Finally, after much waiting, the motherboards with A620 chipset for AMD Ryzen 7000 or later desktop processors are in stores. Although they are limited in terms of specifications compared to their older sisters within the AM5 platform, since for example it does not support PCI Express 5.0, they give the ability to mount a computer with a latest generation AMD processor for less than 100 euros. Of course, with certain limitations.
A few months ago, in the middle of the launch of the Ryzen 7000, we saw how the sales of these did not take off and not due to the demerits of this range of CPUs for PCs, but rather due to the fact that there were no affordable motherboards within the AM5 platform. . Therefore, many users in order to assemble their PC opted for the Ryzen 5000 and AM4 motherboards, which are much cheaper. Well, after a long wait, AMD and its partners have finally launched the A620 motherboards, the most affordable, but at the same time, the most discreet to date.
What sets the A620 boards apart from the rest?
The fact that its cost is much lower comes from a series of important cuts, actually its chipset is a cut B650, which does not support PCI Express 5.0 and we are not just saying that because of the chipset connections. If not, depending on the type of motherboard in which we place our Ryzen 7000, PCIe support reverts to the fourth generation. It’s more, the PCIe connections provided by the A620 board are 4 third generation lineswhich can be used for:
- PCIe sockets.
- Integrated network card.
- Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Radio
- M.2 sockets.
On most A620 boards these four ports will be occupied by these elements, then there are another 4 PCIe 3.0 lanes where a couple of them can be replaced by a SATA connection. That is to say, we can have up to 2 SATA devices connected. Therefore, it can be concluded that the connectivity it provides is quite limited. However, it is not for memory speed, since supports DDR5 RAM with overclocking. The rest of the connectivity is provided by the CPU, although not in all its splendor as it is limited to PCIe 4.0. This is 16 lines to connect a graphics card and then another 8 lines for two NVMe SSDs.
They do not support all Ryzen 7000 processors
Well yes, A620 motherboards have limitations in terms of CPU, although not all. The reason for this is that AMD has designed them for processors with a TDP of 65 W with peaks up to 88 W via PPT. This includes all Ryzen 7000 models without an X at the end. That is to say: the Ryzen 9 7900, Ryzen 7 7700 and Ryzen 5 7600 models. However, the curious thing is that it gives as an example some processors in its slides that have a TDP higher than that, as is the case of the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D which has it at 120 W.
And that’s where the trap is, some models with A620 chipset have circuitry that allows them to support more powerful processors and reach 120 W TDP, but at the same time there is a trap and it is none other than that the SMT of said chips is deactivated, losing performance in multithreaded tasks compared to using them in other motherboards. That is why if your goal is to go for the Ryzen 7000X or 7000X3D and you want to go for something at a reasonable price, choose a motherboard with B650 chipset.
