/AMD releases the A520 chipset

AMD releases the A520 chipset

A new budget-centric chipset has been announced by AMD to complement it’s Zen-2 based Ryzen 3000 and upcoming Ryzen 4000 (and beyond) processors.   As with the previous chipset with the x20 monicker, this is aimed for budget-friendly builds who don’t need that much motherboard features.

The A520 offers 26 PCI-E 3.0 lanes when paired with a Ryzen 3000 processor with 20 lanes coming off the CPU.  Since this is a budget-centric line, PCI-E 4.0 is not included which will push you to get the B550 instead or higher.

The configuration of the components are as follows:

  • CPU
    • x4 PCIe 3.0 NVMe
    • x2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe + 2 x SATA
    • x2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe + x2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe
  • Chipset
    • 4x PCIe 3.0 + 2x PCIe 3.0
    • 4x PCIe 3.0 + 2 SATA

The remaining PCIe lanes from the CPU, as always, are divided between a full-length PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, and a PCIe 3.0 x4 link between the CPU and the chipset. 

In terms of USB support, the A520 will support up to four USB 3.2 G2 ports from the CPU and the chipset will support an additional USB 3.2 G2 port, two USB 3.2 G1 ports, and six USB 2.0 ports.

Processor Compatibility:

AMD AM4 Motherboard Support
AnandTech uArch A320 B350
X370
B450
X470
X570 B550
 
A520
Ryzen 4000 CPU Zen 3 X X Beta
Ryzen 4000 APU** Zen 2 X ?Beta
Ryzen 3000 CPU Zen 2 X Beta
Ryzen 3000 APU Zen+ X X
Ryzen 2000 CPU Zen+ X X
Ryzen 2000 APU Zen X X X
Ryzen 1000 CPU Zen X X X
Athlon A-Series * X X X X
Ryzen Pro CPUs follow their non-Pro equivalents
* Excavator or Carrizo
** Unknown – product not announced yet