With the release of the new Ryzen 3000 processors built on the Zen 2 microarchitecture, AMD is planning a comprehensive ecosystem upgrade. Although the new CPUs will retain compatibility with the Socket AM4 processor socket, the developers plan to introduce the PCI Express 4.0 bus, which will now be supported everywhere: not only by processors, but also by the system logic set. In other words, after the release of Ryzen 3000, the PCI Express 4.0 bus will become a standard feature for the AMD platform - any expansion slot on next-generation motherboards will be able to work in PCI Express 4.0 mode. This is exactly what will be the key innovation in the X570 chipset, which AMD plans to introduce along with the Ryzen 3000 processors.
However, in addition to switching the PCI Express bus to a new mode with twice the bandwidth, the X570 chipset should receive another important improvement, which is an increased number of available PCI Express lanes, which will allow motherboard manufacturers to add additional controllers to their platforms without sacrificing number of expansion slots and other functionality.
PCGamesHardware.de has done a comprehensive analysis of the AMD X570 based motherboard specs we've learned about in recent days. And based on these data, it turns out that the number of available PCI Express 4.0 lanes in the new chipset will reach 16, which is twice the number of PCI Express 2.0 lanes in the previous X470 and X370 chipsets. In addition, the new chipset will feature two USB 3.1 Gen2 ports and four SATA ports. However, motherboard manufacturers, if necessary, will be able to increase the number of SATA ports by reconfiguring the PCI Express lines and add additional high-speed USB ports by connecting external controllers, such as ASMedia ASM1143.
Thus, a typical motherboard based on AMD X570 will be able to get a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, a pair of PCIe 4.0 x1 slots and a pair of M.2 slots with four PCI Express 4.0 lanes connected to each. And even with such a set of PCI Express lane slots, there will be enough to connect an additional two-port USB 3.1 Gen2 controller and a gigabit LAN controller to the chipset.
At the same time, do not forget that 24 PCI Express 4.0 lines will also be supported directly by Ryzen 3000 processors. These lines are supposed to be given to the implementation of the graphics video subsystem (16 lines), to the M.2 slot for the primary NVMe drive (4 lines) and to connect the processor with a set of system logic (4 lines).
Unfortunately, there is a downside to the powerful upgrade of the core system logic set for the Socket AM4 platform. Support for a significant number of high-speed interfaces has increased the heat dissipation of the X570 up to 15W, while the typical heat dissipation of other modern chipsets is only 5W. As a result, motherboards based on AMD X570 will have to be equipped with a fan on the chipset heatsink, which, due to its small diameter, can cause some acoustic discomfort for owners of X570-based systems. Unfortunately, this is a forced measure. As MSI Marketing Director Eric Van Beurden explained, βNo one likes [such fans]. But they are extremely important for this platform, because there are many high-speed interfaces inside, and we need to make sure that you can use them. That's why proper cooling is needed."
It is worth adding that information is received from a number of motherboard manufacturers that the X570 system logic set has not yet been brought to the final stage of development, so some characteristics may change in the coming time before the release of the boards. However, this should not prevent manufacturers from demonstrating new products for Socket AM4 processors at the upcoming Computex 2019.
Source: 3dnews.ru