A new post on an overseas hardware forum claims that AMD B850/B840 and Intel B860/H810 motherboards will arrive in January. Both AMD and Intel opted to launch top-tier chipset offerings for the release of their latest processors with the X870 and X870E for the Ryzen 9000 series and then the Z890 chipset for Intel’s Core Ultra 200K series. This strategy is something par for the course to show off features of each manufacturer’s latest processors. Claims regarding the announcements and release of these motherboards come from VideoCardz (via Board Channels).
AMD B850 and B840
It is said that AMD will announce its B850 and B840 motherboards during its event at CES 2025 on January 7 with them set to launch on January 15. There’s been a flood of sorts in recent days with early product postings for ASUS and GIGABYTE boards showing prices ranging from ~$200 to upwards of ~$400. Additionally, it’s claimed that ASRock is planning fourteen boards using the B850 chipset. Meanwhile, AMD has already listed specifications for both chipsets on its site. While the B840 is aimed for budget-friendly builds the B850 can potentially be ideal for those wanting the best of both worlds. Depending on the manufacturer it can provide support for USB4 and PCIe 5.0, despite being considered a rebadged B650. The B850 also offers the same amount of direct CPU PCIe lanes as the X870 and also supports CPU overclocking.
| Direct Processor PCIe® Lanes | Chipset-Provided USB and SATA | |||||||||
| GRAPHICS | NVMe (PLUS PCIe™ GPP, UP TO) | USABLE PCIe® LANES TOTAL/PCIe® 5.0(UP TO) | RYZEN PROCESSOR OVERCLOCKING ENABLED | DDR5 MEMORY OVERCLOCKING ENABLED (Supports AMD EXPO™) | SUPERSPEED USB 5Gbps (UP TO) | SUPERSPEED USB 10Gbps (UP TO) | SUPERSPEED USB 20Gbps (UP TO) | MAXIMUM SATA PORTS (OR PCIe® 3.0, UP TO) | USB 4.0 | |
| X870E | 1×16 or 2x8PCIe® 5.0 | 1×4 PCIe® 5.0 plus 4x PCIe® GPP | 44/24 | Yes | Yes | 2 | 12 | 2 | 8 | STANDARD |
| X870 | 1×16 or 2x8PCIe® 5.0 | 1×4 PCIe® 5.0plus 4x PCIe® GPP | 36/24 | Yes | Yes | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | STANDARD |
| B850 | 1×16 or 2x8PCIe® 4.0 | 1×4 PCIe® 5.0 | 36/4 | Yes | Yes | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | Optional |
| B840 | 1x16PCIe® 4.0 | 1×4 PCIe® 4.0 | 34/0 | No | Yes | 2 | 2 | – | 4 | Optional |
Intel B860 and H810
Things may not seem as exciting on the Intel front but if these chipsets can be offered at a low enough price they can attract builders looking to use the latest Core Ultra 200K processors on the LGA-1851 platform. Intel is expected to announce the B860 and H810 during its event at CES 2025 on January 7 with their release happening on January 13. The B860 is expected (per TechPowerUp) to somewhat be a refresh of the B760 and possibly include memory overclocking support but neither chipset is thought to over CPU overclocking. While not much has been said regarding specifications for these chipsets there have been some leaks for ASUS and GIGABYTE B860 chipset boards posted online.
— 188号 (@momomo_us) December 22, 2024
So there we have it. With these AMD B850/B840 and Intel B860/H810 motherboards, PC builders will soon have new options for either budget building, or perhaps a solution for a smaller case.