The big picture: Budget buyers can rejoice as AMD's A620 motherboards have finally arrived. AMD had promised that A620 boards would start at a low price of just $85, and while the price point seems to have panned out, some caveats come with the new chipset.
When AMD launched the AM5 platform, enthusiast and gamers alike were impressed by the level of performance the new Ryzen 7000 series processors could offer. However, there was one glaring issue: motherboards were incredibly expensive at launch. In some cases, the processor was less than the motherboard itself.
Although AMD mostly settled these qualms following the release of B650 motherboards, many users still wanted a proper "budget" option. These demands increased once more affordable non-X CPUs reached the shelves earlier this year. Last weekend, AMD finally allowed motherboard makers to start selling motherboards featuring AMD's true entry-level A620 chipset.
The A620 chipset offers features that you'd typically expect from a budget-tier option. Motherboards are limited to PCIe 4.0 speeds with no support for PCIe 5.0 SSDs, unlike the B650 and X570. The A620 boards also feature weaker USB support, altogether forgoing USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports. There is no overclocking either, though this has been circumvented in previous generations.
However, there's one final restriction on the chipset that AMD did not mention before: by default, A620 motherboards carry a power limit of 65W TDP. So these new budget motherboards are only well-suited for the recently launched non-X CPUs unless the manufacturer expressly changes this power limit.
Manufacturers are pushing such variants, as seen on the first (and currently only) listing of an A620 motherboard on Newegg. Asrock sells a plus and a non-plus model of its A620M-HDV/M.2. The former has increased the power limit to 120W, whereas the latter features the 65W default cap.
Based on Asrock's release, we would expect other manufacturers like Asus, MSI, and Gigabyte to launch their motherboards in the coming days and weeks. While US prices for alternative options are currently unknown, European pricing suggests that Asrock's offerings may be the most affordable.
Overall, the AMD A620 chipset launch is an excellent option for budget-minded users looking for a cheaper entry into the AM5 platform. Buyers can now spend under $400 for a new CPU, motherboard, and 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Compared to AM5's initial release, this new price level is nearly half of what it was for Zen 4 late last year.