AMD has seemingly stopped production of its B650 chipset, almost three years since its debut in October 2022. The proverbial torch will soon completely pass on to newer B850 motherboards, as the last shipments of the older design will apparently ship out in Q3 2025.
According to a rumour shared on the ITHome forums, AMD is phasing out its B650 chipset in favour of the new and improved B850. It seems that multiple industry reports confirm a halt in production, leaving current inventory to satisfy any remaining demands. Those in the know expect inventory to dry up by the end of the year, though discounts and shopping holidays may accelerate the pace. Though less popular form factors such as MicroATX and Mini-ITX may last longer.
AMD is seemingly pushing its partners to focus on the newer B850 chipset, with the aim to fully supplant the B650 before the end of the year. Thankfully, the B850 stack is quite varied, covering everything from high-tier $300+ motherboards to affordable options below $150. B850 range remains very competitive, even against X870 Series offerings, boasting the latest features such as PCIe 5.0 and USB 4.
B650 has been the midrange chipset of choice for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 users since its introduction in 2022. It offers a main PCIe 4.0 x16 slot for graphics cards alongside an optional PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot for SSDs as well as USB 4. Its replacement, B850, makes the PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot mandatory, while also upgrading the main PCIe x16 slot to Gen 5 speed to better suit modern graphics cards. Though note that some high-end B650 boards – like ASRock’s B650 Steel Legend WiFi – did offer Gen 5 PCIe for those willing to pay more.
Should these whispers hold water, expect stores to promptly discount their B650 inventory in the coming weeks in a bid to clear inventory. This should drive down the price of B850 motherboards in subsequent months, but that’s just supposition at this point.
