AMD Details Mainstream B850 & Entry-level B840 Chipsets: B840 Without CPU Overclocking & Only PCIe Gen3 Support

AMD has detailed its full 800-series chipset lineup which includes the mainstream B850 & entry-level B840 series for cost-effective motherboards.

At Computex 2024, AMD announced its first 800-series chipsets targeted at high-end PCs, the X870E and X870. These new chipsets were seen in several AM5 motherboards displayed at the event and the company has also detailed its two mainstream chipsets, the B850 & B840 series.

While AMD's X870E and X870 motherboards will come with enhanced designs with expanded I/O capabilities, & full PCIe Gen 5.0 support, and USB4 standards, the B850 and B840 series will target the masses in mainstream and budget options.

Starting with the AMD B850 chipset, it is disclosed that the chipset will offer both Gen5 and Gen4 capabilities with Gen5 primarily being used for NVMe storage devices and Gen4 for graphics. The motherboard makers will have the option to dedicate the Gen5 lanes to a discrete graphics card if they want. The AM5 motherboards based on the AM5 chipset will also feature USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) support so no USB4 like the high-end options. Graphics will be handled in x16 (Gen4) or x8 (Gen5 or Gen4) configurations. The good thing is that B850 motherboards will support both memory and CPU overclocking and will be targeted at Intel's B760 family which mostly covers the $100-$200 US range.

For the AMD B840 chipset, you will be looking at a very entry-level design with support for PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes only. These entry-level AM5 motherboards will feature support for USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) and will only feature memory (EXPO) overclocking support. There will be 16 lanes dedicated to the GPU and the motherboards should be priced around $100 US. PCIe Gen 3.0 is a major downside but we can expect the CPU lanes to be harnessed for Gen5 or Gen4 capabilities on such AM5 motherboards too.

As for support, these new AM5 800-series motherboards should be able to carry the Ryzen 9000 "Zen 5" Desktop CPUs without any issues since they will come with BIOS prepped for the latest chips. AMD has already committed to a 2027+ longevity plan for its AM5 family and that includes both 600-series and 800-series products. Memory support will enable DDR5-5600 MT/s default (JEDEC), up to 6400 MT/s 1:1 and 6000 MT/s being the sweet spot while DDR5-8000 MT/s will be supported as the top spec in a 1:2 configuration.

In our previous report, we mentioned that the AMD X870E & X870 AM5 motherboards will be aiming a retail launch on the 30th of September so we can expect the B850 and B840 to launch slightly after that.