Got an article published for this one! www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/3611-amd-a520-chipset-comparison-specs Previous AMD Chipset Comparison deep-dive (video): ruclips.net/video/qfTPLF8OKK4/видео.html Previous AMD Chipset differences (article): www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3582-amd-chipset-differences-b550-vs-x570-b450-x470-zen-3 The GN Wireframe Mouse Mats are back in stock & shipping now! Any orders or back-orders we have are shipping daily as we catch up on the huge interest and order volume. Grab one here: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-wireframe-mouse-mat (we are also donating 10% of revenue from sales to Eden Reforestation Projects through August 20)
@@eli-bk2mi haha, yeah. Skidded out on a wet wood feature. Tried to regain control while sliding for about 10-15ft, ended up just tossing the bike and bailing. Took a pretty hard tumble on asphalt, but I'm fine! Mostly shoulder stiffness from the crash.
I'm new to the channel because I can only watch so much tech content but I've known your name for years. I LOVE your video format and presentation style. It speaks to me and never leaves me asking questions. Thanks for the great content!
Thanks so much! We typically take a more serious approach to presentation (like this video), but obviously sometimes that gets put aside. All depends on the content. Glad you like the videos!
3:49 what the hell is "4x SuperSpeed USB"? Did USB naming team intentionally try to make their naming scheme as confusing as possible? EDIT: 7:27 confused screaming stops
The naming scheme was made by a bunch of engineers who are disconnected with general consumers who don't care about under the hood architectural changes, they just want to know "which one is better, and how many gigarams per second can it do." Also apparently USB4 was supposed to be in line with thunderbolt 3, because reasons.
Hey Steve, I have a content suggestion: "Ultimate guide to USB spec naming and how we got into this mess". Would make for an interesting piece! I can't be the only one who keeps forgetting what all the numbers mean. And then there's the constant rebranding and varying nomenclature by different companies.
Not really their kind of content. I mean, there is technical merit to educating people, but the idiocy of the decisions made with respect to USB naming would likely result in Steve stroking out before he could finish filming the video, compounded by a triple aneurysm when explaining why both USB-C and Thunderbolt-3 use the same connector but aren't the same technology, yet can use the same cables most of the time, while USB devices will usually work when plugged into a Thunderbolt-3 port, but Thunderbolt-3 devices will not work when plugged into a USB-C port. I don't wish the research and writing required to explain that in a video upon anyone.
It’s mostly marketing. GN has made it clear they break down tech topics and go over breaking tech news as well as product reviews. Explaining marketing for usb technology isn’t really what they want to do. It’s very simple. USB 1,2,3,3.1. That’s it, you can put super speed in front the numbers but it doesn’t change the core technology and their limitations.
Lowly AMD marketing new hire: "Howbout we just skip a Zen number and make the Gen and Zen the same today, as a starting off point for down the road, and stop confusing customers" AMD: " ... ... ... who hired this guy ... and why is he speaking Swahili?"
Send him to the janitor's room, the guy who suggested we use same numbering for mobile and desktop should keep him company. Order signed by the guy who suggested they launch old CPUs on am4 socket. He has climbed up thee ladder.
Really there's no need to ever upgrade from b450 unless your motherboard dies. Pcie 4 isn't useful to most consumers and b450 should support all am4 cpus at this point. Wait for I'm guessing? B750 and AM5?
@@MarginalSC You realize AM4 is EoL after next gen right? AMD said they'd support it to 2020 and well it's 2020... DDR5 ram is also around the corner; and even that aside, AMD has already expressed concern with overly supporting the older chipsets like the 300 chipsets barely support the 3000 cpus (they only support them using "beta" bioses) ... and same for 400 chipsets and 4000 cpus... I'd be willing to bet money Ryzen 5000 cpus are on a new socket; Likely named "AM5" or "AM4+" The AM4 platform already is gonna have supported like 5 architectures from the Bulldozer APUs that originally launched on it in early 2017, Zen with the original Ryzens, Zen+ with Ryzen 2000, Zen 2 with Ryzen 3000, and Zen 3 with the upcoming Ryzen 4000
Let's be clear here. A520 existence is meant primarily for the OEM's to compete in the low-cost desktop arena, especially poised to take advantage of the ongoing surge of home PC purchasing to support remote learning here in the US. A520 is clearly the perfect match for the Ryzen 5000 desktop APU's and will give OEM's and system builders a platform to offer a range of sub-$500 APU-driven PC's that can be sold at Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon with the goal of beating more market-share out of Intel. Imagine comparing to what Intel currently has out there for budget offerings when compared to systems with sub-$200 6-core Ryzen 5000 APU's or sub-$150 4-core APU's. If the APU graphics are at least as good as they are in the mobile 4000 line, Intel has a real fight ahead of them in the budget desktop segment. My neighbor's kid plays Fortnite at about 60FPS @ 1080p on medium and low settings on an Acer laptop with a 4500U and no discrete GPU, which tells us that the Ryzen 5000 desktop APU's are going to be significantly better than that for super budget gaming playing titles like Fortnite and Apex. *fixed*
@@alexlopezalbertos if you want the ability to upgrade into Ryzen 5000 series, I'd go B550, but before you do, check around at deals, because you can often find a decent X570 board available on sale for similar to what you'd pay for a B550. X570 has more PCIe gen4 lanes, although for gaming, B550 has enough gen4 lanes for the GPU as well as a single gen4 x4 NVMe SSD, which are the two most important use cases for PCIe Gen4.
@@racerex340 Im using it exclusively for gaming and productivity (no streaming, editing...) so I dont think ill be updating the cpu any time soon. Thank you so much for your reply!
@@alexlopezalbertos if you're going exclusive gaming and budget is a high priority, PCI gen4 doesn't do much for a budget build, and the performance difference even on an RTX 3090 going PCIe gen3 to gen4 is just a couple percentage points in a few scenarios. You shouldn't rule out B450 for budget Ryzen gaming builds, there are some great B450 boards out there, and while sure, you'll almost certainly have to flash the motherboard BIOS/AGESA in order to run a modern Ryzen CPU, even Ryzen 3000, they'll do everything you need, even offering upgrade path to Ryzen 5000. A great budget build would be a midrange B450 with a Ryzen 3600. The 3600 will allow you to play pretty much any major title and if you beef up the cooling solution, they overclock well past the 3600X performance at a much lower price.
@@racerex340 I think ill go with a b550 then, in my country you can find them for almost the same price as b450’s. As for the GPU would you recommend getting a 1660 super?
Alexandru Draghi the delayed APU release cycle isn't great for AMD for laptops, TBH. I hope AMD syncs up soon. Laptop OEMs have used the "fall/winter refresh" cycle for a decade. AMD launching laptop APUs in March has caused issues before, like the Ice Lake vs Picasso Surface Laptop 3. Now it'll be Tiger Lake vs Renoir.
Because it's the most recent A-series that will support Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 4000, just like the X and B 500 series. They skipped A420 as it really didn't have much of a market, A320 was still fine for ultra-budget and the few APU's that existed, and most people were satisfied with the budget side of B450 if they were using GPU's. Now that AMD has new Ryzen APU's coming, they need an ultra-low-cost chipset for budget motherboards that can support the new Zen 2 Ryzen 4000 APU's and future Zen 3 APU's (I assume labeled Ryzen 5000?). In short, A420 wasn't needed, as the lack of Zen2 desktop APU SKU's meant B450 met the needs of the budget segment.
@@racerex340 nah they skipped it because of weed, my dealer for one is angry they skipped a420 (joke) i don't even live in a state where recreational marijuana is legal. or medical, for that matter.
Nice to see a new budget chipset. Even better to see AMD only updates it chipset lineup when they have something meaningful to release. That being said they have to battle with consumers not liking 'lower' numbered chipsets.
They only released it because they made the A320 incompatible. They planned to do the same with B450, killing it off with release of B550. Consumer outrage stopped that. Their evil is barely contained
@@kuyt20 because for there to be Zen3 support other processors can't be supported because there's not enough room on the BIOS chips and they can't address the whole thing on the bigger bios chips.
Something meaningful to release is debatable lately. Matisse 2 was pointless. B550 is not significantly cheaper than x570 and a520 is just a refresh of a320 and reuses vrms from b350/b450. It only exists because AMD doesn't want to make new bios for old boards. They justify that the limited size only allows so many skus to be supported and having different bios for different gens would be too confusing.
I wonder if the push for an A520 chipset is coming from the OEMs (like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc) who want to ship cheap home and office pc's using the upcoming Ryzen Zen 2 4xxxG processors. Those "low end" chips are still going to be pretty zippy compute and graphics-wise, should be awesome!
@@tiongah7690 I think it's a supply issue. A lot of APU dies are needed for Sony and Microsoft, plus AMD is making progress in the laptop market so there was probably no option but to restrict supply of desktop APUs for a while.
@@tylerthebest1991 My man, i'm in the same boat. Anxiously waiting to finally put my precious I5 2500K to rest as a server on some other fun side project, while i upgrade my rig into itx size with a brand new Zen 3 cpu.
my A320 ASRock bors with it Ryzen 3 2200G and 16 gig of ram and a Nvidia 1050 refurb i got for $128 still runs like a champ and is a solid 1080p gaming system
Steve MSI must have stron influence on Polish tech Facebook groups, few of my post with GN and HU content have been removed because spam ;P one of admins has a lot of gear from MSI to review ;) Just saying ..
PSA: I would define "work users" for the nerds who do not "IT" - We are handing users i7s running at 3ghz max boost. But they are mini desktops from HP with no active cooling so they realistically run at 2g most of the time. These users are "happy" with this performance... So AMDs weaksause x20 is really perfect for the market were AMD ever to break in.
Oh, they very much plan on breaking in, the entire point for A520 and Ryzen 4000 APU's (Renoir) is to come at Intel hard on the budget home and business segments. The OEM's will gladly push a platform that offers better performance and efficiency than the current Intel offering where they can sell the AMD equivalent for 20% less while their costs are even lower, putting more gross profit into every unit they move. Intel is in serious trouble if they lose major market share in this segment. Tiger Lake might stave off Intel losing a bunch of the mobile business market, but Tiger Lake (like all Intel 10nm) costs Intel so much that I don't see them being able to compete financially with AMD mobile for very long without outsourcing more to foundries.
Currently planning a budget build! Hopefully boards are released soon. New build was sparked by your best airflow cases in 2020 video (and my trusted 2013 tower having more issues daily). Impeccable timing! :) [edit:] Oh. No infinity fabric or OC functionality at all? Huh shame. Especially in that segment I need every inch of performance / dollar. Guess I will need to buy B-450 still?
Depending on VRMs, A520 could be really good for ITX-boards. In SFF-builds you generally don't want a power hungry cpu anyway, and the boards don't support more than 2 ram slots anyway. I'd probably go for this over B450 for a price conscious SFF-build with like a 3600 or 3700X and something between a RX 5600 XT and 2070 Super.
Also to remember that even though a320 didnt officially support overclocking, many bios does allow it and it can be done. I expect these a520 to be no different, but still vrm quality would dictate just how well it can be done.
While this chipset is more aimed at the general PC space, I see the A520 boards being a decent budget gaming build option for someone who is just going to build current gen and not upgrade it.
This will be a good office motherboard. Over locking is it's biggest limit, but then again at the price it makes sense. At least all of AMDs CPUs are overclock able so switching to a higher montherboard unlocks the feature rather than needing both a specific Mobo and a specific cpu.
I don't know.... Seems to me that even the cheapest B450 Motherboards are a Better Value option then these A520's Boards! Especially when you can get a Cheaper 1000 or 2000 series CPU and Still Upgrade in the future to a 3000 Series and Maybe even a 4000 series! Plus you still get overclocking support. Just stay under the 65w TDP and you shouldn't have any issues, even overclocking! I mean maybe I'm missing something here, but to me A520 is DOA... IMO!
A second hand a320 board was all I could afford for my current PC. With a 3200g. I wish I could afford to be a more serious enthusiast like I once was. The second hand market in my country is awful, people often asking original RRP on used, 5 year old+ hardware. I so appreciate AMD providing some somewhat feasible options for people like myself with ultra tight budgets.
Please can you do a video on Microsoft Flight Simulator performance on various hardware. I’d love to see what you guys can do for the community who may be struggling with performance issues 😊
I wanted one of those mats, but they are quite expensive if you live in a third world country. Will try to get one by the end of the year tho. As always, thanks for the video!
I got a A320 with a 2600 in the living room pc and it works fine. Works at full speed with the 950 pro boot drive. Just a fine chip set. Not every pc in the house needs to be some ultra high end oc beast.
Thank you for the review. I'm surprised it is even being marketed for any gaming. I bought one and four $160 total, made a Linux server and a NAS out of that system. A lot more performance than an entry level raid 10 Nas and it's perfect for a budget server.
Hey GN, I absolutely love the side panel/view/subtitle with the current subject, one note though: the font can only be clearly seen if I put the browser in full-screen. I use a 2560x1440 display with youtube occupying half the screen, and the font is really choppy. Hope that helps.
Haven’t been looking into cpus since my last build (6700k) and I was really confused with the whole ryzen 3000, zen 3 naming convention. Thanks for clearing that up.
So maybe I'm getting something wrong here, but when I see a table such as the one at 3:44, I feel the job of a low-end chipset is now not just to provide fewer features by itself, but also to cripple the I/O present on the... CPU? I don't get if that table means AMD is preventing motherboard manufacturers to actually route all the USB lines that are supported in a Ryzen CPU's I/O die to physical USB ports, or if the chipset is just telling the CPU "Yeah, you've got all those USB ports integrated, but now you can only use of them". Ryzens are SoCs but then they're not really because when you use them with a chipset, it limits some of their SoC features. It's just more confusing than ever...
Does anyone recommend me buying this motherboard? I'm not really too into gaming. I'm just trying to build a PC that can game reasonably but mostly for programming on windows and Linux at the same time.
My question, Why are mini itx boards so expensive compared to other boards when it uses less material and overall has less features when compared to its counterparts? Is it just because they know that people that need one will pay that premium for them or is it a legitimate reason?
I think it's because they have to cram so many components onto a smaller board. A lot of ITX motherboards have more layers for additional electrical traces.
Market may play a part. The demand may be lower, or people who build itx are willing to pay a bit more, so the prices stay high. Dunno if there are differences in the parts to cope better with the usually warmer insides of itx cases.
Routing traces in that much area is more difficult. Then there is also that they need more efficient power delivery components since there isn't even much area for that. X570 chipset which requires active cooling makes it even worse
Kinda weird to notice that basically none of the boards that have been anounced until now actually exploit the chipset full potential. I know that buget chipset basically equals budget mobo (and that's the goal) but making the boards underachieving feels awkward from both technical and marketing perspectives.
The only problem with x570 apart from being twice the cost, is that it only appears to be generally available on ATX, which is a pity as mATX is a really handy form factor.
at 6:35 you talk about overclocking features being disabled. from watching Actually Hardcore Overclockings' recent video, and double checking the website: A520M H mobo specs list 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors: Support for DDR4 5000(O.C.) / 4866(O.C.) / 4600(O.C.) / 4400(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics processors: Support for DDR4 5000(O.C.) / 4866(O.C.) / 4600(O.C.) / 4400(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules so it would seem that CPU OC features may not be available, but memory OC should be
It really will benefit at low-end Athlons, Most non-enthusiast audience are afraid of killing their CPU so they usually don't overclock it despite having a good performance boost. A sub 100$ A520 with an Athlon & a used old GPU from their old system or Just on-chip GPU is still nice, better than not having a PC.
On the one hand A520 actually looks like it would be enough for the majority of users but I've been burned before by the cheap VRMs on a H310 board overheating and crashing the system even with an i5-8400 in a budget living room PC build. That was enough to turn me off of low end motherboards for good (and also prompted me to start watching channels like this one to stay informed and up to date)
Hey GN, think you could test a 3400G AMD for compatibility with a PRIME A520M-K? I know its not listed but cases have been popping up regarding unlisted compatibility.
Late reply, but someone may value this. Just did that exact combo w/G.SKILL Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200 memory. Works just fine. Board came with Bios 0403 dated 6/16/2020. It's not broke so I haven't fixed it.
I know it's ment for lower end pc's but I don't see why it should be limited to it. None of the limitations is actually limiting a modern pc. If the mainboard doesn't cheap out on power delivery... why not spend less on the chipset and more on the actual cpu or gpu?
8:30 Why is this table not sorted? Or if it is, how tf is it sorted? Why are x570 & b550 on the left but a520 ist with a320 on the right, everything else is from new to old except a520 ... On a less ranty note: Love your content, keep it up!
It's interesting that A320 ddoes not support 3rd gen ryzen processors but I could swear I have seen people running the 3950x in A320 boards, I have ran a Ryzen 7 3700x at stock on a cheap board before, not entirely sure if it was an A320 or B450 but it was definetly a cheaper class board. Right enough I have no real need for overclocking so i'm not too fussed about that.
Given the PCIe4 lanes for GPU and NVME SSD that the B550 has, it has the potential for long service life. Build a value rig now and upgrade parts when desired (GPU, SSD) or as compatible parts hit their max value for money before leaving the market (Zen 3 CPU, DDR4 RAM).
Although cpu overcloking is locked, memory isn't. Gigabyte is advertising 4000Mhz ans higher in memory support. The interesting question is whether PBO is supported as well
Hey Steve, I'd heard of Pro 500, A300, and X300. I'd never heard of AB300. I remember some Asrock and Gigabyte AB350 boards but I could never figure out the difference. Why does it seem like information about AB300 and AB350 are practically nonexistant?
For 80% of the market building midrange desktop computers the a520 might be the best option as long as you get good quality vrms. However with that last statement you might be priced closer to a b550 with high quality vrms. For future proofing it would seem getting the pcie 4.0 would be better however for the price by the time you need it the newer b650 boards might already be out with pcie 4.0.
$75 A520m boards like the DS3H have a 5+3 stage VRM which allows for decent overclocking. $85+ A520m boards like the Aorus Elite or TUF Plus have VRM heatsinks as well. These compare to $100-$130 B550m boards, but have more features like RGB, upgraded Ethernet, etc.
When A520 launches around the time Ryzen 4000 launches and the Ryzen 4000 series won't run on it Haha that would be a good meme, didn't happen before ever! :P
Just trying to work out if I should buy the B550, it's a toss up between that and the A520 on mATX, because I want 4 memory slots so I can increase the memory without dumping my current 2x8GB sticks, but it makes the price a bit more expensive especially on the B550 boards. The 3100 CPU only cost me $30 as a shop told some kid it was irreparable when 2 pins were just slightly bent. lol
This seems like one of those products that is too cut down to make sense. With the only upgrades being on USB ports (which you could do with a $20 PCIE card) or just compatibility for current generation Ryzen CPU's, for any meaningful upgrade you are far better off paying the extra $10 - 30 needed to get a B550 board instead. This seems mostly a thing for OEM's in the budget bracket.
Given that some of PCIE-4 lanes come directly from the CPU and "overclock" is just to select several frequency dividers, it seems A520 is mostly software / BIOS crippled. I think if the manufacturer wanted to wire the PCIE 4 lanes coming from the 5xxx CPUs on A520 boards and enable it in BIOS, it would work and they'd get punished for doing that. I wonder if there was a 4-core Zen3 APU would it be called Ryzen 5430G or using the plus 1 scheme it would be Ryzen6450G ?
hidden gem; Asrock A520 mb BIOS ver 2.0(only this version) if you are using 5950X cpu AMD Overclocking are enable in the BIOS, i just discovered this. but they are disable on 3950X tho.
Got an article published for this one! www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/3611-amd-a520-chipset-comparison-specs
Previous AMD Chipset Comparison deep-dive (video): ruclips.net/video/qfTPLF8OKK4/видео.html
Previous AMD Chipset differences (article): www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3582-amd-chipset-differences-b550-vs-x570-b450-x470-zen-3
The GN Wireframe Mouse Mats are back in stock & shipping now! Any orders or back-orders we have are shipping daily as we catch up on the huge interest and order volume. Grab one here: store.gamersnexus.net/products/gn-wireframe-mouse-mat (we are also donating 10% of revenue from sales to Eden Reforestation Projects through August 20)
im a budget user and i love that they released the A520 chipset
Why didnt A520 come with 1 USBC port and 2.5GBE realtek to replace the single 1gbe nic
hey Steve, what hapend to your left hand, close to the elbow? bike accident ?
@@eli-bk2mi haha, yeah. Skidded out on a wet wood feature. Tried to regain control while sliding for about 10-15ft, ended up just tossing the bike and bailing. Took a pretty hard tumble on asphalt, but I'm fine! Mostly shoulder stiffness from the crash.
great but we are still waiting for Lian Li Galahad 360 review!!!
I can't believe they completely opted out of the a420 chipset
A420YOLOSWAG CHIPSET HAS 8 BLAZEIT PORTS
Gamers Nexus 69 BlazeIt ports, actually, in the new revision.
Literally a crime.
no memes for us
ayy420 was skipped, ayymd not based
The "Don't worry About a thing" Build
CPU : Ryzen AF
Cores : 69
Chipset : A420
1337GHz
Nice
@@CarbonPanther yea, for the integrated graphics
the processor would be more like 5384 GHz(4x1337)
@@ulrichkalber9039 GHz? Or MHz?
@@nathangamble125 MHz
I'm new to the channel because I can only watch so much tech content but I've known your name for years.
I LOVE your video format and presentation style. It speaks to me and never leaves me asking questions. Thanks for the great content!
Thanks so much! We typically take a more serious approach to presentation (like this video), but obviously sometimes that gets put aside. All depends on the content. Glad you like the videos!
At least memory speed doesn't look to be limited.
You hear that Intel?
At least memory latency is not limited.
Hear that Intel?
At least memory bandwidth is limited.
Hear that Intel?
Well I think its mostly cause the CPUs support 3200MHz themselves
Inb4 I learn that it actually can't use XMP and get sad.
Intel has left the building....
@METhOdhowtoKilLnoObS but at least AMD listens to their fan base
How did they skip A420? Sales would have been HIGH.
Yikes.
I mean A420 would have totally "Smoked" Intel!! 🔥😎🤣🤣
@@bigal2688 Even bigger yikes.
GET OUT!
Yuck
3:49 what the hell is "4x SuperSpeed USB"? Did USB naming team intentionally try to make their naming scheme as confusing as possible? EDIT: 7:27 confused screaming stops
Linus tech tips rant USB naming
@@paulhoeksema7200 yes! I watched that yesterday lol
The naming scheme was made by a bunch of engineers who are disconnected with general consumers who don't care about under the hood architectural changes, they just want to know "which one is better, and how many gigarams per second can it do." Also apparently USB4 was supposed to be in line with thunderbolt 3, because reasons.
@@trevorsmith470 No, then it would make sense.
This smells of marketing naming schemes.
PCI-E gen 4 needs to be changed to PCI-E 3.2x2 SuperUltraFast4
Hey Steve, I have a content suggestion: "Ultimate guide to USB spec naming and how we got into this mess". Would make for an interesting piece! I can't be the only one who keeps forgetting what all the numbers mean. And then there's the constant rebranding and varying nomenclature by different companies.
Linus already did it
What do the numbers mean, Mason?!
@@stanleykinzinger yeah but GN could do 2x2 😂
Not really their kind of content. I mean, there is technical merit to educating people, but the idiocy of the decisions made with respect to USB naming would likely result in Steve stroking out before he could finish filming the video, compounded by a triple aneurysm when explaining why both USB-C and Thunderbolt-3 use the same connector but aren't the same technology, yet can use the same cables most of the time, while USB devices will usually work when plugged into a Thunderbolt-3 port, but Thunderbolt-3 devices will not work when plugged into a USB-C port. I don't wish the research and writing required to explain that in a video upon anyone.
It’s mostly marketing. GN has made it clear they break down tech topics and go over breaking tech news as well as product reviews. Explaining marketing for usb technology isn’t really what they want to do. It’s very simple. USB 1,2,3,3.1. That’s it, you can put super speed in front the numbers but it doesn’t change the core technology and their limitations.
(7:45) “4 additional PCIe Gen. 4 lanes” should be “4 additional PCIe Gen. 3 lanes”
Lowly AMD marketing new hire: "Howbout we just skip a Zen number and make the Gen and Zen the same today, as a starting off point for down the road, and stop confusing customers"
AMD: " ... ... ... who hired this guy ... and why is he speaking Swahili?"
Lol!
Send him to the janitor's room, the guy who suggested we use same numbering for mobile and desktop should keep him company. Order signed by the guy who suggested they launch old CPUs on am4 socket. He has climbed up thee ladder.
Excited for pc hardware that isnt 2000 EFFING DOLLARS!
since of how fast these things are going out of stock here it costs more then $200
@@notbtdrurusalt1868 just great myself
Nice I was just wondering about this recently, specially since pricing wise A520 seems to exist in the space B450 used to when Ryzen 2000 came out
Given its similarity to A320, there seems to be a growing gap between 520 and 550. Looks like I'm sitting on B450 for the long term.
Really there's no need to ever upgrade from b450 unless your motherboard dies.
Pcie 4 isn't useful to most consumers and b450 should support all am4 cpus at this point.
Wait for I'm guessing? B750 and AM5?
@@daymianhogue1634 One more gen at most
@@MarginalSC You realize AM4 is EoL after next gen right?
AMD said they'd support it to 2020 and well it's 2020...
DDR5 ram is also around the corner; and even that aside, AMD has already expressed concern with overly supporting the older chipsets like the 300 chipsets barely support the 3000 cpus (they only support them using "beta" bioses) ... and same for 400 chipsets and 4000 cpus...
I'd be willing to bet money Ryzen 5000 cpus are on a new socket; Likely named "AM5" or "AM4+"
The AM4 platform already is gonna have supported like 5 architectures from the Bulldozer APUs that originally launched on it in early 2017, Zen with the original Ryzens, Zen+ with Ryzen 2000, Zen 2 with Ryzen 3000, and Zen 3 with the upcoming Ryzen 4000
You shouldn't sit on it for too long. It could bend.
@@daymianhogue1634 Yes AM4 is end of life. I think the next AMD CPU desktop socket will launch with PCIE 5.0 and DDR5 ram.
Let's be clear here. A520 existence is meant primarily for the OEM's to compete in the low-cost desktop arena, especially poised to take advantage of the ongoing surge of home PC purchasing to support remote learning here in the US. A520 is clearly the perfect match for the Ryzen 5000 desktop APU's and will give OEM's and system builders a platform to offer a range of sub-$500 APU-driven PC's that can be sold at Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon with the goal of beating more market-share out of Intel. Imagine comparing to what Intel currently has out there for budget offerings when compared to systems with sub-$200 6-core Ryzen 5000 APU's or sub-$150 4-core APU's. If the APU graphics are at least as good as they are in the mobile 4000 line, Intel has a real fight ahead of them in the budget desktop segment. My neighbor's kid plays Fortnite at about 60FPS @ 1080p on medium and low settings on an Acer laptop with a 4500U and no discrete GPU, which tells us that the Ryzen 5000 desktop APU's are going to be significantly better than that for super budget gaming playing titles like Fortnite and Apex.
*fixed*
Hey im looking into building a gaming pc but im new to this world, which one's better A520 or b550M?
@@alexlopezalbertos if you want the ability to upgrade into Ryzen 5000 series, I'd go B550, but before you do, check around at deals, because you can often find a decent X570 board available on sale for similar to what you'd pay for a B550. X570 has more PCIe gen4 lanes, although for gaming, B550 has enough gen4 lanes for the GPU as well as a single gen4 x4 NVMe SSD, which are the two most important use cases for PCIe Gen4.
@@racerex340 Im using it exclusively for gaming and productivity (no streaming, editing...) so I dont think ill be updating the cpu any time soon. Thank you so much for your reply!
@@alexlopezalbertos if you're going exclusive gaming and budget is a high priority, PCI gen4 doesn't do much for a budget build, and the performance difference even on an RTX 3090 going PCIe gen3 to gen4 is just a couple percentage points in a few scenarios. You shouldn't rule out B450 for budget Ryzen gaming builds, there are some great B450 boards out there, and while sure, you'll almost certainly have to flash the motherboard BIOS/AGESA in order to run a modern Ryzen CPU, even Ryzen 3000, they'll do everything you need, even offering upgrade path to Ryzen 5000. A great budget build would be a midrange B450 with a Ryzen 3600. The 3600 will allow you to play pretty much any major title and if you beef up the cooling solution, they overclock well past the 3600X performance at a much lower price.
@@racerex340 I think ill go with a b550 then, in my country you can find them for almost the same price as b450’s. As for the GPU would you recommend getting a 1660 super?
Lunchtime in India. GN drops a video. Perfect pop corn.
Now is lunchtime in germany
@@snowmow Ich hoffe es ist lecker
@@AtharvaVaidya danke war es :)
AMD: Lists USB speeds to not use confusing USB-IF names
Also AMD: Gives APUs and CPUs in the same generation different series numbers.
Marketing, saying ryzen 3000 APU's series sounds better than just somewhat of a refresh to the 2000 series and also a graphics card.
Alexandru Draghi the delayed APU release cycle isn't great for AMD for laptops, TBH. I hope AMD syncs up soon. Laptop OEMs have used the "fall/winter refresh" cycle for a decade. AMD launching laptop APUs in March has caused issues before, like the Ice Lake vs Picasso Surface Laptop 3. Now it'll be Tiger Lake vs Renoir.
@@ikjadoon yeah but the APU's come before the next gen desktop processors
@@alexandruilea915 Exactly. That means APUs are always on the old-gen architecture, though. Laptops just got Zen2 and desktops are about to get Zen3.
@@ikjadoon yeah and the brand it as the next gen so that "uneducated" people would also buy this and not wait for the next one.
i wonder why they didn't name it "A420" since it still doesn't have pcie gen4 support
Because it's the most recent A-series that will support Ryzen 3000 and Ryzen 4000, just like the X and B 500 series. They skipped A420 as it really didn't have much of a market, A320 was still fine for ultra-budget and the few APU's that existed, and most people were satisfied with the budget side of B450 if they were using GPU's. Now that AMD has new Ryzen APU's coming, they need an ultra-low-cost chipset for budget motherboards that can support the new Zen 2 Ryzen 4000 APU's and future Zen 3 APU's (I assume labeled Ryzen 5000?). In short, A420 wasn't needed, as the lack of Zen2 desktop APU SKU's meant B450 met the needs of the budget segment.
To make it sound newer.
@@racerex340 nah they skipped it because of weed, my dealer for one is angry they skipped a420 (joke) i don't even live in a state where recreational marijuana is legal. or medical, for that matter.
Nice to see a new budget chipset. Even better to see AMD only updates it chipset lineup when they have something meaningful to release. That being said they have to battle with consumers not liking 'lower' numbered chipsets.
They only released it because they made the A320 incompatible. They planned to do the same with B450, killing it off with release of B550. Consumer outrage stopped that. Their evil is barely contained
@@IDKOKIDK they wouldn't support B450 because not all are compatible and it would be confusing.
@@RafitoOoO - Not compatible with what exactly?
@@kuyt20 because for there to be Zen3 support other processors can't be supported because there's not enough room on the BIOS chips and they can't address the whole thing on the bigger bios chips.
Something meaningful to release is debatable lately. Matisse 2 was pointless. B550 is not significantly cheaper than x570 and a520 is just a refresh of a320 and reuses vrms from b350/b450. It only exists because AMD doesn't want to make new bios for old boards. They justify that the limited size only allows so many skus to be supported and having different bios for different gens would be too confusing.
Real excited for the cheap chipset market
I wonder if the push for an A520 chipset is coming from the OEMs (like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc) who want to ship cheap home and office pc's using the upcoming Ryzen Zen 2 4xxxG processors. Those "low end" chips are still going to be pretty zippy compute and graphics-wise, should be awesome!
@@soupwizard yea. i belive the new A chipsets will be more popular with OEMs than with diy buyers
@@soupwizard Considering that, it is weird that the 4xxxG are OEM only and A520 is not, why not make both of them for public?
@@tiongah7690 I think it's a supply issue. A lot of APU dies are needed for Sony and Microsoft, plus AMD is making progress in the laptop market so there was probably no option but to restrict supply of desktop APUs for a while.
I'm just sitting here with an x570 board waiting for next-gen Ryzen and RTX to launch... These are gonna be the longest few weeks of my life.
@@tylerthebest1991 My man, i'm in the same boat. Anxiously waiting to finally put my precious I5 2500K to rest as a server on some other fun side project, while i upgrade my rig into itx size with a brand new Zen 3 cpu.
Wait for RDNA2 to launch... I'm fairly certain that in this round Nvidia are going to have to drop their prices like Intel had to...
Looks like Steve's had a spill from his bike? Great article as always. :)
my A320 ASRock bors with it Ryzen 3 2200G and 16 gig of ram and a Nvidia 1050 refurb i got for $128 still runs like a champ and is a solid 1080p gaming system
Steve MSI must have stron influence on Polish tech Facebook groups, few of my post with GN and HU content have been removed because spam ;P one of admins has a lot of gear from MSI to review ;) Just saying ..
Got my mousemat delivered yesterday. I am blown away by the quality of the material and graphics. WELL DONE GN!
Ouch Steve seems to have hurt himself mountain-biking!
What happened to your left elbow? How did you hurt it?
This year will be interesting for developments. Great stuff.
Also, my mouse mat is ordered as of yesterday!
Comparing this with the Zen 3 on b450 will be interesting. “While supplies last.”
PSA: I would define "work users" for the nerds who do not "IT" - We are handing users i7s running at 3ghz max boost. But they are mini desktops from HP with no active cooling so they realistically run at 2g most of the time. These users are "happy" with this performance... So AMDs weaksause x20 is really perfect for the market were AMD ever to break in.
Oh, they very much plan on breaking in, the entire point for A520 and Ryzen 4000 APU's (Renoir) is to come at Intel hard on the budget home and business segments. The OEM's will gladly push a platform that offers better performance and efficiency than the current Intel offering where they can sell the AMD equivalent for 20% less while their costs are even lower, putting more gross profit into every unit they move. Intel is in serious trouble if they lose major market share in this segment. Tiger Lake might stave off Intel losing a bunch of the mobile business market, but Tiger Lake (like all Intel 10nm) costs Intel so much that I don't see them being able to compete financially with AMD mobile for very long without outsourcing more to foundries.
Currently planning a budget build! Hopefully boards are released soon.
New build was sparked by your best airflow cases in 2020 video (and my trusted 2013 tower having more issues daily).
Impeccable timing! :)
[edit:]
Oh. No infinity fabric or OC functionality at all?
Huh shame. Especially in that segment I need every inch of performance / dollar. Guess I will need to buy B-450 still?
Budget options are more important than ever, no overclock support is a bummer but let's see pricing I say.
Depending on VRMs, A520 could be really good for ITX-boards. In SFF-builds you generally don't want a power hungry cpu anyway, and the boards don't support more than 2 ram slots anyway. I'd probably go for this over B450 for a price conscious SFF-build with like a 3600 or 3700X and something between a RX 5600 XT and 2070 Super.
What about a ryzen 5 3600 and a rtx 3050?
According to Igorslab.de:
- PBO
not supported on A520
- CPU under/overvolting is supported
I like being informed about these things. Please share.
Finally a short video I can watch in one sitting
Also to remember that even though a320 didnt officially support overclocking, many bios does allow it and it can be done. I expect these a520 to be no different, but still vrm quality would dictate just how well it can be done.
True My msi A320-A pro Max allows over clocking the CPU I got my r5 1600 af to 4.0ghz
While this chipset is more aimed at the general PC space, I see the A520 boards being a decent budget gaming build option for someone who is just going to build current gen and not upgrade it.
I just want to take a moment to note that your editor is doing a splendid job.
This will be a good office motherboard. Over locking is it's biggest limit, but then again at the price it makes sense. At least all of AMDs CPUs are overclock able so switching to a higher montherboard unlocks the feature rather than needing both a specific Mobo and a specific cpu.
Upcoming office prebuilts are gonna be amazing budget PC's in the future.
I don't know.... Seems to me that even the cheapest B450 Motherboards are a Better Value option then these A520's Boards! Especially when you can get a Cheaper 1000 or 2000 series CPU and Still Upgrade in the future to a 3000 Series and Maybe even a 4000 series! Plus you still get overclocking support. Just stay under the 65w TDP and you shouldn't have any issues, even overclocking!
I mean maybe I'm missing something here, but to me A520 is DOA... IMO!
The cheaper B450s probably wont support 4000 series.
@@jaalan7896 possibly, but even if they don't which would you prefer, 3600 you can overclock or a 4600 that you can't? 🤔😁
Also 450 is the end of the line product. You can get those as long as old stuff is in the storages.
A second hand a320 board was all I could afford for my current PC. With a 3200g. I wish I could afford to be a more serious enthusiast like I once was. The second hand market in my country is awful, people often asking original RRP on used, 5 year old+ hardware.
I so appreciate AMD providing some somewhat feasible options for people like myself with ultra tight budgets.
Please can you do a video on Microsoft Flight Simulator performance on various hardware. I’d love to see what you guys can do for the community who may be struggling with performance issues 😊
Thank you for all the great content been following for long just ordered a glass cube, Keep up the good work guys!
I wanted one of those mats, but they are quite expensive if you live in a third world country. Will try to get one by the end of the year tho. As always, thanks for the video!
I got a A320 with a 2600 in the living room pc and it works fine. Works at full speed with the 950 pro boot drive. Just a fine chip set. Not every pc in the house needs to be some ultra high end oc beast.
Thank you for the review. I'm surprised it is even being marketed for any gaming. I bought one and four $160 total, made a Linux server and a NAS out of that system. A lot more performance than an entry level raid 10 Nas and it's perfect for a budget server.
Hey GN, I absolutely love the side panel/view/subtitle with the current subject, one note though: the font can only be clearly seen if I put the browser in full-screen. I use a 2560x1440 display with youtube occupying half the screen, and the font is really choppy. Hope that helps.
What I got out of this: Tech companies and orgs have terrible naming conventions
Haven’t been looking into cpus since my last build (6700k) and I was really confused with the whole ryzen 3000, zen 3 naming convention. Thanks for clearing that up.
So maybe I'm getting something wrong here, but when I see a table such as the one at 3:44, I feel the job of a low-end chipset is now not just to provide fewer features by itself, but also to cripple the I/O present on the... CPU?
I don't get if that table means AMD is preventing motherboard manufacturers to actually route all the USB lines that are supported in a Ryzen CPU's I/O die to physical USB ports, or if the chipset is just telling the CPU "Yeah, you've got all those USB ports integrated, but now you can only use of them".
Ryzens are SoCs but then they're not really because when you use them with a chipset, it limits some of their SoC features.
It's just more confusing than ever...
"b55 starts cheap" in my country a b450 its more expensive than a 3600, so thats a nono
in Ukraine b450 can cost 50$.
Does anyone recommend me buying this motherboard? I'm not really too into gaming. I'm just trying to build a PC that can game reasonably but mostly for programming on windows and Linux at the same time.
I really like how you use the same highlight animations on every chart even if it's not yours
Got my mouse mats today! Awesome mats, perfect fit for a keyboard, mouse, and a few drinks!
-Matt
A520 probably make the most sense if you're going for APU
very intersting for a APU home theater pc, that might play some games sometimes!
mediatek Kompanio 520 chipset is gonna boost the budget Chromebooks. Intrigued to see how it increases the performance and efficiency of the device.
Steve, kissed the Gravel? ;)
My question, Why are mini itx boards so expensive compared to other boards when it uses less material and overall has less features when compared to its counterparts?
Is it just because they know that people that need one will pay that premium for them or is it a legitimate reason?
I think it's because they have to cram so many components onto a smaller board. A lot of ITX motherboards have more layers for additional electrical traces.
Market may play a part. The demand may be lower, or people who build itx are willing to pay a bit more, so the prices stay high. Dunno if there are differences in the parts to cope better with the usually warmer insides of itx cases.
Routing traces in that much area is more difficult. Then there is also that they need more efficient power delivery components since there isn't even much area for that.
X570 chipset which requires active cooling makes it even worse
Kinda weird to notice that basically none of the boards that have been anounced until now actually exploit the chipset full potential. I know that buget chipset basically equals budget mobo (and that's the goal) but making the boards underachieving feels awkward from both technical and marketing perspectives.
The only problem with x570 apart from being twice the cost, is that it only appears to be generally available on ATX, which is a pity as mATX is a really handy form factor.
at 6:35 you talk about overclocking features being disabled.
from watching Actually Hardcore Overclockings' recent video, and double checking the website:
A520M H mobo specs list
3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ Processors:
Support for DDR4 5000(O.C.) / 4866(O.C.) / 4600(O.C.) / 4400(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules
3rd Gen AMD Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Graphics processors:
Support for DDR4 5000(O.C.) / 4866(O.C.) / 4600(O.C.) / 4400(O.C.) / 4000(O.C.) / 3600(O.C.) / 3333(O.C.) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 MHz memory modules
so it would seem that CPU OC features may not be available, but memory OC should be
1000 words per minute. No stops
It really will benefit at low-end Athlons, Most non-enthusiast audience are afraid of killing their CPU so they usually don't overclock it despite having a good performance boost. A sub 100$ A520 with an Athlon & a used old GPU from their old system or Just on-chip GPU is still nice, better than not having a PC.
Lets hope the pricing does not land it into where the B550 lineup should have been.
Thank you very much. A new case came out; Cooler Master NR200/P, ITX. Maybe a review in the future. Thank you. Have a good week. :)
On 8:21 you have B450 having PCIE3 x4.0 Chipset link. That is a mistake. It is PCIE2.
Thanks for the overall summary and recap!
if a520 had pcie gen 4 and overclocking I would totally buy it
On the one hand A520 actually looks like it would be enough for the majority of users but I've been burned before by the cheap VRMs on a H310 board overheating and crashing the system even with an i5-8400 in a budget living room PC build. That was enough to turn me off of low end motherboards for good (and also prompted me to start watching channels like this one to stay informed and up to date)
Steve, who did you elbow into next week? I didn’t know you knew karate bro.
Hey GN, think you could test a 3400G AMD for compatibility with a PRIME A520M-K? I know its not listed but cases have been popping up regarding unlisted compatibility.
Late reply, but someone may value this. Just did that exact combo w/G.SKILL Aegis 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200 memory. Works just fine. Board came with Bios 0403 dated 6/16/2020. It's not broke so I haven't fixed it.
Why u always have that paper on the desk? Sorry I am a new subscriber
The lowish end needed some love.
I know it's ment for lower end pc's but I don't see why it should be limited to it.
None of the limitations is actually limiting a modern pc. If the mainboard doesn't cheap out on power delivery... why not spend less on the chipset and more on the actual cpu or gpu?
I had to laugh at MSI as they say the A520M-A Pro is not compatible with the 3200G and the 3400G, but in fact they actually do.
The Gigabyte ITX A520 is an alternative to the B450 ITX boards, since the B550 ITX boards are almost the same price as X570
For some reason I'm just waiting for him to say gnarly.
Yeah, he looks like the type.
This board puts balance to the budget
For something like a NAS or Appliance (Firewall-Router, MediaBox) this is perfect.
Gigabyte's A520 Elite looks pretty sick. It has okay power delivery (5+3 phases) and ALC1200 codec.
A520 for a ryzen 4k APU build sound very intersting for multimedia pc's tbh!
8:30 Why is this table not sorted? Or if it is, how tf is it sorted? Why are x570 & b550 on the left but a520 ist with a320 on the right, everything else is from new to old except a520 ...
On a less ranty note: Love your content, keep it up!
It's interesting that A320 ddoes not support 3rd gen ryzen processors but I could swear I have seen people running the 3950x in A320 boards, I have ran a Ryzen 7 3700x at stock on a cheap board before, not entirely sure if it was an A320 or B450 but it was definetly a cheaper class board. Right enough I have no real need for overclocking so i'm not too fussed about that.
Nice video my friend
you say that right as the vid is uploaded
Sherlock
Feel like 500 series boards really should have supported the 3000 series APUs just to prevent confusion.
Given the PCIe4 lanes for GPU and NVME SSD that the B550 has, it has the potential for long service life. Build a value rig now and upgrade parts when desired (GPU, SSD) or as compatible parts hit their max value for money before leaving the market (Zen 3 CPU, DDR4 RAM).
7:36 - USB 3.0, USB 3.1, and USB 3.2 - as everyone else who uses version numbers on the planet intended. 👍
What about 3.2x2?
Although cpu overcloking is locked, memory isn't. Gigabyte is advertising 4000Mhz ans higher in memory support. The interesting question is whether PBO is supported as well
The Athlon seems like it should be used with this board? It’s budget board, the Athlon series are budget CPUs why wouldn’t you support them?
Just got my GN mouse mat and it's awesome!
Hey Steve, I'd heard of Pro 500, A300, and X300. I'd never heard of AB300.
I remember some Asrock and Gigabyte AB350 boards but I could never figure out the difference.
Why does it seem like information about AB300 and AB350 are practically nonexistant?
For 80% of the market building midrange desktop computers the a520 might be the best option as long as you get good quality vrms. However with that last statement you might be priced closer to a b550 with high quality vrms. For future proofing it would seem getting the pcie 4.0 would be better however for the price by the time you need it the newer b650 boards might already be out with pcie 4.0.
$75 A520m boards like the DS3H have a 5+3 stage VRM which allows for decent overclocking.
$85+ A520m boards like the Aorus Elite or TUF Plus have VRM heatsinks as well. These compare to $100-$130 B550m boards, but have more features like RGB, upgraded Ethernet, etc.
When A520 launches around the time Ryzen 4000 launches and the Ryzen 4000 series won't run on it
Haha that would be a good meme, didn't happen before ever! :P
Exactly what i was wondering the other day
I can see a good use case for the A520 with a middle of the road apu in htpcs. Assuming good itx boards are made with it.
Just trying to work out if I should buy the B550, it's a toss up between that and the A520 on mATX, because I want 4 memory slots so I can increase the memory without dumping my current 2x8GB sticks, but it makes the price a bit more expensive especially on the B550 boards. The 3100 CPU only cost me $30 as a shop told some kid it was irreparable when 2 pins were just slightly bent. lol
This seems like one of those products that is too cut down to make sense. With the only upgrades being on USB ports (which you could do with a $20 PCIE card) or just compatibility for current generation Ryzen CPU's, for any meaningful upgrade you are far better off paying the extra $10 - 30 needed to get a B550 board instead. This seems mostly a thing for OEM's in the budget bracket.
Given that some of PCIE-4 lanes come directly from the CPU and "overclock" is just to select several frequency dividers, it seems A520 is mostly software / BIOS crippled. I think if the manufacturer wanted to wire the PCIE 4 lanes coming from the 5xxx CPUs on A520 boards and enable it in BIOS, it would work and they'd get punished for doing that. I wonder if there was a 4-core Zen3 APU would it be called Ryzen 5430G or using the plus 1 scheme it would be Ryzen6450G ?
If pbo is available in the bios, this could be a sleeper chipset for 3950x build that is set to less than 90 watt PPO
Kinda like they saw how inflated prices were getting so they refreshed the A-series boards
hidden gem; Asrock A520 mb BIOS ver 2.0(only this version) if you are using 5950X cpu AMD Overclocking are enable in the BIOS, i just discovered this. but they are disable on 3950X tho.