AMD’s been ahead of Intel in the battle of best CPUs for quite some time now. Although things are starting to change with the arrival of Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs and Windows 11, we think AMD chips have an upper hand over even the newer Intel chips in terms of platform cost, general availability, and more. This is why the best motherboards for AMD continue to remain a hot topic in the community. AMD motherboards are always in demand, but luckily there are more than a few AMD mainboards on the market.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best motherboards for AMD CPUs you can buy right now. AMD has stuck with AM4 for a while now, so there are plenty of options to choose from. The X570, B550, X5470, and even the B450 are all viable options right now, and we expect them to around even after AMD’s AM5 platform officially lands in 2022. You can also check out our collection of the best motherboards if you’re not particularly looking for an AMD mainboard. And with that out of the way, let’s get started with this list:

Navigate this article:

Best X570 motherboard for AMD CPUs: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme

The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is one of the most expensive motherboards on this list, but we think it’s well worth the asking price. Not only does it have the looks to match the price tag, but it also packs a ton of premium features like one of the most capable VRMs, support for extreme overclocking, the latest Realtek/Supreme FX audio codec, etc; making it a desirable option on the marketplace. It also offers up to five M.2 slots that can work simultaneously.

The ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is an E-ATX size motherboard that comes with an X570 chipset and has an AM4 socket. It also comes with oversized heatsinks for both the chipset as well as the VRM. As you’d expect from a premium motherboard, the M.2 slots are also covered with heatsinks/shroud, making it a great overall environment for cooling. Additionally, this motherboard sports two Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) ports, and has a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port on the front panel. You also get a lot of thoughtful extras in the box including the DIMM.2 add-in card (for installing extra M.2 drives), an audio DAC, a ROG fan controller, a Wifi antenna, and more.

The motherboard itself is built like a tank and it also looks gorgeous. This is arguably one of the best-looking you can buy right now. We also like how ASUS has gone with minimal RGB bling for this board despite being a top-of-line motherboard. In addition to the glowing light strip on the right-side edge, only the ROG logo and ROG texts light up. It looks nice and blends well with the all-black PCB of the motherboard. What we like the most about this motherboard is that it comes with what ASUS calls a LiveDash screen. It’s essentially a 2-inch OLED screen that by default displays key system information. You don’t necessarily need a display on the motherboard, but we don’t mind as long as it’s not taking up precious space that’s reserved for other components.

The ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme motherboard comes with two 8-pin connectors to feed power to the CPU. It goes without saying that you also get a ton of fan/pump, USB, and RGB headers on this motherboard. These headers are usually available in plenty of motherboards now, so it’s nothing unusual. You also get up to four DRAM slots capable of running up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM with up to DDR4-5400 speeds. Your mileage is bound to vary when it comes to speeds since not all memory modules have the same speeds. That being said, it’s good to see the support for some of the fastest RAM kits available on the market.

The motherboard also comes with up to three PCIe slots. Two of those are full-length reinforced slots, whereas the last one is an x1 slot at the bottom without any reinforcement. We also like the fact that the I/O shield is pre-installed on this motherboard, which means that’s one less step to worry about while building a PC. Overall, we think the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is a fantastic motherboard that’s capable of powering even the most demanding CPUs on the market. Not to mention, it also supports overclocking, so enthusiasts would to have this card at their disposal for a fully decked out AMD-based build. If you’ve got $800 to spend on an AMD motherboard, let it be this one.

Second best x570 motherboard for AMD CPUs: ASUS X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi

While the ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is the best motherboard for CPUs you can buy, it comes with an eye-watering price tag of $800. It’s safe to say that it’s for everyone. The ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi motherboard, however, comes with a rather palatable price of Rs $379 and we think it’s a fantastic alternative to the more expensive unit we mentioned above. The ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi is just as good as the Crosshair VIII Extreme, if not better. It comes with a robust VRM, 2.5G LAN, a bunch of USB ports, ROG SupremeFX premium audio, and more.

The ROG Hero motherboard sits on top of the product stack along with the more expensive Formula and other Strix boards. Its $380 price tag lands in the upper mid-range segment of all the X570 motherboards on the market. This particular motherboard comes with a whopping 12 USB ports on the rear IO, including eight USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (seven Type-A, one Type-C), a fast 2.5G Realtek based LAN as well as WiFi 6 integration. The I/O shield comes pre-installed which is awesome. The ROG Crosshair VIII Hero comes with an X570 chipset and has an AM4 socket. This means it’s good for both Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series CPUs.

This particular motherboard also comes with eight SATA ports and four DIMM slots. You can install up to 128GB of DDR4 memory. ASUS hasn’t mentioned the rated memory speeds for this board, but we’d expect it to be on par with other high-end motherboards on the market. The ROG Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard comes with a jet black PCB with just the right amount of RGB. Only the ROG logo lights up, which is enough to add a touch of RGB without making it overly obnoxious. You also get a rather sophisticated heatsink that even covers the two M.2 slots on the board

The ROG Crosshair VIII Hero comes with an 8-pin EPS connector and you get a ton of fan/pump, RGB, and USB headers on the board. We also like the addition of the voltage read points. It’s a nifty addition that’ll be appreciated by a lot of overclockers. The Crosshair VIII Hero has three full-length PCIe slots and an x1 slot. This motherboard supports both 3-way SLI and Crossfire multi-GPU solutions. The two M.2 slots are capable of running both SATA or PCIe based m.2 modules.

The Crosshair VIII Hero is also suitable for water-cooling systems. In addition to the fan/pump headers, you also get a water flow sensor and temperature headers, and it replaces fancy system controllers with control and monitoring handled through software or the BIOS. The Crosshair VIII Hero is also a great motherboard for overclocking and it handles even the most demanding high-performance CPUs on the market. We think a motherboard like this can be paired with, say, a Ryzen 9 5950X. It’s one of the best X570 motherboards you can buy right now. ASRock’s Phantom Gaming-X motherboard comes close to its performance but the Crosshair Hero’s stylish design, a robust power delivery system, and its large features set make it a far better option.

Best B55 motherboard for AMD CPUs: ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi

The ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi is one of the best B550 motherboards you can buy for your AMD CPUs. It offers most of the features and capabilities of more expensive X570-chipset based boards with an affordable price tag. At $210, the ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi is our pick for the best B550 motherboard one can buy right now. This particular board sits on top of the ASUS’ motherboard product stack. It may not be the best motherboard for your AMD CPU, but it is what we think offers the most value for your money, and is perfect for a budget build.

The ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi features a 14-phase delivery, 2.5GB LAN, integrated WiFi 6, two M.2 slots, and more. The motherboard, as you can see, has a black-coloured PCB and has a decent amount of heatsink covering the M.2 slot too. There’s also very little in the name of RGB lighting and only the ROG logo is lit. Since the B550 chipset uses less power, this particular motherboard doesn’t have a fan. That’s not necessarily a glaring omission since the B550 chipset isn’t as sophisticated as the X570 chipset and are usually capable of delivering reliable power to the components without any issues.

The I/O shield is pre-installed which means it’ll be relatively easier to install this motherboard inside a PC case. The motherboard VRM is covered with a heatsink and it comes with two EPS connectors. You also get a ton of fan/pump headers, in addition to a bunch of RGB and USB headers on the motherboard. The ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi sports four single-side latching DIMM slots capable of holding up to 128GB of DDR4 memory. The supported memory speed for the DIMM slots is listed up to DDR 4400(OC). This means the motherboard is capable of supporting even some of the most powerful DDR4 kits on the market. DDR4 3600 – 3733 is the sweet spot for DDR4 memory, so it leaves a bit more headroom for overclocked modules.

You also get two full-sized PCIe slots with the primary one being reinforced for accepting GPUs. It provides 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes to the GPU whereas the second slot is running at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds. In terms of connectivity, you get a total of eight USB ports which includes two USB 3.2 Gen 2, four USB 3.1 Gen1 and two USB 2.0. One of the USB 2.0 ports is designated for BIOS flash functionality. In addition to the USB ports, you also get a single Intel 2.5 GbE LAN port, an HDMI and DisplayPort along with an audio stack consisting of 5-plug analog outputs plus SPDIF.

The performance of the ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi is also on-point. It supports even the most demanding AMD CPU on the market. That being said, we think it’s best to pair this particular motherboard with, say, an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU for a mid-range build instead of a high-end rig. As such it shouldn’t have any issues running any 3000 or the 5000 series CPU thanks to the AM4 socket and the B550 chipset. This motherboard is readily available on the market right now, but be sure to check out this link below to find the best price online.

Second best B550 motherboard for AMD CPUs: NZXT N7 B550

NZXT made a splash in the motherboard space with its N7 Z490 board for Intel builds, following which it quickly become a popular choice for a lot of people. The company quickly followed up with an AMD version which is what we’ve picked up for this particular collection. The NZXT N7 B550 is our pick for the second-best B550 motherboard on can buy right now. The N7 B550 comes with PCIe 4.0 support, WiFi 6E, up to six SATA ports, and a ton of USB ports for connecting all kinds of peripherals. It’s also one of the best-looking motherboards in this list, which looks best when paired with an NZXT PC case.

The NZXT N7 B550 motherboard comes in a black and white colour scheme. Both boards, as you can see, come with a rather sophisticated heatsink/shroud covering almost the entirety of the motherboard. The only visible part of the PCB is next to the AM4 CPU socket, which will eventually get covered by the CPU heatsink. The heavily-shrouded design isn’t for everyone, but we think it’ll nicely blend into any and all kinds of PC builds without any issues. Those who don’t like RGB lights on their motherboard will particularly like the N7 B550 since it doesn’t have any RGB lights whatsoever. So if you’re into RGB lighting, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

The NZXT N7 B550 comes with two EPS connectors and a bunch of headers for your fan/pump, RGB, and USB ports. You also get two 4-pin NZXT RGB headers to control compatible NZXT products. You also get four DRAM slots on this board, although none of them are reinforced. It supports up to 128GB of RAM with listed speeds of up to DDR4 4666+ (OC). We think DDR4 3600 – 3733 is the sweet spot for AMD CPUs, so this is plenty for most users who’re looking to dish out a high-end rig. The PCIe slots are also mostly covered by the shroud, with only the slots being visible. The board has four PCIe slots in total out of which only the top slot is reinforced for the GPU. You also get two M.2 slots and they accept drives up to 80mm long. Additionally, you also get six SATA ports supporting RAID0, 1, 5 and 10 modes.

Just like other premium motherboards in this collection, the NZXT N7 B550 also comes with a pre-installed I/O shield. It’s a black-colored I/O shield with white markings for the ports and buttons. You get ten USB ports in total out of which four are USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, four are USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, and the final two are USB 2.0 ports. You also get an HDMI port along with BIOS flashback and clear CMOS buttons and a Wi-Fi antenna.

The performance of the N7 B550 is on-par with a lot of other premium motherboards on the market. At $229, it costs a little more than the ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi, but and it falls in the upper mid-range category. It’s a fantastic option for those looking at a clean motherboard that hides the tacky PCB design. It’s particularly good for builds involving NZXT PC case or other NZXT components.

Best budget X570 motherboard for AMD CPUs: MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus

Not all the X570 chipset-based motherboards are expensive and the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus is a great example of that. This is one of the most affordable motherboards on this list and we think it’s perfect for those looking to make an entry to mid-range PC with an AMD CPU. But don’t let its affordable price tag fool you because it packs a lot of great features making it compete with some big dogs. It’s not the most premium motherboard on the market but it’s a reliable one and performs well even some of the 5000-series Ryzen chips.

The MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus, as you can see, is a very barebones motherboard with not a lot of fancy features. Well, that’s a trade-off for paying a less premium over some other boards on the market. You only get a heatsink for the VRM module on top. The rest of black-colored PCB is exposed and it’s got a lot of red accents. It’s not the look for everyone but should be plenty for a basic rig. What we do like about the motherboard is the addition of a lot of headers. You can connect plenty of fans/pumps, RGB lights, and USB ports. MSI has also given other thoughtful additions like a PS/2 port for legacy keyboards and mice and two USB 2.0 ports for the contemporary keyboard/mouse.

Notably, the I/O shield is missing on here, which means, you’ll have to install it separately on the PC case. This is commonplace for a lot of budget motherboards, so there’s nothing surprising here. You get four DIMM slots on this board, but don’t expect any crazy DDR4 memory speeds on this motherboard. Four of the CPU’s PCIe 4.0 lanes go to the M.2 slot and four more to the X570 PCH. The remaining sixteen lanes go to the top PCIe slot in a fixed fashion. It’s safe to say that you won’t be running SLI on this board, but you can use the second x16 slot to add another card for a CrossFire array.

The best thing about the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus motherboard is its performance. Yes, it doesn’t have all the fancy features that we’ve come to expect from a premium X570 chipset-based motherboard, but it performs just as good as any X570 motherboard on the marketplace. It’s capable of handling even the most demanding CPUs out there, although we think it’s best paired with a mid-range CPU like the Ryzen 5 3600X or the Ryzen 5 5600X to make the most out of it. The ASUS TUF Gaming X570 is a close competitor to this motherboard, but you end up saving about $25 which can essentially go towards buying some other core component of the build. You’ll definitely appreciate the savings, especially for a graphics card because of how hard it is to buy one right now. The MSI MPG X570 is a fantastic motherboard for entry to mid-range builds and it’ll serve you well as long as you keep your expectations in check.

Best mini-ITX motherboard: Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro Wi-Fi

If you’re in the market to buy a mini-ITX motherboard for your small form-factor PC builds, then we recommend checking out the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro Wi-Fi motherboard. It’s our pick for the best mini-ITX motherboard on the market right now and it offers a lot of nifty features worth splurging on. There’s a distinct lack of mini-ITX motherboards on the market, as they’re not readily available as other ATX boards. Most of the mini-ITX boards tend to skimp on a lot of important features, so it’s important to consider a lot of things while purchasing one.

The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro Wi-Fi motherboard includes a robust power delivery system thanks to an 8-phase digital VRM. Other noteworthy features of this particular motherboard include support for WiFi 6, a 7.1 channel, Realtek ALC1220-VB premium audio codec, and more. We think the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro is an excellent-looking motherboard that’ll blend with a lot of rigs. It’s got a black-colored PCB and a decent amount of heatsinks. You also get subtle RGB lighting in the form of a strip covering the right edge of the motherboard. It’s not overly obnoxious like a lot of other motherboards on the market. It’s perfect for those who appreciate a touch of RGB for their setup.

The Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro gaming motherboard also supports fast DDR4 memory up to DDR4 4400(OC). This means it’s good for even the most powerful DDR4 RAM kits out there. You only get two DIMM slots though, so you’re looking at max DDR4 memory support of up to 64GB. The heatsink covering the VRM module, as you can see, has a brushed -aluminum finish to give it a premium look and feel. The chipset heatsink also doubles up as the first M.2 slot. It also comes with a fan to help keep the chipset and M.2 drive cool at all times. You only get one full-sized PCIe slot with support for PCIe 4.0 x 16. Both PCIe and the DIMM slots are reinforced, which is nice.

The best thing about this motherboard is that the I/O shield comes pre-installed which makes it easier to install it in the PC case. You’ll appreciate this a lot since building a small form-factor PC is already quite difficult since you have limited space to work with. You get two HDMI 2.0 ports at the back along with a DisplayPort for video output. As for USB ports, you get a total of six ports which includes two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports along with four USB 3.0 ports. You also get a Q-Flash plus button along with a LAN port, a WiFi 6 antenna and the three plug audio stack.

This is a performant motherboard that’s suitable for handling even the most demanding builds involving a sophisticated AMD CPU. It supports Ryzen 3000 and 5000 series mainstream chips, so you have a lot of options to choose from. Overclocking is also possible with this motherboard although you’ll need a good cooling solution for your CPU to yield the best results inside a small form-factor PC case.

Second best mini-ITX motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX

The ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX is a fairly simple mini-ITX motherboard that brings a lot of meaningful features at an affordable price. It lacks a lot of fancy features and instead focuses on delivering a performance motherboard that is suitable for overclocking. As a B450 chipset-based motherboard, the ASRock Fatal1ty is limited in terms of the features compared to other B550 motherboards we’ve added to this. Notably, you only get support PCIe 3.0, which means it’s not necessarily suitable for a high-end build. Economical shoppers building an entry-level PC will find a lot of value in this build, though.

The motherboard, as you can see, looks like a barebones kit with no heatsink or shrouds covering any of the components. There’s also nothing in the name of RGB lighting, you might want to look elsewhere if you’re looking for a slightly more premium offering. The Gigabyte X570-I Aorus Pro Wi-Fi is a great mini-ITX motherboard if you don’t mind spending a little extra on the fancy features. That being said, this is perfectly serviceable for an entry-level build and the barebones look of the motherboard isn’t a deal-breaker considering how this will go inside a small form-factor PC case anyway.

This particular motherboard comes with an 8-phase voltage regulator with an 8-pin connector at the back. You also get a decent amount of headers for fan/pump, RGB lights, and USB. You only get a single M.2 slot though, but that’s not really a surprise considering this is a budget motherboard with a limited feature set. Notably, the I/O isn’t pre-installed but it comes with a variety of ports to connect a decent set of peripherals to the PC. In addition to the usual set of ports at the back, the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX also includes a PS/2 port for legacy peripherals, a Gigabit Ethernet port driven by Intel’s PCIe-based i211AT controller, and five analog audio ports served by Realtek’s ALC1220 high-end codec.

If you’re someone who loves looking at the performance per dollar chart then this is the motherboard to buy. Despite the low-cost B450 chipset, the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX offers better performance than a lot of other motherboards in this market. That’s why we think it’s a great board for those looking to build their first entry-level small form factor build without fancy internal components. The ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX has some glaring omissions though. The lack of USB 3.0 ports is probably not going to sit well with a lot of users looking to build a PC in 2021. You’ll also make peace with PCIe 3.0 support, so as opposed to PCIe 4.0, which is twice as fast.

However, we think the ASRock Fatal1ty B450 Gaming-ITX delivers solid results with performance and overclocking. It’s hard to find any other motherboard that’s as powerful and reliable as this one, so you’re essentially getting a good deal for the price. It’s also readily available on the market right now, and you can check out the link below to find the best price for it online.

Best TRX40 motherboard: ASRock TRX40 Taichi

Last, but not least, we’ve added the ASRock TRX40 Taichi as our pick for the best motherboard for those looking to build a HEDT PC with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper processor. The ASRock TRX40 Taichi is one of the most expensive motherboards you can buy right but that’s because it comes with a long list of features that are not necessarily found on any of the mainstream motherboards we’ve listed above. It serves up to 64 lanes of PCIe at Gen4 speeds. It’s also only the motherboard in this list that comes with a dual-fan heatsink covering its sixteen 90A voltage regulator phases.

The ASRock TRX40 Taichi is an ATX motherboard that carries an AMD TRX40 socket. There are two 40mm fans cooling the VRM, in addition to the regular 50mm fan that we usually see on other mainstream motherboards. These VRM fans are enough to tame even the most powerful, fully-overclocked system without a hitch. Notably, the ASRock TRX40 Taichi also comes with ASRock’s “Hyper Quad M.2” four-drive adapter. This can permanently sit in one of the PCIe slots to serve additional M.2 slots. With the addition of this adapter, the total available M.2 slots NVMe 4.0 drive count jumps to six, which is one of the highest we’ve ever seen.

The giant voltage regulator heatsink is supported by a black-anodized aluminum backplate, which is a nice touch since ASRock didn’t really have to add this as the motherboard will eventually rest on the PC case. The I/O shield comes pre-installed, which isn’t all that surprising considering this is a high-end premium motherboard. ASRock also decided to add a touch of RGB lighting to make it look premium. There’s a light diffuser at the board’s front edge that allows for subtle lighting to shine through. The motherboard PCB is mostly covered by the heatsink, so the black-colored PCB is barely visible.

The ASRock TRX40 Taichi comes with 8 DIMM slots and three PCIe x16 slots that are enough to power even the most powerful rigs. It also goes without saying that you get plenty of headers for fan/pump, RGB lights, USB, and more. Overclocking is also in cards since this is a high-performance motherboard that’s designed to push even the most demanding HEDT CPUs on the market. The Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master comes to the ASRock TRX40 Taichi in terms of performance. Both are performant boards but the ASRock board earns extra points for adding a sophisticated cooling solution for the VRm to keep it cool.

The M.2 expansion card is also a unique offering and a great way to add more M.2 slots. Even though it uses one of the x16O PCIe slots, you still end up with space for three more drives than the Gigabyte motherboard. So this comes down to the personal preference of having more M.2 slots. That being said, we decided to go with the ASRock motherboard mainly for a robust power delivery system with a sophisticated cooling solution for reliable performance.

Best motherboard for AMD CPUs: Final Thoughts

AMD motherboards, as we mentioned earlier, are always in demand due to some very obvious reasons. Luckily, the state of the motherboard market is relatively healthy, with plenty of stocks across a wide variety of models. This means you don’t necessarily have to pay a premium in most cases while buying one of these motherboards that we’ve mentioned in this collection. We think the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme is the best X570 chipset based motherboard one can buy right now for a high-end PC build. The MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus is also a great option for those looking to buy an affordable X570 chipset based motherboard. The ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi is also a fantastic B550-based board if you don’t want to burn a huge hole in your pocket.

As always, our collection of the best motherboards for AMD CPUs is an ever-evolving list that’ll be updated over time to include newer boards on the market. We also encourage you to join our XDA Computing Forum to discuss your PC build and possibly even get better recommendations from other enthusiasts. You can also check out some of our other collections like the best monitor or even the best webcams if you’re building a new setup from scratch.