The AMD Ryzen 4000 CPU, based on the Zen 3 processor architecture, is only compatible with the 500 series AM4 motherboards, with only one further backward compatibility. Currently, this means only boards with the X570 chipset, but on June 16 (or thereabouts) AMD's new budget chipset, the B550, will be available in all its PCIe Gen4-equipped glory.

The Zen 3 announcement includes full details of this new budget AMD motherboard chipset and performance figures for its new $120 AMD Ryzen 3 3300X and $99 Ryzen 3 3100 siblings. Our own Alan has had a chance to put these new budget gaming heroes through their paces and was greatly impressed. Forget the lack of overclocking potential, this inexpensive chip will be the basis for very powerful and very affordable gaming PCs in the future.

At least until Intel's Comet Lake introduces a quad-core, 8-threaded budget gaming CPU; the AMD vs. Intel processor showdown is going to be quite a spectacle... And we, the PC gamers, will be the winners.

But what does the future hold for AMD CPUs? The announcement that only the 500-series boards will be able to accommodate the Zen 3-based CPUs that will be available at the end of the year is interesting, but perhaps not that surprising.

One of the things AMD has worked diligently on throughout Ryzen's entire existence has been to support continued CPU compatibility with AM4 sockets. With the graphics-free Ryzen 3000 CPU, the size limitations of the 300 series BIOS chip did not allow enough microcode to fit there to support all the different processors offered by AMD.

However, this is not the case with the 400 series motherboards, which provide almost unlimited support for Ryzen past and present.

The caveat is that even seemingly compatible motherboards need to make sure they have the latest BIOS update installed for the Ryzen 3000 processor; if the BIOS is not correct, forget about theoretical compatibility; if the BIOS is not correct, the motherboard is not compatible with Ryzen 3000 processors, the new Ryzen processor will not boot.

This caused AMD the headache of having to loan out chips to individuals building their own PCs to boot them up in order to change the BIOS settings so they could install shiny new Ryzen silicon. Low-quality Athlon 200GE processors were loaned out as short-term "boot kits" to get gamers' motherboards to BIOS screens for updates.

The reason AMD has placed severe limitations on motherboard compatibility for the upcoming Ryzen 4000 processor may be due to the hassle of this update as well as potential technical limitations.

Given that the X570 chipset has been around for a while now, its price will likely begin to drop in the run-up to the Zen 3 launch, and AMD is planning to launch a budget-conscious B550 chipset, honestly, this new generation of processors will not present much This is not expected to be a problem. Also, AMD has largely kept its original promise to keep AM4 compatibility through 2020 and intends to continue at least partially through 2021.

If you want to get the most out of your Ryzen 3000 processor right now, we absolutely recommend one of the 500 series chipsets. Thus, when the Zen 3 processors are finally released, that should also apply to the Ryzen 4000, which will continue to support PCIe 4.0.

Realistically, it would be much easier for AMD and us PC enthusiasts to limit ourselves to the 500 series boards. Although, I think a BIOS update will be required, just in case.