AMD X870 motherboards and Zen 5-boosting AGESA update arrive

Today, AMD is launching its new 800 series chipset, which means a new wave of motherboards for those looking to make the jump to a Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 processor. We already have a few boards in-house for review, but for now, let's go over the X870 Chipset features, as well as the improvements being brought to the table with the latest AGESA firmware update.

Watch on YouTube below:

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:21 Leo’s X870 mobos
• 01:12 New 800-series chipsets
• 02:36 AGESA 1.2.0.2 news
• 04:07 Windows 11 updates + DDR5-8000

In the gallery below you can see slides from AMD's X870 presentation:

At the top of AMD's current-gen motherboard stack is the X870E, followed by X870, and then B850. Typically, X870E motherboards will set you back over £400 and are intended for the high-end enthusiasts seeking the best possible performance through overclocking. This chipset also enables the use of ultra-fast DDR5-8000 memory. In the past we've said the every-day gamer is typically better off saving some money with a Bx50 motherboard and putting more money into the graphics card, but we'll have to wait for our reviews of X870E boards before passing judgement.

Compared to X670, X870 chipsets come with USB 4, and make the jump from PCIe Gen 4 to PCIe Gen 5 lanes for extra bandwidth. With the latest AGESA update, motherboards will include a toggle in the BIOS to bump Zen 5 65W processors up to 105W. This will of course increase power consumption, but it will also net you a performance bump in the range of 10 percent on average. However, as Leo states in the video, the trade-off in efficiency to get that extra bit of performance is a tough one to make, as the gains aren't necessarily worth it.

More importantly though, the new AGESA update fixes core latency on certain Zen 5 processors, which should in turn help with performance and keeping interruptions or hangs to a minimum.

To get the new microcode improvements, you will need to upgrade your motherboard to the latest BIOS. New X870 motherboards that begin shipping this week will include this BIOS version out of the box, so the update should only be necessary for those running an older chipset motherboard with a Zen 5 processor.

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KitGuru Says: Are you planning on making the jump to Zen 5? Will you be picking up an X870 motherboard to pair with your new CPU? 

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