We just received news that the upcoming AMD chipset 890GX (NB) + SB850 (SB) will be scheduled for launch in APR 2010.
The AMD 890GX chipset is not something very different from the current AMD 790GX North bridge. In fact, both shares the HT3 integrated graphics and 2 PCIe Gen 2 x8 slots supporting CrossFire X. The major difference in the north bridge is it’s support of the graphics capability.
The 790GX supports DX10, UVD and clocks at 700MHz. The 890GX supports DX10.1, UVD2 and clocks at 700MHz.
With a new north bridge, it also comes with a new south bridge pair. THe new SB850 chipset is similar to the SB750. The major difference is that instead of supporting 12 USB 2.0 ports on SB750, the SB850 supports 14 USB 2.0 ports. The SB750 supports 6 SATAII (3Gbps) ports while the SB850 improved on the spec and will support 6 x SATAIII (6Gbps) ports. Both South bridges support the AMD overdrive. Thus if you have a hacked bios, chances that you can run your dual core or tri core as a quad core is still possible unless they lock it in bios.