In 2012, AMD will introduce its AMD 1090FX and 1070 Chipsets, as replacements to its current 990X and 970. The most interesting part is the new chipsets still will not support PCI-Express 3.0.
The 1090FX will be the top tier 10-series chipset, replacing the 990FX. The 1090FX northbridge will support two PCI-Express X16 links and up to four graphics cards. The 1070 provides one PCI-Express link for two graphics cards. The "Chipset Competitive Landscape" slide shows the new 10-series set to go against Intel's new Ivy Bridge chipset. AMD breaks down what it sees as advantages (more SATA connectivity and 2X16 XF) and disadvantages (PCIE 3.0 and SRT) against the Ivy Bridge. The 10-series chipset will be compatible with current processors, which adds to AM3+'s longevity.
The 10-series chipset most surprisingly will not support PCI-Express 3.0. This is a disappointment to this writer, with Intel already gearing up PCI-Express 3.0 support for the Ivy Bridge release. What is still to be seen is how will this affect AMD's Radeon HD 7000 series graphics cards supporting PCI-Express 3.0. This question should be answered by in the end of the year, as the Radeon HD 7000 expected to release around the holidays.
The new SB1060 southbridge does provide an improvement over current gen motherboards. The SB1060 will support an eight SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller, all ports running at 6 Gb/s. This outpaces Intel's 7-series in terms of SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The SB1060 will offer for the first time a native USB 3.0 SuperSpeed controller. Currently, 990FX & 970 don't natively support USB 3.0 but is offered through a third-party controller.
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18EXT64 , November 9, 2011 6:42 AMYep - PCI-E 3 isn't really needed yet, however I am still shocked. Normally marketing like to have the latest and greatest as it looks good in the advertisements, even if not really important. I hope they aren't losing enthusiasm for the enthusiast market.
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27gladosiri , November 9, 2011 7:03 AMForget the PCI-E 3.0 or 1090FX or whatnot..fix the current bulldozer already.
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27gladosiri , November 9, 2011 7:03 AMForget the PCI-E 3.0 or 1090FX or whatnot..fix the current bulldozer already.
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18EXT64 , November 9, 2011 6:42 AMYep - PCI-E 3 isn't really needed yet, however I am still shocked. Normally marketing like to have the latest and greatest as it looks good in the advertisements, even if not really important. I hope they aren't losing enthusiasm for the enthusiast market.
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9SirGCal , November 9, 2011 6:39 AMI'm a fan (though not a fanboy) of AMD but this still disappoints me. Why do they wait so long to pickup the newer standards on chip instead of third party...?!? I want AMD to succeed so bad but... How many SATA ports do we really need?!? If we need a dozen drives, we'd likely have some sort of RAID controller anyhow for off-chip handling anyhow. For a performance rig, half a dozen is plenty for most any user. Give us PCI 3... 16X crossfire might be interesting but where's the real advantage over 8x... Have to wait for those benchmarks... But I'm not as excited considering the differences from 4-8 were minimal already.
