graphics: Radeon HD 3300 ChileHardware report . Retrieved January 17, 2008. ATI Hybrid Graphics Side-port memory as local frame buffer,Fudzilla report. Retrieved October 4, 2007. supporting DDR2 and GDDR3 chips. HKEPC report. Retrieved October 25, 2007. ATI PowerPlay technology UVD+ Two physical PCI-E x16 slots (one 16x and one 8x electrically. In Crossfire mode, both will revert to 8x electrically) HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 ATI CrossFire Hybrid CrossFire X AMD OverDrive Energy efficient Northbridge design 55 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC 528-pin Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) package Performance hybrid multi-graphics segment
785G Codenamed RS880 Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge Integrated graphics: Radeon HD 4200 ATI Hybrid Graphics and PowerXpress Side-port memory as local frame buffer, supporting DDR2 and DDR3 UVD 2.0 ATI Stream capabilities No 7.1-channel LPCM supportAnandTech: AMD 785G Update — Multi-Channel LPCM is not Available HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 AMD OverDrive Energy efficient Northbridge design 55 nm CMOS fabrication process by TSMC Mainstream hybrid graphics (DirectX 10.1 IGP) segment
785E Codenamed RS785E Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge Integrated graphics: Radeon HD 4200 ATI Hybrid Graphics and PowerXpress Side-port memory as local frame buffer, supporting DDR2 and GDDR3 ATI PowerPlay technology UVD 2 HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 ATI CrossFire Hybrid CrossFire X High-end embedded systems segment
780G/780V Codenamed RS780/RS780C Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge Integrated graphics: Radeon HD 3200 (780G), Radeon 3100 (780V) HKEPC review. Retrieved January 29, 2008. 205 million transistorsFudzilla report. Retrieved March 6, 2008. ATI Hybrid Graphics and PowerXpress (780G only, PowerXpress for M780G only) Side-port memory as local frame buffer, supporting DDR2 and GDDR3 chips (780G only) ATI PowerPlay technology UVD+ (780G only) One physical PCI-E x16 slot HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 AMD OverDrive Energy efficient Northbridge design 55 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC 528-pin Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) package 1.1 V core voltageHKEPC image . Retrieved February 19, 2008. "Remote IT" (temporary name, 780V only) Pin-to-Pin compatible to RS690 Reference board design codenamed "Seahorse" Mobile version (M780G, codenamed RS780M/M780V, codenamed RS780MC) demonstrated in May 2007,Bit-Tech report and will be available during second or third quarter (Q2-Q3) 2008,C|Net Interview with AMD Fellow Maurice Steinman with the implementation of PowerXpress technology, providing one PCI-E slot for AXIOM/MXM modulesThe Inquirer report. Retrieved August 13, 2007. and HyperFlashRegHardware reportRegHardware report support for the Puma platform Mainstream hybrid graphics (DirectX 10 IGP) segment (780G), value and commercial DirectX 10 IGP segment (780V)
780E Codenamed RS780E Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot or two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slots @ x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge Integrated graphics: Radeon HD 3200 205 million transistors ATI Hybrid Graphics and PowerXpress Side-port memory as local frame buffer, supporting DDR2 and GDDR3 chips up to 128 MB ATI PowerPlay technology UVD+ One x16 or two x8 PCI-E x16 slot (physical x16 slot) HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 ATI CrossFire Hybrid CrossFire X Energy efficient Northbridge design 55 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC 528-pin Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) package 1.1 V core voltage Reference development board design codenamed "Mahogany" High-end embedded systems segment
770 Codenamed RX780, final product name revealed by ECSECS products page . Retrieved October 4, 2007. Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots, the chipset provides a total of 22 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 AMD OverDrive Energy efficient Northbridge design 65 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC Mobile version (M770, codenamed RX781), supports discrete graphics, and support for "add-on" graphics solution, via external PCI-E cablingFudzilla report Mainstream discrete single-graphics segment Public documentation is not available yet
760G Codenamed RS780L Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 2.0 x16 slot and one PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, the chipset provides a total of 20 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge Integrated graphics: Radeon 3000 Graphics GPU 350 MHz, memory shared DDR3 533 MHz, power consumption 5.1-6.1 W ATI PowerPlay technology ATI Hybrid Graphics 55 nm CMOS fabrication process manufactured by TSMC HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0 Value DirectX 10.0 IGP segment Public documentation is not available yet
740 Codenamed RX740DailyTech report . Retrieved October 8, 2007. Single AMD processor configuration One physical PCIe 1.1 x16 slot and one PCIe 1.1 x4 slot, the chipset provides a total of 20 PCIe 1.1 lanes and 4 PCIe 1.1 for A-Link Express II solely in the Northbridge HyperTransport 2.0 and PCI Express 1.1a Energy efficient Northbridge design Value discrete single-graphics segment Public documentation is not available yet
Southbridges Besides the use of SB600 southbridge for earlier releases of several members in late 2007, all of the above chipsets can also utilize newer southbridge designs, the SB700, SB710 and the SB750 southbridges. Future server chipsets will also utilize the server version (SB700S/SB750S) of the southbridges. Features provided by the southbridge are listed as follows:
SB700 Support up to 6 SATA 3.0 Gbit/s hard disk drives, with RAID 0, 1, 10 support eSATA support 1 x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices Support up to 14 USB ports (12 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 1.1) I/O acceleration technologies Consumer Infrared receiver/transmitter port compatible with IrDA standards DASH 1.0 support
SB710 All features from SB700 Super I/O Advanced Clock Calibration for enhanced CPU overclocking Direct communication channel composed of six data pins which were previously reserved between the CPU and the southbridge Advanced Clock Calibration (Option available with AMD OverDrive software 2.1.1 and later)
SB750 All features of SB700 RAID 5 support Super I/O Enhanced CPU overclocking for K10-based processors only, originally named "OverDrive 3.0"Fudzilla report, retrieved May 2, 2008