Chipset Details

The AMD 790FX chipset supports a total of 42 PCI Express 2.0 lanes. 32 of these names are reserved for use by the graphics cards. When only a single graphics card or two are used, each card will receive 16 full lanes. When three or four graphics cards are used instead, each card will then receive 8 PCIe lanes. As these are PCI Express 2.0 lanes (with double the bandwidth), there's no need to worry about using only 8 lanes, instead of 16.

For enthusiasts (with deep pockets) and ATI fanboys, this will be defining feature of the new AMD 790FX chipset. This is currently the only shipping chipset in the world to support more than two graphics cards linked or otherwise with at least 8 PCI Express lanes.

The ability to stack up to four graphics cards for greater performance will be most welcomed by those who absolutely want the fastest gaming machine possible. According to AMD, four cards in CrossFireX mode will deliver just over 3X better performance than the single card.

Alternatively, you can use the four graphics cards to display out to 8 monitors. Yes, it is now possible to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on eight monitors should you be rich enough to afford the whole setup.