MSI Z890 and X870 Motherboards Spotted at an Australian Retailer Starting at $385

[Chaitanya]

Because ASM4242 consumes four of those lanes and AMD, in their infinite wisdom, decided to (a) tie it to the CPU instead of the chipset, so that it consumes valuable PCIe 5.0 lanes even though it only needs PCIe 4.0 (b) release Zen 4 crippled in terms of PCIe lane functionality and stick to the same socket for 3 generations, meaning they have no leeway to increase that lane count (c) not upgrade the chipset from Zen 4 to Zen 5 either.

That would mean the USB 4 controller is using 2nd M.2 slot coming out of CPU that was available on X670 boards and 16x slot is sharing bandwidth with 1 M.2 and x4 PCIe slot on board. Quite wierd design compromise.

Edit: Gigabyte has posted User manuals for their X870 boards and here is the block diagram of how everything is connected.

 

[Minus Infinity]

So they like buying RL with its history of failures?...

Yes, as insane as that sounds. Shows how little consumers think of Zen 5.

 

[Gigaherz]

600$ for a Carbon Wifi. 600$

Next time you meet an msi employee go and burn-iron that into their skin. Wtf is wrong with them.
600$.... for a Carbon.

I mean, they can charge whatever they want for their Godlike BS, but this is supposed to be a midrange board. You can buy an entire Gaming PC with that.

 

[Broken Processor]

Nvme 5 drives reducing first PCIE to X8 now USB 4 Crippling second PCIE slot when are they going to use chip set for these.
Or at the very least remove 3rd Pcie and free up the lanes. This all seems like a stretch and a lot of boards that will never be used to their full potential. Why does everyone want with USB4? Are they actually going to use it I own nothing that requires it and if I do I'll buy a add-in card down the line One thing I know is it won't make my Keyboard, mouse and sound any better and my external mass storage is NAS. Pricing seems about right completely F****D but that the new norm.

 

[LittleBro]

Holy shit, motherboards with more than a single type-C connector. It only took 5 generations since X370 for this to happen.


Because ASM4242 consumes four of those lanes and AMD, in their infinite wisdom, decided to (a) tie it to the CPU instead of the chipset, so that it consumes valuable PCIe 5.0 lanes even though it only needs PCIe 4.0 (b) release Zen 4 crippled in terms of PCIe lane functionality and stick to the same socket for 3 generations, meaning they have no leeway to increase that lane count (c) not upgrade the chipset from Zen 4 to Zen 5 either.

This. ^^

But ... it's not the problem of the socket itself. It's a good decision to keep AM5 around for 4-5 years. The main problem is that USB 4.0 support should have been chipset-bound from the beginning. There is literally no progress for chipset since X670(E), it's the same piece of silicon. AMD requires for motherboards equipped with X870(E) chipset to have USB 4.0 support, which has literally nothing to do with chipset whatsoever. Mobo makers actually did not see other chance but to put USB 4.0 on CPU-bound lanes, which sucks badly when more than one CPU-bound M.2 slot is equipped. Best thing is that when PEG gets downgraded from x16 to x8 when 2nd CPU-bound M.2 slot gets populated, 4 CPU lanes get totally wasted (unused). Given how CPU lanes are valuable, this AMD's move with USB 4.0 support is insane. And given the prices of X870(E) boards, I'd say it's also a ripoff (compared to X670(E)).

Let me sum the things up:
X570: PCIe 4.0 x4 CPU & chipset interconnection
X670(E), B650(E): PCIe 4.0 x4 CPU & chipset interconnection
X870(E), B850: PCIe 4.0 x4 CPU & chipset interconnection

That's three generations of AMD chipsets and no progress in terms of CPU & chipset connectivity. Well done, AMD. Even with 3rd iteration of X370, you managed to get X570 improved with PCIe 4.0.
X870(E)/B850 should have had PCIe 5.0 x4 CPU & chipset interconnection and USB 4.0 support should have been implemented chipset-wise with possibility to disable it in BIOS (well, not everybody really needs it).

 

[Gigaherz]

As previously posted on this thread, those are Australian dollars, not US dollars.

Post says 900 AUD (600 USD) man.

 

[zenlessyank]

I like the Carbon board. Plenty of USB-C finally. No chipset fan is always nice too.

For the folks complaining about the minimal PCI-e lanes available, you do realize AMD makes a Threadripper series that has plenty of PCI-e lanes and the cost is negligible compared to the AM5 systems of equally equipped core packages.

 

[Why_Me]

Post says 900 AUD (600 USD) man.

I stand corrected. Ya that's a crap load of money for a motherboard.

 

[Assimilator]

For the folks complaining about the minimal PCI-e lanes available, you do realize AMD makes a Threadripper series that has plenty of PCI-e lanes and the cost is negligible compared to the AM5 systems of equally equipped core packages.

Do you people even do any research before posting stupid bullshit like this?

 

[zenlessyank]

Do you people even do any research before posting stupid bullshit like this?

Yes, I have.

 

[Vayra86]

I don't know but when I pass the $200,- marker for a mobo I'm already getting pretty nervous. That's a lot of money for a worthless slab of IC's, I mean, motherboards don't do jack shit on their own.

Especially since these products are not going to last beyond a single chip. They never really do...

 

[Assimilator]

Yes, I have.

No you haven't, because there is no universe in which a current-generation TR build costs as much as an AM5 one.

 

[Yraggul666]

First of all: they changed price segments, the former Ace is now the Carbon, which is good, hated the gold style anyway.
Second: the prices are insane.
Third: hey MSI, who was the(insert low IQ slur here)who thought putting the debug/cpu temp LEDs next to the mobo connector like this was a good idea!?!?!?
Fourth: i was thinking i might go X870/E in a year or two and maybe upgrade but fuck this, i'm waiting for whatever the next chipsets and cpus come after this.
Fifth: i was right when i said i'm going to hold on to this X570+5800X3D past 2026.

 

[KLMR]

Epyc/Threadripper cpus have had 64 to 128 pcie lanes for half a decade. Not to mention quad and octa channel memory.
More or less with xeons (put nelson's laught here).

Whats the point of discussing if an true-ultra-speed-40gb-thunderstormlighting its using half of second-northbridge's pcie-lanes? Do you know 1m of a compatible* cable will cost you 40 extra euros anyway???
Its a scam: period.

Just put some more pcie lanes, remove that useless m2 connector in desktop and increase the number of memory channels ffs. Let the PC be a PC.

*Disclamer: not AMD, Intel, the USB consortium, the catholic church or steve jobs's angel endorse or warrant the speed of the usb cable no matter whats writtern on it.

 

[chrcoluk]

$385 for a B650 with USB4.