AMD recently announced that it would support its next-gen Ryzen 4000 CPUs on existing 400 series boards, in addition to the newer B550 and X570 chipsets. While that’s good news for owners of the older motherboards, we’d strictly advise against buying a B450 or X470 board. There are certain caveats that will limit 400 series owners after they flash the beta BIOS meant for the newer processors. You can read more about that here. As such we’ll only include the 500 series boards, with the newer A520 motherboards for budget users.
Best Budget Motherboard for the Ryzen 3 CPUs and APUs: MSI A520M-A PRO
Price: $69.99
| CPU Support | 3rd Gen & 4th Gen Ryzen |
| Chipset | A520 |
| Memory | 2 x DDR4 DIMMs w/ Support for Up to 64GB @ 4600 MHz |
| PCIe | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16, 1 x PCIe 2.0 x1 |
| Multi-GPU | NA |
| Storage | 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports, 1 x M.2 |
| USB | 3 x USB 3.2 Gen1, 6 x USB 3.1 Gen2 |
The MSI A520M-A PRO is a $69 board with support for 3rd Gen and upcoming 4th Gen Ryzen processors. It supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory @ 4600MHz. You get four SATA ports and one M.2 for a PCIe Gen 3 based SSD. There’s one USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with support for another two. If you’re building a compact system with a Ryzen 3, then this isn’t a bad pick. Just keep in mind that there’s no OC support, nor PCIe Gen here.
Best Budget Motherboard for the Ryzen 5 3600 Thru Ryzen 7 3700X: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK
| CPU Support | 3rd & 4th Gen Ryzen, Renoir AM4 (Ryzen 4000 APUs) |
| Chipset | B550 |
| Memory | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs w/ Support for Up to 128GB @ 4,866MT/s |
| PCIe | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16, 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
| XFX/SLI | 2 Way XFX|SLI |
| Storage | 6 x SATA 6Gb/s Ports, 2 x M.2 Ports |
| USB (Internal+ Rear) | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 8 x USB 2.0 |
The newly introduced B550 motherboards bring PCIe 4.0 to the masses at cheaper (not exactly) than X570 prices. The MSI B550 Tomahawk continues the tradition of being the best budget AM4 motherboard, checking all the essentials, and then some. It comes with a 10+2 Phases Digital VRM which works like a charm with even the highest-end Ryzen 9 chips. The board supports up to 128GB of DDR4 memory at nearly 5GHz, one PCIe 4.0 slot for a discrete graphics card, another 3.0 slot, six SATA III ports, and two M.2 slots with their respective heatsinks.
Best Motherboard for the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9: GIGABYTE X570 AORUS PRO WIFI
Price: $269.99
| CPU Support | 2nd, 3rd & 4th Gen Ryzen |
| Chipset | X570 |
| Memory | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs w/ Support for Up to 128GB @ 4,400 MHz |
| PCIe | 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4, 2 x PCIe 4.0 x1 |
| XFX/SLI | 2-Way XFX|SLI |
| Storage | 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports, 2 x M.2 |
| USB | 4 x USB 3.2 Gen1, 4 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 6 x USB 2.0 |
If you’re going for a higher-end X CPU, like the Ryzen 5 3600X or the Ryzen 7 3700X, then the Gigabyte X570 -Aorus Pro is a well-balanced X570 board. You get the option to shove in 128GB of super-fast DDR4 memory, six SATA III drives and two NVMe SSDs as well.
What is a Motherboard VRM: Power Phases, Doublers, and Working
Best High-end Motherboard for Ryzen 9 3900X & Ryzen 9 3950X: MSI MEG X570 ACE Gaming
Price: $358.99
| CPU Support | 2nd & 3rd Gen Ryzen |
| Chipset | X570 |
| Memory | 4 x DDR4 DIMMs w/ Support for Up to 128GB @ 4,600 MHz |
| PCIe | 3 x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, 3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
| XFX/SLI | 3 Way/2 Way |
| Storage | 4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports, 3 x M.2 |
| USB | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 6 x USB 3.2 Gen1, 6 x USB 2.0 |
MSI’s MEG series has some of the best AMD X570 boards. The ACE is a well-balanced choice. 128GB RAM over four DIMMs @ 4,600MHz, three PCIe 4.0 x16 slots for a triple XFX solution,. and three M.2 slots for blazing-fast PCIe 4.0 based SSDs will let you build a monster rig ahead of its time.
