Introduction
Thinking of which to purchase between intel Z590 vs AMD X570 chipset? The new X570 southbridge was developed to support the range of Ryzen 3000 series SKUs, from the forthcoming Ryzen 9 3950X with its 16-core 24-thread architecture to the four-core Ryzen 3 2200G APU, with support for the Ryzen 2000 series as a fallback. The Z590 chipset is Intel’s latest and greatest, compatible with Rocket Lake and Comet Lake CPUs. We investigate the wide selection of new motherboards that will soon be available. In this article, we shall explain each of these chipsets, so you to select anyone that suits your needs.
AMD X570 Chipset
The new AMD chipset is designed to attract users to switch from earlier motherboards and chipsets by providing improved power delivery, PCIe 4.0 compatibility, and native USB 3.1 Gen2 support, among other features.
Custom PC builders and gamers who want to upgrade to the latest and most outstanding components will likely go for a motherboard with a flagship chipset because of its more performance headroom. This necessitates having access to several boards, the most up-to-date USB and memory support, storage choices, I/O, and so on. Whether AMD can pull off a miraculous comeback or Intel will continue to dominate the high-end chipset market is a question we’ll answer in the next section by analysing the present state of both platforms.
The X570 keeps using the AM4 socket and boasts support for 2nd-generation (Zen+) Ryzen 2000 series processors. There is no official support for Ryzen 1 processors, and all the way up to the flagship Ryzen 9 3950x, scheduled for delivery in September 2019, are all fully supported. This applies to the Athlon 2xx series GE CPUs and the Pro variants with Radeon Vega 2 integrated graphics.
The X570 chipset is compatible with around 35 different CPUs, from dual-core, four-thread components to a soon-to-be-released 16-core, 32-thread monster that straddles the border between high-end and mainstream. These Processors may be purchased for anything from $60 to $749. (MSRP).
To Aid in Recalling
The X570 platform inherits the dual-channel capabilities of the X470, but it upgrades the basic memory speeds to DDR4-3200 (from DDR4-2933 on Zen and Zen+) and claims to be quicker and more compatible. Although compatibility remains to be seen, AMD has indicated that DDR4-3600 memory is optimal, which bodes well for improved performance.
Although DDR4 is still relatively new, most users have already settled around the 3600 MHz range, as predicted by AMD. There is an automatic 2:1 memory split after 3600, which doubles the delay.
Zen 2’s clock speed climbed to around DDR4-5000 MHz when cooled with liquid nitrogen. This is encouraging news for the future of the platform in particular. Things are looking up for Team Red now that they have physically separated the memory controller from the cores.
Most X570-based motherboards claim compatibility for overclocking to speeds over DDR4-4000. Several motherboards advertise “OC” speeds of DDR4-4400, specified by multipliers. This is a significant improvement over what we have seen from AMD, although it may not be compatible with all systems.
Capability to Overclock
The AMD side’s overclocking is automated by the motherboard, a feature known as Precision Boost Overdrive. In order for PBO to properly raise the clock speed, the conditions of Package Power Tracking, Thermal Design Current, and Electrical Design Current must be met. While PBO does not yet improve performance beyond the boost clock, it does aid in keeping boost clocks running for longer and more often. Manual overclocking is often more effective and may run more relaxed than staying with what the motherboard does. However, there are exceptions (boards tend to use more voltage than needed when on auto-from both camps).
Compared to Intel’s restricted overclocking options, AMD’s whole family of processors allows for multiplier overclocking. Nevertheless, the base clock-to-overclock range on Ryzen-based CPUs has traditionally been significantly lower than on Intel-based CPUs. The 3900X has a base clock of 3.8 GHz, although most reviewers using good-sized AIO coolers have reached 4.3 GHz, for a difference of around 500 Mhz. With a chip, an Intel system running on a Core i9-9900K or similar unlocked Processor may quickly achieve double that performance.
Input/Output Ports
Most of the newest and finest connection options are available on AMD’s X570 chipset. It has up to eight USB 3.1 Gen2 and four USB 3.1 Gen1 ports. While AMD’s total number of USB ports is lower than Intel’s, the company has two extra USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports. The X570 has eight built-in SATA3 (6 Gbps) connections for data storage.
With X570, the most notable improvement is the inclusion of PCIe 4.0. This function effectively doubles the bandwidth available to the GPU and anything else, such as the interface between the chipset and the CPU. Even the powerful RTX 2080 doesn’t use all of the available PCIe 3.0 bandwidth, so this doesn’t assist video card performance. Nevertheless, it does aid the upcoming PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs by doubling their possible sequential speed.
Technologies and methods for storing
The X570 has eight SATA3 ports for storage, matching the number on the X470 boards (B450 supported six). These connections can operate in RAID 0 (striped), RAID 1 (mirrored), and RAID 10 (striped plus mirroring) configurations. As we noted before, the platform supports PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, which is the key feature here. Once again, this is only useful for individuals who can take advantage of increased sequential read/write rates.
Also included in the X570 is AMD’s StoreMI technology, which employs a tiny solid-state drive (SSD) and RAM to accelerate and cache commonly sluggish mechanical hard drives. Using StoreMI, an SSD and mechanical drive work together as if they were a single, massive volume to the operating system. This function is analogous to Intel’s RST in prioritising using the speedier ‘drive’ for frequently visited files. When the time comes to do that duty, the drive’s “faster” (SSD) storage will be accessible. Users may speed up their systems by allocating up to 2GB of RAM to caching using StoreMI.
Z590 Chipset
We contacted all motherboard manufacturers, as is customary when a new platform is released, to get a complete list of Z590 models and photos and technical details for each. All the companies we contacted had something available, but several things were still in the works and wouldn’t be released for a few more months. This page contains the most up-to-date information and will be updated when new details become available. We now have data on more than fifty different motherboards. We promise to keep this Z590 summary as current as possible with important details like pricing and newly released variants.
Intel’s Z590 Chipset Provides Increased Processor Bandwidth by 1.5x
The core size employed means that the latest Rocket Lake flagship only has eight cores rather than the ten of the previous generation. But Intel has added several new capabilities to the leading flagship chipset, and many manufacturers are releasing a broad range of models from the start. The new flagship Z590 has two or three significant improvements over the Z490.
The first change is a jump from a DMI x4 connection between the CPU and the chipset to a DMI x8 link. This shows that two PCIe 3.0 x4 drives may be mounted and operate at full speed since the adequate bandwidth between the CPU and the chipset is equivalent to a PCIe 3.0 x8 connection. Based on our research, only the Z590 in the 500-series chipsets will allow for this configuration; all the others will need an x4 connection. The x8 contact is also limited to Rocket Lake Processors; any other CPU architecture will result in a reduced link speed of x4.
The second key distinction is that the CPU can take advantage of PCIe 4.0 on the Z590 platform. Intel is introducing native CPU PCIe 4.0 capability, with 20 lanes to allow for a full x16 connection for expansion cards and additional PCIe 4.0 x4 for storage. If necessary, similar to earlier mainstream motherboards, vendors can mux that x16 into a bifurcated solution with x8/x8 or x8/x4/x4 lanes.
To round off the changes, the chipset now has native support for USB 3.2 G2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C. While it is optional, and some cheaper models may not have the port, motherboards that use this function will likely enable it on a front or back panel connection.
The memory capability available on Intel’s 11th Generation CPUs has also been improved, from DDR4-2933 to DDR4-3200. This indicates that motherboard manufacturers are constructing their products to fulfil the minimum requirements of this DDR4-3200 at JEDEC regulations but that the vast majority will exceed these requirements to support overclocked memory. With the revision to the ratio, motherboards are now available to support DDR4-5333. However, the cost of the associated memory is relatively high. It’s important to remember that using a memory profile greater than DDR4-3200 is considered overclocking and voids any warranty. The Intel Performance Tuning Protection Plan (PTPP) is a warranty offered by Intel themselves and available for separate purchase.
USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 20 Gbps Type-C is now fully integrated into the new Intel Z590 chipset. On the older Z490 chipset, manufacturers had to employ third-party controllers like the ASMedia ASM3242 to access the chipset’s PCIe lanes.
Vendors are also concentrating on networking, with Intel including a native Wi-Fi 6 MAC in the chipset that can be accessed through Intel’s CNVi interface. Intel’s new AX201 and AX210 Wi-Fi 6 RF modules and the latest Intel Killer AX1675 will allow vendors to accomplish this (in case you missed the news, Intel acquired the firm responsible for the Killer networking chips).
In wired connectivity, Intel highlights 2.5 GbE PCIe chip support for the new chipsets. However, this isn’t particularly noteworthy because it works exactly the same as previous generations; motherboard manufacturers purchase a 2.5 GbE PCIe chip and attach it to the chipset. However, generally, when Intel promotes in this manner, there is a bundle offer for suppliers that purchase the chipset together with the Intel-branded network controller, so we should expect to see a push for 2.5 GbE networking on Z590.
Conclusion
Due to AMD’s powerful CPUs and its total price increasing quite a bit, motherboard selection, formerly a non-issue when comparing platforms, is now a factor to consider. The value proposition for Intel is simplified by the lower beginning and peak prices. As customers, we’re in a better place now than we were a couple of years ago before Zen CPUs came out when AMD was absent from the performance market. The Z590 shines regarding USB speeds since it supports USB 3.2 Gen 22 at 20 Gb/s. They can work with many different CPUs and come in many physical configurations.
