Our upcoming preview of the AMD 690G chipset that was scheduled for this Friday will not be available until 2/28/07. AMD has requested that we do not publish performance results until the general release of the chipset on 2/28/07 or we will be in violation of the board manufacturer's NDA. Our plan to include several of these boards in our mATX roundup will not occur and unfortunately we will not be able to provide direct comparisons to the G965 and NV6150 boards until the NDA expires.
AMD 690G Review Samples and New Dates
- Thread starter Gary Key
- Start date
Gary,
First, thanks for updating all of us that are waiting for AnandTech's review on this.
Secondly, I think you must have a typo there...you said 2/28 in your post above, that's got to be 1/28 right? Right?
Seriously - and please AMD I hope you are reading this - do not even release 690G on freaking 2/28...seriously, don't even bother unless it's the surprise 790 chipset just renamed to 690, else you seriously will be a joke to pretty much the entire community.
There is just no possible way you (AMD/ATI) could take this long to get this chipset out, None.
Better for you to not release it, please nVidia by letting them reap many more millions on 61x0 sales, and just come out with your 790 series hopefully within say 2 months of when it's supposed to. Would that be too hard, or you think you'll need another 6-7 month slip like this one?
Gary, if it's possible and doesn't bury AnandTech, it'd sure be nice to hear a No Spin type of explanation for these unacceptable delays. AMD needs to understand that slips like this are not acceptable...this makes them look 3rd party and not 1st Tier like Intel...
Chuck, a very disappointed AMD user...
First, thanks for updating all of us that are waiting for AnandTech's review on this.
Secondly, I think you must have a typo there...you said 2/28 in your post above, that's got to be 1/28 right? Right?
Seriously - and please AMD I hope you are reading this - do not even release 690G on freaking 2/28...seriously, don't even bother unless it's the surprise 790 chipset just renamed to 690, else you seriously will be a joke to pretty much the entire community.
There is just no possible way you (AMD/ATI) could take this long to get this chipset out, None.
Better for you to not release it, please nVidia by letting them reap many more millions on 61x0 sales, and just come out with your 790 series hopefully within say 2 months of when it's supposed to. Would that be too hard, or you think you'll need another 6-7 month slip like this one?
Gary, if it's possible and doesn't bury AnandTech, it'd sure be nice to hear a No Spin type of explanation for these unacceptable delays. AMD needs to understand that slips like this are not acceptable...this makes them look 3rd party and not 1st Tier like Intel...
Chuck, a very disappointed AMD user...
dajeepster
Golden Member
- Apr 15, 2001
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For those waiting for a review of mobos with AMD 690G chipsets, a google for "EPOX EP-AT690G" will get you a preview.
I just did my daily Google of "AMD 690" and found a few sites that are saying AMD doesn't have enough of quantity so they pushed the date back.
That I could understand (not that I'm not still p1ssed, as they've managed to F up the AMD part of the launch of this chipset now for like the 5th time), however what the other sites also said had me shaking my head:
They are saying the HDMI port can only deliver up to 720p?!!??!
Gary, is there anyway without breaking NDA you can put this rumor to rest?
Chuck
That I could understand (not that I'm not still p1ssed, as they've managed to F up the AMD part of the launch of this chipset now for like the 5th time), however what the other sites also said had me shaking my head:
They are saying the HDMI port can only deliver up to 720p?!!??!
Gary, is there anyway without breaking NDA you can put this rumor to rest?
Chuck
Actually, AMD spun the chipset again and wanted a coordinated launch with all of the motherboard partners. They have also implemented a "approved by AMD" type program where the motherboards have to be certified before shipment. My understanding on the HDMI output is it should do 1080i with proper driver support. We do not have the new drivers yet. 
I will let you know once we do.
I will let you know once we do.Gary,
Is there just something inherently insanely difficult in getting HDMI and/or HDCP working on a motherboard?
What I'm getting at is: ATI already had the Intel equivalent of the AMD 690G when it released its X1250 (ATI X1250 chipset for Intel CPU's). It is basically AMD 690G plus a memory controller and whatever else they needed to change for an Intel CPU vs. an AMD CPU.
Unless I'm missing something here, all AMD/ATI needed to do was take the ATI X1250 that is already out, and has been out for a long time and simply make it work with an AMD CPU instead of an Intel one. That's it.
I will freely admit I'm not an engineer or software architect, but, making the AMD 690G when they already have ATI X1250 for Intel CPU's seems like it ought to be a very simple thing...especially considering ATI also already had both X200 and X1100/1150 chipsets for both Intel and AMD, so they'd already know what needs to change and how.
I'm just completely failing to understand how multiple chipset spins, and more importantly like 5 months of delays, could happen for something that seems so straightforward????
Chuck
Is there just something inherently insanely difficult in getting HDMI and/or HDCP working on a motherboard?
What I'm getting at is: ATI already had the Intel equivalent of the AMD 690G when it released its X1250 (ATI X1250 chipset for Intel CPU's). It is basically AMD 690G plus a memory controller and whatever else they needed to change for an Intel CPU vs. an AMD CPU.
Unless I'm missing something here, all AMD/ATI needed to do was take the ATI X1250 that is already out, and has been out for a long time and simply make it work with an AMD CPU instead of an Intel one. That's it.
I will freely admit I'm not an engineer or software architect, but, making the AMD 690G when they already have ATI X1250 for Intel CPU's seems like it ought to be a very simple thing...especially considering ATI also already had both X200 and X1100/1150 chipsets for both Intel and AMD, so they'd already know what needs to change and how.
I'm just completely failing to understand how multiple chipset spins, and more importantly like 5 months of delays, could happen for something that seems so straightforward????
Chuck
Here is some more information on the Asus AMD 690G board.
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/asus/m2a-vm-hdmi/g1.htm
Gary, it looks like all the major mobo manufacturers are producing AMD 690G based boards suggesting that an article comparing these would be popular.
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2007/asus/m2a-vm-hdmi/g1.htm
Gary, it looks like all the major mobo manufacturers are producing AMD 690G based boards suggesting that an article comparing these would be popular.
That Asus M2A-VM board looks pretty weak to be honest...taking up the PCIe x16 slot so the HDMI and component ports can be provided is a poor solution. Why can't they just provide them onboard and not give us the DVI port? Or, give us a DVI port with HDCP and a converter that plugs into the DVI port to switch to HDMI? That'd be the best of both worlds in terms of features and physical connection stability. Also, where's the rest of the audio ports, or the Firewire port?
It worries me more than a little that 1.) AMD is so stupidly late with this chipset and 2.) the boards we've seen based on it so far are fairly lackluster.
With all the time the manufacturers have had because of all of ATI's/AMD's delays with the chipset and drivers, these board layouts ought to be perfection, not haphazard.
Chuck
It worries me more than a little that 1.) AMD is so stupidly late with this chipset and 2.) the boards we've seen based on it so far are fairly lackluster.
With all the time the manufacturers have had because of all of ATI's/AMD's delays with the chipset and drivers, these board layouts ought to be perfection, not haphazard.
Chuck
ASUS M2A-VM at the ASUS Global site.
There is no mention of the daughter board in "Accessories" and "HDMI" is removed from the PCB silk screen. It's just a plain vanilla VGA/DVI motherboard. Maybe the HDMI version comes later?
There is no mention of the daughter board in "Accessories" and "HDMI" is removed from the PCB silk screen. It's just a plain vanilla VGA/DVI motherboard. Maybe the HDMI version comes later?
We will have several of these boards to compare in early March. ASUS will have two different versions, one with HDMI and one without. We expect several of the suppliers to go this route in order to compete at both ends of the price sector. Our final MSI production release board arrived today, expect additional boards in a couple of weeks. The XP drivers are looking good now in early testing, stable Vista drivers are going to take sometime I am afraid.
OK, I've been seriously re-thinking my wait for 690G approach...someone tell me I'm just bitter ATI/AMD has F'd up this chipset release and to keep the faith, or if maybe I'm not so ragingly mad I make some sense:
a.) This chipset was supposed to be out in like Sept. of last year; that's actually buy the product, which means they've been "working" on it for lots longer.
b.) ATI already had the Intel version of this out for a while now (ATI X1250), just no one other than NEC seems to be using it.
c.) ATI/AMD has slipped time and time again on this chipset, leading to a low confidence level (on my part at least).
d.) After months of delays, they've finally just now got final hardware done (even though they just needed to take ATI X1250 and convert it to AMD format).
e.) They have stable - which doesn't mean good or final, just stable - Windows XP drivers. According to Gary, Vista still needs work. Again, this does not sound good.
f.) Everything 690G is going to do upon release, other than HDMI, is being done by nForce 61x0....which has been out for like forever now.
g.) I don't remember the product code, but nVidia is going to be releasing their DX9 and DX10 chipsets soon also (OK, DX9 before DX10, but you understand what I'm saying)...and they have a track record for at least delivering somewhat on time.
h.) By the time motherboards based on AMD 690G are actually available for non-price gouged prices, and there's enough sample size out there to find out which are the duds and which are the ones to go with, 790G which is the DX10 part with the 700 southbridge, and supporting AM2+ and the rest of the goodies, should be coming out. Of course I say should, since if AMD does to that chipset what they've done to 690G, it'll be Merry Christmas instead of Happy 4th before we see it...if we're lucky.
Knowing all this, does it even make sense to wait for 690G? Why even bother at this point if this is only as good as they can do after this crazy long time?
Chuck
a.) This chipset was supposed to be out in like Sept. of last year; that's actually buy the product, which means they've been "working" on it for lots longer.
b.) ATI already had the Intel version of this out for a while now (ATI X1250), just no one other than NEC seems to be using it.
c.) ATI/AMD has slipped time and time again on this chipset, leading to a low confidence level (on my part at least).
d.) After months of delays, they've finally just now got final hardware done (even though they just needed to take ATI X1250 and convert it to AMD format).
e.) They have stable - which doesn't mean good or final, just stable - Windows XP drivers. According to Gary, Vista still needs work. Again, this does not sound good.
f.) Everything 690G is going to do upon release, other than HDMI, is being done by nForce 61x0....which has been out for like forever now.
g.) I don't remember the product code, but nVidia is going to be releasing their DX9 and DX10 chipsets soon also (OK, DX9 before DX10, but you understand what I'm saying)...and they have a track record for at least delivering somewhat on time.
h.) By the time motherboards based on AMD 690G are actually available for non-price gouged prices, and there's enough sample size out there to find out which are the duds and which are the ones to go with, 790G which is the DX10 part with the 700 southbridge, and supporting AM2+ and the rest of the goodies, should be coming out. Of course I say should, since if AMD does to that chipset what they've done to 690G, it'll be Merry Christmas instead of Happy 4th before we see it...if we're lucky.
Knowing all this, does it even make sense to wait for 690G? Why even bother at this point if this is only as good as they can do after this crazy long time?
Chuck
Just to through a few thoughts out there chucky2
D) Wasnt there a delay relating to HDCP?
F) Again isnt HDCP something the 61x0 didnt have?
G) I think its MCP68 for DX9 and MCP78 for DX10
H) Theres always something better about to come out
Yeah, most of this just reiterates what you have said, but i for one am still looking for too 690G from a HTPC point of view. It should cope with 1080P with ease. However, im not saying that other chipsets cant do this. The HDMI/HDCP in an integrated package does it for me.
D) Wasnt there a delay relating to HDCP?
F) Again isnt HDCP something the 61x0 didnt have?
G) I think its MCP68 for DX9 and MCP78 for DX10
H) Theres always something better about to come out
Yeah, most of this just reiterates what you have said, but i for one am still looking for too 690G from a HTPC point of view. It should cope with 1080P with ease. However, im not saying that other chipsets cant do this. The HDMI/HDCP in an integrated package does it for me.
the IGP AMD went with is derived from the x700 pro.So it'll perform better than most IGP's intel has to offer.(maybe the GMA x3000 can put up a fight once proper drivers show up)
But shouldn't AMD really have focussed on putting in a DX10 ready IGP?Like the x700 pro doesn't even support SM 3.0(which isn't really necessary for an IGP since gaming isn't intended)
But once Nvidia releases their DX10 IGP's this will go down.
Also as chucky said,the present motherboards previewed are pretty weak.945P motherboards from intel are a better deal minus the HDMI.
But shouldn't AMD really have focussed on putting in a DX10 ready IGP?Like the x700 pro doesn't even support SM 3.0(which isn't really necessary for an IGP since gaming isn't intended)
But once Nvidia releases their DX10 IGP's this will go down.
Also as chucky said,the present motherboards previewed are pretty weak.945P motherboards from intel are a better deal minus the HDMI.
dmce- There was a rumor there was a holdup because of HDCP licensing...but do you really think AMD would let a chipset release be held up over something like this? We're talking millions of dollar$...if there was a licensing issue, it would have been taken care of ASAP, no way would they let that affect the release of the product if they didn't want to.
hardwareking- That's basically what I'm thinking...why is AMD even releasing this chipset at this point? It now doesn't really even seem to make sense honestly...I mean, all it brings is HDMI w/ HDCP to the table, but the motherboard designs so far on it suck. If HDCP was enabled on the nForce 61x0 boards, they'd be just as worthwhile as an option, especially since they should be mature by now.
The closeness of the release of this chipset to when 790G is rumored to come out really makes one wonder what the point of finally getting 690G out really is? I'm starting to think the only reason their doing it is as a small in the wild sample of how their chipset will behave. That way, when they push out 790G, it should be very stable and not near as much hassle.
Funny too how we have news like the link below:
NVIDIA MCP68 IGP to be ready by CeBIT
Very coincidental to me how it's some how taken AMD this long to release what should have been a simple chipset to get out the door, and now if the OCWorkbench is right, AMD launches right when nVidia has their ready....me thinks there's some behind the scenes dealmaking going on here...with HDCP licensing "issues" being used as a cover...
I swear I'm not quite this cynical in real life...honest...
Chuck
hardwareking- That's basically what I'm thinking...why is AMD even releasing this chipset at this point? It now doesn't really even seem to make sense honestly...I mean, all it brings is HDMI w/ HDCP to the table, but the motherboard designs so far on it suck. If HDCP was enabled on the nForce 61x0 boards, they'd be just as worthwhile as an option, especially since they should be mature by now.
The closeness of the release of this chipset to when 790G is rumored to come out really makes one wonder what the point of finally getting 690G out really is? I'm starting to think the only reason their doing it is as a small in the wild sample of how their chipset will behave. That way, when they push out 790G, it should be very stable and not near as much hassle.
Funny too how we have news like the link below:
NVIDIA MCP68 IGP to be ready by CeBIT
Very coincidental to me how it's some how taken AMD this long to release what should have been a simple chipset to get out the door, and now if the OCWorkbench is right, AMD launches right when nVidia has their ready....me thinks there's some behind the scenes dealmaking going on here...with HDCP licensing "issues" being used as a cover...
I swear I'm not quite this cynical in real life...honest...
Chuck
1. HDCP issues have caused some delays, the bigger delays were the final silicon spins and driver improvements.
2. MCP68 IGP was due a couple of months ago also, just nobody made an issue about it.
I would not count on it being a hard launch in March. 3. The 790G will be out when the Barcelona family arrives or just afterwards from all indications.
4. Although NVIDIA is still extremely important to the current success of AMD because of their chipsets, we see these releases (690G/790G) as the opening shot in the battle for the AMD OEM/White Box market. AMD has to replace all of the former/soon to be business that ATI had with Intel for OEM/White Box units for this merger to be remotely successful. We expect AMD to go after this business aggressively but it seems to be a catch 22 as I am sure they do not want to upset NVIDIA until they (AMD) have enthusiast and workstation chipsets available for those markets (late 2007/early 2008).
Gary,
Any chance you could do the test reports on a "combination" of ATX AND mATX boards for those of us who don't like the mATX form factor? Can't you do the report on the chipset itself instead of an mATX roundup? Or is it too late?
John
The preview article will be chipset based and then we will follow-up with additional boards in the mATX roundup next week.
News!
NVIDIA Prepares nForce 630a Against AMD 690G
"CHW reported that NVIDIA is preparing to launch their nForce 630a board in CeBIT to compete against AMD 690G board which is slated to launch on Feb 28th.
"nForce 630a supports Socket AM2 AMD Athlon? 64 X2/64/Sempron? Processors, NVIDIA GeForce 7050(nForce 630a), Hyper Transport Technology up to 2G, Dual Channel DDR2 533/667/800 MHz, 4 x DDR2 DIMM Memory slots, Max. Supports up to 8GB Memory, 1 x PCI-E x16, 1 x PCI-E x1, 2 x PCI Slots, On Board Graphic Max. Memory Share 256 MB, 8+2-Channel HD Audio, 10 x USB 2.0, HDMI, TV-OUT, DVI and 4 x SATAII 3Gb/s Connectors With RAID, GbE LAN."
Images of the reference board: #1 #2 #3
NVIDIA Prepares nForce 630a Against AMD 690G
"CHW reported that NVIDIA is preparing to launch their nForce 630a board in CeBIT to compete against AMD 690G board which is slated to launch on Feb 28th.
"nForce 630a supports Socket AM2 AMD Athlon? 64 X2/64/Sempron? Processors, NVIDIA GeForce 7050(nForce 630a), Hyper Transport Technology up to 2G, Dual Channel DDR2 533/667/800 MHz, 4 x DDR2 DIMM Memory slots, Max. Supports up to 8GB Memory, 1 x PCI-E x16, 1 x PCI-E x1, 2 x PCI Slots, On Board Graphic Max. Memory Share 256 MB, 8+2-Channel HD Audio, 10 x USB 2.0, HDMI, TV-OUT, DVI and 4 x SATAII 3Gb/s Connectors With RAID, GbE LAN."
Images of the reference board: #1 #2 #3
Gary,
1.) ATI already had the X1250 chipset for Intel out in production. NEC in Japan has systems available based on it...and I'm not sure if the notebook market ever saw it as well. All AMD (and formerly ATI) had to do was make that same chipset work with AMD AM2 CPU's and that's 690G. This should not have been a large task to figure out as ATI had to do the same thing with X200 and then X1100...meaning, the differences in the two platforms were already known, it's not something they should have needed to re-invent. Mass hardware re-spins and driver re-gens should not have been needed here - it just does not make sense.
As far as HDCP, either that's a total blunder by the 690G project team (I would really think doubtful considering those folks are most likely creme of the crop PM's to head a project like 690G and wouldn't allow something like that to be overlooked), or some kind of politics is being played. AMD is a multibillion dollar company...if they needed to get HDCP approved for 690G, I'm sure it would not take 6 months.
2.) That's because we've all been waiting for 690G...
3.) When's Barcelona coming out? This will be good to know, because then we just need to either add 7 months or find out when nVidia's accompying chipset for it will come out, and we'll have the 790G date.
4.) Well, if AMD wants to capture/re-capture the OEM/Whitebox market, they better go about it in a different way. Those folks need to know when a platform is going to come out so they can get everything prepped...continually slipping and ending up 6-7 months out because nVidia doesn't have a competing solution like MCP68 out yet doesn't instill confidence...giving BS excuses like We're having problems with HDCP is even worse...
As far as Tweaktown's review, please tell me you are seeing a greater performance delta between nForce 61x0 and 690G. I surely hope so for AMD's sake...
Chuck
1.) ATI already had the X1250 chipset for Intel out in production. NEC in Japan has systems available based on it...and I'm not sure if the notebook market ever saw it as well. All AMD (and formerly ATI) had to do was make that same chipset work with AMD AM2 CPU's and that's 690G. This should not have been a large task to figure out as ATI had to do the same thing with X200 and then X1100...meaning, the differences in the two platforms were already known, it's not something they should have needed to re-invent. Mass hardware re-spins and driver re-gens should not have been needed here - it just does not make sense.
As far as HDCP, either that's a total blunder by the 690G project team (I would really think doubtful considering those folks are most likely creme of the crop PM's to head a project like 690G and wouldn't allow something like that to be overlooked), or some kind of politics is being played. AMD is a multibillion dollar company...if they needed to get HDCP approved for 690G, I'm sure it would not take 6 months.
2.) That's because we've all been waiting for 690G...
3.) When's Barcelona coming out? This will be good to know, because then we just need to either add 7 months or find out when nVidia's accompying chipset for it will come out, and we'll have the 790G date.
4.) Well, if AMD wants to capture/re-capture the OEM/Whitebox market, they better go about it in a different way. Those folks need to know when a platform is going to come out so they can get everything prepped...continually slipping and ending up 6-7 months out because nVidia doesn't have a competing solution like MCP68 out yet doesn't instill confidence...giving BS excuses like We're having problems with HDCP is even worse...
As far as Tweaktown's review, please tell me you are seeing a greater performance delta between nForce 61x0 and 690G. I surely hope so for AMD's sake...
Chuck
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