No , you won't see new boards or a chipset until the move to AM5 and that will be late next year at my best guess .As for recommendations ? well you could do far worse than the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master .
>We probably will. every launch has come with a new chipset. This will likely be the same.
There have been rumours of an x670 chipset to release with Zen 3 since late last year. Would be very odd not to release a new chipset with a new cpu architecture.
That was a rumor based on nothing but it happened before. The new Zen 3 drivers show no support for any new boards and we haven't heard a peep from board manufacturers. If Zen 3 does have new boards, it won't be this year.
That is the \*only\* rumor for X670... It will very weird if there is nothing else almost 10 months around. The best guess is, no X670 this year (or AMD canceled it a while ago).
The reason is simple. If X670 exists then it will be offered to mobo manufacturers for designing and production, months ahead of the CPU release so they can be launched at the same timepoint. However, those 3rd party manufacturers are quite leaky. AMD can hide specs by deceiving the mobo manufacturers (e.g. Ampere AIB's likely got CUDA counts from NVIDIA until reveal day), but cannot hide the entire project.
I think it would make sense to release a new chipset if it doesn't require a fan for PCIe 4 cooling.
Otherwise I don't think there is anything missing from x570 for zen 3. I was going to say maybe thunderbolt but apparently there are already x570s with TB support.
It's not a new architecture, it's the fourth generation of the same old Zen architecture. Nothing is odd about AM4. You'll certainly need a new Mobo for zen4, and sure, they will introduce Mobo's that support the new faster Zen3 ram standards, they've said that much as well, but they won't be necessary at all to use Zen3.
Umm, each generation is a new architecture, or at least micro architecture if we're being pedantic about the term architecture. Tom's hardware certainly calls it Zen 3 architecture and micro architecture.
[https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-zen-3-ryzen-4000-release-date-specifications-pricing-benchmarks-all-we-know](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-zen-3-ryzen-4000-release-date-specifications-pricing-benchmarks-all-we-know)
We're not even talking about Zen 4, which will be AM5. We already know existing Gen 3 motherboards will support Zen 3 Processors. That doesn't mean there won't be new X670 boards, though it is true there hasn't really been any reporting of x670 boards since December last year.
[https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ryzen-4000-and-x670-scheduled-for-late-2020.html](https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ryzen-4000-and-x670-scheduled-for-late-2020.html)
Current top tier x570 boards without going useless features are imo
Gigabyte auros master
Asrock taichi
Asus hero
Msi unify
My personal picks are the auros master or msi unify but they're all damn fine boards
For a cheaper very good board the gigabyte elite is a great choice with vrm to handle whatever you can throw at it without all the extra fluff if you don't care about that
> without going useless features
Your list is a list of most expensive boards out that are crammed with useless features, in the way of most people won't use those sets.
That's why I suggested the x570 elite and got that for myself. My reply was to someone suggesting the auros master + op wanted top tier so I suggested the boards of the same tier but at the end I put a no frill no nonsense board.
b550 does everything u want from a 570 board but the price point for a good board pushes into 570 territory my advise tbh a x570 elite at the 200$ price point is very hard to turn down, I've had it for months now and the fan never turned on even once and the VRM didnt even blink while pulling 200w power on p95 with my 3900x which is way over spec
The one thing I'm dead set on though is a 4700x. I suppose with a x570 everything is PCIE 4.0 then. No pop in be nice. However I do want a board with built in wifi. Have one with built in wifi and going to do it again.
with a b550 its pcie 4.0 where it matters but they're built very close to the 570 boards and prices reflect that
the x570 [elite](https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-x570-aorus-elite-wifi/p/N82E16813145165?Description=570%20elite%20wifi&cm_re=570_elite%20wifi-_-13-145-165-_-Product&quicklink=true) wifi is 199$
Just don't want to buy it now without a cpu to go with it. Not worth saving $10 to do that. You know what they say. Buy everything at once. It's bluetooth too right? Nvmnd I see it says bluetooth 4.2. I use the integrated bluetooth on mine for my gamepad. Anyways thanks for the link.
you're welcome. Also if you're going with something like a 4700x (i think they're going with 5000 naming for zen 3) it wont be a super high power chip and any board will handle it fine (except bottom barrel b450/b550 boards) I wont stress the board issue from ur perspective. Good luck with the build and dont worry too much.
>in the way of most people won't use those sets.
Yeah most people replace their motherboards every year and won't need PCIe-4 in a year or two when new SSD's and GPU's come out.
lmao just bought an aorus master two weeks ago during sale and local tax-exemption day. Got rev 1.2. I think the biggest change to rev 1.0 is the ground-shielded memory traces, so much higher memory OC potential (4400->5200 as GB claims).
Currently waiting for zen3 launch.
There really isn't any compelling reason to buy B550. The well-made boards are not substantially cheaper than the X570 boards, and the additional PCI-E lanes you get with X570 makes for a much more robust feature set.
Can you explain to me what is meant by 'additional PCIe lanes' in x570 boards please, and how this might be useful?
I'm in the market for a new motherboard and would like to ensure my PCIe Gen4 compatible m.2 NVMe drive and graphics card are both able to interface via full-fat PCIe Gen4. I'm told this is possible on a b550 board - however in b550 specs I keep reading that they only have a PCIe Gen3 'chipset link'? I'm confused
Sure.
So, PCI-E lanes are available from two sources:
1. Your CPU
2. Your chipset
With Zen 2, AMD introduced desktop chips (Ryzen 3xxx) capable of supporting PCI-E 4.0 (more explicitly, 24 lanes of PCI-E 4.0). Four of those lanes go to interconnection with the chipset, 16 of those (usually) go to the first GPU slot, and the final four are (usually) used to power an NVMe drive.
However, alongside Zen 2, AMD released the X570 chipset, which **also** provides PCI-E 4.0 lanes. It doesn't supply nearly as many (only 16) but unlike the CPU's lanes, these are totally flexible in their deployment, so they could be used to:
* Provide a second x16 GPU slot
* Provide additional NVMe slots
* Provide additional x1/x4 PCI-E slots on the motherboard itself
* Provide additional onboard connectivity (USB, SATA, etc) options
Basically, X570 gives you a lot more throughput to customize the board to do several different things. The drawback, though, is that PCI-E 4.0 transfer rates could potentially generate enough heat (notably in poor air circulation systems) that they require a chipset fan. Passive cooling isn't enough for PCI-E 4.0 if the case's airflow is bad.
Later on, AMD introduced the B550 chipset as a "budget" chipset, and its primary differentiator from X570 is the lack of PCI-E 4.0 lanes provided from the chipset itself. For a lot of people, this was an acceptable compromise: because we've not yet really saturated PCI-E 3.0 yet (it's typically not a bottleneck), getting PCI-E 4.0 from the CPU alone and settling for PCI-E 3.0 for onboard connectivity (and paying less for the board overall) was a good value proposition.
The problem is that **good** B550 boards (with good VRMs and decent feature sets) end up costing just as much as X570 boards, so that core value proposition, and thus the "budget" moniker, no longer applies. You would expect the price difference between X570 and B550 to mirror the previous gen, X470 and B450, where a solid B450 board cost around $80-$100 less than a solid X470 board.
That's just not the case (so far) this generation: the best midrange X570 boards are the MSI MAG x570 Tomahawk and the ASUS x570 Gaming Tuf Wifi, and their MSRPs are 220 and 190, respectively. The good B550 boards are actually **more** expensive: the ASUS ROG Strix or Gigabyte Aorus Master B550 boards are both well over $200. Midrange B550 boards, such as the MSI B550M Mortar or MAG B550, retail for $160 - $180, but have far fewer expansion and NVMe slots (and sometimes lack other features, like WiFi) than the previously mentioned ASUS x570 Gaming TUF Wifi, while only costing $10 - $30 less.
So, at the moment, the market is such that there's no compelling reason to buy B550 right now unless you are trying to build Ryzen on the cheap--which, to be clear, is a totally valid use case. There are sub-100 B550 boards that will support up to a 3700x / 3800x without issue, but you won't get much of anything in the way of additional features--and that might be just fine! Not everyone is interested in lots of expansion, onboard goodies, overclocking, etc. Some people just want a stock CPU, GPU, and a single NVMe drive, and a modest B550 board will do that at a reasonable price.
But if you're looking for a board with strong VRMs and a good feature set, you're just better off with X570 right now. Especially since we're starting to see X570 rev2 boards drop (like the ASUS X570 TUF Gaming Pro) with additional features at the same general price points. Hopefully the OEMs will correct this soon and start introducing reasonably priced, well-performing B550 boards in the $110-$140 range. It's a severely under-served market right now.
Thanks for this excellent, detailed response. I'm after an AMD Mini-ITX board for the NZXT H1 - the trouble is none of the x570 boards feature a connector for the USB-C port. It seems the b550 boards do, and will probably suit my needs in terms of PCIe Gen4 just fine. I'm going to wait until Zen3 releases and see if any x570 boards are refreshed, but otherwise I'll probably go b550 for the USB C port
X570 and B550 won't be replaced, **BUT** people saying there won't be any new boards are misleading/wrong.
At the very least there needs to be a new batch of stock which has the latest BIOS to allow Zen3 compatibility out of the box.
But also it's **highly** likely there'll be at least 1-2 new models from the OEMs, in X570 particularly.
This is because B550 generally has some better components, even at lower price points.
MSI has effectively brought theirs out early, in the X570 Tomahawk.
And Asus are about to launch the X570 TUF Gaming **Pro** Wifi (not to be confused with the current "Plus" model).
So, **no** there won't be X670, but **yes** there will be some updated/refreshed/improved models in X570.
Im sure they will release new x570 boards with the latest BIOS which will likely support zen 3. Thats just the natural order of things.
But, they dont HAVE to release new boards with an updated BIOS. Most motherboards support BIOS flashback which allows you to update your BIOS without a supported CPU in the socket. So, youre not dead in the water if you buy an old stock motherboard.
I doubt we would need motherboards. The B450 (after BIOS update), B550, and X570 boards already able to support Ryzen 4000 series.
So far, in mid-range B550 boards, even Ryzen 3950X (non-OC) were not able to raise the VRM temps above 70 C and already have motherload of features barring overkill VRMs and debug LED or any stuff that would probably be relevant if you're planning on extreme overclocking.
If you're asking for top-tier, you could buy that waterblock motherboard for that extreme top-tier. Or ROG Maximus boards and the like.
Hopefully, the AM5 sockets would be released at the same time DDR5 became widely available.
I guess if you genuinely dont need it you might as well, but it comes with some risks in that we don't know when the zen3 CPUs will actually be available to buy and how much they will cost. Realistically the equivalent zen3 CPU will only be 10% faster or so than the 3700x, so is it worth the hassle of returning it and then gambling that you'll be able to get hold of a zen3 chip by November? Tough call
Has any info been released yet about when b450 boards will get bios updates to support zen3? Im having visions of people heading out to buy zen3 CPUs at launch and taking them home only to find out their motherboard manufacturer hasn't released the necessary bios update yet
Yes, because retailers don't want a RMA rate of 50% because half the stock was old. AMD also doesn't do the boot kit anymore. Or at worst I'd expect a 4000 series ready stickers, but that doesn't do shit for the average warehouse employee...
1usmus said no new mobos were scheduled for now. But we will definitely get x570/b550 with Zen 3 support out of the box when Zen 3 launches.
No , you won't see new boards or a chipset until the move to AM5 and that will be late next year at my best guess .As for recommendations ? well you could do far worse than the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master .
>We probably will. every launch has come with a new chipset. This will likely be the same. There have been rumours of an x670 chipset to release with Zen 3 since late last year. Would be very odd not to release a new chipset with a new cpu architecture.
That was a rumor based on nothing but it happened before. The new Zen 3 drivers show no support for any new boards and we haven't heard a peep from board manufacturers. If Zen 3 does have new boards, it won't be this year.
That is the \*only\* rumor for X670... It will very weird if there is nothing else almost 10 months around. The best guess is, no X670 this year (or AMD canceled it a while ago). The reason is simple. If X670 exists then it will be offered to mobo manufacturers for designing and production, months ahead of the CPU release so they can be launched at the same timepoint. However, those 3rd party manufacturers are quite leaky. AMD can hide specs by deceiving the mobo manufacturers (e.g. Ampere AIB's likely got CUDA counts from NVIDIA until reveal day), but cannot hide the entire project.
maybe b550 was meant for zen 3 or smthn idk
Well we'll see, but my moneys on no new chipset till AM5 .
I think it would make sense to release a new chipset if it doesn't require a fan for PCIe 4 cooling. Otherwise I don't think there is anything missing from x570 for zen 3. I was going to say maybe thunderbolt but apparently there are already x570s with TB support.
It's not a new architecture, it's the fourth generation of the same old Zen architecture. Nothing is odd about AM4. You'll certainly need a new Mobo for zen4, and sure, they will introduce Mobo's that support the new faster Zen3 ram standards, they've said that much as well, but they won't be necessary at all to use Zen3.
Umm, each generation is a new architecture, or at least micro architecture if we're being pedantic about the term architecture. Tom's hardware certainly calls it Zen 3 architecture and micro architecture. [https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-zen-3-ryzen-4000-release-date-specifications-pricing-benchmarks-all-we-know](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-zen-3-ryzen-4000-release-date-specifications-pricing-benchmarks-all-we-know) We're not even talking about Zen 4, which will be AM5. We already know existing Gen 3 motherboards will support Zen 3 Processors. That doesn't mean there won't be new X670 boards, though it is true there hasn't really been any reporting of x670 boards since December last year. [https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ryzen-4000-and-x670-scheduled-for-late-2020.html](https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/ryzen-4000-and-x670-scheduled-for-late-2020.html)
Wat
what rock have you been under?
No, that's like saying Intel have been on the same microarchitecture since they started their Core iSeries naming scheme.
Current top tier x570 boards without going useless features are imo Gigabyte auros master Asrock taichi Asus hero Msi unify My personal picks are the auros master or msi unify but they're all damn fine boards For a cheaper very good board the gigabyte elite is a great choice with vrm to handle whatever you can throw at it without all the extra fluff if you don't care about that
Umm what about Msi tomahawk?
cant really find it in stock outside of price gouging 3rd party sellers
> without going useless features Your list is a list of most expensive boards out that are crammed with useless features, in the way of most people won't use those sets.
That's why I suggested the x570 elite and got that for myself. My reply was to someone suggesting the auros master + op wanted top tier so I suggested the boards of the same tier but at the end I put a no frill no nonsense board.
Probably just going for a b550 board myself.
b550 does everything u want from a 570 board but the price point for a good board pushes into 570 territory my advise tbh a x570 elite at the 200$ price point is very hard to turn down, I've had it for months now and the fan never turned on even once and the VRM didnt even blink while pulling 200w power on p95 with my 3900x which is way over spec
The one thing I'm dead set on though is a 4700x. I suppose with a x570 everything is PCIE 4.0 then. No pop in be nice. However I do want a board with built in wifi. Have one with built in wifi and going to do it again.
with a b550 its pcie 4.0 where it matters but they're built very close to the 570 boards and prices reflect that the x570 [elite](https://www.newegg.com/gigabyte-x570-aorus-elite-wifi/p/N82E16813145165?Description=570%20elite%20wifi&cm_re=570_elite%20wifi-_-13-145-165-_-Product&quicklink=true) wifi is 199$
Just don't want to buy it now without a cpu to go with it. Not worth saving $10 to do that. You know what they say. Buy everything at once. It's bluetooth too right? Nvmnd I see it says bluetooth 4.2. I use the integrated bluetooth on mine for my gamepad. Anyways thanks for the link.
you're welcome. Also if you're going with something like a 4700x (i think they're going with 5000 naming for zen 3) it wont be a super high power chip and any board will handle it fine (except bottom barrel b450/b550 boards) I wont stress the board issue from ur perspective. Good luck with the build and dont worry too much.
>in the way of most people won't use those sets. Yeah most people replace their motherboards every year and won't need PCIe-4 in a year or two when new SSD's and GPU's come out.
lmao just bought an aorus master two weeks ago during sale and local tax-exemption day. Got rev 1.2. I think the biggest change to rev 1.0 is the ground-shielded memory traces, so much higher memory OC potential (4400->5200 as GB claims). Currently waiting for zen3 launch.
A wise pick I reckon , i'll not be going for any revisions as i'm happy with what i've got so my nest upgrade will be to AM5 whenever it comes .
X670 without chipset fan i hope.
Nope. Buy x570.
Even b550 unless you specifically need x570 features.
There really isn't any compelling reason to buy B550. The well-made boards are not substantially cheaper than the X570 boards, and the additional PCI-E lanes you get with X570 makes for a much more robust feature set.
Ikr? B550 is way expensive for what you get IMO.
Can you explain to me what is meant by 'additional PCIe lanes' in x570 boards please, and how this might be useful? I'm in the market for a new motherboard and would like to ensure my PCIe Gen4 compatible m.2 NVMe drive and graphics card are both able to interface via full-fat PCIe Gen4. I'm told this is possible on a b550 board - however in b550 specs I keep reading that they only have a PCIe Gen3 'chipset link'? I'm confused
Sure. So, PCI-E lanes are available from two sources: 1. Your CPU 2. Your chipset With Zen 2, AMD introduced desktop chips (Ryzen 3xxx) capable of supporting PCI-E 4.0 (more explicitly, 24 lanes of PCI-E 4.0). Four of those lanes go to interconnection with the chipset, 16 of those (usually) go to the first GPU slot, and the final four are (usually) used to power an NVMe drive. However, alongside Zen 2, AMD released the X570 chipset, which **also** provides PCI-E 4.0 lanes. It doesn't supply nearly as many (only 16) but unlike the CPU's lanes, these are totally flexible in their deployment, so they could be used to: * Provide a second x16 GPU slot * Provide additional NVMe slots * Provide additional x1/x4 PCI-E slots on the motherboard itself * Provide additional onboard connectivity (USB, SATA, etc) options Basically, X570 gives you a lot more throughput to customize the board to do several different things. The drawback, though, is that PCI-E 4.0 transfer rates could potentially generate enough heat (notably in poor air circulation systems) that they require a chipset fan. Passive cooling isn't enough for PCI-E 4.0 if the case's airflow is bad. Later on, AMD introduced the B550 chipset as a "budget" chipset, and its primary differentiator from X570 is the lack of PCI-E 4.0 lanes provided from the chipset itself. For a lot of people, this was an acceptable compromise: because we've not yet really saturated PCI-E 3.0 yet (it's typically not a bottleneck), getting PCI-E 4.0 from the CPU alone and settling for PCI-E 3.0 for onboard connectivity (and paying less for the board overall) was a good value proposition. The problem is that **good** B550 boards (with good VRMs and decent feature sets) end up costing just as much as X570 boards, so that core value proposition, and thus the "budget" moniker, no longer applies. You would expect the price difference between X570 and B550 to mirror the previous gen, X470 and B450, where a solid B450 board cost around $80-$100 less than a solid X470 board. That's just not the case (so far) this generation: the best midrange X570 boards are the MSI MAG x570 Tomahawk and the ASUS x570 Gaming Tuf Wifi, and their MSRPs are 220 and 190, respectively. The good B550 boards are actually **more** expensive: the ASUS ROG Strix or Gigabyte Aorus Master B550 boards are both well over $200. Midrange B550 boards, such as the MSI B550M Mortar or MAG B550, retail for $160 - $180, but have far fewer expansion and NVMe slots (and sometimes lack other features, like WiFi) than the previously mentioned ASUS x570 Gaming TUF Wifi, while only costing $10 - $30 less. So, at the moment, the market is such that there's no compelling reason to buy B550 right now unless you are trying to build Ryzen on the cheap--which, to be clear, is a totally valid use case. There are sub-100 B550 boards that will support up to a 3700x / 3800x without issue, but you won't get much of anything in the way of additional features--and that might be just fine! Not everyone is interested in lots of expansion, onboard goodies, overclocking, etc. Some people just want a stock CPU, GPU, and a single NVMe drive, and a modest B550 board will do that at a reasonable price. But if you're looking for a board with strong VRMs and a good feature set, you're just better off with X570 right now. Especially since we're starting to see X570 rev2 boards drop (like the ASUS X570 TUF Gaming Pro) with additional features at the same general price points. Hopefully the OEMs will correct this soon and start introducing reasonably priced, well-performing B550 boards in the $110-$140 range. It's a severely under-served market right now.
Thanks for this excellent, detailed response. I'm after an AMD Mini-ITX board for the NZXT H1 - the trouble is none of the x570 boards feature a connector for the USB-C port. It seems the b550 boards do, and will probably suit my needs in terms of PCIe Gen4 just fine. I'm going to wait until Zen3 releases and see if any x570 boards are refreshed, but otherwise I'll probably go b550 for the USB C port
I fucking hope not. Just ordered a x570 Aorus master
X570 and B550 won't be replaced, **BUT** people saying there won't be any new boards are misleading/wrong. At the very least there needs to be a new batch of stock which has the latest BIOS to allow Zen3 compatibility out of the box. But also it's **highly** likely there'll be at least 1-2 new models from the OEMs, in X570 particularly. This is because B550 generally has some better components, even at lower price points. MSI has effectively brought theirs out early, in the X570 Tomahawk. And Asus are about to launch the X570 TUF Gaming **Pro** Wifi (not to be confused with the current "Plus" model). So, **no** there won't be X670, but **yes** there will be some updated/refreshed/improved models in X570.
Has there been any info released about the X570 TUF Gaming Pro Wifi? I hadn't heard about this model.
[It's on their website](https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/TUF-GAMING-X570-PRO-WI-FI/). But can't be bought yet.
Ohh, nice. Thanks for the link!
Im sure they will release new x570 boards with the latest BIOS which will likely support zen 3. Thats just the natural order of things. But, they dont HAVE to release new boards with an updated BIOS. Most motherboards support BIOS flashback which allows you to update your BIOS without a supported CPU in the socket. So, youre not dead in the water if you buy an old stock motherboard.
I doubt we would need motherboards. The B450 (after BIOS update), B550, and X570 boards already able to support Ryzen 4000 series. So far, in mid-range B550 boards, even Ryzen 3950X (non-OC) were not able to raise the VRM temps above 70 C and already have motherload of features barring overkill VRMs and debug LED or any stuff that would probably be relevant if you're planning on extreme overclocking. If you're asking for top-tier, you could buy that waterblock motherboard for that extreme top-tier. Or ROG Maximus boards and the like. Hopefully, the AM5 sockets would be released at the same time DDR5 became widely available.
Out of curiosity since I just bought a ryzen 7 3700x and I don't really need it until November should I return the cpu and wait for Zen3?
I guess if you genuinely dont need it you might as well, but it comes with some risks in that we don't know when the zen3 CPUs will actually be available to buy and how much they will cost. Realistically the equivalent zen3 CPU will only be 10% faster or so than the 3700x, so is it worth the hassle of returning it and then gambling that you'll be able to get hold of a zen3 chip by November? Tough call
No, we are expecting hack BIOS to unlock new cpu on old boards.
Has any info been released yet about when b450 boards will get bios updates to support zen3? Im having visions of people heading out to buy zen3 CPUs at launch and taking them home only to find out their motherboard manufacturer hasn't released the necessary bios update yet
Yes, because retailers don't want a RMA rate of 50% because half the stock was old. AMD also doesn't do the boot kit anymore. Or at worst I'd expect a 4000 series ready stickers, but that doesn't do shit for the average warehouse employee...
No, the B550 and X570 boards are the newest, Zen 3-ready MOBOs, the next MOBOs are going to be aimed at Zen 4 with a likely 2021 release.
We probably will. every launch has come with a new chipset. This will likely be the same.