AMD Announces X300 and X370 AM4 Motherboards For Ryzen, All CPUs Unlocked (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: AMD has a lot riding on Ryzen, its new generation CPU architecture that is supposed to return the chip designer to a competitive position versus Intel in the high-end desktop X86 processor market. Late last week, at CES 2017, AMD has lined up over a dozen high-performance AM4 motherboards from five hardware partners, including ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte, and MSI. All AM4 motherboards are built around one of two desktop chipsets for Ryzen, the AMD X370 or X300. Motherboards based on the X370 chipset are intended for power users and gamers. These boards bring more robust overclocking controls and support for dual graphics cards, along with more I/O connectivity and dual-channel DDR4 memory support. The X300 is AMD's chipset for mini-ITX motherboards for small form factor (SFF) system platforms. The X300 also supports dual-channel DDR4 memory, PCIe 3.0, M.2 SATA devices, NVMe, and USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 1. Finally, AMD representatives on hand at CES also reported that all Ryzen processors will be multiplier unlocked, hopefully for some rather flexible overclocking options. There will also be several processors in the family, with varying core counts depending on SKU, at launch.

Comments

There are other chipsets for AM4 boards

[Lorphos]

The post states:

"All AM4 motherboards are built around one of two desktop chipsets for Ryzen, the AMD X370 or X300."

That's wrong. If you look at the article the most common chipset will probably be the B350. The X370 is for "enthusiasts" who want to use multiple graphics cards.

Re:There are other chipsets for AM4 boards

[cloud.pt]

But the same original article stated it verbatim: "All 16 AM4 motherboards that are on tap are built around two desktop chipsts for Ryzen, X370 and X300." so OP has an excuse for being mislead (he did omit the "on tap" part though).

My interpretation is that what they meant by "on tap" is what was being displayed at CES. OP failed to quote an important part, but at the same time, what they display at CES is likely what's coming to market first (it's what they prototyped easier), so if the market starts with those 2 chipsets, you will likely see them first on retail.

I also believe that, unlike Intel's chips and chipsets, you will see more of the enthusiast stuff from AMD's CPU in the wild simply because the target market is gonna be the cost-saving enthusiast, so you will either have the "cheap-o gaming rig" type enthusiasts going for the x350 or the the "small gaming rig " type enthusiasts for the x300. You will rarely see the IT admin type going for the stable, "unoverclockable" B350 - those guys will still favor Intel for some years, they favor stability that goes beyond the first batch of reviews. I'm guessing the B350 is more for pre-built, run-off-the-mill, low-cost machines from OEMs like Dell, HP, Asus and whatnot. These sell a lot but they also make pay less to individual parts makers (margins go mostly to the assembler OEM). A good example is AMD having the golden share of the latest gen console CPU/GPU (both xbox one and ps4 sport AMD chips all around), yet Intel AND Nvidia both are miles ahead of profit from single part sales (notebook hegemony also helps).

Re:Just unlocked CPU multipliers...

[NotAPK]

I applaud your criticism of management co-processors (Intel vPro, Intel ME, Intel AMT, AMD PSP) as while they may have a place in the enterprise world (assuming those IT techs can secure them properly) they are an anathema to home users. I don't support the idea that we all have to be lumped with these back-doors to our systems and believe we should all be able to either choose CPUs that lack them, or disable them entirely (motherboard jumper anyone?) as we wish. Of course I'm voting with my wallet, but the options are shrinking year by year...

Can you expand on why you think Intel is the lesser of two evils here?

For those unsure of what this is about, there is a discussion here and some really good info here. But look out for Leah Rowe at that last link: that bitch be crazy!! [Citation]

Re:Hooray! New stuff for people like me

[ckatko]

My favorite part is how Intel CPU prices "magically" drop in price whenever AMD releases a new CPU.