Gigabyte And MSI X870 Motherboards Spotted At Retail Priced At Up To $800
by
Thiago Trevisan
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024, 11:21 AM EDT
AMD released its Ryzen 9000 series CPUs last month after a small delay and some early teething issues. We are now starting to see hints of the new motherboards for the X870 family. According to listings on B&H Photo (which the retailer ended up pulling offline), some motherboards from Gigabyte will range in price from $219 up to $799. The X870E variants will command the higher price, much like they did with X670E indicating more PCIe Gen 5 lanes. The X870 motherboards are slated to be released at the end of September, so these are just early retail indicators before reviews hit the media.
AMD X870 motherboards will get Wi-FI 7, plus support for Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000 family of CPUs. The Gigabyte X870E Aorus Master appears to keep its $499 price from its predecessor, which was priced the same. The X870E Aorus Xtreme AI Top will get a $100 bump in price to $799, however. If the value proposition is there or not will depend on an actual review of features, but typically the "Xtreme" lineup of motherboards are priced accordingly with its extra features.
Some MSI motherboards, such as the MSI MAG X870 Tomahawk Wi-Fi were also spotted at It Spot, an Australian retailer.
The initial rollout of AMD Ryzen 9000 has been slow, with sales moving at a snail's pace. Many enthusiasts are likely waiting for the X3D variants, as the existing Ryzen 7 7800X3D still packs a punch in the gaming segment. AMD motherboards have slowly crept up in price during the last few years, especially with the introduction of Ryzen 7000. The chipsets are more advanced, so much of that increase can be justified. They use DDR5, for example, and have a generous offering of PCIe Gen 5 lanes for fast drives.
Motherboards for AMD's X870E appeared at BH Photo
While the listings at B&H Photo have been removed, they do indicate most of the expected pricing and models for manufacturers such as Gigabyte. The benefit of Ryzen 9000 CPUs are that they are a simple drop-in upgrade for older motherboards on the X670 or similar chipsets. Often requiring just a simple BIOS update, they can perform and function similarly to newer motherboards. The new features, such as Wi-Fi 7 and aesthetic changes are buying points to keep in mind, however. Many may choose to remain on existing chipsets if the upgrade benefits are not worth the cost.
Newer chipsets such as X870 can often come with other behind-the-scenes improvements, too. For example, better DDR5 RAM support for faster and more reliable speeds, plus improvements to thermal designs. It is still good to see enthusiast-focused motherboards appear, as AMD seems to be changing plans in its GPU division. Choosing to focus more on mid-range GPUs for RDNA 4, AMD may soon leave the higher-end segment in the hands of NVIDIA.
The CPU space is vastly different, however, and AMD has a commanding lead for enthusiast level products. This is more true now after Intel had its own share of issues with its high-end CPUs. With the eventual release of AMD's X3D CPUs for Ryzen 9000, we may seem a higher adoption rate of the newer X870 chipset as well.
