AMD’s AM5 platform is ready to erupt onto the desktop within the fall, and never solely can we anticipate X670 and B650 motherboards to reach with the corporate’s Zen 4 processors at the moment, but in addition a model new X670E (the ‘E’ stands for ‘Excessive’) chipset. This chipset will discover its means into the largest and baddest motherboards from AMD; delivering most overclockability, large VRMs, and PCIe 5.0 throughout.
To grasp what X670E can ship we now have to first have a look at the AM5 socket. That is a completely new design for AMD and one that can see the corporate ditch its pin-grid array (PGA) chips in favour of land-grid array (LGA) ones. The swap will see AMD extra like Intel’s present lineup with the contact pins situated on the motherboard—1,718 of them in AM5’s case.
AMD’s David McAfee says the change to LGA additionally helps “to drive extra energy and higher sign integrity for all of these high-speed IOs.”
That additionally means you will must be extraordinarily cautious to not jam your thumbs into your X670E, X670, or B650 motherboard in just a few months’ time.
A number of different key factors about AM5: AMD’s designed the socket to ship as much as 170W natively, which ought to see a good quantity of headroom for overclocking with none additional juice, although it is doubtless some motherboard producers will over-spec at the very least a handful of high-end fashions.
“The socket AM5 ecosystem additionally options an all-new SVI3 energy infrastructure. This brings a number of benefits to the platform, equivalent to assist for added energy phases, for that greater energy supply into the motherboard, finegrain energy management, and considerably quicker voltage response capabilities,” McAfee says.
PCIe 5.0 has additionally made the minimize, although the precise quantity of PCIe slotshttps://www.pcgamer.com/M.2 slots will differ between motherboard and chipset for Ryzen 7000-series chips. Typically, B650 and X670 will provide at the very least one PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, whereas the latter will doubtless provide a single x16 PCIe 5.0 slot for graphics. That is optionally available and never a requirement, nonetheless.
![AMD Zen 4 design and specs]()
(Picture credit score: AMD)
X670E motherboards are assured to supply each PCIe 5.0 graphics and SSD slots, although once more the precise configuration can be as much as the mobo producer. They’ve as much as 24 lanes of PCIe 5.0 to play with, relying on the CPU within the socket, so how they divvy these out will rely upon the make and mannequin of the motherboard.
DDR5 reminiscence will make its means onto AMD’s platform with AM5, which is able to see the crimson crew match Intel for reminiscence feed and speeds.
And maybe the very best little bit of all of it is that CPU coolers constructed to work with the favored AM4 socket at this time may even be appropriate with AM5. That ought to prevent a bit of money in the event you’re hoping to improve to a Zen 4 chip down the road, however it’s additionally nice.
So that is the AM5 platform, and X670E motherboards will basically provide the very best of what is on provide in a single motherboard.
![Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme motherboard]()
(Picture credit score: Asus)
Essentially the most info we now have on what an X670E motherboard will really appear to be comes from Asus with its ROG Crosshair X670E Excessive. Sure, it is doubly excessive.
What makes the Crosshair so gnarly? 20+2 VRM rated to 110A, for one. That is loads of energy for some critical overclocking and AMD has mentioned its dual-channel DDR5 will include essentially the most excessive overclocking headroom. We do not but understand how a lot overclocking functionality there can be in AMD’s Ryzen 7000-series, although.
Connectivity should not be a problem, anyhow. The Crosshair presents two M.2 slots, upgradeable to 5 M.2 with two M.2 enlargement playing cards, of which 4 will run at a full PCIe 5.0 x4 bandwidth. There are additionally two PCIe 5.0 slots, though it is a bit slim on total slots. One thing to remember in the event you plan to plug extra add-in playing cards into your Zen 4 machine.
There’s loads extra a PC gamer might love right here, anyhow: Wi-Fi 6E, 10Gb LAN, ESS ES9218PQ Quad DAC, an AniMe Matrix show, and heaps of USB ports (together with USB4).
![AMD AM5 motherboard lineup for launch.]()
(Picture credit score: AMD)
As for the Crosshair’s competitors, there’s additionally the double excessive Gigabyte X670E Aorus Xtreme, although the corporate hasn’t outlined that board in as a lot element but. Different X670E motherboards embody the ASRock X670E Taichi, Biostar X670E Valkyrie, and MSI MEG X670E Ace, with absolutely extra to comply with.
With these motherboards, AMD is as soon as once more cementing its place within the high-end, ultra-enthusiast gaming market. The crimson crew is eager to not slink again to its finances processor roots anytime quickly. Although it is value saying that the motherboard that almost all players will wanthttps://www.pcgamer.com/really want might be nowhere close to as excessive because the Crosshair above: it is assured to price a fairly penny, and a smart B650 or X670 is bound to be a greater purchase on the day.
![Jacob Ridley]()
Jacob earned his first byline writing for his personal tech weblog from his hometown in Wales in 2017. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking issues as {hardware} author at PCGamesN, the place he would later win command of the package cabinet as {hardware} editor. These days, as senior {hardware} editor at PC Gamer, he spends his days reporting on the most recent developments within the know-how and gaming business. When he is not writing about GPUs and CPUs, nonetheless, you will discover him attempting to get as far-off from the trendy world as potential by wild tenting.
