If ASUS was actually smart, they would place the chipsets on the rear of the board and use a metal backplate covering the entirety of the back side of said board, to dissipate the chipsets' heat. But again, they're intellectually bankrupt, so they'll never do something as simple and effective as this.
Even if they wanted to place the second Promontory 21 chipset on the other side, and qualify the board as X670(E), there is nothing added to the connectivity that suggests that this is a X670 board. I have looked into the spec and can't find one single feature beyond B650, apart from the second chipset itself.
Two M.2 drives can take PCIe signals from CPU, then Thunderbolt 4 can take x4 lanes from the chipset. The amount of USB ports provided by the board fits into what B650 can provide. There are 4 ports on CPU and another 6 on the chipset.
The same could be done with the X670, a single chip with an integrated PCIe 5.0 controller for the needs of interfaces that are physically far from the CPU.
ASMedia did not develop the chipset silicon with PCIe 5.0 link to CPU on time to be released with AM5 boards. I dont' think there is any conspiracy behind it. We see that M.2 NVMe drives are also delayed because few really need it. ASMedia is even delayed with bespoke USB4 descrete chip that would use PCIe 4.0 x4 lanes.
Next gen chipset will have at least PCIe 5.0 x4 link to CPU, if not more, to match the bandwidth Intel's DMI 4.0 currently provides over 8 lanes (128 Gbps).
Anyway, this was left out in the name of profit for the 600 series chipsets. I hope at least in the next 700 series, we have the X770 as some kind of iteration of the X570, but much more modern.
I don't think it was about the profit, but it was more about costs and efficiency savings. They do not sell enough boards anyway, so profits are heavily down. On X770, I expect an overhaul of the chipset and at least doubling chipset-CPU link bandwidth, otherwise I will not buy it.
it makes literally zero functional sense to have more than the single chip x670 on an itx board. Edit: brainfart, the single chip one is b650e.
Exactly. Asus might be selling here B650E board under misleading name, as there is no additional connectivity to justify the X670E name.
Not an add in here though, it's just because they could, as it serves no real purpose expect bragging rights.
Asus might be here on a thin edge of the commercial law.
@AleksandarK
Could TPU journalists, please, ask Asus officially to clarify which functional features qualify this board to be called X760E? They cannot reply that the board has two chipsets only. THey have to provide the evidence of connectivity beyond what one Promontory21 chipset provides.
If not, Asus should be reported for selling this board to the commerce chamber or consumer protection body in Taiwan or whatever the name of the consumer protection office checking how companies advertise their products.
I mean, Zen 4 already supports two m.2 slots from the CPU, and Asus could have easily made a third one coming from the B650 chipset.
