AMD Ryzen explained: motherboards, CPUs, and more

AMD is days away from the huge launch of its next-gen Ryzen processors, but there is another big event happening simultaneously - motherboard makers are preparing their new Ryzen capable motherboards - and they look amazing.

As you can see, ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, GIGABYTE, and MSI all have motherboards ready for Ryzen - with a slew of boards that start with flagship motherboards, mid-range boards, down to the lower-end variety if you don't want to spend $150-$200+ on a new Ryzen motherboard.

What will the different chipsets offer? The enthusiast X370 chipset is where you'll want to be, as it provides everything - USB 3.1 Gen 2 support, overclocking, and CF/SLI support.

• Read more: AMD's new B850 motherboard spotted: new mid-range AM5 motherboard ready for CES 2025 reveal

But the mainstream B360 chipset is just as good if you're not going to multi-GPU setups, while the A320 chipset is a great mid-range chipset that still has native USB 3.1 support, but no overclocking capabilities or multi-GPU goodness.

AMD's range of Ryzen processors ranges from the high-end/enthusiast 8C/16 threaded CPUs like the Ryzen 7 1800X, but it also goes down to 6C/12T options, as well as 4C/8T options - all compatible with DDR4 RAM.