In the middle of this year, we reported that AMD may be discontinuing production of motherboards using the AMD B650 chipset to focus on selling newer motherboard models, namely the AMD B850.
This was finally confirmed by AMD itself to Tom’s Hardware, saying that they have already begun the process of reducing sales of B650 motherboards on the market today. Any stock currently in stores will not be renewed after it is sold out, and those looking to build a new desktop computer will have to purchase an AMD B850 motherboard.
AMD says that this is a way to ensure that new computers built come with the latest technology, such as full support for PCIe 5.0 data transfer technology for faster storage, support for more powerful components, faster internet connection speeds, and support for longer component updates.
The AMD B650 chipset platform was introduced in 2022 and was introduced as a component that supports both the AM4 (AMD Ryzen 5 5500 X3D is the last CPU model in this series) and AM5 (AMD Ryzen 7000 and above) processor series. It is a fallback for those who want to upgrade their computer to a new platform, but want to do it little by little.
This is because the AMD B850 motherboard series, the “affordable” option specifically for AM5 CPUs, was only introduced earlier this year, so it is not surprising to see that the AMD B650 motherboard series is still popular with the masses to this day.
The AMD X870 and AMD X870E platforms that were launched alongside the introduction of the AMD Ryzen 7000 and AMD Ryzen 9000 CPU series were seen only for the elite class PC builders who could afford them.
Our recommendation if you are looking to build a new desktop computer using the latest AMD processors and an AMD B650 motherboard is to ask about support for technologies such as PCIe 5.0 first. This is because support for these technologies depends on the motherboard model. For graphics cards, PCIe x16 lanes only support PCIe 4.0 technology, and M.2 NVMe PCIe 5.0 storage is not required for it.
If you know that you want to use a faster and more powerful combination of CPU, memory, and graphics card, then an AMD B850 series motherboard may be a better fit for you.