AMD X870E To Feature Mandatory USB4 40Gbps Connection

AMD X870E To Feature Mandatory USB4 40Gbps Connection

This new rumor for AMD’s upcoming Zen 5 processors is rather fresh from the oven – the X870E (as it is allegedly named) motherboards will be mandated to feature a USB4 40Gbps connector, and requiring one certain ASMedia controller chip to do so.

Chiphell forums (via EXPreview) reported that Zen 5 will be announced sometime between April to June this year, and will be named the Ryzen 9000 series. It’ll continue using Socket AM5, though the underlying motherboard will see some changes as the company is set to introduce 800 series chipsets, skipping number ‘7’. This is corroborated by leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead.

The main difference between the X870E and the preceding X670E lies in the USB4 connector. It is said that AMD will mandate all motherboard manufacturers to implement this connector on all X870E platforms, making it a tri-chip solution that utilizes a pair of Promontory 21 chipsets and a discrete ASMedia ASM4242 USB4 controller chip. For now, it looks like this is the only controller that gets approved by Team Red for USB4.

Currently, high-end AMD motherboards feature USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps), or in some cases, additional dedicated Thunderbolt ports with the use of Intel Thunderbolt controllers (including the ASUS Crosshair X670E HERO). Mandating USB4 is likely going to introduce price increases, though given that X870E is expected to be the crème de la crème of the motherboards, its potential consumers may be more willing to stomach the additional cost.

Source: PCGamer

Pokdepinion: AMD is surely looking to achieve feature parity with Intel motherboards with this move.