diff --git a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.c b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.c
index c77e944b6d9..928a310bd81 100644
--- a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.c
+++ b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.c
@@ -371,4 +371,6 @@ void r300_parse_chipset(struct r300_capabilities* caps)
             fprintf(stderr, "r300: Warning: Unknown chipset 0x%x\n",
                     caps->pci_id);
     }
+
+    caps->is_rv350 = caps->family >= CHIP_FAMILY_RV350;
 }
diff --git a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.h b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.h
index ff957b7c29c..ab649c38573 100644
--- a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.h
+++ b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_chipset.h
@@ -42,18 +42,28 @@ struct r300_capabilities {
     unsigned num_tex_units;
     /* Whether or not TCL is physically present */
     boolean has_tcl;
-    /* Whether or not this is R400. The differences compared to their R3xx
+    /* Whether or not this is RV350 or newer, including all r400 and r500
+     * chipsets. The differences compared to the oldest r300 chips are:
+     * - Blend LTE/GTE thresholds
+     * - Better MACRO_SWITCH in texture tiling
+     * - Half float vertex
+     * - More HyperZ optimizations */
+    boolean is_rv350;
+    /* Whether or not this is R400. The differences compared their rv350
      * cousins are:
      * - Extended fragment shader registers
-     * - Blend LTE/GTE thresholds */
+     * - 3DC texture compression (RGTC2) */
     boolean is_r400;
     /* Whether or not this is an RV515 or newer; R500s have many differences
-     * that require extra consideration, compared to their R3xx cousins:
+     * that require extra consideration, compared to their rv350 cousins:
      * - Extra bit of width and height on texture sizes
      * - Blend color is split across two registers
-     * - Blend LTE/GTE thresholds
      * - Universal Shader (US) block used for fragment shaders
-     * - FP16 blending and multisampling */
+     * - FP16 blending and multisampling
+     * - Full RGTC texture compression
+     * - 24-bit depth textures
+     * - Stencil back-face reference value
+     * - Ability to render up to 2^24 - 1 vertices with signed index offset */
     boolean is_r500;
     /* Whether or not the second pixel pipe is accessed with the high bit */
     boolean high_second_pipe;
diff --git a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_state_invariant.c b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_state_invariant.c
index ffb175febf1..64d1d18b454 100644
--- a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_state_invariant.c
+++ b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_state_invariant.c
@@ -41,10 +41,9 @@ struct pipe_viewport_state r300_viewport_identity = {
 void r300_emit_invariant_state(struct r300_context* r300,
                                unsigned size, void* state)
 {
-    struct r300_capabilities* caps = &r300_screen(r300->context.screen)->caps;
     CS_LOCALS(r300);
 
-    BEGIN_CS(12 + (caps->has_tcl ? 2: 0));
+    BEGIN_CS(12 + (r300->screen->caps.has_tcl ? 2 : 0));
 
     /*** Graphics Backend (GB) ***/
     /* Subpixel multisampling for AA
@@ -66,7 +65,7 @@ void r300_emit_invariant_state(struct r300_context* r300,
     /* Sign/normalize control */
     OUT_CS_REG(R300_VAP_PSC_SGN_NORM_CNTL, R300_SGN_NORM_NO_ZERO);
     /* TCL-only stuff */
-    if (caps->has_tcl) {
+    if (r300->screen->caps.has_tcl) {
         /* Amount of time to wait for vertex fetches in PVS */
         OUT_CS_REG(VAP_PVS_VTX_TIMEOUT_REG, 0xffff);
     }
@@ -74,10 +73,10 @@ void r300_emit_invariant_state(struct r300_context* r300,
     END_CS;
 
     /* XXX unsorted stuff from surface_fill */
-    BEGIN_CS(38 + (caps->has_tcl ? 7 : 0) +
-             (caps->family >= CHIP_FAMILY_RV350 ? 4 : 0));
+    BEGIN_CS(38 + (r300->screen->caps.has_tcl ? 7 : 0) +
+             (r300->screen->caps.is_rv350 ? 4 : 0));
 
-    if (caps->has_tcl) {
+    if (r300->screen->caps.has_tcl) {
         /*Flushing PVS is required before the VAP_GB registers can be changed*/
         OUT_CS_REG(R300_VAP_PVS_STATE_FLUSH_REG, 0);
         OUT_CS_REG_SEQ(R300_VAP_GB_VERT_CLIP_ADJ, 4);
@@ -107,7 +106,7 @@ void r300_emit_invariant_state(struct r300_context* r300,
     OUT_CS_REG(R300_SC_EDGERULE, 0x2DA49525);
     OUT_CS_REG(R300_RB3D_AARESOLVE_CTL, 0x00000000);
 
-    if (caps->family >= CHIP_FAMILY_RV350) {
+    if (r300->screen->caps.is_rv350) {
         OUT_CS_REG(R500_RB3D_DISCARD_SRC_PIXEL_LTE_THRESHOLD, 0x01010101);
         OUT_CS_REG(R500_RB3D_DISCARD_SRC_PIXEL_GTE_THRESHOLD, 0xFEFEFEFE);
     }
diff --git a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_texture.c b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_texture.c
index e795c8df0bb..8bebeacf860 100644
--- a/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_texture.c
+++ b/src/gallium/drivers/r300/r300_texture.c
@@ -787,7 +787,7 @@ static void r300_setup_miptree(struct r300_screen* screen,
 {
     struct pipe_resource* base = &tex->b.b;
     unsigned stride, size, layer_size, nblocksy, i;
-    boolean rv350_mode = screen->caps.family >= CHIP_FAMILY_RV350;
+    boolean rv350_mode = screen->caps.is_rv350;
 
     SCREEN_DBG(screen, DBG_TEX, "r300: Making miptree for texture, format %s\n",
                util_format_name(base->format));
@@ -834,7 +834,7 @@ static void r300_setup_tiling(struct pipe_screen *screen,
 {
     struct r300_winsys_screen *rws = (struct r300_winsys_screen *)screen->winsys;
     enum pipe_format format = tex->b.b.format;
-    boolean rv350_mode = r300_screen(screen)->caps.family >= CHIP_FAMILY_RV350;
+    boolean rv350_mode = r300_screen(screen)->caps.is_rv350;
     boolean is_zb = util_format_is_depth_or_stencil(format);
     boolean dbg_no_tiling = SCREEN_DBG_ON(r300_screen(screen), DBG_NO_TILING);