Thursday, May 7th 2020

AMD B550 Chipset Detailed, It's Ready for Zen 3, Older AM4 Motherboards not Compatible

May 7th, 2020 09:00 Discuss (434 Comments)

In their briefing leading up to today's Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X review embargo, AMD disclosed that its upcoming "Zen 3" 4th generation Ryzen desktop processors will only support AMD 500-series (or later) chipsets. The next-gen processors will not work with older 400-series or 300-series chipsets. This comes as a blow to those who bought premium X470 motherboards hoping for latest CPU compatibility running into 2020. At this time only B550 is available, but we expect more news on enthusiast chipsets as the Zen 3 launch date comes closer. AMD B550 is a fascinating new mid-range chipset by AMD. Launching today as a successor to the popular B450 chipset, B550 is a low-power silicon with roughly the same 5-7 W TDP as the older 400-series chipset. Although AMD won't confirm it, it's likely that the chipset is sourced from ASMedia. It brings a lot to the table that could draw buyers away from B450, but it also takes some away.

The AMD B550 currently only supports 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse" processors. Ryzen 3000 "Picasso" APU are not supported. What's more, older Ryzen 2000 "Pinnacle Ridge," "Raven Ridge," and first gen Ryzen 1000 "Summit Ridge" aren't supported, either. The Athlon 200 and 3000 "Zen" based chips miss out, too. AMD argues that it ran into ROM size limitations when trying to cram AGESA microcode for all the older processors. We find that hard to believe because B450 motherboards with the latest ComboAM4 AGESA support 2nd gen and 3rd gen processors, including APUs and Athlon SKUs based on the two. On the bright side, AMD assured us (within its marketing slides for the B550), that the chipset will support upcoming processors based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture. The company also came up with a new motherboard packaging label that clarifies that the processors won't work with the 3400G and 3200G.

AMD B550 motherboards will feature partial PCI-Express gen 4.0 support. The main PCI-Express x16 slot, and one of the M.2 NVMe slots that are wired to the "Matisse" processor will be PCI-Express gen 4.0, however, all downstream PCIe lanes put out by the B550 chipset are gen 3.0. This is still a step up from 400-series "Promontory" chipsets, which are limited to gen 2.0. B550 puts out eight PCIe gen 3.0 lanes, which combine with the 20 usable processor lanes from "Matisse" to take the platform's total PCIe budget to 28 lanes (x16 gen 4.0 + x4 gen 4.0 + x8 gen 3.0). The B550 chipset itself connects to the "Matisse" processor via a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 connection.

In terms of connectivity, AMD's B550 chipset puts out up to six SATA 6 Gbps ports with AHCI and RAID capability; two each of 10 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 2 and 5 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 1 ports; and six USB 2.0 ports. PCIe, SATA, and USB connectivity from the "Matisse" processor is unchanged: four 10 Gbps USB 3.2 gen 2 ports, and up to two SATA 6 Gbps ports.

The processor includes a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 PEG connection that can be split between slots. AMD is allowing motherboard designers to have multi-GPU capability with the B550, where the x16 PEG link is split between two x16 slots (electrical x8). Previously this capability was limited to the top-tier X370 and X470 boards. The processor also puts out one PCI-Express 4.0 x4 link meant to drive one M.2 NVMe slot or U.2 NVMe port. Every B550 motherboard we've seen so far features one M.2 PCIe gen 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) slot.

As with both its predecessors, the B350 and B450, the new B550 chipset enables full multiplier-based CPU overclocking, along with broad memory overclocking support. Motherboard designers are at liberty to kit out the B550 with the most elaborate CPU VRM solutions. Expect some of the pricier B550 boards to match their X570 counterparts in overclocking capability.

Motherboards based on the AMD B550 chipset are expected to launch on June 16, 2020. Prices start at $100, according to AMD.

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434 Comments on AMD B550 Chipset Detailed, It's Ready for Zen 3, Older AM4 Motherboards not Compatible

#101

AnarchoPrimitiv

apoklyps3now this is an intel like dickmove :))

Why is it that everyone treats AMD with a double standard? Nvidia jacks up prices on RTX, that's ok, but when AMD prices Navi similarly for similar performance, everyone gets hysterical because I guess they have an expectation that AMD, and only AMD, should sell them whatever they want dirt cheap. Intel has a chipset support a single generation, but then when AMD supports 3 generations with a Chipset, everyone gets hysterical, because I guess they expect AMD, and only AMD, to allow them to use their crappy B350 board forever.

trparkyYou, @AnarchoPrimitiv, might want to retract that statement of @lynx29 being a possible Intel fanboy. I got dinged pretty badly in another thread for saying something similar, I have the warnings to prove it.

Dinged?

#102

Countryside

Bios size is a lame excuse this is plain capitalism.

#103

trparky

AnarchoPrimitivDinged?

Yeah, the moderators came down on me. Just saying, you might want to retract that statement and not get a possible warning from the moderators.

If you delete your comment, I'll delete mine just so that the moderators don't need to get involved and we all stay happy.

#104

windwhirl

dyonoctisThe only reason that i could think of is that they wanted to avoid horror stories about people constantly uppgrading their uefi, and then wonder why their system doesn't post anymore...

Last I knew, BIOS/UEFI updates were the absolutely last measure applied to fix or solve an issue, with a giant warning in every step of the process. And if you do that without bothering to read the changelogs, well, that's kinda your fault. Not AMD's.

But yeah, it would be troublesome to clean that up.

TheLostSwedeLess than that in the kind of quantity we're talking about. However, when you make a million plus boards, that's a million plus dollars in your pocket...

I'd say makers would ultimately pass the cost of a bigger ROM chip to the consumers, but they still have to make the money transfer first...

#105

TheLostSwede

News Editor

dyonoctisHaha. I don't know why AMD couldn't annouce that sooner. Now we are having lots of knee jerk reaction from people feeling betrayed, and AMD went back to being a trash company with uncompetitive product. The little bit of faith that they painfully managed to get from some people is now gone forever. Ah well, they still managed to shook intel enough to make them react.

As usual, YMMV, but I never had any stability issues with my b350/1700x with 3000mhz memory. Some people are acting as if they really were interested in AM4, when they seemed to had a preference for Intel all along, and they are now rubbing it in the face of those who prefered AMD. "Now we are the one with an uppgrade path"

Why are you saying that? I'm very happy with my system (once they and Gigabyte worked out all the kinks) and this makes me lose zero faith in AMD. Then again, I'm not normally someone that puts any trust or faith in any technology company, as they're after all, for profit businesses that are in this to make money, not to make their customers feel good.

I don't get the whole preference thing, we're nothing to these corporations, yet we treat them as they're our best friend that either just brought us a keg of cold beer, or just cheated with our girlfriend on us...

#106

AnarchoPrimitiv

Really?

bencrutzyep, running a 3950X on X370 taichi here.....

REally?

Just out of curiosity, because I'm honestly curious when people have a configuration like yours, and I absolutely mean no offense, but how is it possible that you could afford a $750 CPU, but then not have $200 for an X570 motherboard (there's X570 boards down to $160)?

#107

TheLostSwede

News Editor

TheinsanegamerNCount me in among them. I bought a X470 crosshair, and currently have a 2700x, was planning on grabbing a 4900x. When AMD said "we will support AM4 through 2020" everyone assumed, rightly, there would be forwards compatibility. If you're not going to support forward compatibility, why bother using the same socket?

I've put up with the random issues this board and CPU have with OCs, memory stability, and odd boot times on the promise of the 4900x. Serves me right for thinking AMD would hold up their end of the bargain, and given that Intel is STILL faster in games, might as well go back to intel.

But they are supporting AM4, the socket isn't changing...
They never specified that future CPUs would work with all boards. This is what you read into that message.
Sure, I agree, they made it sound like you would be able to run a 4th gen Ryzen CPU in an X370 board, but considering the mess with the 3rd gen Ryzen, I didn't have high hopes.
I guess you didn't buy that system after X570 and Ryzen 3000 was announced?

Since you don't have any system specs listed, I have no comments to add with regards to your current machine, beyond, did you update to the latest UEFI?

#108

AnarchoPrimitiv

TheLostSwedeWhy are you saying that? I'm very happy with my system (once they and Gigabyte worked out all the kinks) and this makes me lose zero faith in AMD. Then again, I'm not normally someone that puts any trust or faith in any technology company, as they're after all, for profit businesses that are in this to make money, not to make their customers feel good.

I don't get the whole preference thing, we're nothing to these corporations, yet we treat them as they're our best friend that either just brought us a keg of cold beer, or just cheated with our girlfriend on us...

The answer is a phenomenon in psychology called "Social Identity Theory" and "In group/Out Group psychology"....google either one of those alone with "Brand loyalty" and you'll quickly come upon research that explains the seemingly irrational behavior of fanboys with quite rational explanations.

#109

klf

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh: haha like my x399 and 2990WX-2500 usd become dead platform after just one year,,, when i complain on that, reddit amd ban me for this and all amd fans say me - " but ist different than new tr40 chipset" .... aaand now when they must eat salt from amd,, they sttart whinning ... :roll::roll:

#110

sepheronx

AnarchoPrimitivReally?

REally?

Just out of curiosity, because I'm honestly curious when people have a configuration like yours, and I absolutely mean no offense, but how is it possible that you could afford a $750 CPU, but then not have $200 for an X570 motherboard (there's X570 boards down to $160)?

Not him but depends where one is from. Some x570 motherboards just aren't that good (MSI MPG). And maybe some features aren't as important vs cost savings?

I mean, I myself would sell the old board to help pay for new board but not everyone can. I know cpu is expensive but possible all savings went to it. All around different situations.

#111

TheoneandonlyMrK

CybrshrkWhen you're aiming for the most fps and throwing as much gpu as you can you need to cpu to back it up. I don't want to be a 90 fps when I COULD be at 100-110.

Im just using an example and don't know how close these gpu/cpu combos will get to my goal but it's a hard goal to reach and every bit extra helps.

And I mean why would I SETTLE for less than when I don't have to?

Ok so best FPS or naught, so why are you here?

Seriously you made an account to comment on b550, it's not even the pre eminent board for Ryzen and despite 22 years in the game it took b550 to Make your mind up that you want Intel to slap your ass more.

Cool story bro , pass me your contact list I'll sort them out:p :D ,you been confused about shit for a while since this whole time you were in doubt while intel had those extra 5-10fps already.

Even the doubt you show about how close the performance is between these platforms screams of noob , read up, none of this shits new especially in Intel's case they been selling the same shit plus plus100mhz for year's.

#112

Metroid

djisasIf bios size is an issue, cant they just make a bios with support for a specific cpu generation saving rom space?

Yes they can but they wil not do. I think that will fit what customers will want in a future not distant. however, that feature is few years away. Also this free extra not guaranteed support does not help board manufactures, i mean, best b450 boards were being sold for $100, best x570 boards $500 ~ $999, and a comparable good x570 board x best b450 board was around $250. So boards manufactures lost $150 each b450 sold instead of a x570, make that thousands x $150. I guess my point here is at least x570 boards will support 4xxx like b450 supported 3xxx, if i had to wait for a x570 to get to where I live then i would not have bought the r5 3600, cpus here got a month earlier than x570 boards.

#113

TheLostSwede

News Editor

oxrufiioxoKinda feel bad for recommending the B450 Tomahawk now..... Nothing is ever guaranteed though people should also know that buying older chipsets is always a risk for future compatibility. 3 gens of cpu on 1 platform is still pretty decent compared to intel where we typically get 2 max.

Although I must be in the minority because the new motherboards excite me as much as the new cpu's

Well, at least with AMD, there has been a reason to go from an X370 or X470, to an X570 chipset based board, as there was a lot of new features that came with that upgrade.

With Z490, there's mainly a promise of potentially getting PCIe 4.0 in the future, on some slots, if you upgrade your CPU. The rest isn't really new, apart from the socket that is and the four lanes of PCIe from the CPU for an NVMe drive.

I like drooling over pictures of motherboards too :toast:

#114

ShurikN

lynx29nah, Z490 is almost here.

By that logic 11th gen and Zen3 are also almost here... why buy something that will be obsolete in 4 months.

#115

Jism

TheLostSwedeI guess people that have invested in an X470/B450 motherboard are going to be pissed off that they can't use a Ryzen 4000 CPU in their boards...

Shame the CPU uplink isn't PCIe 4.0.

Sigh. Like a 3950x is already a bottleneck, let alone the use of PCI-E 3.0 vs 4.0. There's not a single graphics card to fully tap 3.0 either. And if it's for NVME storage or so; really there's only a few type of workloads that could benefit from more transfer speeds then ever, but it aint much. And in that case PCI-E 3.0 still offers sufficient bandwitdh for any type of day system you need.

#116

evernessince

lynx29nah, Z490 is almost here. might as well go with that will get the $169 MSI Z490 board and the $499 Intel 10 core, and hopefully rtx 3080 will be out before cyberpunk 2077 comes out. i really enjoy overlcocking gpu and navi was never able to deliver on that stable, i won't be overclocking cpu so ryzen is still decent, but i might as well go with z490 now that its here. it will be faster in most games i expect, 9900k still beats amd by 5-10 fps across the board. i expect it will be around same here if not a little more.

Please buddy. You spend 10 posts trashing AMD and now you expect us to believe you are going from a 3600 and a mainstream motherboard to Intel's most expensive processor + Z490. Makes zero sense. You aren't here to discuss, you are here to troll. Bugger off.

#117

windwhirl

djisasIf bios size is an issue, cant they just make a bios with support for a specific cpu generation saving rom space?

I had the same thought, but this is also what came to my mind:

windwhirlI don't know how much space is needed to support each Ryzen gen. And thinking about it, if Zen 3 really needs a lot of space, it would be a nightmare to have a BIOS version to support Zen & Zen 3 (for upgrading from a Ryzen 1700 on a X470 board to a Ryzen 4700X, for example), another to support Zen+ & Zen3, and another one to support Zen2 and Zen3. And we still haven't taken into account the UI that mobo makers add for the BIOS and some other stuff, I guess.

#118

ZoneDymo

obi-wan "you were the chosen one" .jpg

#119

Calmmo

ShurikNBy that logic 11th gen and Zen3 are also almost here... why buy something that will be obsolete in 4 months.

Can't use those with a 10900k barbeque tho. Multitasking master.

#120

dyonoctis

TheLostSwedeWhy are you saying that? I'm very happy with my system (once they and Gigabyte worked out all the kinks) and this makes me lose zero faith in AMD. Then again, I'm not normally someone that puts any trust or faith in any technology company, as they're after all, for profit businesses that are in this to make money, not to make their customers feel good.

I don't get the whole preference thing, we're nothing to these corporations, yet we treat them as they're our best friend that either just brought us a keg of cold beer, or just cheated with our girlfriend on us...

I was just annoyed by the people who currently own a ryzen platform, but instead of waiting and see what zen3 brings, they would rather jump the ship right now and buy a new Intel cpu and a new motherbaord. I don't have much of a brand loyalty, i don't like Nvidia as a company, but I need CUDA, so i'm buying from them anyway. But some of the post on this thread seems to have an agenda, instead of just being a matter of being the better product, or the more reasonnable choice. You want to buy Intel just because of that incident ? okay. But you don't have to talk about how ryzen is an inferior platform (while the issues has been smoothed out) on your way out.

#121

djisas

MetroidYes they can but they wil not do. I think that will fit what customers will want in a future not distant. however, that feature is few years away. Also this free extra not guaranteed support does not help board manufactures, i mean, best b450 boards were being sold for $100, best x570 boards $500 ~ $999, and a comparable good x570 board x best b450 board was around $250. So boards manufactures lost $150 each b450 sold instead of a x570, make that thousands x $150. I guess my point here is at least x570 boards will support 4xxx like b450 supported 3xxx, if i had to wait for a x570 to get to where I live then i would not have bought the r5 3600, cpus here got a month earlier than x570 boards.

I waited all I could, bought a new GPU thinking I could hold a little longer for Zen 3, but that did not work and after a couple weeks researching mobos and hearing out ppl, B450 was out of question because it was EOL and lacked in features, started by looking at X470, but those where 50€ away from X570, so it was also a no go and also the cheaper X570, the decent one like the TUF was like 270€ so at 300€ seemed like the sweet spot for a future "proof" mobo...

But yeah, only was of mobo manufactures making money is by selling new ones, new bios cost them money...

#122

TheLostSwede

News Editor

milewski1015Can see why people feel cheated since AMD stated the AM4 socket would be supported through 2020, but I don't recall them ever mentioning anything about chipset forward compatibility. Does seem kind of silly to keep the same socket if the chipset won't be forward compatible though. Was thinking of picking up an X570 Tomahawk Wifi once that's released (or maybe a B550 board depending on how their reviews are) to replace my B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC anyway.

I take it you're not involved in product manufacturing? The fact that the current stock of a part, which has come down in price by a significant level over multiple years, due to high volume demand, means that the board makers can make more margin per product. It's not as if they're going to complain if they can continue to use the same parts, especially if they happen to have a few still in stock.

#123

Metroid

djisasnew bios cost them money...

Yes, first like you said they will lose sale of new boards and second, they need programmers to work out on the bios code and that takes a lot of time before they deploy those bios for use and imagine how many boards they have and going each one and upgrade it, reason Intel doesn't want to be bothered about it any more hehe

#124

apoklyps3

AnarchoPrimitivWhy is it that everyone treats AMD with a double standard? Nvidia jacks up prices on RTX, that's ok, but when AMD prices Navi similarly for similar performance, everyone gets hysterical because I guess they have an expectation that AMD, and only AMD, should sell them whatever they want dirt cheap. Intel has a chipset support a single generation, but then when AMD supports 3 generations with a Chipset, everyone gets hysterical, because I guess they expect AMD, and only AMD, to allow them to use their crappy B350 board forever.

Dinged?

why?
because X570 super expensive and I have waited 1 year for B550 until I finally gave up and got a B450 and paired with a 3700x. While B550 is nothing more than a X470 with limited PCIe 4.0 support, now I'm locked from upgrading to 4000 series when it comes out.
It's a dickmove, just like disabling PCIe 4.0 on older boards was.
AMD can't afford dickmoves...they just recently got on top. that's not the way to stay there

#125

TheLostSwede

News Editor

djisasIf bios size is an issue, cant they just make a bios with support for a specific cpu generation saving rom space?

In theory, yes. However, it takes time to make these things and even more so, test them. As such, it's something I can't see the board makers being willing to do, unless there's a really good reason for them to do so. I mean, after all, they've already sold the product to you and would rather sell you another, than continuing adding support for new CPUs to an old board. This is capitalism for you.

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AMD B550 Chipset Detailed, It's Ready for Zen 3, Older AM4 Motherboards not Compatible

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