How to download motherboard chipset drivers

AMD/ATI

AMD bought ATI in 2006. Before that both AMD and ATI made chipsets. After they became one company the naming got confusing. Now you can find the same chipset referred to by two names: the more common ATI name, and a completely different AMD name. Sadly, AMD's support site is a mess of confusing searches, broken links, redirects which snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and varying strategies for updating your drivers. There are four sections below which explain the chipset driver update procedure for the various cases. Take a look at how short the explanations are for all other brands of chipsets. AMD's is a mess. If you have a newer chipset then it's usually not that difficult to update your chipset drivers. If you have an older chipset then you may need a bit of patience to get it done.

For all but very old chipsets, AMD produces unified chipset drivers which support many chips in the same package. The package is called the "Southbridge/IXP Driver" or just "Southbridge Driver". AMD sometimes uses the term IXP to refer to southbridges. This is the driver you need to find in most cases. You may be asking, "Fine, but what about the northbridge?". Some of the AMD southbridge drivers also include a northbridge driver which you can see in the unpacked directories after running the installer. I don't have an AMD chipset motherboard to prove that the northbridge driver is actually installed. But the northbridge driver is in some of the driver packages so I assume that's where they put it when one is needed. If you go looking for "chipset drivers" on a motherboard maker's website, they'll aim you at one of these AMD southbridge driver packages. So this is the "official" way of doing it on an AMD chipset motherboard.

Very old AMD chipsets: AMD 750 or 8000 series

If your chipset is AMD-751, AMD-761, or AMD-762 then you should try this page. Unfortunately, this sort of page has been disappearing or becoming inaccessable on AMD's site so I don't know how long that link will work. If it's gone then go here and under the "Chipsets" section click "All Chipsets". The "Drivers & Downloads" tab on the next page contains a list of all drivers. Yours are in there. If you have an AMD-8151 then start here and under the "Chipsets" section click "All Chipsets". Then go to the "Product" drop down list near the top of the page and select "AMD 8000 series" and click the "Submit" button. The "Drivers and Downloads" tab contains your drivers (and a few which don't work for your chipset).

The easiest way to update your chipset drivers is to install the "AMD Driver Pack" for your chipset. Version 1.30 is for the AMD 750 series and Version 2.3.0 is for the 8000 series. The driver packs contain the various drivers for your chipset including an AGP driver. The pack automatically figures out what operating system is running and installs the drivers for the chips in your system. If you need the AMD 750 AGP driver for Windows XP then you'll have to load the separate Windows 2000/XP AGP driver because the Driver Pack doesn't support XP. Keep in mind that these chipsets are very old and don't support the most recent operating systems very well. New operating systems (if they run at all) will have to make do with their built in drivers. These drivers haven't been updated for years anyway so new operating systems will already have the most recent drivers built in.

Motherboards made with both AMD 750 and AMD 8000 series chipsets often didn't use AMD's southbridge chips. The AMD driver packs only update the drivers for AMD southbridge chips. If your motherboard uses another brand of southbridge then you'll need to find the drivers for the southbridge and install them for a full update. Many AMD 750 motherboards used VIA southbridge chips. In that case you can get the Hyperion 4in1 driver from VIA as described in the VIA section below and install everything but the AGP driver. Download your driver(s), run them, and reboot when you're done.

Old AGP chipsets: IGP 320, IGP 330, IGP 340, 9000 IGP, 9100 IGP

These AGP chipsets have two drivers to update: the GART driver for your northbridge, and the southbridge driver. Depending on how you search, your drivers can be anywhere from very easy to find to totally impossible to find. These drivers are old so they don't change anymore. I'd give you a direct link to your driver but AMD's site redirects it to their "bandwidth leech" page which refuses to allow a download. Yup. AMD: service with a snarl.

Your best shot for finding the GART driver is to try this page. If that link still works then you'll see your GART driver. And the release notes link actually works rather than being broken as it is on many pages. If the link doesn't work then go to the main page and try the "Download Drivers" area in the upper right-hand corner. Under "Component Category" select "Motherboard/Chipset". Then under "Operating System" select "Windows 2000 Professional". Do that even if you're running another operating system. If you search for it under any other Operating system then you won't find it. Then under "Product Model" select "Radeon 9000 IGP" no matter which chipset you actually have. Then click "View Results". That GART driver is actually good for all the AGP chipsets above and works for Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, and XP. Download the GART driver and run it.

If you're running Windows 2000 or XP then the South Bridge Driver on that same page will probably include your southbridge. The release notes give a list of the supported chips. If your southbridge chip is in the list then download the South Bridge Driver, run it, and reboot. If your southbridge isn't listed or you need Windows ME or older (perhaps time to upgrade?) then you'll have to try to dig some old drivers off of the Internet. AMD's site doesn't seem to have them anymore.

Chipsets without integrated graphics like AMD 770/790

If you go searching for chipset drivers for the 770X, 790X, or 790FX on AMD's site then it will return a very short list which doesn't include any drivers. That's annoying. And after checking through plenty of Catalyst unified drivers I have yet to find one which lists the 770X, 790X, or 790FX as supported in the release notes. So the only "official" source of chipset drivers for these chipsets appears to be the manufacturer of your computer or motherboard. You can find your motherboard info in CPU-Z just above where it lists your chipset and southbridge.

"Unofficially", the 780G and 790GX both have integrated graphics but are from the same chipset family as the 770X, 790X, and 790FX. If you run a driver package for the 780G or 790GX then it will presumably have the appropriate drivers for your chipset. I don't have the hardware to test this but it appears to be the case. The 780G and 790GX are more commonly called the Radeon HD 3200 and Radeon HD 3300. You don't need to worry about whether to get HD 3200 or HD 3300 drivers because all the ones in this family share a common driver. Just look for drivers for Radeon HD 3300 series and follow the instructions from the next section. Of course, this would be much easier if AMD would just list chipset drivers for the 770X, 790X, and 790FX.

AMD/ATI chipsets with integrated graphics (almost all AMD/ATI chipsets are this case)

All you need to do is find the southbridge drivers for your chipset. The easiest way to find your driver will work for most but not all people. Start here and search using the "Download Drivers" section in the upper right of the page. Under "Component Category" select "Motherboard / Chipset". Then go to "Operating System" and select yours. Then under "Product Model" select your chipset. Unfortunately, the "Product Model" list only uses the most common name for the chipsets and it doesn't include all chipsets. But most of you will find your chipset in that list. If yours was listed then click "View Results".

If the easy way didn't work for you then you'll have to do the more general search. Start here and look at the "Chipsets" section. If you see your chipset listed there then click it. If not then click "All Chipsets" and then select your chipset from the list which appears under "Product". That "Product" list is the most comprehensive list of their chipsets under both AMD and ATI names. Click the "Submit" button and then your drivers will appear in the "Drivers & Downloads" tab below the "Submit" button. Now find the "Catalyst" driver for your operating system. It may be called the "Catalyst Display Driver", "Catalyst Component Downloads", or something similar. You're not actually going to install a display driver. That's just where they store your chipset driver. Get the latest driver for your operating system. It's the one with the most recent date. If you see a "Legacy" driver, that's an old version of the driver.

Click the driver you'd like to try. That will take you to a page which includes all kinds of drivers. You'll find the southbridge driver under "Individual Downloads" or "Additional Downloads". Download your driver, run it, and reboot.