AMD is debuting its Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" desktop processors powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture later this year. These chips are compatible with existing AMD 600-series chipset motherboards with a simple UEFI firmware update, but the company is also taking the opportunity to launch the AMD 800-series chipset family alongside these chips. The lineup will be led by the AMD X870E, followed by the X870. These two chipsets should launch immediately alongside the new processors, but will later be joined by the AMD B850 and B840. There's no entry-level chipset planned, the AMD A620 will continue to hold the fort for AMD here. There is an interesting new mix of product differentiation, according to a leaked GIGABYTE slide scored by VideoCardz.

If you recall, the X670E and X670 were differentiated by a lack of Gen 5 PCI-Express x16 PEG slots on the X670, which instead was limited to Gen 4 on the PEG slot. The X670 still had Gen 5 NVMe slots attached to the CPU, and had practically the same I/O features as the X670E, including the same counts of downstream PCIe Gen 4 general purpose lanes. Both the X670E and X670 are 2-chip solutions, in that the second chip is a connected to the general purpose PCIe lanes of the first chip, which in turn is connected to the processor. Things are going to change with the 800-series. The top-spec X870E will be a 2-chip solution, with PCIe Gen 4 general purpose lane counts resembling the X670E; but the X870 is a single-chip solution that more closely resembles the B650E in I/O. The X870 (non-E) now gives you Gen 5 PCI-Express x16 PEG, just like the X870E and the B650E, and at least one Gen 5 x4 NVMe slot attached to the CPU, but has fewer downstream Gen 4 general purpose PCIe lanes than the X670. Both the X870E and X870 assure USB4 connectivity, and support CPU overclocking. Things get very interesting in the mid-range.

AMD is readying the new 800-series motherboard chipset to launch alongside its next-generation Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" desktop processors that implement the "Zen 5" microarchitecture. The chipset family will be led by the AMD X870E, a successor to the current X670E. Since AMD isn't changing the CPU socket, and this is very much the same Socket AM5, the 800-series chipset will support not just "Granite Ridge" at launch, but also the Ryzen 7000 series "Raphael," and Ryzen 8000 series "Hawk Point." Moore's Law is Dead goes into the details of what sets the X870E apart from the current X670E, and it all has to do with USB4.

Apparently, motherboard manufacturers will be mandated to include 40 Gbps USB4 connectivity with AMD X870E, which essentially makes the chipset a 3-chip solution—two Promontory 21 bridge chips, and a discrete ASMedia ASM4242 USB4 host controller; although it's possible that AMD's QVL will allow other brands of USB4 controllers as they become available. The Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" are chiplet based processors just like the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael," and while the 4 nm "Zen 5" CCDs are new, the 6 nm client I/O die (cIOD) is largely carried over from "Raphael," with a few updates to its memory controller. DDR5-6400 will be the new AMD-recommended "sweetspot" speed; although AMD might get its motherboard vendors to support DDR5-8000 EXPO profiles with an FCLK of 2400 MHz, and a divider.