AMD Hints An Upgraded 4800S Desktop Kit With Expanded GPU Support Is Coming
There was quite a bit of intrigue surrounding AMD's 4700S Desktop Kit when it first popped up, in part because it arrived with nary any fanfare. Speculation was and remains that it's the repurposed guts from parts intended for the PlayStation 5, but which didn't make the cut for whatever reason. Well, start the speculation anew, because AMD essentially confirmed it will be releasing an upgraded 4800S Desktop Kit.
AMD has not outright announced the upcoming kit (not really surprising, given the low-key nature surrounding the 4700S Desktop Kit's launch), but very clearly references the part in the fine print of today's AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition announcement (yes, AMD dropped the 'Radeon' branding and it's now simply 'AMD Software'). It's in the footnotes in reference to a mention of AMD's Smart Access Memory.
Source: AMD
"Smart Access Memory technology enablement requires an AMD Radeon RX 6000 series or RX 5000 series GPU, a Ryzen 6000/5000/3000 series CPU (excluding the Ryzen 5 3400G and Ryzen 3 3200G), a 500 series motherboard with the latest BIOS update, and/or an AMD Desktop Kit (4800S Series and later). BIOS requires support for AGESA 1.1.0.0 or higher. Download latest BIOS from vendor website. For additional information and system requirements," the fine print reads.
The bold text is our doing. Unfortunately, there are no other official details to glean, though this does suggest the 4800S will feature expanded GPU support. That was the major knock of the 4700S Desktop Kit—it was saddled with just a PCIe 2.0 x4 link for a graphics card, so it didn't make sense to flesh it out with a high-end graphics card.
Rumor has it the 4800S Desktop Kit will still feature an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on Zen 2 (possibly one intended for the Xbox Series X|S), but will have a PCIe 4.0 slot. Even if it's not a x16 link, this would make it feasible to plop a faster graphics card in there. The same rumor suggests AMD will bundle a Radeon RX 6600 graphics card with the upgraded kit.
Other unconfirmed information has the kit sporting M.2 slots for SSD and Wi-Fi chores (nether of which the 4700S had) and support for standard socket AM4 coolers, with a launch presumed for the first quarter of next year.
Hat tip to Tom's Hardware for spotting this nugget in AMD's fine print
