ASRock announced BIOS updates for nearly 50 motherboards, some of which are amongst the best gaming motherboards, to introduce support for AMD's upcoming Ryzen 3000 series processors, some of the best CPUs for gaming, based on Zen 2. Interestingly, however, ASRock notes that its boards based on the somewhat aged A320 chipset "supports AMD next-gen Ryzen series APUs only."
The company is referring to the next round of Ryzen processors with Vega graphics, as AMD now refers to them. AMD has moved away from using the term APU (accelerated processing unit). What's notable, though, is that the A320 chipset might not support AMD's regular Ryzen 3000 series chips, the ones without integrated graphics.
As our friends at TomsHardware note, speculation is that the power delivery subsystem on A-series motherboards might not be up to the task of handling the next round of Ryzen processors.
Whether that is the case remains to be seen. AMD previously said its AM4 socket will support its Ryzen lineup through 2020, so users wouldn't be stuck with an obsolete motherboard when new new chips get released in that time frame.
We don't want to jump to the conclusion that A-series motherboard owners will now be the exception. It's entirely possible that motherboard makers are still testing for compatibility at the final hour, as AMD's Ryzen 3000 series launch looms. That said, it's worth noting that ASRock is so far the only motherboard maker to announce support for Ryzen 3000 series CPUs on its A-series motherboards, albeit only for APUs.
ASRock doesn't list any such restrictions on its other boards that have BIOS updates available, including X470, B450, X370, and B350 models. You can view the full list here.
We have reached out to ASRock for comment and will update this article if and when we hear back.
