The folks over at Videocardz have done some digging and uncovered something interesting about what’s next for the AM4+ and TR4 platforms. Their insider source at Asus confirmed that the company is currently working on both X590 and X599 boards as the premium AM4+ platforms. Asus is working on three parts at the moment. The Prime X590-Pro and ROG Strix X590-E are the two X590 variants. Meanwhile, the Zenith II Extreme is the new X599 part. Going by Asus’ existing nomenclature, the X590-Pro slots in as the pocket-friendly variant. It’ll likely eschew some RGB gamer bling to deliver X590 at a reasonable price-point to professionals. Meanwhile, the Strix X590-E will be Asus’ new flagship AM4+ board. It’ll have RGB lighting, better build quality, and a complete range of connectivity options.
One thing we’re still not clear on, though, is just how the X590 platform itself will be a step up from X570. The latter was a significant step up from second-gen AM4+ boards. It introduced PCI-E 4.0 support, six more USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, and support for DDR4 at up to 3200 MHz. Where can X590 go from here? We’re thinking that X590 will feature value additions to hike prices, as a way to offset the greater cost of supporting PCI-E 4.0. Reports suggested that third-gen AM4+ boards could be significantly more expensive than earlier models. Top-end X570 boards cost as much as $1000 in the here and now. X590 might be needed to create another price tier that starts in the mid-upper range of current X570 boards. Possible value adds that we see here are support for PCI-E 4.0 (of course), and higher DDR4 speeds. 3200 MHz isn’t all that bad, but with memory manufacturers coming out with ever-faster memory, it might make sense to support modules at 3600 MHz or higher.
The X599, meanwhile, looks to be a more straightforward incremental upgrade. A TR4 board for 3rd gen Threadripper hasn’t been released yet because, well, third-gen Threadripper doesn’t exist at present. Instead, we have the 3900X which is effectively a 2nd Gen Threadripper killer that AMD’s somehow managed to fit onto a regular, consumer socket. The even beefier Ryzen 9 3950X is set to release in a couple of months with as many as 16 cores, so the X599 is likely related to it. It’ll add support for PCI-E 4.0 and cost a bit more than the X399 boards on the market right now.
Further Reading:
Any idea when it will be out?
We’ll let you know as soon as we find out