• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

AMD Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" I/O Controller Die 12nm, Not 14nm

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,276 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
AMD Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" processors are multi-chip modules of two kinds of dies - one or two 7 nm 8-core "Zen 2" CPU chiplets, and an I/O controller die that packs the processor's dual-channel DDR4 memory controller, PCI-Express gen 4.0 root-complex, and an integrated southbridge that puts out some SoC I/O, such as two SATA 6 Gbps ports, four USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, LPCIO (ISA), and SPI (for the UEFI BIOS ROM chip). It was earlier reported that while the Zen 2 CPU core chiplets are built on 7 nm process, the I/O controller is 14 nm. We have confirmation now that the I/O controller die is built on the more advanced 12 nm process, likely GlobalFoundries 12LP. This is the same process on which AMD builds its "Pinnacle Ridge" and "Polaris 30" chips. The 7 nm "Zen 2" CPU chiplets are made at TSMC.

AMD also provided a fascinating technical insight to the making of the "Matisse" MCM, particularly getting three highly complex dies under the IHS of a mainstream-desktop processor package, and perfectly aligning the three for pin-compatibility with older generations of Ryzen AM4 processors that use monolithic dies, such as "Pinnacle Ridge" and "Raven Ridge." AMD innovated new copper-pillar 50µ bumps for the 8-core CPU chiplets, while leaving the I/O controller die with normal 75µ solder bumps. Unlike with its GPUs that need high-density wiring between the GPU die and HBM stacks, AMD could make do without a silicon interposer or TSVs (through-silicon-vias) to connect the three dies on "Matisse." The fiberglass substrate is now "fattened" up to 12 layers, to facilitate the inter-die wiring, as well as making sure every connection reaches the correct pin on the µPGA.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2019
Messages
1,525 (0.82/day)
System Name Personal Gaming Rig
Processor Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard MSI X670E Carbon
Cooling MO-RA 3 420
Memory 32GB 6000MHz
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 ICHILL FROSTBITE ULTRA
Storage 4x 2TB Nvme
Display(s) Samsung G8 OLED
Case Silverstone FT04
Some Reddit and Twitter posts said the I/O die is exactly the X570 chipset die , Real ?
 
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
5,717 (0.98/day)
System Name Virtual Reality / Bioinformatics
Processor Undead CPU
Motherboard Undead TUF X99
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory GSkill 128GB DDR4-3000
Video Card(s) EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra
Storage Samsung 960 Pro 1TB + 860 EVO 2TB + WD Black 5TB
Display(s) 32'' 4K Dell
Case Fractal Design R5
Audio Device(s) BOSE 2.0
Power Supply Seasonic 850watt
Mouse Logitech Master MX
Keyboard Corsair K70 Cherry MX Blue
VR HMD HTC Vive + Oculus Quest 2
Software Windows 10 P
This is giving me some 80s' retro style vibe

124856
 
Joined
Oct 2, 2015
Messages
2,986 (0.96/day)
Location
Argentina
System Name Ciel
Processor AMD Ryzen R5 5600X
Motherboard Asus Tuf Gaming B550 Plus
Cooling ID-Cooling 224-XT Basic
Memory 2x 16GB Kingston Fury 3600MHz@3933MHz
Video Card(s) Gainward Ghost 3060 Ti 8GB + Sapphire Pulse RX 6600 8GB
Storage NVMe Kingston KC3000 2TB + NVMe Toshiba KBG40ZNT256G + HDD WD 4TB
Display(s) Gigabyte G27Q + AOC 19'
Case Cougar MX410 Mesh-G
Audio Device(s) Kingston HyperX Cloud Stinger Core 7.1 Wireless PC
Power Supply Aerocool KCAS-500W
Mouse Logitech G203
Keyboard VSG Alnilam
Software Windows 11 x64
Now I can see why 300 series chipset compatibility was such an issue.
 
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
502 (0.14/day)
System Name Personal Rig
Processor Intel i5 3570K
Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V
Cooling Noctua NH-U12P Push/Pull
Memory 8GB 1600Mhz Vengeance
Video Card(s) Intel HD4000
Storage Seagate 1TB & 180GB Intel 330
Display(s) AOC I2360P
Case Enermax Vostok
Audio Device(s) Onboard realtek
Power Supply Corsair TX650
Mouse Microsoft OEM 2.0
Keyboard Logitech Internet Pro White
Software Legal ;)
Benchmark Scores Very big
Are they still connecting 4+4 cores internally via IF or is the cpu die a monolithic 8 core?
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
597 (0.16/day)
Location
Germany
System Name Main Machine
Processor Intel i9-13900KS
Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex
Cooling Water cooling, 2x EK-DDC 3.2 PWM, 1x360mm+1x240mm+1x120mm EK, Mora 360 Pro, EK-Quantum Velocity 2
Memory G.SKILL 32GB DDR5-7200, 7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RS
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 7900 XTX Aqua
Storage 2x WD_BLACK SN850X 1TB und 2TB, 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27WQ 27inch 165Hz FreeSync Premium Pro
Case Cooler Master COSMOS C700P
Audio Device(s) Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament + Elite Pro TAC
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i 1600W Titanium
Mouse Logitech G903 LIGHTSPEED Wireless
Keyboard ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro
Software Win 11
This is giving me some 80s' retro style vibe

View attachment 124856

This is Gerber file from the layout. You can be very creative in Gerber viewer tools with choices of colors to display different layers. :D
That is a complex layout with all the routing of differential/single ended lines many of them being impedance controller and one can also see the length matching paterns.

In other thread about x570 mainboards, there was discussions about number of layers used in mainboards. When one looks at the routing inside the processor die it is hard to image that mainboard designers can use 6 layer stackup to rout all theses signals from below the processor on only six layer PCB in mainboards.
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 31, 2016
Messages
4,323 (1.51/day)
Location
Currently Norway
System Name Bro2
Processor Ryzen 5800X
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
Cooling Corsair h115i pro rgb
Memory 16GB G.Skill Flare X 3200 CL14 @3800Mhz CL16
Video Card(s) Powercolor 6900 XT Red Devil 1.1v@2400Mhz
Storage M.2 Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500MB/ Samsung 860 Evo 1TB
Display(s) LG 27UD69 UHD / LG 27GN950
Case Fractal Design G
Audio Device(s) Realtec 5.1
Power Supply Seasonic 750W GOLD
Mouse Logitech G402
Keyboard Logitech slim
Software Windows 10 64 bit
Are they still connecting 4+4 cores internally via IF or is the cpu die a monolithic 8 core?
I think 4+4. That's what I get from the pictures.
 

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,276 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Some Reddit and Twitter posts said the I/O die is exactly the X570 chipset die , Real ?

Yes, my contact in the motherboard industry agrees. They're the same die, packaged differently. The chipset version runs cooler than the iCOD version because the memory controller is power-gated (dead). AMD designed the silicon such that PCIe lanes easily convert to SATA 6G PHYs, complete with AHCI+RAID support, or even USB 3.1 gen 2. Motherboard designers have many ways of playing with this feature. Of course this makes the chipset a lot more expensive than ASMedia X470. Contact also says that the B450-successor which will come out late-2019 or early-2020 will be a new ASMedia chip with PCIe gen 4 support (and possibly Chimera-hardening). It will be as feature-rich as X470. If you want Ryzen 3000, don't need SLI/CFX support, and don't mind waiting till Xmas, I highly recommend waiting for that B450-successor chipset. You might not have to put up with the constant hum of a 40 mm fan.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
1,168 (0.22/day)
Location
Austria, Europe
System Name Bang4Buck
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard MSI PRESTIGE x570 CREATION
Cooling Fractal Design Celsius S36
Memory 32Gb 4400Mhz Patriot Viper Steel(Samsung B-die) @ 3800Mhz 16-16-16-32-48-1T @ 1.38v
Video Card(s) MSI RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X
Storage Adata SX8200Pro 512Gb/2x Crucial P1 1Tb/Samsung 840 EVO/6Tb Raid -HGST Enterprise/2x IronWolf 8Tb/
Display(s) Samsung UE49KS8002 4K HDR TV (US - 9 series)
Case Fractal Design Define R6 Black Usb-C
Audio Device(s) HDMI out to Denon X4400H reciever, 2x Dali Zensor 7, Dali Zensor Vokal, 2x Dali Zensor 1, Yamaha Sub
Power Supply Seasonic Prime Ultra 750W
Mouse Logitech G305 Lightspeed
Keyboard Logitech K520
Software Windows 11 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores https://www.3dmark.com/spy/26216445
You might not have to put up with the constant hum of a 40 mm fan.
Or just replace the heat sink/fan combo on the x570 Chipset, with a nice aftermarket full-copper heat sink and be done with it. Just like we did 15 years ago.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
583 (0.30/day)
This tech is simply amazing !
It's like an entire motherboard has been downsized to the shape of a CPU.

In the past we had the CPU core (and that's ALL the CPU was), with a front side bus and that's it. Everything else (memory controller, I/O, signaling etc.) was done by the "north bridge", far, far away from the CPU core.
Now we're back to that topology, except that the north-bridge is 1cm away from the CORE(s), on a much, much faster interconnect than was possible before.

I can imagine future sockets of future CPUs integrating so much that the motherboard will be simply a board with slots and sockets for stuff (+ power delivery), existing only because the physical space is needed. But most if not all the electrical connections would go to the SoC.

You might not have to put up with the constant hum of a 40 mm fan.

I somehow have the feeling that that fan is PWM controlled with 0db mode.
So, it would only spin up if the X570 chip actually needs the heat removed... for example when transferring large amounts of data or using multiple USB 3.2 10gb ports.

Very likely in PCI-e 3.0 mode it wouldn't spin at all most of the time.

Guess we'll see soon enough.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
8,860 (3.36/day)
System Name Good enough
Processor AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling 2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory 32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage 1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s) LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case Phanteks NV7
Power Supply GPS-750C
74 mm^2 per 8 core CPU die, damn, that's tiny. Even though 7nm is not a mature process I bet AMD manages to get a lot of these out of a wafer.
 
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
2,082 (0.43/day)
This tech is simply amazing !
It's like an entire motherboard has been downsized to the shape of a CPU.

In the past we had the CPU core (and that's ALL the CPU was), with a front side bus and that's it. Everything else (memory controller, I/O, signaling etc.) was done by the "north bridge", far, far away from the CPU core.
Now we're back to that topology, except that the north-bridge is 1cm away from the CORE(s), on a much, much faster interconnect than was possible before.

I can imagine future sockets of future CPUs integrating so much that the motherboard will be simply a board with slots and sockets for stuff (+ power delivery), existing only because the physical space is needed. But most if not all the electrical connections would go to the SoC.



I somehow have the feeling that that fan is PWM controlled with 0db mode.
So, it would only spin up if the X570 chip actually needs the heat removed... for example when transferring large amounts of data or using multiple USB 3.2 10gb ports.

Very likely in PCI-e 3.0 mode it wouldn't spin at all most of the time.

Guess we'll see soon enough.

This is going on for many years already. Look at phones and their SOC's. All is housed inside one chip almost and it offers all posssible functionality. AMD has done it in a very clever way to maximize performance and keep the costs low. A 10W chipset is'nt the end of the world. I'm sure users are able to cool it passive and that the fan is temperature based and not fixed (as we had in the old days).

PCI-E 4.0 does'nt offer that much of a "extra" gain compared to 3.0. AMD said this in their own presentation. No need to jump to PCI-E 4.0 and put in a 4.0 capable card. It wont do much compared to PCI-E 3.0. What's more interesting is booting up the default PCI-E clocks from 100 to 120MHz for example.
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
597 (0.16/day)
Location
Germany
System Name Main Machine
Processor Intel i9-13900KS
Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex
Cooling Water cooling, 2x EK-DDC 3.2 PWM, 1x360mm+1x240mm+1x120mm EK, Mora 360 Pro, EK-Quantum Velocity 2
Memory G.SKILL 32GB DDR5-7200, 7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RS
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 7900 XTX Aqua
Storage 2x WD_BLACK SN850X 1TB und 2TB, 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27WQ 27inch 165Hz FreeSync Premium Pro
Case Cooler Master COSMOS C700P
Audio Device(s) Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament + Elite Pro TAC
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i 1600W Titanium
Mouse Logitech G903 LIGHTSPEED Wireless
Keyboard ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro
Software Win 11
Or just replace the heat sink/fan combo on the x570 Chipset, with a nice aftermarket full-copper heat sink and be done with it. Just like we did 15 years ago.
The only problem I see here in mainboards where the x570 chip sits behind GPU PCIE slot. :(
In that case it would be hard to use tall heatsink like we used to do 15 years ago due lengthy GPUs nowdays.

Back those days I hated these noisy small fans.
Zalmann used to offer nice after market chipset heatsinks but they were quite tall. I used to own one like this one back then: :p

Z20-4000-main.jpg
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
1,151 (0.21/day)
Location
I live in Norway
Processor R9 5800x3d | R7 3900X | 4800H | 2x Xeon gold 6142
Motherboard Asrock X570M | AB350M Pro 4 | Asus Tuf A15
Cooling Air | Air | duh laptop
Memory 64gb G.skill SniperX @3600 CL16 | 128gb | 32GB | 192gb
Video Card(s) RTX 4080 |Quadro P5000 | RTX2060M
Storage Many drives
Display(s) M32Q,AOC 27" 144hz something.
Case Jonsbo D41
Power Supply Corsair RM850x
Mouse g502 Lightspeed
Keyboard G913 tkl
Software win11, proxmox
Benchmark Scores 33000FS, 16300 TS. Lappy, 7000 TS.
The only problem I see here in mainboards where the x570 chip sits behind GPU PCIE slot. :(
In that case it would be hard to use tall heatsink like we used to do 15 years ago due lengthy GPUs nowdays.

Back those days I hated these noisy small fans.
Zalmann used to offer nice after market chipset heatsinks but they were quite tall. I used to own one like this one back then: :p

View attachment 124873

Yeah, I think it should be doable with heatpipe cooler today too.
will be a bit flimsy but will be passive.
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
597 (0.16/day)
Location
Germany
System Name Main Machine
Processor Intel i9-13900KS
Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex
Cooling Water cooling, 2x EK-DDC 3.2 PWM, 1x360mm+1x240mm+1x120mm EK, Mora 360 Pro, EK-Quantum Velocity 2
Memory G.SKILL 32GB DDR5-7200, 7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RS
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 7900 XTX Aqua
Storage 2x WD_BLACK SN850X 1TB und 2TB, 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27WQ 27inch 165Hz FreeSync Premium Pro
Case Cooler Master COSMOS C700P
Audio Device(s) Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament + Elite Pro TAC
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i 1600W Titanium
Mouse Logitech G903 LIGHTSPEED Wireless
Keyboard ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro
Software Win 11
Yeah, I think it should be doable with heatpipe cooler today too.
will be a bit flimsy but will be passive.
Or maybe companies like EK will come up with combined water blocks to cover processor, VRMs and chipset for popular mainboards. :rolleyes:
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2017
Messages
553 (0.23/day)
Location
Here
Processor Intel i9 11900K
Motherboard Z590 MSI ACE
Cooling Corsair H80i v2
Memory Ballistix Elite 4000 32GB 18-19-19-39
Video Card(s) EVGA 3090 XC3 ULTRA HYBRID
Storage 2x Seagate Barracuda 120 SSD 1 TB, XPG SX8200 PRO 1 TB
Display(s) Acer Predator Z321QU
Case Fractal Design Meshify C
Power Supply Asus ROG Strix 1000W
It was the north bridges back in the day mobos that needed the extra cooling.

epoxep4sda_all.jpg


s-l640.jpg
 
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
597 (0.16/day)
Location
Germany
System Name Main Machine
Processor Intel i9-13900KS
Motherboard ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Apex
Cooling Water cooling, 2x EK-DDC 3.2 PWM, 1x360mm+1x240mm+1x120mm EK, Mora 360 Pro, EK-Quantum Velocity 2
Memory G.SKILL 32GB DDR5-7200, 7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RS
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 7900 XTX Aqua
Storage 2x WD_BLACK SN850X 1TB und 2TB, 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf
Display(s) ASUS ROG Strix XG27WQ 27inch 165Hz FreeSync Premium Pro
Case Cooler Master COSMOS C700P
Audio Device(s) Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament + Elite Pro TAC
Power Supply Corsair AX1600i 1600W Titanium
Mouse Logitech G903 LIGHTSPEED Wireless
Keyboard ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro
Software Win 11
There were also back then Nvidia nforce chipset generations that had loud fans.
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
16,000 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
This was still the most extreme chipset cooler ever imho.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
324 (0.17/day)
IMO don't worry to much about the chipset fan, if this will be an issue - there will be an after market solution, since the popularity of X570 will be high.
Edit:
TheLostSwede
OMG this is not a cooler- this is ART!.
Edit 2:
Looks like they mad a better one later on-I miss this days, not like the lame ALU blocks :-:)

 
Last edited:

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
16,000 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
PCI-E 4.0 does'nt offer that much of a "extra" gain compared to 3.0. AMD said this in their own presentation. No need to jump to PCI-E 4.0 and put in a 4.0 capable card. It wont do much compared to PCI-E 3.0. What's more interesting is booting up the default PCI-E clocks from 100 to 120MHz for example.

That's what Intel said

IMO don't worry to much about the chipset fan, if this will be an issue - there will be an after market solution, since the popularity of X570 will be high.
Edit:
TheLostSwede
OMG this is not a cooler- this is ART!.
Edit 2:
Looks like they mad a better one later on-I miss this days, not like the lame ALU blocks :-:)


Better, most likely, but not as wacky or weird...
 
Joined
Jul 21, 2016
Messages
137 (0.05/day)
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 5600
Motherboard MSI B450 Tomahawk
Cooling Alpenföhn Brocken 3 140mm
Memory Patriot Viper 4 - DDR4 3400 MHz 2x8 GB
Video Card(s) Radeon RX460 2 GB
Storage Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 500, Samsung 860 500 GB, 2x Western Digital RED 4 TB
Display(s) Dell UltraSharp U2312HM
Case be quiet! Pure Base 500 + Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12 + 2x ARCTIC P14
Audio Device(s) Creative Sound Blaster ZxR,
Power Supply Seasonic Focus GX-650
Mouse Logitech G305
Keyboard Lenovo USB
I don't really understand why do we still need an additional chipset / south bridge when the cpu has native / built-in:

the memory controller, pci-e controller and enough pci-e 4.0 lanes for a 16x vga, nvme and sata drives and usb controller for usb ports and there are still a few free pci-e lanes left for pci-e 1x slots for sound card or sata controller if needed. :confused:
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
583 (0.30/day)
I don't really understand why do we still need an additional chipset / south bridge when the cpu has native / built-in
Yes, it does:

- 2 SATA ports OR 4 PCI-e lanes (1 single NVMe drive), so no more SATA at all if you use one single NVMe drive)
- 2 USB 3.1
- 16 PCIe lanes for GPU
- Audio chip link.

+ 4 free PCI-e lanes which work together.

So what are you going to do with those ?
- Network ? Then you won't have any extra USBs
- USBs? Then you won't have any SATA... or network, or wifi, or anything else
- SATA? Then give up on USBs and the rest...

Obviously all these options are very bad, so you need a device that gets 4 lanes in and a whole bunch of lanes out + other ports (USB, SATA, etc.)
That's what the chipset/south bridge does... and in case of amd's X370, X470, X570... that's A LOT of stuff which it offers, even more than Intel ones.

And it works because it's extremely rare that all of the devices will communicate all at once, so the 4 lanes between CPU and SB are more than enough.
I did manage however to overload them by copying from 4 SATA SSDs to NVMe drive and from network to USB 3.1 external drives all at once. (Intentionally overloading the south bridge) But that's an extremely rare use case.
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
16,000 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
I don't really understand why do we still need an additional chipset / south bridge when the cpu has native / built-in:

the memory controller, pci-e controller and enough pci-e 4.0 lanes for a 16x vga, nvme and sata drives and usb controller for usb ports and there are still a few free pci-e lanes left for pci-e 1x slots for sound card or sata controller if needed. :confused:

Because the "chipset" inside the CPU doesn't offer enough connectivity within a reasonable package size. Hence why the Threadripper CPUs are so huge. This makes for much more expensive motherboards and CPU packages.
 
Top