AMD’s mainstream B850 and B840 chipset options for inexpensive motherboards will be pushed out to early 2025.
AMD’s B850 and B840 chipset motherboards will appear in early 2025, while the X870/E chipsets will be available first in September.
Typically, AMD launches its high-end offerings before its budget devices, and this has been true for the majority of its CPU, motherboard, and GPU lineups. However, AMD was anticipated to release inexpensive 800 chipset motherboards in 2024, but this has now been put back to 2025. Instead, AMD plans to release the X870 and X870E chipsets this year for its Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.
According to ComputerBase, AMD plans to ship the B850 and B840 chipset motherboards in early 2025. However, the X870 and X870E are scheduled to be released in September, on September 30th, as previously stated.
AMD introduced its Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 CPUs earlier this month, and many motherboard manufacturers are preparing their X870/X870E chipset motherboards for September launch.
The reason for the prolonged launch gap between high-end and mainstream chips is unknown, but this means that budget-conscious users will have to either stick with the existing B650 or B650E chipsets or wait for the future 800 chipset motherboard. The 600 chipset motherboards will need to be updated to enable the latest Ryzen 9000 processors, however the 800 chipset boards will already have an updated BIOS for full compatibility. One reason could be that more mainstream CPU options will become available next year, making it more logical to time the launch around those offerings.
This is also the first time we’ve seen an X40 series chipset that will only support PCI-E 3.0. The B840 chipset appears to be the successor to the Ax20 chipset, which was an entry-level chipset for prior Ryzen processors. The B850 is the successor to the B650 chipset, but it is unclear whether AMD plans to introduce the B850E chipset. The X870/X870E and B850 chipsets will support CPU overclocking, however the B840 will not.
This is very similar to what happened with their predecessors. The AMD X870 and X870E chipset motherboards will feature native PCI-E 5.0 and compete with Intel’s Z790, according to AMD. The X870/E will, however, most likely compete with Z890 motherboards for Arrow Lake CPUs, as Zen 5 will compete with newer Intel processors. The Z890 motherboards are set to ship on October 17th, just a few weeks after the X870/X870E.