AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series processors are right around the corner. They are supposed to launch this fall. Leaks surrounding these processors and the boards required to run them started to pile in in mid-2021. And, in light of recent developments surrounding the AM5 socket and the high-end X670 motherboards, the industry got shook.
Recently, a motherboard diagram of an upcoming X670 motherboard got leaked online. From the design, we can point out that it is the Asus Prime X670-P Wifi variant of the board. The drawing confirms that the board packs two identical chipsets. This design might help run the CPU more efficiently. However, it can also be a premium feature found on only the most expensive offerings.
Rumors about a dual-chip X670 board are not new. ASRock and Gigabyte teased their board designs in the past, but they did not give a clue on the number of chips AMD’s upcoming chipset will use.
The recent leak comes from an anonymous user on Baidu. The exact drawing is attached below.
One of the two identical chips is placed in the usual chips one would expect to see a Southbridge chip. The second chip is placed in the exact position, but far towards the right of the board. If you observe the diagram closely, you can spot the third chip.
If you are a tech nerd, you probably cannot get your head around this development. It may sound impossible to connect two chips to a Northbridge chip with 24 PCIe lanes. But, it is possible to daisy chain them.
With graphics cards getting overly demanding and powerful, a chip designed to control them can sound logical too. Thus, a PCIe switch can also be made use of two chips. Although PCIe switches come with high I/O performance, they are an expensive solution. But, the presence of a third chip in the drawing supports this theory by a big margin.
AMD has shed no light on these developments. So, take this leak with a grain of salt.
