AMD B550 Motherboards Spotted Running Zen and Zen+ CPUs

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By Michelle Ehrhardt
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Dare to do the impossible

B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax
(Image credit: ASRock)

AMD’s B550 chipset motherboards are explicitly not compatible with first- and second-gen Ryzen chips, but according to a new series of tweets from known tech detective @momomo_us, the boards have been spotted running older Ryzen processors. The CPU-Z screenshots and results, which are in the CPU-Z database, seemingly confirm that someone got the older CPUs to run on a new MSI MAG B550.

Momomo_us posted screenshots that seemingly confirm an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G, AMD Ryzen 5 1600, and a Ryzen 5 3400G APU running on the B550 motherboard. All of these processors use AMD’s older Zen and Zen+ microarchitectures.

None of these processors are on the B550’s CPU support list, nor does the change log mention additional support for older processors. According to the B550’s packaging badge, it only officially supports 3rd generation Ryzen Matisse CPUs (Zen 2) as well as upcoming Renoir (Zen 2) and Vermeer CPUs (Zen 3). 

We’re not sure why you would bother updating to a new motherboard to use an old processor, but it’s nice to know that you could, at least theoretically. However, it's highly likely that these tests were run by a motherboard vendor that could circumvent the compatibility restrictions for the sake of science, and it's unlikely that we would see B550 boards with unrestricted AM4 compatibility hit the market. 

Michelle Ehrhardt
Michelle Ehrhardt

Michelle Ehrhardt is an editor at Tom's Hardware. She's been following tech since her family got a Gateway running Windows 95, and is now on her third custom-built system. Her work has been published in publications like Paste, The Atlantic, and Kill Screen, just to name a few. She also holds a master's degree in game design from NYU.

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3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • salgado18
    We’re not sure why you would bother updating to a new motherboard to use an old processor, but it’s nice to know that you could, at least theoretically.
    You bought a cheap A320 board with a 2200G, and want to upgrade in steps: get a good B550 board, and later get a 4th gen Ryzen when it launches (or you get the money).

    Or your old B350 board died, and you want to get a newer one for future support, but you have a Ryzen 1700.

    Not everone buys both together.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    salgado18 said:
    You bought a cheap A320 board with a 2200G, and want to upgrade in steps: get a good B550 board, and later get a 4th gen Ryzen when it launches (or you get the money).
    I would strongly advise against that since it is highly likely that board prices will drop significantly over the next several months. Set the money aside and buy together when you are actually ready. Buying later also brings the benefit of more in-depth board reviews and possibly a few more models to cover feature gaps as board manufacturers see them arise from customer feedback.
    Reply
  • Exploding PSU
    We’re not sure why you would bother updating to a new motherboard to use an old processor

    I feel being singled out here. Heh, my Ryzen 3 1200 almost tasted three different motherboards, all because aesthetic reasons.
    Don't do that kids, stay in school.
    Reply