AMD has announced the A520 motherboard chipset. The chipset is part of a new affordable motherboard lineup that offers the basic features needed to run AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen CPUs at high speeds.

A handful of motherboards with the new chipset are already available. These are:

Now let's delve into how the A520 chipset differs from the B550 and X570 chipsets.

First, A520 motherboards do not offer PCIe 4.0 compatibility. PCIe 4.0 ports, perhaps the centerpiece feature of the 500 series mid- and high-end motherboards, support greater bandwidth when paired with a compatible CPU (such as the Ryzen 3000). A520 motherboards do not support the latest PCIe 4.0 standard. Therefore, the CPU cannot take full advantage of the available bandwidth. Instead, both the CPU and chipset are limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds.

I don't think this is a deal-breaker for many. Especially considering that one would need to purchase a new, state-of-the-art PCIe 4.0 SSD to take advantage of the faster PCIe 4.0 speeds, which is not possible with a cheap board.

Similarly, AMD does not offer overclocking capabilities on the A520.

Now that we have explained what the A520 chipset does not have, what are the positives?

For one, it supports far more USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports than previous 400 series motherboards. The total USB port count has not increased over the A320 chipset of a few years ago, but at least it is faster.

The A520 chipset is also guaranteed to work with both current Ryzen 3000 chips and future AMD Ryzen desktop processors based on the "Zen 3" architecture. This means that those looking to upgrade can do so easily.

The A520 motherboards may only be a slight upgrade compared to what is already on the market, but at least they bring cheap products closer to the modern age. What we want to know is whether these boards will be low enough to support Ryzen 3000 CPUs, and to undercut the inexpensive and easily available 400-series boards.

If you want to maximize the potential of Ryzen 3rd generation chips, the B550 motherboard is the best choice for gaming.