AMD adds DDR5-8000 EXPO support, just in time for new X870 motherboards

With the arrival of new flagship AM5 X870 motherboards for the new Ryzen 9000 Series CPUs and the entire Ryzen 7000 Series line-up, the new flagship AM5 chipset brings a lot to the table - full-speed PCIe Gen 5 support for graphics and storage, USB4 as standard, and overall improvements and optimizations for overclockers.

4

With new motherboards hitting the market this week, AMD has also updated its AGESA BIOS firmware to improve Ryzen 9000 Series CPU performance and latency. The Ryzen 9000 Series launch - covering the Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 7 9700X, Ryzen 9 9900X, and the Ryzen 9950X - hasn't been without issue. In fact, for many people, it felt rushed, which is why we've had to wait months for the new motherboards to arrive. There have been various updates, including ones for Windows.

With the new firmware, AMD is also confirming that X870 boards are now optimized for the one-click AMD EXPO DDR5-8000 memory kits, which are already available. This is a long-awaited AMD upgrade; even the Ryzen 9000 Series launch saw memory speed and builds top out at DDR5-6000.

"With the help of motherboard and memory manufacturers, we've enabled DDR5-8000 EXPO support," AMD writes. "This higher clock speed offers about 1 to 2ns of latency improvement over DDR5-6000, and that can be reflected in latency-sensitive games. While DDR5-8000 isn't for everyone, it's a great option for enthusiasts and overclockers who want to push their systems to the limit."

AMD credits its memory team, Bill Alverson and Joseph Portillo-Wightman, for making EXPO DDR5-8000 a reality. Of course, even with DDR5-8000, AMD is still playing catch-up to Intel, as next-gen Lunar Lake boards and CPUs are rumored to support up to DDR5-10000.

Finally, as part of the announcement, AMD supplied us with X870E and X870 chipset diagrams for the new motherboards - which you can see below.

4

4

• Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU Review - Top Dog Zen 5 Tested
• Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X CPU Review
• Read more: AMD Ryzen 9000X3D processors should be here by the end of October
• Read more: ASUS unveils next-gen X870, X870 mobos: ready for AMD's new Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 CPUs