AMD's B550 series motherboards are due to release in June

[WYP]

Cost-effective PCIe 4.0 support for the masses.



Read more about AMD's rumoured B550 chipset reveal.

 

[g0ggles1994]

I suspect AMD have been trying to refine B550 so it can support everything without needing active cooling like X570 since these are cheaper boards so it'll help keep costs down.

 

[WYP]

I suspect AMD have been trying to refine B550 so it can support everything without needing active cooling like X570 since these are cheaper boards so it'll help keep costs down.

AMD got its chipset by basically reusing I/O dies from Zen 2 processors, which gave them volume manufacturing to help keep costs down and early PCIe 4.0 support

B550 could be a chip from ASMedia, which would likely cut down the fat from AMD's design and bring the size and TDP down to lower levels. So I think B550 will allow more motherboards to remove the chipset fan.

TBH, X570's fan was the cost of early PCIe 4.0 support, which is a worthwhile trade-off given how little these fans need run in practice. I will be interested in seeing how B550 works and how X670 works.

With the way consoles are going, storage will become increasingly important in PC games, so I can see PCI 4.0 as a huge selling point for forward-looking PC gamers.