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Gigabyte's B660 Gaming X DDR4 Leaks, Suggests Lower Cost Motherboards Won't be Getting PCIe 5.0

TheLostSwede

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Based on the Intel 600-series chipset leak earlier today, it was easy to conclude that all 600-series motherboards would be getting PCIe 5.0 support, but alas, that is not the case. We've already seen some rock bottom Z690 without PCIe 5.0 and thanks to Videocardz we now know that Gigabyte's B660 Gaming X DDR4 will also lack PCIe 5.0 support.

How do we know this board doesn't support PCIe 5.0? First of all, the x16 slot closest to the CPU uses one of Gigabyte's older reinforced PCIe 4.0 slots, whereas all of its Z690 boards with PCIe 5.0 support uses a new, white type of slot. These slots use a visually different kind of reinforcement as well, even if it's only marginally different. However, Gigabyte doesn't appear to be silk screening PCIe 5.0 on supported boards and it's possible that they're using a different slot vendor for the B660 boards.




Out of the 18 available PCIe lanes, the four from the CPU are used for the top most M.2 slot, with another four PCIe 4.0 most likely being used for another M.2 slot, with the third one being PCIe 3.0. That leaves us with two PCIe 4.0 lanes and four PCIe 3.0 lanes. We're guessing that the two PCIe 4.0 lanes are used for the two PCIe x16 slots at the bottom of the board, since they're only PCIe x1 electrically if you take a closer look at the slots. This leaves a PCIe 3.0 for the 2.5 Gbps Ethernet controller, while we're not entirely sure what the remaining three lanes are used for.

The board features the expected four SATA ports, plus two rear 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports, as well as a front header for what should be a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 port. There are also a couple of 5 Gbps USB 3.2 ports and a front header for another two, as well as four rear USB 2.0 ports and two headers for another four. The board also has a DP and HDMI port, although it's unknown what type they are, but most like DP 1.2 and HDMI 1.4. As the board name suggests, this board uses DDR4 memory. Unlike most of Gigabyte's Z690 boards, the B660 Gaming X features a full set of 3.5 mm audio jacks. Gigabyte's Q-Flash Plus is also supported and the board has an additional button for resetting the CMOS. Overall it's not a very exciting board, but hopefully it'll be priced at a more reasonable level than its Z690 siblings.

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Good. For like 99.9% of all users, PCIe 5.0 is just throwing good money after the bad.
 

TheLostSwede

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Good. For like 99.9% of all users, PCIe 5.0 is just throwing good money after the bad.
I'd say the chipset is a bit limiting here, the H670 should be a better option for ATX boards. Had this been mATX it would've made more sense to use the B660.
 
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True.
Then again, there's plenty of ordinary users™ who'd be far better off buying mATX or even mini-ITX than full blown ATX to save a few more bucks (bc they'll never use all those connectors et cetera) yet insist on it so yeah xd
 

TheLostSwede

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True.
Then again, there's plenty of ordinary users™ who'd be far better off buying mATX or even mini-ITX than full blown ATX to save a few more bucks (bc they'll never use all those connectors et cetera) yet insist on it so yeah xd
Sadly it doesn't tend to save a lot of money though and many mini-ITX boards are stupidly expensive for what they are.
At least there are some decent mATX boards for Intel, whereas for AMD there aren't many at all.
 
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Even $5 saved's a good deal if you'll never gonna make use of the ATX features tbh
 
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I bet the vrm will also be cut down like the z590 and b650. Watch out for those motherboards that claim support for high end cpus, but because of the lower quantity and quality of VRMs end up losing a lot of performance.
 

TheLostSwede

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I bet the vrm will also be cut down like the z590 and b650. Watch out for those motherboards that claim support for high end cpus, but because of the lower quantity and quality of VRMs end up losing a lot of performance.
Looks like 8+2+1?
 
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Good. For like 99.9% of all users, PCIe 5.0 is just throwing good money after the bad.
This. Heck even 4.0 isn't used much outside of production environments.
 
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I consider the Asus Prime Z690-A to be a 'lower cost' motherboard. It's only £250 and supports both DDR5 RAM and PCI-E 5.0. No reason for people to be looking at B660's. If they want cheap the Prime Z690 already is. Although getting hold of some DDR5 RAM is a bit difficult right now. But there are more shipments due in mid january.
 
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Not a bad trade off if they are replacing PCIE 5.0 x4 slots with PCIE 4.0 x8 slots for example. I can see that is a good alternative if it's more cost effective to a lot of people. PCIE 5.0 is going to take some time to really reach maturity regardless so this makes well enough sense if there intention is more to split a PCIE 5.0 lane into two PCIE 4.0 lanes with half the bandwidth, but twice the card slot flexibility. That's a reasonable compromise and just comes down to how you use the bandwidth and divide it into lanes to be used by card adapters. It's similar to DDR4 vs DDR5 we know DDR5 is the future and PCIE 5.0 is as well, but you might be just as well off skipping it this generation and adopting it next generation be it for PCIE 5.0 or DDR5.
 
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I consider the Asus Prime Z690-A to be a 'lower cost' motherboard. It's only £250 and supports both DDR5 RAM and PCI-E 5.0. No reason for people to be looking at B660's. If they want cheap the Prime Z690 already is. Although getting hold of some DDR5 RAM is a bit difficult right now. But there are more shipments due in mid january.
The cost of gpu's are running sky high atm. A lot of gamers are looking to cut cost anyway possible in order to fit one of those overpriced gpu's in their budget. Having overpriced DDR5 isn't high on their list atm.

The upcoming i5 12400F and i7 12700F expected to retail at $200 and $280 . The B660 DDR4 boards with decent VRM's will probably retail for $140 - $160+ depending on how much goodies you want with your motherboard.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/core-i5-12400-qs-cpu-24-percent-faster-core-i5-11400-gaming


 

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Not a bad trade off if they are replacing PCIE 5.0 x4 slots with PCIE 4.0 x8 slots for example. I can see that is a good alternative if it's more cost effective to a lot of people. PCIE 5.0 is going to take some time to really reach maturity regardless so this makes well enough sense if there intention is more to split a PCIE 5.0 lane into two PCIE 4.0 lanes with half the bandwidth, but twice the card slot flexibility. That's a reasonable compromise and just comes down to how you use the bandwidth and divide it into lanes to be used by card adapters. It's similar to DDR4 vs DDR5 we know DDR5 is the future and PCIE 5.0 is as well, but you might be just as well off skipping it this generation and adopting it next generation be it for PCIE 5.0 or DDR5.
Unfortunately, that's not the case and it would require an additional, expensive chip. Instead, you simply get 16 lanes of PCIe 4.0 in lieu of 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0.
 
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Seems a good board, not spending money on a feature that one doesnt need.
 
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The cost of gpu's are running sky high atm. A lot of gamers are looking to cut cost anyway possible in order to fit one of those overpriced gpu's in their budget. Having overpriced DDR5 isn't high on their list atm.

The upcoming i5 12400F and i7 12700F expected to retail at $200 and $280 . The B660 DDR4 boards with decent VRM's will probably retail for $140 - $160+ depending on how much goodies you want with your motherboard.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/core-i5-12400-qs-cpu-24-percent-faster-core-i5-11400-gaming



That 12400 is gonna be a great budget cpu.
 

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I dont think anyone is mad about this.


I totally agree that a good difference between top tier boards and mid/entry is the PCI-E gen level, as thats a good way to cut costs that 99% of users wont notice

I've got an RTX 3090 and an SN850, two top tier PCI-E 4.0 devices... and if someone snuck in and changed my system to PCI-E 3.0, I would not notice.
And thats even with my GPU at x8 mode, feeding that silly RAID card I have in the second slot.
 
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