The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTChoosing The Right B550 Motherboard
Looking at the current discussion online around the launch of AMD's B550 chipset, a lot of fanfare and focus has been put on the price. There is a stark contrast in the current pricing of some B550 models when compared to models released two years ago for B450. Commonly referred to as AMD's mid-level budget chipset, it was thought B550 would bridge the gap somewhere between X470 and X570 while offering strong feature sets and the benefits of PCIe 4.0, but for a reduced price. It feels as if some vendors decided to unleash a few models with price tags of upwards of $200, with better controller sets, and more premium qualities which are more expected from the premium X570 chipset. Users might ask, if they're going to spend that much, why not go for X570 instead?
When it comes to picking a motherboard for a system, it will usually come down to one of three things, sometimes two or three, and sometimes all three are a necessity for the user; I'm talking about price, features, and aesthetic. The first of the three is the budget, which is varied across B550 dependent on the kind of feature. A large selection of the B550 product stack includes a 2.5 G Ethernet controller (Intel or Realtek), which is a huge step up considering B550 is supposed to be an entry-level alternative to X570. Not only 2.5 G, but Wi-Fi 6 is available on more than 12+ models, some models generally feature both which adds to the cost, but also gives superior networking capabilities to anything seen from the previous B450 chipset.
Although on paper, there isn't much difference between B450 and B550 with slightly more SATA available due to the removable of eSATA support, both remain PCIe 3.0 bound. The onus on expansion support comes down to vendors different implementations with some impressive designs, the most notable model coming via the GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master. This is the only model to include support for more than one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, in fact, it has three, not to mention the dual BIOS and three full-length PCIe slots which operate at PCIe 4.0 x16, and PCIe 3.0 x4/x4. This, of course, comes at a high price with an MSRP of $280, and it is one of the small handful of examples of B550 models pushing above and beyond X570 pricing.
Another model set apart from the rest is the GIGABYTE B550 Vision D, which includes an Intel Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller and adds two Type-C ports onto the rear panel, but opts for dual Gigabit Ethernet as opposed to 2.5 G and comes with an MSRP of $260.
The cheapest B550 motherboard at present is the GIGABYTE B550M DS3H which is a micro-ATX model, with a very basic feature set, and costs just $95; that's the price range MOST B450 models launched at. This is the point that needs to be brought across, PCIe 4.0 support doesn't seem to come cheap.
Regardless of the feature a user is looking for, below is a list of which models include specific features worth highlighting.
| Choosing the Right B550 Motherboard | ||
| Options | Size | Price |
| 5 or 10 Gigabit Ethernet | ||
| None - add your own | ||
| Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax | ||
| ASRock B550 Taichi | ATX | $300 |
| ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax | mITX | $200 |
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming | ATX | $280 |
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wifi | ATX | $210 |
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
| ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus Wifi | mATX | $180 |
| ASUS Prime B550M-A Wifi | mATX | $150 |
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
| GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX | mITX | $180 |
| GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
| MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi | ATX | $220 |
| MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge Wifi | ATX | $190 |
| MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi | mITX | $200 |
| MSI MAG B550M Mortar Wifi | mATX | $170 |
| 2 or more PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 | ||
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
| 8 or more SATA ports | ||
| ASRock B550 Taichi | ATX | $300 |
| 3 or more USB 3.2 G2 (Rear Panel) | ||
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming | ATX | $280 |
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
| GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
| Thunderbolt 3 | ||
| GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
| Dual BIOS | ||
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
| PCIe x8/x8 Bifurcation | ||
| ASRock B550 Taichi | ATX | $300 |
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | ATX | $280 |
| GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | ATX | $260 |
| Mini-ITX | ||
| ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX/ax | mITX | $200 |
| ASRock B550M-ITX/ac | mITX | - |
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
| GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX | mITX | $180 |
| MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wifi | mITX | $200 |
| Type-C Audio | ||
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming | ATX | $280 |
| ASUS ROG Strix B550-I Gaming | mITX | $230 |
In our previous round-ups, we have included which boards come with most commonly used audio codec, which for B550 looks to be the Realtek ALC1200, or in the case of ASUS models, the Realtek S1200A. It's easier and quicker to list which models don't include it.
| B550 Motherboard Audio | |
| Codec | Boards |
| Realtek ALC1200 | Everything except the following |
| ASUS S1200A | ALL ASUS ROG Strix |
| All ASUS TUF | |
| Realtek ALC1220 | ASRock B550 Taichi |
| ASRock B550 Steel Legend | |
| ASRock B550 PG Velocita | |
| ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming ITX/ax | |
| ASRock B550 Extreme4 | |
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master | |
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Pro AC | |
| GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Pro | |
| GIGABYTE B550I Aorus Pro AX | |
| GIGABYTE B550 Vision D | |
| Realtek ALC892 | MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus |
| MSI B550-A Pro | |
| Realtek ALC887 | ASRock B550-HDV |
| ASRock B550-ITX/ac | |
| ASUS Prime B550M-A | |
| ASUS Prime B550M-K | |
| GIGABYTE B550M Aorus Elite | |
| GIGABYTE B550M Gaming | |
| GIGABYTE B550 DS3H | |
| Realtek ALC1150 | Biostar Racing B550GTA |
| Biostar Racing B550GTQ | |
Reviews for B550 motherboards should start to be available from today. We have started getting samples of a few boards in for testing, and we expect to get underway with them very shortly.
Intro, ASRock, and ASUS covered by Ian Cutress,
GIGABYTE, MSI, Biostar, and Conclusion by Gavin Bonshor
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Kougar - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Most of these boards are a serious VRM upgrade over the B450 boards. If I was buying Ryzen right now I'd easily go B550 over X570.So, only the ASUS boards offer bios flashback? Seems like a cheaper, just as userful version of dual BIOS anyway.
Brane2 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Finally ONE mini-ITX board with 3-monitor output.Gigaplex - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Colour me disappointed. I was hoping to do a mATX file server build using an APU. No support for existing APUs, no ETA on when consumers can buy the newer APUs, and most of these boards only have 4 SATA ports.I really don't want to have to buy a crappy NVIDIA 710 just to get it running.
mm0zct - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
If you're booting Linux, you might be able to get away with either a good old fashioned serial cable (a lot of boards still have a serial port header) or a USB-HDMI/VGA dongle, since these are supported by the mainline kernel. The main issue might jus tbe getting the BIOS to boot your install media, but a serial port might work still here.You could also just borrow a graphics card from any other system you own to do the initial install, and then let it run headlessly once it's up and running.
Gigaplex - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I am booting Linux, and have tried completely headless in the past. It's not really worth the trouble (especially if I need to quickly diagnose issues), I'd rather just buy the crappy GPU.IBM760XL - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I'm probably missing something, but what's the point of including HDMI/DP/DVI outputs if the boards don't support APUs? Aren't you going to need to use the output on your dGPU anyway?I appreciate the summaries on the last page, but wish it could be enhanced a bit. E.g. what's the cheapest board with 2.5G Ethernet? What are the cheapest boards in general? I probably wouldn't go with the cheapest one, but given the prices on a lot of these, it's likely I would choose one of the less expensive ones.
Gigaplex - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
They will support the Zen 2 APUs, which aren't out yet.IBM760XL - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
So checking my local store's inventory, they have 25 B550 boards in stock, of all varieties, but are completely sold out of both B450 and X570 (there are a few cheap A320 boards available as well, and nine TRX40 boards that start at $450).Something tells me Ryzen 3000 chips have been selling quicker than the motherboard manufacturers can keep up, and maybe that's part of the reason B550 prices are starting out high. If they're selling out, it makes sense for them to start with a higher MSRP, which they can always lower if demand falls.
Unfortunately for AMD, if B450 doesn't come back in stock, that's going to hurt Ryzen 3000 sales. Intel mobo inventory is also a bit limited, but about half of the Intel models they offer are available, including some in that $75-$125 range, versus about 15% of the AMD models being in stock currently.
romrunning - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I think the delays are all shipping-related. It's affecting all computer parts, like power supplies, motherboards, and the like. I wish a bunch of the mfgs would just pool resources to buy dedicated air cargo flights; maybe pooling will mitigate some of the losses on the lower margin items.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
"Most of these boards are a serious VRM upgrade over the B450 boards. If I was buying Ryzen right now I'd easily go B550 over X570."Why does that matter? Overclocking died with Zen, especially Zen 2.
As long as it doesn't throttle, you're good.