During our CES meeting with Gigabyte today, the company happened to find some AMD AM4 motherboards from its upcoming lineup for us to look at. We can honestly say that this is the world's first official look at these motherboards anywhere.
Here's the Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming 5:
Gigabyte tells me this board will have feature parity with the GA-Z270X-Gaming 5 we just reviewed.
Next up, here's the Aorus GA-AX370-Gaming K5:
Third up is the more affordable GA-AB350-Gaming 3:
Finally, we have the microATX GA-AB350M-D3H:
And here's the AM4 socket:
Enjoy!
So with Techreport’s man on the inside, does this mean a chance to see a real examination by an outside party before release? Or is everything going to be wrapped in NDAs until release.
IMNSHO – If this is good, I mean really good. I would start throwing the covers off as soon as possible (except price – let the reactions judge the market price…) You drive real anticipation by showing the good stuff, even the not so good stuff, because the community is always trying to find ways of eking out better performance.
So why the shroud over the back ports? Dust issues?
Dress up for people who rock windowed cases.
@Jeff Kampman: The back panel image of the GA-AB350-Gaming 3 is wrong. You guys posted the microATX GA-AB350M-D3H back panel twice.
No Display Port until you get down to the [quote<]"more affordable GA-AB350-Gaming 3" and the "microATX GA-AB350M-D3H"[/quote<]?
I did some rough counting and math, and it appears the AM4 socket has spots for 1618 pins.
Edit: See below.
You overshot a little, hoss. Socket AM4 has 1331 pins. (Shame they couldn’t have added 6 more, huh?)
I relooked at my math and I failed to account for the square lacking pins in the middle :P. The square in the middle appears to 13×13 pins. 1618 – 169 = 1449, so I did a poor job counting as well.
If AM4 had 1337 pins, I would buy it immediately. The memes AMD’s marketing division could (intentionally) make for marketing would be endless.
1331 pins, with 6 cores could = 1337. You’re welcome.
High end mATX option, please.
The mATX option is high end enough for me, but it doesn’t have USB 3.1 Gen1/2 Type C connectors. If you can’t tell I hate the USB consortium.
I just bought a new Cooler Master 280mm liquid cooler for my CPU. I hope Cooler Master is going to offer some kind of compatibility kit for the new socket if it’s needed.
How is the cooler market looking for the AM4? Will most coolers be out of box compatible or will we need to order special mountings?
It appears that the cooling mounts are very similar if not identical to those for AM3+ (which has been the same dating back to at least S939.) Noctua and be quiet! have announced that they’ll be offering free updated mounting hardware.
Excellent. That covers 2 of the only 3 brands I actually care about.
no pex? their made that mobos as cheap as possible and we will need to buy 2 pc now
Wish list for AM4 board:
– Intel NIC (it happened with some AM3 boards)
– More than one M2 slot or better positioning so that I can use one not right under the GPU
That’s about it besides the obvious layout, ports etc. Both of these things might be a long shot unfortunately.
There’s a perfectly situated PCI-Express 1x connector above the 16x graphics card slot, great place for the Intel NIC (that’s what I do with every board.)
Also if you look at the MSI boards ( [url<]https://hardforum.com/threads/msi-am4-pron.1921605/[/url<] ) and the ASRock line-up ( [url<]http://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-am4-x370-motherboards-ces/[/url<] ) you will see 2x M.2 on them. So really, not a long shot 🙂
Ha, one of those ASRock boards even has the Intel logo printed on the IO shield. Not sure how that would go down with many AMD fans but I would say it points to an onboard Intel NIC 🙂
The 2 M2 slots could still be an issue as only one can run from the CPU, while the other must run from the SB which apparently is PCIe Gen 2 only.
Why an Intel NIC? I’ve just used onboard for the longest time.
The Realtek NICs that are most common are pretty mediocre, quality and compatibility wise. They often will use more CPU to provide the same throuput, and aren’t as configurable as well. The Intel NICs though are generally much better in all of those regards.
MSI X370 Titanium…
Nice exclusive, judging by the number of different models they’re probably expecting good demand.
I also love how the eagle on the heatsink has a “You talking to me?!” look to it.
Hmm…side facing SATA ports, PCI, DVI and VGA crap…ouch. Hope the other early mATX boards are more my style.
so pretty much absolutely nothing new? wait…is that a vga port?
Yes, it is only on the budget model where it still does make sense.
It is likely that a budget-minded customer will still have some kind of VGA peripheral on hand.
I wish that were true. The B350 is the mid-range chipset, there’s an entire range of A320 boards below this – presumably with even poorer connectivity.
I suppose at least that’s an HDMI 2.0 output so two 3840×2160 capable output on a single board is a slight step up from what Intel boards offer.
And being realistic we’re still six months away from Raven Ridge, and Zeppelin may not even use these boards, so the video outputs are only catering to people happy to buy Excavator-based Bristol ridge APUs.
Woo, a PCI slot! Glad to see my Xonar ST isn’t obsolete just yet.
And is that also a floppy header along the bottom of the mATX B350 board I see?
Nope, it looks like a connector for extra blackplate USB 2.0 ports.
That big long one directly under the divider in the bottom PCIE slot? Nah. The two white ones look like USB2.
I know exactly how you feel! (Edirol DA 2496 user)
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude sound cards are obsolete!
I went with an external amp/dac and my ass will never look back. Only thing is now I’m forced to either use on-board mic input or get a USB mic. I still haven’t settled so I still have my sound card. 🙁
“Woo, a PCI slot! Glad to see my Xonar ST isn’t obsolete just yet.”
And I can still use my PhD PCI diagnostic card! [url<]http://www.uxd.com/phdpci2.shtml[/url<] "PHD PCI2 is capable of running complete diagnostics on a PCI compliant system even if memory, BIOS, keyboard, external boot devices(i.e. Floppy, CDROM or Hard Drive) and video graphics card are dead or absent." I love the hell out of this tool, but unfortunately, I seldom have any opportunities to use it anymore. 🙁
Does that work with UEFI based systems?
Is this the same retention bracket as with AM3 systems? I was sorta hoping for some kind of new-system-builder-friendly overhaul of cpu cooler mounting systems… Many new coolers have very straightforward mounting (I love my cryorig), but still, lots of people are discouraged by cooler mounting…
Apparently, the HSF retention still has the same form factor used for Socket 940 (K8 Sledgehammer-era).
On the Intel front, Intel hasn’t change the form factor for their HSF solution since Bloomfield/Lynnfield for their desktop-tier chips. It is a different story for workstation/server-tier stuff.
Anyone else notice the TR water marks on pretty much most of the photos?
Nah, what watermarks?
That’s because we’re FIRST, baby!
It’s a good idea. A cryptic tweet from Jeff yesterday seemed to imply that someone snatched the up-close photo of Vega (although I have no idea who).
Link: [url<]https://twitter.com/jkampman_tr/status/817032635511734272[/url<]
Videocardz. Although they linked us back, so, no hard feelings.
The trickle of information re. Zen and its platform is frankly agonizing. Like eating in a 5-star restaurant with a tiny spoon.
As far as I know, restaurants have up to 3 stars. And even in 1 star one, tiny spoon is the suitable tool for what you get 😀
I think he might be referring the the star level that hotels get, not the Michelin Star for restaurants.
High end restaurants don’t serve food in large portions. So tiny spoon is just appropriate.
Aorus, aka ‘ASUS or us’.
Asus, I choose you!!
When I first saw that sentence I said to myself, “Glorious GA-AX370-Gaming 5”.
Then realized I misread it.
Who here still uses a legacy PS/2 Mouse or Keyboard it just blows my mind that they wasted their time putting that port there. Heck if your gonna go all old skool like that why not throw in an AGP and ISA slot and some IDE connections 😛
The truly hardcore gamers prefer PS/2 keyboards because they are interrupt-based, not polling-based. MSI even makes a feature out of it, the “MSI Gaming Device Port.” Heh.
Has anyone done an objective study on how much input lag that saves?
Compared to a 1 KHz USB device, 1ms? Haha. But no, I don’t think so. It would be interesting to see.
In 2017, that [i<]so[/i<] doesn't matter (but people think it does, so...) However, another reason to use PS/2 is that a lot of gaming keyboards only offer N-key rollover over PS/2, not USB (and it's possible to exceed the 6KRO limit of USB HID boot mode in actual gaming, at least in some cases). There's no technical reason for this nowadays, the USB specification supported NKRO at least as far back as USB 0.9... but a lot of keyboard makers simply don't know how to do it, and some buggy BIOSes mean that a lot of convoluted (but specification-compliant) hacks involving multiple USB endpoints have to be used to get a USB NKRO keyboard to be reliable on arbitrary machines.
N-key rollover is the reason for me. I remember the old days of gaming where 2 players shared a keyboard and my brother and I had to agree to not mash too many keys at the same time because then neither of us could play. Apparently this isn’t solved for USB yet so I’ll just use whatever [i<]does[/i<] work
N-key rollover is possible with USB. I don’t know if it’s standard, but I think my keyboard is visible by system as 2 devices to achieve that.
The Logitech G810 clearly shows it support N-Key Rollover and its USB only.
Unlike the USB HID spec, PS/2 also fully supports n-key rollover, which is another thing hard-core gamers care about. I suspect this is an even bigger factor than the latency issue.
n-key rollover can exist in USB.
[url<]http://www.corsair.com/en-us/strafe-rgb-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-cherry-mx-red[/url<] [quote="Corsair"<]100% anti-ghosting and [b<]104 Key Rollover[/b<][/quote<] Emphasis mine.
I do. It’s nice being able to power up the machine by hitting the space bar.
You can do that with USB keyboards and mice.
I do. I still have an original IBM model M (with the old AT-style DIN connector, using a PS/2 adapter) which is almost 30 years old and still the most comfortable keyboard I own. I also have a buckling-spring Keytronic keyboard that is a few years newer and uses PS/2. I’m not going to give either one of those up, and while I own one of the few PS/2-USB adapters that actually work (for keyboards most of them don’t) I’d rather not need it (especially with the IBM keyboard since there’s already one adapter in the chain). And I don’t game at all; I just prefer the feel of my vintage keyboard.
I’m a tiny minority in a minority, but the existence of a PS/2 port has been a make-or-break feature on all the motherboards I’ve bought for my own use in the past decade. I’d take that ahead of more USB ports, a second ethernet, or a whole of other things on the back panel.
With Windows 8 then 10 it is increasingly difficult to not being able to use the Win+X key combo on the model M. It may be time for me to move on… 🙁
Yeah, that’s why I mentioned the Keytronic one — it’s just young enough to have a Win key. That’s the one that’s on my Win10 system. When Win10 becomes my daily driver, I’ll probably have to bite the bullet and retire that magnificent piece of IBM engineering. I’d [url=https://youtu.be/-abUtRbUS_U<]quote[/url<] Indy, but I don't think even [url=http://www.livingcomputers.org/<]Paul Allen's folks[/url<] will want it"
I do, still using an almost 19(!) year old keyboard. Spacebar’s finally giving up so probably will need to be replaced sometime (this year?).
[i<]raises hand[/i<]
It is because it is a proven standard and there’s still a massive stock of perfectly working keyboard/mice that operate only with PS/2. USB to PS/2 adapters are still a hit or miss.
It is also handy for troubleshooting when you want to eliminate USB controller/port being the source of your ills. 😉
[quote<]It is also handy for troubleshooting when you want to eliminate USB controller/port being the source of your ills. ;)[/quote<] Bingo - sometimes if you're troubleshooting a system, you'll need to disable USB to confirm the controller or port isn't the issue.
I do use PS/2, it’s the only way of using Hotkeys to keep the great MS Office Keyboard running with all features (no drivers for x64). I wouldn’t buy a mobo without the PS/2. I probably blowed your mind so, sorry for that.
You mean like [url=http://img.clubic.com/00028766-photo-clavier-microsoft-office-keyboard.jpg<]this one[/url<]? I had one a long time ago, but it got lost in a move. 🙁
I use an old IBM model M13. It is PS2 and you can pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Wow, motherboards used to have scads more “stuff” on them. Like millions of tiny little surface mount resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, etc. on them. All these new motherboards that are coming out seem to be awfully barren.
Most of the stuff those electronics were used for lives in the CPU these days. Of course OEMs still have to implement ports and connectors, but the chips/traces/ICs etc needed for them are much less than they used to be.
Such as? I’m pretty sure they moved the memory controller onto the CPU a long time ago but that’s all I can think of.
Well, not just the memory controller — there’s no more “front-side bus” at all. The primary expansion slots connect directly to the CPU as well as the RAM you already mentioned. All of that “bus” is now part of the CPU, called “uncore” (by Intel at least.) Graphics, if present, are also on the CPU package if not the die itself. Likewise, both L2 and L3 caches are on the CPU, although that’s been that way a long while now.
I mean, pictures are great and all, but without some detailed specifications I’m not sure what good this does us? There are pictures all over the web of these boards. I don’t mean to be negative, but without any added TR content (not just pictures) I’m a little lost.
So, where are these “pictures all over the web of these boards” of which you speak? Sure, there will be in a few hours, but right now…. go ahead, show me.
[url<]http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-shows-off-am4-motherboards-that-are-ready-for-ryzen-processors_190015[/url<] [url<]http://www.anandtech.com/show/10990/amd-announces-x370-motherboards-for-am4-laying-the-groundwork-for-ryzen[/url<] [url<]http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-chipset-motherboard-system,33339.html[/url<] Just to link a few.
Fair enough. But not all boards represented there are what’s posted here. And there’s a bit more detail here (I/O ports). We saw these boards literally get unwrapped from the factory and the brand’s staff was even gathering around to have a gander.
I didn’t say you guys didn’t get to see something cool. I just wish there was some added content as we’ve come to expect in the past. Some details about the actual chipsets at least. Didn’t realize two staff members were going to get defensive. My bad I guess.
There’s only so much we can share without getting into trouble.
Trouble is good. 🙂
Live dangerously.
And other people’s trouble is the best kind. 🙂
Trouble in this instance though means no gear to review down the track – and we all know how much we’d like that rubbish to stop here.
(I know your post was in good taste, the :), I’d just one day like to read a ‘real’ review on these boards here.)
Jeff, to us here, you’re ALWAYS our first official.
Anybody can repost a PR image. We’re definitely the first to get up close and personal because Gigabyte literally pulled these fresh out of the packaging for us. Don’t be a Debbie Downer.
Well Jeff did say the Gaming 5 has feature parity with the Z270 version. That means laggy mouse EFI and RGB LEDs standard.
lol nice
Well, it does say ‘first [u<]look[/u<]'. :-p
Whoa look at you all world-exclusive and all that. Congrats on that, however short-lived it might be.
Looks like these boards have a lot of bare space, probably thanks to so much being built into the CPU and chipset. Or maybe it’s how the M.2 slots replace semi-useless PCIe X1 slots that usually sit below the graphics card (and are usually blocked).
Hopefully that means there will be plenty of mini-ITX options available.
Maybe they look empty because a good gaming PC has enough stuff to populate a micro-ATX motherboard, but those ATX boards have three more slots worth of real estate without alot to do with it.
Don’t you have homework you need to get to?
Class starts the 17th. :p