Only some of AMD’s chipsets will support the latest Zen 3 CPU architecture, AMD said. As most know, AM4 represents the physical socket for the current Ryzen processors, and it has remained in ...

The chipset is connected to the AM4 chip by a PCIe 3.0 x4 link and outputs 6 PCIe 2.0 lanes. The chipset also puts out 2x USB 3.1 G2 ports, 6x USB 3.1 G1 ports, and 6x SATA 6 Gbps ports.

The AM4 chipset lineup looks like pretty sensible stuff from AMD. There's little radical, but neither is there anything which is setting off any alarm bells in my tiny little mind.

For the last two generations of AM4 motherboards, led by the X370 and X470 chipsets, AMD has relied on ASMedia, a Taiwanese tech company, to produce the motherboard PCH.

When AMD unveiled Bristol Ridge earlier in the month, they also released some details for their new AM4 platform. Used for Bristol Ridge and Zen, the new socket utilizes a new series of chipsets.

The AMD chipset provides x8 PCI-E 2.0 lanes on X370 and x6 PCI-E 2.0 on B350. Networking requires a standalone controller, and on the AM4 platform, we have seen a broad range of controllers.

And then there’s AM1, the socket for AMD’s most basic processors. In comparison, the next generation of Zen CPUs and APUs will all use just one chipset, with one common socket called AM4.

When AMD launched the Zen architecture and the first generation of Ryzen processors, AMD pledged to support the AM4 socket through 2020. This was in stark contrast to Intel's heavily fragmented ...

The biggest change between AM4 and new sockets from AMD and Intel is DDR5 support. LGA1700, LGA1851, and AM5 boards all support DDR5 -- though some older LGA1700 boards are restricted to DDR4.

AMD will have a flagship X670 chipset, something that will continue to support he AM4 socket and PCIe 4.0 standard, but we could also see native Thunderbolt 3 support included.

ASRock X370 AM4 motherboard (image courtesy of PC World) Both chipsets offer dual-channel DDR4 memory, PCIe 3.0 slots, support for USB generations 3.1 and 3.2, and M.2 SATA SSDs.

AMD's formal commitment is to support AM4 through 2020. The company has gone beyond that, as far as continuing to support two-year-old chipsets with 7nm processors.