MSI CEO: Even Low-End AMD X570 Motherboards Will Be Expensive
The arrival of AMD's Ryzen 3000 series CPUs brings more multi-threaded heft to the mainstream desktop and sweet new technologies like PCIe 4.0. Unfortunately, according to what we learned in an interview with MSI CEO Charles Chiang and from other vendors at Computex 2019, the platform will also bring higher pricing for the next series of AMD motherboards. As a result, X570 motherboard pricing could be similar to Intel's expensive Z390 motherboards, if not higher. In fact, even the lowest-end X570 boards could cost more than most previous-gen X470 boards, though Chiang stressed that pricing decisions are still not finalized.
That's a big change from AMD's traditional role of having significantly less expensive motherboards than Intel. When asked about the source of the higher pricing, Chiang said, "Technology wise, PCIe Gen 4 will contribute a lot of cost on the motherboard, and AMD right now they intend to sell X570 chipset for higher pricing."
AMD used an ASMedia chipset for its previous-gen motherboards, but the company now produces its own silicon for the task. Chiang told us that, while pricing isn't final, it appears that AMD could increase the cost of the chipset itself significantly. "But you know, [it is] still in the discussion. It's not finalized yet, but it appears that [we] will have a price gap between X570 and X470."
Chiang also says that AMD is changing its marketing strategy to focus on being a premium brand, as opposed to being the value alternative.
"Lots of people ask me, what do you think about today's AMD? I say today's AMD is completely different company compared to two, three, five years ago," Chiang said. "They have nice technology and they are there to put the higher spec with the reasonable pricing. But right now they say, "Hey Charles, lets push to marketing to the higher [end]. So let's sell higher-pricing motherboards, higher-spec motherboards, and let's see what will happen in the market. So I don't think that AMD is the company that wants to sell low cost here, low cost there."
That change in focus could make X570 motherboard pricing comparable to, or even higher than, many Intel Z390 motherboards. "I would like to say the price would be comparable, and even higher for some SKUs," Chiang said. "But I can tell that if an X570 is compared to our Z390, if the specs are equal and everything, I don't think we [are] going to price AMD lower. I don't think that's realistic because the cost of the motherboard [will] be higher, and maybe the pricing [of] the chipset [is] higher."
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