AMD recently launched its new Zen 5 processors for the AM5 platform. These Ryzen 9000 CPUs didn’t deliver like AMD had hoped (and promised) they would; they hardly felt like upgrades at all. Perhaps AMD wanted to double down on that sentiment with the launch of their new 800-series chipset motherboards, based on the various issues surrounding them.
The X870E, X870, B850, and B840 chipsets are follow-ups to AMD’s 600-series motherboards, but you’ll need a fine-toothed comb to make out any real differences. Besides, the confusing nomenclature and downright misleading nature of these new motherboards have left a bad taste in my mouth. Let’s unpack this in detail.
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3 Needlessly confusing chipset names
No one asked for this
When you release a follow-up to an existing motherboard series, people expect you to make the chipset names make sense. When we initially heard about the X870E, X870, B850, and B840, many users logically thought the new B840 naming scheme indicated a new “B-tier” chipset. Unfortunately, we now know that the B840 chipset is nothing more than a refresh of the erstwhile A620 chipset.
We now know that the B840 chipset is nothing more than a refresh of the erstwhile A620 chipset.
Both the entry-level A620 and the “new” B840 chipsets drop the support for CPU overclocking and don’t have any PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots. What, then, is the reason to name the latter anything other than “B820”? Similarly, the more premium X870 chipset is more like a refresh of the mid-range B650E chipset, considering the only change is that USB 4.0 support is now mandatory, and the primary PCIe slot is now PCIe 5.0, unlike the X670 motherboards.
There was no reason to confuse buyers with a new chipset that’s simply the cheapest previous-gen chipset in disguise.
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2 Hardly feels like an upgrade
Except the price upgrade, of course
AMD’s new chipsets are confusing in name, and they don’t make up for that in the specs department either. The flagship chipset this time, the X870E, is simply a re-branded X670E chipset, with mandatory USB 4.0 support being the only difference between the two. The same story plays out when comparing the X870 and X670 chipsets, with a mandatory primary PCIe 5.0 slot being the only other difference.
Coming down the product stack, the B850 chipset is identical to the B650 chipset, except the primary M.2 slot is now compulsorily PCIe 5.0. Are you seeing the pattern yet? Even the “new” B840 chipset is just a badly named “A-tier” chipset, resembling the A620 chipset in all but name. Some additional PCIe lanes aren’t going to make a world of difference in performance. Even the latest graphics cards don’t have any use for PCIe 5.0 bandwidth yet.
The current value proposition of the 800-series motherboards is hard to swallow, especially since you can easily use your Ryzen 9000 CPU on your 600-series motherboard without any issues.
AMD should have simply called this a refresh and launched these motherboards priced to reflect that. The current value proposition of the 800-series motherboards is hard to swallow, especially since you can easily use your Ryzen 9000 CPU on your 600-series motherboard without any issues. You might need a BIOS update, but that’s about it.
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I had to use alliteration — it’s that bad
It’s not a stretch to point out that these confusing chipset names for what are essentially refreshed products are hugely misleading. Even if it isn’t intentional, AMD needs to realize that it can lead to some consumers buying something they think is much better than it actually is. The B840 chipset stands out as a prime example. This is hardly different from GPU manufacturers like Nvidia trying to pass off a lower-tier GPU with a higher-tier model name.
For now, I don’t see any reason for anyone to buy an 800-series chipset, even someone building an AM5 PC from scratch.
AMD might have promised higher memory speeds, PCIe 5.0 support for GPUs, and mandatory PCIe 5.0 M.2 and USB 4.0 support, but these things hardly warrant the huge price increase these new motherboards have launched with. For now, I don’t see any reason for anyone to buy an 800-series chipset, even someone building an AM5 PC from scratch.
Until the prices of these new boards drop to reasonable levels, we’ll be waiting just like we did in the initial weeks and months of the AM5 socket, when the “AM5 tax” was still prohibitively expensive.
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The new 800-series AM5 motherboards are just the latest in a long line of hardware duds this year. AMD overpromised and underdelivered with its Ryzen 9000 CPUs, next-gen GPUs have been delayed until 2025, Intel went through one of its darkest phases, and its Arrow Lake desktop CPUs are just doing the bare minimum, if reports are to be believed.
Here’s hoping that 2025 brings at least one of the following: value-for-money GPUs, strong gen-on-gen upgrades from CPUs, faster gaming CPUs from Intel, cheaper Gen5 SSDs, and more affordable motherboards.
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source: https://www.xda-developers.com/amd-800-series-motherboards-are-a-mess/
