AMD 780G Chipset – Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H Motherboard

The AMD 780G Chipset Arrives

Last week, when AMD released the 780G chipset, they claimed that it redefines gaming for the mainstream PC. For the first time a complete GPU has been integrated into the chipset, which leads to impressive gaming performance right out of the box. By adding in a low-end ATI Radeon discrete graphics card to the mix something called ATI Hybrid Graphics technology is enabled that boosts 3D performance even more. The AMD 780G Chipset supports one x16 PCI Express 2.0 link and is also capable of driving four monitors in SurroundView mode. Combined with ATI Hybrid Graphics, ATI PowerPlay allows for flexible power saving technologies that ensure optimal power efficiency to lower energy usage.

The AMD 780G chipset has a number of improvements when compared to the older AMD 690G chipset. For a entry level chipset the 780G doesn’t skimp on the features available.

The AMD 780G is an eighth generation Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP), but it is the first that integrates a DirectX10 compliant Shader Model 4.0 graphics core, a Unified Video Decoder (UVD), one x16 PCIe Gen 2 link, HT 3.0, DVI/HDMI interface, internal or external TMDS and DisplayPort capability in a single chip. This high level of integration and scalability enables manufacturers to offer revolutionary performance and capabilities. The above image shows how the north bridge works.

The new AMD SB700 chipset offers a wide range of I/O functionality. The AMD SB700 Supports 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports that can be setup in IDE, AHCI, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 10 modes, 12 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 1.1 ports, HyperFlash interface, DASH 1.0, 6 PCI slots, HD Audio, IDE, Serial and Parallel ports, to give PC users the most connectivity options available today. The AMD 780G reference board has 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, 3 PCI slots and an IDE port. Enough chat about the chipset let’s take a look at the new processor that AMD also just recently released.