AMD has announced the B650 Extreme Chipset for the Ryzen 7000 series, which will provide PCIe 5.0 for mainstream applications.

The speculation mill surrounding AMD’s soon-to-be-released Ryzen 7000 CPUs for desktop computers has been operating at full tilt for the past couple of months. Despite the fact that Lisa Su presented Zen 4 at CES 2022, it was widely speculated that the new AM5 platform would support multiple chipsets. This is analogous to how AM4 supports over 500 different motherboards, with lifespans ranging from X370 to X570 and everything in between, and it was expected that AM5 would follow a similar pattern.

During the AMD Keynote presentation at Computex 2022, the company revealed its X670E, X670, and B650 chipsets. This evening, the company revealed the B650E chipset as the fourth chipset that would be compatible with Ryzen 7000.

The B650E chipset will run alongside the already announced B650 chipset, but because it is a part of AMD’s ‘Extreme’ series of chipsets, it will benefit from PCI Express 5.0 lanes to at least one M.2 slot, as well as optional support for PCI Express 5.0 to a PCIe graphics slot. These features are not available with standard B650 boards. The B650E chipset will run alongside the B650 chipset.

Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, presented three AM5 chipsets at the company’s keynote address at Computex 2022. These chipsets are intended to leverage the power of AMD’s 5 nm Zen 4 cores that are included in the Ryzen 7000 CPUs.

We were previously aware that the AM5 socket was centered around a Lane Grid Array (LGA) socket that has a total of 1718 pins and is appropriately called LGA1718. Not only will AM5 be able to use native PCIe 5.0 support from the CPU for use with the PCIe slots, but it will also be able to use this support for storage using PCIe 5.0, with the first consumer drives expected to begin rolling out in November 2022. This is just one of the significant benefits that will be coming to AM5.

The most recent statement made by AMD was on the B650E (Extreme) chipset. This chipset provides customers and motherboard makers with the option of utilizing a platform at a cheaper cost, but without losing the durability and expansion capabilities of PCIe 5.0.

The X670E chipset is only available on the company’s highest-end products, such as the flagship ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme motherboard, which was introduced at Computex 2022.

Update 08/31: This morning, we got a message from AMD PR confirming that the B650 and B650E line of boards will enable CPU overclocking. The corresponding changes have been made to our table.

Using PCIe 5.0 lanes calls for a more premium PCB, which normally consists of additional layers. These layers allow the tracks to maintain signal integrity, but typically this results in an increase in cost. Because the B650E chipset is available, suppliers will be able to employ the more costly PCIe 5.0 laning with more modest controller sets, which will allow them to balance the expense.

Customers who want the greatest controller sets should choose either the X670 or the X670E. In an ideal world, it provides users with a platform to expand on that is wider and more future-proof, but it does so without forcing them to go into debt to purchase needless controller sets.

In the end, this implies that AMD will have a mainstream platform (B650E) that comes equipped with PCI Express 5.0 by default, in addition to a cheaper variant that only provides PCI Express 4.0 lanes to the PEG and M.2 slots.

Because this is one of the most significant advantages of AMD’s AM5 architecture, AMD is putting a lot of pressure on motherboard manufacturers to include at least one PCI Express 5.0 M.2 slot for storage on the majority of their boards.

The release of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs for desktop computers is scheduled for September 27th, according to an announcement made by the company during its together we advance PCs event. The launch will include support for motherboards based on the X670E and X670 chipsets. Later in the month of October, the motherboards that include the B650E and B650 chipsets will be made available for purchase at a later date.