03/27/2023 at 8:00 p.m. by Sven Bauduin – The ASRock A620M-HDV/M.2 is the first mainboard with the A620 chipset, which has been optimized for low costs and trimmed in terms of features, which makes entry into the AM5 platform much more attractive should do. But only rudimentary functions are offered.
The four chipsets for AMD’s current AM5 platform, the X670E, X670, B650E and B650, as well as the entire Ryzen 7000 series have had a difficult time with users due to the comparatively high entry costs. According to the PCGH price comparison, the currently cheapest mainboard with a B650 chipset is listed at 160 euros.
A620 should make AM5 much more attractive
At this point, the A620 chipset as an entry-level solution should help and enable a cheaper and thus more attractive entry into the AM5 platform, which users have often found too expensive. At CES 2023 in January of this year, AMD promised cheaper mainboards and announced prices from 125 US dollars. The first of these cheap circuit boards is now shown in pictures for the first time.
ASRock A620M-HDV/M.2 as an entry-level solution
The ASRock A620M-HDV/M.2, for which the Videocard website has received corresponding image material and information, will, as the name already suggests, rely on the A620 chipset. As expected, this will not offer any support for PCIe 5.0 and will only connect graphics cards and mass storage via the previous standard PCIe 4.0. There are also compromises when it comes to storage.
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The A620 chipset should probably enable a cheap entry into AMD’s AM5 socket in a timely and technically slimmed-down manner.
PCIe 4.0 x16 for GPUs and PCIe 4.0 x4 for SSDs
In the case of the ASRock A620M-HDV/M.2, in addition to a slot for the graphics card connected via PCIe 4.0 x16, there is only one M.2 slot according to PCI Express 4.0 with 4 lanes on the main board. There are also 10 virtual phases (8 + 2) and 6 real phases (4 + 2) for the voltage modulation of the CPU, SoC and RAM. A Realtek ALC897 audio solution takes care of the sound reinforcement.
Promontory 22 is set to follow Promontory 21
The currently installed first generation of the A620 chipset is to be based on the already known “Promontory 21” PCH chip, while a first revision based on the new “Promontory 22” is already being planned. This should already do without all the features that have currently been canceled for cost reasons.
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Prices have not yet been leaked
The prices that ASRock and the other on-board partners will call for their boards with A620 are not yet known, but first rumors speak of a price range of 100 to 140 euros at launch. In the medium term, however, the A620 boards will have to place themselves well below the B650 models, which are available from 160 euros and are significantly better equipped.
Your opinion is asked!
What do you think of the A620 chipset? Will this make the AM5 platform more attractive? The PCGH editorial team welcomes your well-founded opinion in the comments on this news item. You must be logged in to PCGH.de or the Extreme forum to comment. If you don’t have an account yet, you can register here quickly and easily. Afterwards you can join the discussion directly.
