EVGA's classified AMD motherboard has been declassified — EVGA X670E Classified prototype motherboard fetches over $1,300

Hardware enthusiast Jiacheng Liu recently flaunted several EVGA X670E Classified prototypes on his X account. While the motherboard's future is unknown, the existence of the engineering samples (ES) indicates that EVGA was at least working on an AM5 motherboard for AMD Ryzen Zen 4 and newer processors.

Like previous Classified motherboards, the EVGA X670E Classified clings to the larger E-ATX form factor. Tailored to hardcore enthusiasts and extreme overclockers, the motherboard sports a 14-phase power delivery system with two 8-pin EPS power connectors to feed the Ryzen processor. EVGA placed the EPS power connectors beside the 24-pin power connector with a right-angle design to facilitate cable management. The AM5 socket and the four accompanying DDR5 memory slots are 90-degree rotated, a layout characteristic of EVGA's motherboards.

The motherboard has two PCIe x16 expansion slots, one PCIe x4 expansion slot, and three M.2 slots. Since this is an unreleased product, we don't have the specification sheet to corroborate the speed of the interfaces. However, according to X670E's design requirement, at least one of the expansion slots and one M.2 slot should be PCIe 5.0. Conventional storage comes in the form of eight SATA III ports.

The EVGA X670E Classified provides numerous connectivity options. There are 12 USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports, dual Ethernet networking ports, five 3.5 mm audio connectors, and an S/PDIF output. For convenience, the rear I/O also has a button to clear the CMOS and another to flash the motherboard's firmware. The EVGA X670E Classified doesn't appear to have wireless networking but has empty holes for the antennas.

Image 1 of 3

Liu tested the EVGA X670E Classified with an impromptu LGA1700 water-cooling block, DDR5 memory modules with SK hynix A-die ICs, and a Ryzen 9 7950X ES processor. The motherboard firmware was version 0.00, dated August 24, 2022. It's one of the earlier firmware since it was still based on the AGESA ComboAM5PI 1.0.0.2 code.

Despite being a prototype with very early firmware, the EVGA X670E Classified reportedly performed great at memory training. Training DDR5-6000 at C32 seemed to take around 30 seconds. For reference, memory training time depends on the amount of memory, the frequency, and the vendor's optimizations. Depending on the aforementioned factors, memory training spans from a few seconds to a minute. The EVGA X670E Classified presented other issues typical for an unreleased product. For example, the motherboard didn't support SLI configurations with the Titan Xp or Titan RTX via NVLink despite the motherboard rocking the Nvidia SLI logo on the back of the PCB. Additionally, Liu noted that fan control didn't work.

The EVGA X670E Classified prototypes were briefly available on Xianyu, a popular second-hand market platform in China. Liu said he had paid around $620 for four PCBs without heatsinks; meanwhile, the retail-looking sample with heatsinks set him back $1,378. Apparently, another buyer flew to Shenzhen, China, to buy a single PCB for $689.

The Intel 700 series was likely EVGA's swan song. The fact that we're just seeing the EVGA X670E Classified prototypes on the second-hand market somewhat confirms that. It doesn't make sense to release an X670E motherboard this late into the game, as AMD has already announced the Ryzen 9000 chips with 800-series motherboards. There was an old rumor that EVGA had shuttered its motherboard business. Although the company has refuted the rumors, we don't expect to see another motherboard from EVGA again. The EVGA X670E Classified will likely become a collector's item, much like the GeForce RTX 4090 FTW3 prototype that never made it to the retail market.