AMD today announced two budget processors that bring the Zen 2 architecture to the entry-level market: the Ryzen 3 3300X and Ryzen 3 3100. These will be available starting in May, followed shortly thereafter by a (long-rumored) simplified B550 motherboard chipset in June.

The two Ryzen chips (which were almost finalized yesterday) will both have 4 cores and 8 threads and use the same Zen 2 architecture found throughout the 3rd generation Ryzen lineup; the Ryzen 3 3300X will have a base clock of 3.8GHz and a boost clock of 4.3GHz The Ryzen 3 3100 has a slightly lower base clock of 3.6 GHz and a boost clock of 3.9 GHz. Nevertheless, both should be sufficient for low-budget gaming.

Even more so due to their very budget-conscious pricing: $120 for the Ryzen 3 3300X and $99 for the Ryzen 3 3100X.

Both chips are priced close to AMD's existing budget processors from past Zen and Zen+ generations, such as the Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 5 2600. These older chips are hexa-core processors and will have an advantage in multithreaded workloads, but the IPC improvements and clock speeds of the new 4-core Zen 2 CPUs may give them an edge in gaming workloads.

The best budget-friendly motherboard compatible with the new chipset would be one with an AM4 B450 chipset; AMD's Ryzen CPU lineup, whether 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation, all use the AM4 socket and pinout, so the CPU and motherboard combinations can be almost completely controlled to meet your needs. The only exceptions are extreme combinations (the most unlikely combinations of CPU and motherboard), such as a 1st generation Ryzen CPU and X570 motherboard or a 3rd generation Ryzen CPU and 300 series chipset (with possible beta BIOS support in some cases) Only. See the AMD.com website for more information.

All 3rd generation Ryzen processors support higher bandwidth through the PCIe 4.0 standard, essentially doubling the data rate of the current mainstream PCIe 3.0. This can be used to increase platform connectivity and is currently well-publicized for ultra-fast NVMe SSDs. support for PCIe 4.0 is currently limited to the enthusiast-oriented X570 chipset, which would be an odd purchase along with a budget processor like the two announced today would be odd.

However, starting June 16, 2020, full compatibility, including PCIe 4.0 support for 3rd generation Ryzen, will be available to unlock even the lowest budgets. This is the date when AMD's long-awaited B550 chipset will be available, which will undercut the X570 board for enthusiasts in PCIe 4.0 compatibility.