Tuesday, February 4th 2020
GIGABYTE Lists AMD B550 and Intel Z490 Motherboards
Thanks to the findings of VideoCardz, we have information that GIGABYTE has listed its upcoming motherboards for AMD and Intel platforms. Starting with AMD's upcoming mid-range chipset, the B550 model is supposed to bring PCIe 4.0 connectivity options to lower-priced motherboard variants. So far, only high-end chipset versions like X570 had PCIe 4.0 support, while the mid-range option was lacking. GIGABYTE has prepared a total of six B550 AORUS models, along with a GAMING series which is supposed to be a tier below AORUS models. The B550 chipset will span all motherboard sizes, including ATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX.
In the EEC listing, GIGABYTE also submitted Intel's upcoming Z490 motherboards for Comet Lake-S CPUs. In the listing, we see a total of 15 motherboards listed with an unusable entry. Again the W480 chipset appears, which is meant to power workstation motherboards. This chipset will go inside a new motherboard lineup called the "VISION" series. While we don't know what this new series brings, we know that both the workstation enabled W480 chipset and regular Z490 chipset will be a part of it.
Source:
VideoCardz
In the EEC listing, GIGABYTE also submitted Intel's upcoming Z490 motherboards for Comet Lake-S CPUs. In the listing, we see a total of 15 motherboards listed with an unusable entry. Again the W480 chipset appears, which is meant to power workstation motherboards. This chipset will go inside a new motherboard lineup called the "VISION" series. While we don't know what this new series brings, we know that both the workstation enabled W480 chipset and regular Z490 chipset will be a part of it.
56 Comments on GIGABYTE Lists AMD B550 and Intel Z490 Motherboards
I would say it's highly likely we'll see PCIe 4.0 from the CPU, but it's not guaranteed. I was under the impression it would be a non issue, but there you go.
The chipset, at max, pulls 15-18 watts of power, when being benchmarked by maxing out every single function of the chipset at 100% at the same time for an extended period of time, AKA not typical use case. That is well within the limits of a silent cooler. The heatsinks with fans are abysmal at their job, with tiny fin arrays and tiny surface areas. The fan is totally unecessary.
Think about OEMs as well.5600XT is a mid-range gaming card. It's the best choice to "promote" PCIe 4.0.
5700XT is the top gaming offering - it's often used (and reviewed!) on Intel platforms and on pre-Zen2 AMD ones, so eroding performance would make less sense.
Having PCIe4 between the CPU and chipset would allow several SSDs to work at top speed at the same time. Having PCIe4 from the CPU is much less useful today, I'm not worried about that.
Actually, I'm not worried at all, seeing that I can't buy a B550 board no matter what.
I remember those ~7000rpm ones from NForce 4 boards..
The only card this effects is the 5500 XT 4GB.......their bottom of the barrel budget card.
Anyway, I digress, a bit OT.The vast majority are fine, especially since BIOS updates from some allowing control/finer control.
While an extra fan is not the worst thing that can happen to a mobo, I can understand why some people would rather pass. In my case, I could live with the high cost of a decent X570 boards. And I could also live with an extra fan. But I decided I will not put up with both. So you see, ymmv.
And even more BS is your idea of AMD not having decided yet. If the Board's designs are finished and even the final product names are out in the open, such a major decision would have to be decided long ago. It is not something you can change on a whim via BIOS-Update like the clockrates of 5600XT. The Boards have to be designed to support PCIe4.0. AMD could only lock this feature via BIOS, which would be a big bummer and would make B550 totally useless compared to Intel and even AMDs own X470.
If you'd read my post, you would've seen that they haven't decided yet, due to the fact that they haven't seen the final boards and made sure they pass the stringent requirements for PCIe 4.0. This is why they decided against it on X470, as those board designs couldn't meet the spec. So if all the board makers have done a good job with their B550 boards, it'll most likely have PCIe 4.0 support. If not, then I guess we'll see.
Here we go, even found a picture.
Many people choose a cheap GPU for casual gaming (5500XT being a perfect example) and spend more on parts providing everyday performance (CPU) or features (mobo).Hmm...
@TheinsanegamerN posted a graph showing that 5600XT is also affected. Maybe he could provide the source.Control over chipset fan? That's enthusiasts' domain. And the chipset designed specifically for them is X570.
Sure, they may also want a B550 to save some money. But that's a mainstream chipset and it must primarily work in business PCs, in off-the-shelf desktops for laymen etc. (of course if AMD is interested in these markets).
You can't defend a mainstream product with an argument that it can be made better (usable) by changing settings in BIOS (or flashing BIOS, delidding, replacing thermal pads and so on :)).
5600XT is x16 wired. That bandwidth shouldn't make a difference unless it goes past 8GB... but the real issue is just how much running x8 on the 5500 XT with its 4GB was such a poor choice considering the difference (and missed opportunity for AMD to say buy X570 - get moar perf!).WTF BBQ? An enthusiast's domain? Flashing a BIOS? Have you seen just how many damn potatos post at this place saying they borked their GPU BIOS (which is more difficult than flashing a mobo bios in many cases)? If they were enthusiasts, they'd have half a clue. That aside, BIOS updates that help with the fan, most did so without user influence. Meaning, default the fan is now spinning a lot slower. Many also gave options to control it as well. Additionally, before the BIOS updates, these were not an issue on most boards in the first place. But the always vocal unadorned bitched about it..................
I just can't imagine that it works this way, AMD waiting for the OEMs to try to pass the requirements and then deciding on a feature, like: "Oh, nice try everyone, thank you for your efforts, but that's not enough, we can't risk that, so pless sell your near-Gen4-supporting-and-thus-costly-boards only with Gen3 and for a lower price.
That may have been the case with older AM4-boards were Gen4 wasn't planned and they weren't even sure if they could fit Zen2 onto the plattform (on TR4 they decided against it). But on a new Chipset, AMD has to plan beforehand what features it is going to have.
Only two explanations I can imagine. One, PCIe4.0 for the chipset was planned but proofed to costly to reliably work, so AMD decided against it later on an forbids OEMs to support it on B550, like with the older boards. But then B550 would bring to little benefit over X470 to justifiy such a long wait.
Two, PCIe4.0 was planned only for when Intel would bring it on S1200 and will be disabled when Intel really doesn't support it because of problems, like recent (wobly) rumours suggest. Like when AMD waited with the 5600XT, if Nvidia would decrease the price of 2060. But that, too, would mean OEMs had to develop costly Gen4-supporting Boards, even successfully in this scenario, only to not use it.
I stay with my previous opinion, B550 itself will probably only support Gen3, while the Boards will support Gen4 on CPU-Lanes. Only reason against the latter would be if it would make the boards to costly because of electric requirements.
If the desktop ones have PCIe 4, you'll see the CPU controlled slots running 4.0 mode and the chipset will be PCIe 3.0. Like the 400 series is 3.0 on the CPU but the chipset is only running PCIe 2.0 speeds.
If the APUs are 3.0 only, the entire board will be 3.0.
X570 is a very expensive chipset, B550 will be cheaper and it will be sacrifice PCIe 4.0.
Technically, there is nothing against the boards supporting Gen4 while the APUs only support Gen3. But I see what you are getting at, B-Series is more oriented to APU-Users then X570, so there will be less users missing Gen4.
The problem is, B-series is highly favorited even by Gamers, because while OCing works there too, unlike with Intel, and is useless anyway, their features are enough for most people. B450+Ryzen 3000 is the most recomended combo atm. So B550 would fit nicely there.
The reason I based the board off the APU spec is because AMD wants these to sell lots of both while being cheap as possible. So if the APUs are only 3.0, they'll shave dollars. I also suspect that since X470/B450 are still selling well and they are capped at 3.0 for CPU slots and 2.0 for the chipset. I think that's why B550 will continue that trend but the chipset will get bumped up to PCIe 3.0 at the minimum.
I can buy Z370 and Z390 boards for similar money to X470 and B450 boards. Soo...
Anyways, I'd be massively surprised if B550 was anything but PCIe 3.0.