*** AMD "Zen 4" thread (inc AM5/APU discussion) ***

[Curlyriff]

Gigabyte do have a few issues but nothing major, one point in time they released boards with high spec VRM and as the had a rev.A, B, C etc they kept dropping spec of parts which was frustrating when you don't know after they have gone out for review. That was in the 4790k days mostly and I didn't check much after. Then with things like my B550m-Pro from them, in the next revision the Pro-P was released with slightly better VRM and 2.5G ethernet. I actually have the Pro-P at home still boxed as was going to switch and send back the standard Pro but never got around to it because it still works fine. But it irks me that they switch things about like that a little.

Avoided AsRock because of @pete910 issues but I have no idea on other brands tbh as Asus always too rich for my blood tbh and MSI & Biostar always felt like underdogs or visually unappealing.

 

[Troezar]

Gigabyte do have a few issues but nothing major, one point in time they released boards with high spec VRM and as the had a rev.A, B, C etc they kept dropping spec of parts which was frustrating when you don't know after they have gone out for review. That was in the 4790k days mostly and I didn't check much after. Then with things like my B550m-Pro from them, in the next revision the Pro-P was released with slightly better VRM and 2.5G ethernet. I actually have the Pro-P at home still boxed as was going to switch and send back the standard Pro but never got around to it because it still works fine. But it irks me that they switch things about like that a little.

Avoided AsRock because of @pete910 issues but I have no idea on other brands tbh as Asus always too rich for my blood tbh and MSI & Biostar always felt like underdogs or visually unappealing.

Admittedly an expensive board but my Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master has been excellent. I always had MSI before that and found them to be pretty decent too.

 

[uscool]

Not really had any issues with MSI , gigabyte or Asus , currently using MSI x570 unify

 

[Troezar]

Not really had any issues with MSI , gigabyte or Asus , currently using MSI x570 unify

I think the answer is to avoid the really cheap boards. I usually aim for about £150 upwards.

 

[uscool]

AMD X670E motherboard already in reviewer's hands - VideoCardz.com

AORUS X670E Aorus Master ships to reviewer AMD spares no time; the review samples of upcoming AMD X670E motherboards are already in reviewers hands. Last week AMD made a formal showcase of its partner’s high-end X670E/X670 motherboard series. None of these are available yet, but the message was...

videocardz.com

 

[alec]

DDR5-6000 Memory To Be The Sweet Spot For AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs, Will Offer 1:1 Infinity Fabric Ratio With EXPO

DDR5-6000 is looking to be the sweet spot for AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" AM5 Desktop CPUs, offering a 1:1 Infinity Fabric ratio with EXPO support.

wccftech.com

1:1 DDR5-6000 looks promising

 

[uscool]

yeah they talked up about memory overclocking in the interviews so not surprising

 

[humbug]

Gigabyte Aorus B550 Elite AX V2. https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...2-amd-am4-b550-atx-motherboard-mb-593-gi.html

Had that for as long as i have had the 5800X, 2 years.

Its got USB C, 2.5 Gigabit ethenet, Intel Wifi 6, 12+2 phase digital WRM, looks nice in a matt powder black with the dark grey alloy VRM HS and the bit of RGB running through the PCB, also comes with 2 chunky alloy NVMe HS, i paid a bit more for mine, £165 back then.

Worth every penny, with a few tweaks it will run my 5800X at 5.05Ghz boost, the VRMs don't even get above 60c, on memory overckloking i have my cheapo 2X 16GB 3200MT/s kit running at 3800MT/s, i'm sure i can get them higher than that if i put some more effort in.

It looks, feels (its quite heavy) and operates like a much more expensive board, the board it replaced was an ASRock B350 and that was a pile of poo, it felt and looked cheap, frankly you could really feel the difference handling both these boards.

The board i had before that was a Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 3 which was also an inexpensive but solid board.

IMO they are every bit as good as higher end Asus boards, you're getting a quality board but without the Asus tax.

 

[humbug]

Edit: the one i linked doesn't have the Intel Wifi 6, maybe why its a bit cheaper, other than that they its exactly the same.
Edit: 2 also only has one NCMe HS.

 

[Noxia]

Sounds like ASRock should be avoided then? In my view, the BIOS/UEFI options aren't great. I don't think the AVX offset options work at all.

What about Biostar, are their boards any better?

My impression from reading reviews, is that the MSI Pro A boards tend to be good value for money, and have a decent VRM.

This shows my naivety but I thought biostar were like board used in OEM computers where you can't change the components

 

[Ross Thomson]

DDR5-6000 Memory To Be The Sweet Spot For AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs, Will Offer 1:1 Infinity Fabric Ratio With EXPO

DDR5-6000 is looking to be the sweet spot for AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" AM5 Desktop CPUs, offering a 1:1 Infinity Fabric ratio with EXPO support.

wccftech.com

1:1 DDR5-6000 looks promising

I think they are overstating there.

• AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" Sweet Spot - DDR4-3800
• AMD Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" Sweet Spot - DDR4-4000
• AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" Sweet Spot - DDR5-6000

3600 was the "sweet spot" for Zen2/3. Most Zen 2 chips couldn't do 3800 and most zen 3 chips couldn't do 4000 1:1

 

[humbug]

I think they are overstating there.

• AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" Sweet Spot - DDR4-3800
• AMD Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" Sweet Spot - DDR4-4000
• AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" Sweet Spot - DDR5-6000

3600 was the "sweet spot" for Zen2/3. Most Zen 2 chips couldn't do 3800 and most zen 3 chips couldn't do 4000 1:1

Do you ever get the feeling that some of the people who write these articles don't actually know anything about the products they are writing about?

 

[RBImGuy]

I think they are overstating there.

• AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" Sweet Spot - DDR4-3800
• AMD Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" Sweet Spot - DDR4-4000
• AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" Sweet Spot - DDR5-6000

3600 was the "sweet spot" for Zen2/3. Most Zen 2 chips couldn't do 3800 and most zen 3 chips couldn't do 4000 1:1

sweet spot vs if the chip could do it.

 

[Armageus]

This shows my naivety but I thought biostar were like board used in OEM computers where you can't change the components

No, but they largely pulled out of the UK market, as never really escaped the "budget brand" identity over here.

They apparently still have a couple of UK distributors, but a quick look suggests neither actually have any boards in stock

IPC Manufacturing, Industrial PC Motherboard Manufacturers - BIOSTAR

BIOSTAR is experienced IPC manufacturing, industrial PC manufacturers.We offer a wide range of industrial PC motherboard

www.biostar.com.tw

It's a shame, because some of the boards look great, and it's always better to have more competition

​

X670E VALKYRIE​

AMD Motherboard Manufacturer - BIOSTAR

AMD Motherboard supports Ryzen 7000 series processors(AM5), DDR5 memory, AMD EXPO™ Technology (extended profiles for overclocking) & XMP.

www.biostar.com.tw

 

[humbug]

Change the name to something a bit less budget sounding.

Its one of the nuances of the English language that they perhaps don't always understand in East Asia region, Power Colour is another one.

 

[g67575]

sweet spot vs if the chip could do it.

Many of the recently produced Zen 3 chips can handle the IMC running at 1:1 at 2000mhz, I thought? What does the IMC performance on Zen 3 (designed for DDR4) have to do with the redesigned Zen 4 IMC, build for DDR5?

I suppose it's possible that this new info (about the IMC handling 3000mhz) only applies to the top Zen 4 CPUs /silicon?

 

[Journey]

With the newer BIOS revisions, and B2 stepping chips hitting above 1900MHz on the IF is much easier. Still nothing touches the monolithic dies, that the like of the 5600G and such have which are 2200MHz+

I can easily see the IF doing 3000MHz, especially since we are dropping from a 12nm I/O die to a 6nm one. I do wonder how overclockable it will be however, and what the newer monolithic chips will be able to do once they are out next year.

 

[Armageus]

Many of the recently produced Zen 3 chips can handle the IMC running at 1:1 at 2000mhz, I thought? What does the IMC performance on Zen 3 (designed for DDR4) have to do with the redesigned Zen 4 IMC, build for DDR5?

I suppose it's possible that this new info (about the IMC handling 3000mhz) only applies to the top Zen 4 CPUs /silicon?

It's quite possible that the newer IMC will be significantly better (it should be moving from an older 12nm I/O die), but there are no guarantees.

As mentioned in the other thread - it's a WCCFTech article - they have no more idea than the rest of us, but if they put out as much speculation as they can - they may end up being right about something eventually.

 

[g67575]

Yeah, not the most trustworthy source, I hope it ends up being correct.

EDIT - Some useful data that has reportedly been extracted from a X670E BIOS:

AMD Ryzen 7000 DDR5 memory 'sweet spot' is 6000 MT/s, Infinity Fabric frequency up to 3 GHz - VideoCardz.com

AMD Ryzen 7000 with memory improvements Some interesting details on next-gen AMD desktop platform have just been confirmed. The DDR5 memory optimizations for desktop Ryzen 7000 series codenamed “Raphael” have been revealed by a leaked Gigabyte BIOS for X670E motherboards, supposedly based on...

videocardz.com

Mentions that Infinity Fabric speeds upto 3000mhz are supported on this motherboard (which doesn't guarantee 3000mhz support on all Zen 4 CPUs).

It looks like AMD's EXPO (like intel's XMP), will offer different profiles for lower latency and higher bandwidth.

 

[g67575]

I've been looking at a review comparing DDR4 3600 at gear 1 vs DDR5 6000 at gear 2 on an Intel system, and the results in games are within margin of error (or very small difference) at 1080p, I'd say. Link here:

DDR4 vs. DDR5 on Intel Core i9-12900K Alder Lake Review

The Intel Alder Lake platform has support for both DDR5 and DDR4 memory. We ran 38 application benchmarks and 10 games at multiple DDR4 configurations to learn what performance to expect when using DDR4 vs. DDR5 on 12th Gen, and whether there's a point at which DDR4 performance can beat the much...

www.techpowerup.com

So, maybe the whole gear 1/2 thing isn't worth worrying about, as even running in 'gear 2', you shouldn't be at a disadvantage if you get 6000 MT/s RAM at low latencies. On Intel systems ofc, there's maybe an argument to buy even higher frequency RAM (rather expensive though).

In fact, some games seem to really benefit from high frequency RAM, like Ashes of the Singularity.

Running in 'gear 1' /AMD equivalent should give a nice little boost though over DDR4, assuming that it's possible.