First AMD B650-based motherboards showed up in US store - the cheapest one costs $200

Only the flagship chipset X670 and X670E motherboards are offered for AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, which are not so cheap yet.
In the near future, more affordable AMD B650 and B650E motherboards will be available for sale.
But even among them, it may be difficult to find a budget model.
American retailer B&H Photo Video has published prices of several B650-based motherboards, starting from $200.
MSI MPG B650 Carbon WIFI has the highest price among the reviewed models at $329.99.
At the same price you can find solutions based on the older AMD X670, albeit with basic equipment.
On the other hand, MSI PRO B650M-A WIFI is the cheapest amongst the devices announced by the retailer with a $199.99 price tag.
Of course this is not the full range of new motherboards even from MSI itself - obviously there will be a version of the MSI PRO B650M-A without Wi-Fi module and it will be cheaper.
But don't count on a significant difference.
On average, the price is about $250.
Models are available in Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX and ATX form factors of the MSI PRO, MAG and MPG series.
MSI MEG flagship series will feature only AMD X670 and X670E boards.At the end we should mention that AMD itself at the time of Ryzen 7000 processors and Socket AM5 platform announcement in August announced that the motherboards price for new chips will start from $125.
We would like to add that AMD B650 and B650E motherboards are expected to be announced on October 4.

AMD announced that Ryzen 7000 processors will be unveiled on August 29

AMD has officially announced that it will unveil its next generation Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) processors on August 29 as part of the Together we advance_PCs event.
The event will be streamed on AMD's official YouTube channel.
Start of the event is scheduled for 19:00 NEST (02:00, August 30, Moscow time).Image source: AMD CEO Lisa Su (Lisa Su), CTO Mark Papermaster (Mark Papermaster) and other top AMD executives will speak at the event.
Company representatives will provide details about the new Zen 4 architecture, which is the basis for the next generation of AMD Ryzen processors.
There are also new details about Ryzen 7000 series chips and new AMD Socket AM5 platform.
The support of DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0 will be one of the key features of Ryzen 7000 processors and all AMD Socket AM5 platform.

Rumor: Ryzen 7000 will get performance gains of 7 to 10% per clock and can automatically overclock to 5.85 GHz

AMD plans to release Ryzen 7000 processors with Zen 4 architecture only this fall, so at the May event limited itself to mentioning only general characteristics of the new family.
Performance gains in single-threaded applications of more than 15% and the ability to automatically raise the frequency beyond the 5 GHz limit hit the AMD presentation, but these are very conservative estimates, as knowledgeable sources convince.Image source: AMDThe young and ambitious website Angstronomics continues to gain the trust of the audience through important news about AMD products.
According to the source, the internal goal for the company is to increase performance per clock-cycle in single-threaded loads by 7% when moving from Zen 3 to Zen 4, and in multi-threaded loads the increase can reach all of 10%.
Taking into account that clock speeds will also increase, the actual performance gain will be higher than these limits.
Besides, when actively working with RAM, DDR5, which support for AMD debuted under Zen 4 architecture, will have an advantage.
In the description of Ryzen 7000 processors' frequency response the primary source reminds about the ability to run up to 5.55 GHz including unattended liquid cooling system, but without manual overclocking.
Adding to the intrigue is a statement from the Angstronomics site about the existence of a Raphael model with a maximum frequency of 5.85GHz, which is achieved by one or more cores as a result of automatic overclocking.The source also explains the reasons why AMD has no plans to release Raphael models with more than sixteen cores.
Initially, Socket AM5 platform was designed with Socket AM4 cooling system compatibility with the new CPU socket in mind.
For this reason, the latter had to keep the same geometric dimensions, and the transition to the LGA design forced the company to move the front side of the substrate condensers.
In turn, this required the use of an unusually shaped heat spreader cover with rectangular cutouts for \"islands\" with capacitors.
All this severely limited the possibility to place additional crystals on the substrate for Socket AM5 CPUs, therefore, computing cores are distributed only in two crystals, eight pieces each.
Increasing the number of cores within the existing 5-nm process technology, taking into account the increase in the second level cache capacity, is not possible.

AMD had to apologize for the confusion with the TDP value for Socket AM5 - Ryzen 7000 can still consume more than 170W

When AMD representatives at the opening of Computex 2022 talked about the capabilities of the new Socket AM5 platform, in the background of the presentation text flashed the reference \"support up to 170W\" and subsequent comments of the company's Technical Marketing Director Robert Hallock (Robert Hallock) misled the audience.
It was eventually figured out that this value is the TDP of Ryzen 7000 processors, but not the maximum possible consumption - it is higher.Image source: AMDIrmagicArmagic originally Hallock told PCWorld that the 170W mentioned is the PPT value, which measures the electrical power delivered by the processor's socket.
The same parameter can be taken as the maximum heat dissipation.
And the TDP value, i.e.
the typical power consumption and heat dissipation, according to Hallock's initial statement, is actually less than the 170W.
But here AMD representative lied.Image source: AMDSite Tom's Hardware managed to get new explanation from AMD representatives, who finally clarified that for Socket AM5 platform TDP limit is 170 W, and PPT value is obtained by multiplying TDP by 1.35, which finally gives 230 W.
This is the electrical power that the Socket AM5 processor is capable of delivering, and this is the maximum heat dissipation that the Ryzen 7000 processors will be capable of.
Robert Hallock later had to admit that the TDP is really 170W and the PPT reaches 230W.
Note that there was a 170 watt TDP value earlier in the press release text on AMD web site (screenshot above).Image source: AMDSee that Ryzen Socket AM4 processors have TDP value not more than 105 watt and PPT value in this case was 142 watt.
In the new platform, the power consumption ceiling has been raised relative to Socket AM4 to ease the performance of senior processors with more cores in situations with high computing load.At the same event AMD said that the Ryzen 7000 series processor engineering sample with 16 cores released in late April could automatically raise the frequency of \"almost all\" cores to values from 5.2 to 5.5 GHz range.
In the presentation for the event and on the company's website these frequencies are described more cautiously - \"5 GHz+\".Colleagues from Tom's Hardware website also received clarification from AMD representatives that the particular sample processor from the Computex 2022 event was not operating at the theoretical limits, and its TDP value did not reach 170W.
Additionally, it was noted that AMD will keep processors with TDP value not higher than 65 or 105W, and models with TDP value of 170W will be mainly addressed to enthusiasts, expecting to get maximum performance.

MSI has published a video tutorial on how to install a processor into Socket AM5 and showed a sample 16-core Ryzen 7000

MSI has published a video that explains how to install Ryzen 7000 series processors on a motherboard with Socket AM5 socket.
The video features an engineering sample of the next-generation 16-core flagship chip.
Such a chip, according to VideoCardz, has already been seen in the distributed computing network MilkyWay@Home in January this year.Image source: MSI The Ryzen 7000 engineering sample shown in the MSI video is labeled 100-000000665.
The existence of the same sample became known earlier this year.
At that time, the following next-generation AMD desktop processor engineering samples were found in the MilkyWay@Home distributed computing network database:AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000665-21_N [Family 25 Model 96 Stepping 0] - 16 cores / 32 threads;AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000666-21_N [Family 25 Model 96 Stepping 0] - 8 cores / 16 threads.Both were entered into the database between December 21-24, 2021.
In other words, these are very early engineering samples.
Image source: MilkyWay@HomeThe MSI video shows that the 665 sample was actually manufactured back in 2021.Image source: MSIAs for MSI's instructions on installing the Ryzen 7000 processor into the Socket AM5, the process is nothing short of easy and not much different than installing Intel processors.
Although the instruction may be useful for AMD chips fans that have never encountered processors in LGA socket, AMD added special notches on chip's textolite that indicate exactly which side you need to put the processor in the socket for the ease of installation.
The AM5 CPU socket itself has special protrusions that correspond to the cutouts on the chip.
A video on Ryzen 7000 installation is available below.It is worth noting that you need to install chips into LGA sockets with great care.
But to fix accidentally bent legs on the processor, as it was with former Ryzen and not only, is much easier than in the LGA socket.

AMD summed up the era of Socket AM4: more than 125 processor models that have sold 70 million copies

At the opening of Computex 2022, AMD CEO Lisa Su unwittingly summed up the intermediate life cycle of Socket AM4 platform, anticipating the appearance this fall of a Socket AM5 successor.
Announcement of platform Socket AM4 took place in 2016, but the first processors Ryzen for it came out in March 2017, and only during this time has been released about 70 million CPUs in this design.Image source: AMDAs emphasized CEO of the company, today, tens of millions of users own systems with Socket AM4.
Initially, it was planned that the active life cycle of the platform will last until the end of 2020, but reality has made its adjustments, and Socket AM4 is relevant to the present day.
As an example, Lisa Su cited the Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor, which debuted as early as this year, the sixth year of the Socket AM4 platform.
Compared to its predecessors, the processor has provided up to 15% increase in gaming performance, and previously this could not be achieved without a change in architecture, and in this case, the existing model simply added cache memory.
This gave Ryzen 7 5800X3D a confident advantage in games over the competing solution, which allows AMD to still consider this model the best gaming processor in the world.Image source: AMDThe Socket AM4 platform has gone through a change of five architectures and four processors, as Lisa Su recalled.
The number of unique processor models in this design has exceeded 125 units, and the company's partners have released more than 500 models of compatible motherboards in that time.
Even with the appearance on the horizon of the successor platform Socket AM4, according to the head of AMD, does not lose relevance, and will remain on the market for several years.Of course, the original declared principle of \"end-to-end\" compatibility between processors in the Socket AM4 with the first generation motherboard in practice did not always hold.
The fact is that as new processor models were released, the size of the microcode update began to limit the number of supported models, and then the old CPUs began to be supplanted by the new ones.
In general, of course, the Socket AM4 platform showed an amazing example of longevity, maintaining competitiveness without changing the design of processors.
Continuity was aimed at winning the trust of consumers, and with this task the company generally succeeded.
In the case of transition to Socket AM5, which was dictated by the introduction of PCI Express 5.0 and DDR5 support, the compatibility by mounts with the former cooling systems is provided, which is also a manifestation of concern for the users.

AMD introduced Ryzen 7000 - 5nm Zen 4 processors with new socket, above 5GHz and RDNA 2 graphics

As expected, AMD today unveiled a new generation of processors at Computex 2022 - Ryzen 7000.
Featuring integrated RDNA 2 graphics, new design for Socket AM5, new memory and interfaces, these new products are the world's first 5nm desktop CPUs and will offer up to 16 Zen 4 cores, with twice the amount of L2 cache per core compared to their Zen 2 or Zen 3 predecessors - 1MB per core.
About the third level cache is not reported, as well as the prospects of the chips on Zen 4 with additional 3D V-Cache.Another important detail of the new chips will be a significant increase in clock speeds.
AMD indicates that the frequency in auto overclocking mode (Max Boost) will be higher than 5 GHz.
In addition, the presentation showed how a 16-core sample Ryzen 7000-series processor was able to provide in the game Ghostwire: Tokyo above 5.5 GHz, which is very impressive.
True, for its cooling, it used a JHL.AMD noted that the new processors will provide a single thread performance gain of more than 15% (compared to the Ryzen 9 5950X in Cinebench R23).
The acceleration will provide increased cache, higher frequency and architectural improvements, which should bring an increase in IPC (number of instructions executed per clock).
Unfortunately, AMD did not specify what kind of IPC boost the Zen 4 architecture itself will provide.
Additional instructions, accelerating processors in artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, are also provided.Ryzen 7000 processors, like their predecessors, consist of three crystals.
Two of them are made on 5-nm TSMC process technology and contain processor cores with Zen 4 architecture.
The third chip is the chip with IO interfaces, which is in contrast to the similar chip in the CPUs of past generations, is made by 6nm process technology instead of 12nm.
But a much more important difference between the new crystal IO is that it has a built-in graphics processor.
So every AMD Ryzen 7000 desktop processor will be able to offer at least basic integrated graphics.
Previously, the usual Ryzen desktop did not have \"embedded\", and only Ryzen G-series chips had them.Another important feature of the new IO chip is support for new standards.
We are talking about support for DDR5 memory, as well as PCI Express 5.0 bus.
Thus, AMD has caught up with Intel in terms of support for modern technologies in CPUs - the \"blues\" have the specified memory and bus support Alder Lake-S, introduced at the end of 2021.
The new chips are created for the new socket AM5 and this is the first socket change for Ryzen processors - all previous generations, from Ryzen 1000 to Ryzen 5000, used Socket AM4.
New socket, among other things, is just needed to support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0.
It should be noted that with the new CPU socket AMD finally moved away from unloved by many people connection of PGA type with stems on CPU, and changed over to LGA design - stems are in the socket itself, and on CPU only pads, as Intel has for many years.
Chips with TDP up to 170W are supported, and compatibility with Socket AM4 coolers is retained.AMD has not yet introduced individual models of Ryzen 7000 processors, as well as did not specify a release date.
It was noted only that the new generation Ryzen will debut this coming fall.

AMD will introduce for AM5 platform AMD RAMP profiles - Intel XMP 3.0 analogue for DDR5 overclocking

AMD will introduce the AMD RAMP (Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile) overclocking tool for the AM5 platform. The technology will be the successor to solutions such as A-XMP and AMP (AMD Memory Profile), and will be analogous to the XMP 3.0 profiles that Intel uses to automatically overclock DDR5 RAM beyond JEDEC stated specifications in Alder Lake-based systems.

Rumors about AMD's RAMP development began to circulate right after AMD showed off a sample Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) desktop processor on the Zen 4 architecture at CES 2022. One of the developers of PC monitoring software HWiNFO shared a little more information about it in a conversation with ComputerBase. The latest beta version of this software (7.17) includes AMD RAMP pre-release support. The author of the application pointed out that AMD RAMP stands for AMD Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile. According to him, the feature is designed to overclock DDR5 memory modules similar to Intel XMP 3.0 profiles.

Since most memory manufacturers today add support for Intel XMP profiles to their products, we can assume that AMD's counterpart will work in a similar way. Moreover, it is very likely that both technologies will be interchangeable. In other words, DDR5 modules that get AMD RAMP support will probably also work with Intel XMP 3.0 profiles. However, AMD will likely also enlist the support of some RAM manufacturers to release exclusive memory modules for it, as it did in the past;

In the past, AMD A-XMP and AMP (AMD Memory Profile) for RAM were not as widespread as Intel XMP. For this reason, some motherboard manufacturers offered their own solutions for memory overclocking on AMD platforms. For example, ASUS uses DOCP (Direct Overclocking Profile) and Gigabyte uses EOCP (Extended Overclocking Profile). Many other memory overclocking solutions utilize Intel XMP profiles, which are known to work not only on Intel motherboards, but also on AMD ones. Whether AMD RAMP will be popular among manufacturers & ; depends primarily on how popular will be the entire AMD AM5 platform and Ryzen 7000 processors in general. Recall that their release is expected in the second half of this year.

The timing of AMD hybrid processors for Socket AM5 debut will be largely determined by DDR5 prices

According to AMD representatives, AMD AM5 processors with DDR5 memory and PCI Express 5.0 speed bus support should appear in the second half of the year, judging from the AMD presentation at CES 2022. At the same time they emphasize that the exact timing of hybrid processors appearance will depend on the situation with DDR5 memory prices.

Tom’s Hardware managed to talk to David McAfee, who is corporate vice president and general manager of client business at AMD. According to him, the company will take into account both the availability of DDR5 memory, as well as the level of prices for it, when deciding on the timing of market launch of Socket AM5 platform. AMD is going to closely monitor the expansion of DDR5 in the market to choose the best timing for customers to debut Socket AM5. Rembrandt hybrid processors, which combine Zen 3+ compute architecture and RDNA 2 graphics architecture, will offer desktop support for DDR5 and therefore require the use of Socket AM5. They don't have DDR4 support at all, that's why the most important factor to choose the moment of announcement will be exactly how much DDR5 modules are spreading out in the market and their price. In the case of mobile versions of Rembrandt this factor did not play a particular role, because they both support LPDDR5, availability of which is not a problem. In the desktop segment, the deficit of DIMM modules with DDR5 chips is determined by the lack of a sufficient number of power management circuits, which are placed on the module itself. Later, when the shortage problem eases, more Ryzen 6000-based laptops with SODIMM-type DDR5 memory modules will hit the market. Remind that in the second half of the year will debut AMD Ryzen processors with Zen 4 architecture, which will be manufactured with 5nm technology and also installed in the socket AM5. In fact, the availability of DDR5 is important mainly in terms of timing the release of hybrid processors in this version, which are aimed at a wide range of consumers. Raphael processors without integrated graphics will play in the higher price range, in their case, the availability and cost of DDR5 are not so important.

AMD head: future Socket AM5 platform will get long support

Head of AMD company Lisa Su participated in a big interview, where, in particular, the topic of the future Socket AM5 desktop platform was touched. The upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors, which are expected to be released in the second half of this year, will use this platform.

In particular, journalist Paul Alcorn of Tom's Hardware asked whether the company plans to provide long-lasting support for the AM5 platform, as it did for the still current Socket AM4 platform. According to Lisa Suh, the future AMD AM5 platform "will get a long life". However, the head of AMD did not specify how many years in question. It should be recalled that the AMD Socket AM4 platform debuted simultaneously with the first generation of AMD Ryzen processors in March 2017. Since then, it remains the main for the manufacturer, and the company is still releasing new products for it. Take for example the recent announcement of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D processor with 3D V-Cache technology, which is expected to be released this spring. The AMD AM4 platform was designed with a large margin, with support for dual channel DDR4 memory and up to 28 PCIe lanes. Initially these were PCIe 3.0, but with the release of chips on Zen 2 and the 500 series of AMD chipsets, the platform gained PCIe 4.0 support. The change to Socket AM5 is due to the transition to a new generation of DDR5 RAM with support for four 40-bit channels and the introduction of the PCIe 5.0 interface. "We are very pleased with how the AM4 platform has evolved. We initially said it would get long-lasting support. That's what eventually happened. But with the advent of new technologies, it was time for a platform change. I can't say exactly how many years the new AM5 platform will be supported, but I can say that support will be as long as AM4. I believe that the AM4 platform will stay on the market for a few more years and will play a role of an alternative solution to some extent", commented Lisa Su.