ASRock Confirms AMD BIOS Support for Next-Gen Ryzen – A320 will be limited

Like ASUS and MSI before them, ASRock has confirmed that their existing X370, B350, X470 and B450 series motherboards will receive BIOS updates to support AMD’s next-generation Ryzen processors, which are currently due to release in May. 

Unlike the other motherboard manufacturers, ASRock has confirmed that their A320 series motherboards will support “Next Gen Ryzen series APU” products, seemingly confirming our suspicions than AMD doesn’t plan to support their Zen 2-based Ryzen series processors on their entry-level A320 series motherboards. 

By “Next Gen Ryzen series APUs”, ASRock likely means AMD’s unreleased Ryzen 3000 series APUs, which are 12nm Ryzen 2nd Generation versions of the company’s existing Ryzen 2000 series APU lineup. 7nm Zen 2 Ryzen APUs are not expected until 2020.  

With neither ASUS, ASRock or MSI supporting Ryzen 3rd Generation 7nm Zen 2 processors on their A320 series motherboards, it seems pretty clear that this decision comes from AMD, not their motherboard partners. This is likely due to the limited VRMs and capabilities of most A320 series motherboards, which are designed with cost efficiency in mind rather than performance, overclocking or high-end features.