What you need to know
- Motherboards with AMD's new budget-friendly A520 chipset will soon come to market.
- The new chipset replaces the previous-gen A320, which wasn't guaranteed to have support for 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs.
- No overclocking or PCIe 4.0 support, but these motherboards will be affordable.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It could well be an aircraft from Airbus, but it's actually a motherboard chipset from AMD. The A520 replaces the older A320, which launched alongside Ryzen 2000 series processors. The new A520 comes rocking full support for 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs, including the powerful Ryzen 9 3000 series.
What's new with the A520 chipset isn't PCIe 4.0, unfortunately. Nor is there room for overclocking. This is the budget-friendly chipset option for AMD PCs and so we shouldn't expect all the high-end features from the X570 chipset to trickle down to the affordable range of motherboards.
What is included with the A520 chipset is full support for newer Ryzen 3000 series processors and faster USB ports. Here's how the new chipset compares against the outgoing A320 and higher-end B550 and X570 chipsets.
| Category | A320 | A520 | B550 | X570 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU storage | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 4.0 |
| CPU graphics | x16 PCIe 3.0 | x16 PCIe 3.0 | x16 PCIe 4.0 | x16 PCIe 4.0 |
| CPU USB | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2(Doesn't support 3rd Gen Ryzen) | 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2(Plus 4x SuperSpeed on 3rd Gen Ryzen) | 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2(Plus 4x SuperSpeed on 3rd Gen Ryzen) | 8x USB 3.2 Gen 2(Plus 4x SuperSpeed on 3rd Gen Ryzen) |
| Dual-GPU support | - | - | ✓ | ✓ |
| General purpose lanes | PCIe 2.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 4.0 |
| CPU chipset uplink | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 4.0 |
| Overclocking support | - | - | ✓ | ✓ |
If you want to make the most of your shiny new Ryzen 3000 series processor, you'll want to choose one of the best motherboards, rocking at least the B550 chipset.
