Platform and Chipsets

AMD launched the previous-generation Ryzen 7000 series alongside the AMD 600-series chipset, in 2022. Back then, PCIe Gen 5 was much more of a novelty than it is now, as we're witnessing a ramp of Gen 5 NVMe SSDs into mainstream price-points; and the next-gen NVIDIA "Blackwell" is rumored to implement Gen 5. AMD had made Gen 5 PEG (the x16 slot) a differentiator for 600-series, and created the X670E and B650E to stand apart from the X670 and B650, with the remaining I/O, including the CPU-attached Gen 5 NVMe, remaining unchanged. This created a mess where people were either choosing the B650 (non-E) for mainstream builds, or the top X670E for enthusiast builds, while the X670 non-E and B650E were reduced to novelties (here's a recent market study we saw). AMD hopes to avoid such a thing with its new AMD 800-series desktop chipset. Unsold chipsets mean unsold motherboard inventories, and AMD's partners don't like this.


The 800-series sees the top X870E and X870 differentiated not by the PEG generation—it's Gen 5 on both chipsets—but with the downstream PCIe GPP connectivity. The X870E has more downstream PCIe lanes. The X870 has fewer. In essence, the X870E is a rebranded X670E, while the X870 is a rebranded B650E. What's new is that both the X870E and X870 provide USB4, with AMD forcing motherboard vendors to implement it on these two chipsets.

The B850 is essentially a rebadge of the popular B650 (non-E), you get Gen 4 PEG, although motherboard vendors are free to implement Gen 5 PEG if they want. The CPU-attached NVMe slot should remain Gen 5. USB4 isn't mandatory, which is really what separates the B850 from the X870. The B840 is the new entry-level chipset. You only get Gen 3 PEG, and lose out on CPU overclocking. This is a slightly spruced up A620A.

Unfortunately these new motherboards will NOT be available at Ryzen 9000 launch, but only much later this summer. Existing Socket AM5 motherboards are compatible with Ryzen 9000 after a BIOS update.