AMD to Showcase Mid-Range B650/B650E Platforms on October 4th

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AMD's Zen 4 and AM5 platforms set to become cheaper in coming weeks.

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(Image credit: AMD)

AMD's reasonably priced B650 and B650E platforms for its Ryzen 7000-series CPUs in AM5 packaging may be closer than expected as the company's partners are already set to showcase them in early October. 

AMD will host its Meet the Experts presentation called 'An Exclusive First Look at B650 and B650E AM5 Motherboards' on October 4 (at 10AM CDT) where its partners will reveal details of their reasonably-priced motherboards for AM5 processors. Among the highlights of the new platforms AMD mentions support for its Ryzen 7000-series processors, dual-channel DDR5, and PCIe 5.0 interconnection. 

Asus, ASRock, Biostar, Gigabyte, and MSI will reveal their AMD B650 and B650E lineups as well as highlight their key features at the event. 

The biggest question, of course, is when motherboard makers will actually start selling their products based on AMD's B650 and B650E chipsets — AMD and partners pre-announced their flagship AMD 670/670E platforms a little less than two months ahead of actual sales. With B650/B650E, the lag between announcement and sales will hopefully be shorter. 

AMD's high-end enthusiast-grade AMD X670 and AMD X670E platforms for Ryzen 7000-series CPUs that are set to hit the market on September 27 promise very advanced connectivity and impressive overclocking capabilities. Unfortunately, as listings of Asus and MSI motherboards have demonstrated, many of them are going to be prohibitively expensive, which will make them a prerogative of die-hard enthusiasts and gamers with deep pockets. 

To make Zen 4 generation processors more accessible for the masses, AMD and its partners are preparing AMD B650 and B650E platforms that will support key capabilities of AMD's Ryzen 7000-series processors but will have a cut-down feature set as well as considerably lower costs and prices. 

But even with the launch of AMD's B650/B650E platforms, do not expect Zen 4-based machines to get cheap any time soon. The lowest-cost Ryzen 5 7600X is priced at $299, DDR5 memory is sold at a premium over DDR4 modules, and we do not expect B650/B650E motherboards to be bargains. But if you want to have the latest platform, you should probably be prepared to pay for this. 

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Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alceryes
    (y)
    Come on Gigabyte Tachyon B650E!!
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    built a AM4 system recently.

    am5 is just too $$$ currently for benefit.


    will probably just wait for yr or 2 when prices are more a kin to current platform.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    Kind of wish AMD, Intel and Nvidia would cut back on marketing pre-pre-pre-announcement of product launches (not necessarily availability) in favor of lowered prices or packing more value per dollar.

    I suppose there isn't much else they can do when the majority of their target audience already has PCs 2-3X more powerful than needed for most everyday needs, got to play the FOMO card with big marketing campaign to get more people to upgrade prematurely despite rising costs and diminishing real-world benefits.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    While these may be cheaper no one is saying they are going to be cheap.
    Reply
  • lmcnabney
    Not having a DDR4 option is going to kick AMD right in the midrange market. If the recommended DDR5 is 6000 with a latency of at least 32 it is going to add at least $170 compared to equivalent speed DDR4 for a 32GB set.
    That means Intel is going to be able to offer a better value proposition. AMD will need to cut $100 or more across the board (or offer a memory bundle at DDR4 prices) to be competitive.
    This will be demonstrated in obvious charts on a hundred websites (including Tom's) once the embargo is ended for Zen4 and Raptor Lake. The decision to go all-in on DDR5 is going to hurt.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    lmcnabney said:
    Not having a DDR4 option is going to kick AMD right in the midrange market. If the recommended DDR5 is 6000 with a latency of at least 32 it is going to add at least $170 compared to equivalent speed DDR4 for a 32GB set.
    Although prices have improved, I doubt the 'midrange' market can be bothered with anything much faster than 5200-36 or 5600-38 at the moment as that is the point where the number of affordable options drops drastically. 6000-32 is far too deep into enthusiast territory to be called mid-range.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    Wonder if there will be a low end for next gen CPUs
    Reply
  • ohio_buckeye
    I remember when am4 came out, you could get a ryzen 3 for about 99 dollars, when I bought my Asrock ab350 pro 4 board, it was about 70-80 dollars.

    High end is fine but they also shouldn’t leave out budget buyers. I’ve usually purchased amd in the past but honestly if I were building with a low budget an i3 12100 with a budget board is a pretty decent value.
    Reply
  • lmcnabney
    InvalidError said:
    Although prices have improved, I doubt the 'midrange' market can be bothered with anything much faster than 5200-36 or 5600-38 at the moment as that is the point where the number of affordable options drops drastically. 6000-32 is far too deep into enthusiast territory to be called mid-range.

    Which is a mistake. AMD already revealed that 6000 is the necessary speed because of the infinity fabric which I believe runs at a 3000 cycle. Anything not at a multiple is going to stagger the cycle and waste clocks.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    lmcnabney said:
    Which is a mistake. AMD already revealed that 6000 is the necessary speed because of the infinity fabric which I believe runs at a 3000 cycle. Anything not at a multiple is going to stagger the cycle and waste clocks.
    Based on the Raphael leaks, it seems Zen 4 fabric clocks are still in the 1600-2000MHz range.

    Also, even if maximum fabric clocks do go up to 3000 from 2000, remember that they aren't set in stone and just because the maximum is 3000, you don't have to run it at maximum possible. If you insist on running 1:1 mem:fabric at 5600MT/s, you can still run the fabric clock at 2800MHz instead. You don't have to pay almost twice as much for memory beyond 5600-36 for 0-10% more performance.
    Reply
  • wifiburger
    lmcnabney said:
    Which is a mistake. AMD already revealed that 6000 is the necessary speed because of the infinity fabric which I believe runs at a 3000 cycle. Anything not at a multiple is going to stagger the cycle and waste clocks.

    1733 is stock and goes up to 2000IF when ddr5 6000 is used

    You won't get IF to 3000Mhz. Zen4 IF links are doubled now for bandwidth support to ddr5.

    So you have 2 IF links x 32bits each to the ccd; so your OC chances to 3000Mhz is very slim to none.

    Especially on 12,16 cores with 4 IF links going through the cpu PCB; there's no way you're pushing 3Ghz stable.
    Reply