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
101 Comments
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Lucky Stripes 99 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I've read elsewhere that Zen1 processors supposedly had a 128 Mb address limit for UEFI firmware. It sounds suspect, but looking back at early AM4 boards, I don't recall any with either 256 Mb chips or striped 128 Mb chips, so maybe it wasn't simply due to the significant jump in price for 256 Mb chips over 128 Mb ones.Redstorm - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Likewise, looking to replace my aging 7 year old HTPC with a mATX B550 and a Ryzen 4700G but radio silence from AMD on releasing compatiable APU's for the B550's, We now have the long overdue Budget motherboards but no APU's. Dissapointed.alufan - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I understand the frustration however if your buying a Budget Board then surely a budget CPU is the best fit, also new APUs are inbound according to all the rumours, meanwhile your older APU will fit just fine I believe, I expect the new APUs will have Navi cores as per the Xbox and PS5 but of course they probably cannot be released until the new Navi cards and consoles are out, think about it though what a sea chamge folks are now waiting eagerly for a new release from AMD because they know it will kick ass not close the gap to Intel, its a good time to be a customer!Gigaplex - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Older APUs aren't supported on B550DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
I think you forgot something... :-)Fortunately, this component is a unique motherboard among B550 and well worth reading up on [add link].
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Interesting that the GIGABYTE B550 Vision D board's Type-C ports don't have the Thunderbolt logo next to them. I wonder if Intel won't all the logo to be use on AMD systems.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
*allowDigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
"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 B450 only had PCIe 2.0 lanes. Huge difference from the B550 IMO
Lucky Stripes 99 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link
Agreed. That's going to make a huge difference for boards with secondary or tertiary M.2 or U.2 ports that hangs off the chipset. That goes double if they only get 2 PCIe lanes instead of the full 4.a5cent - Friday, June 19, 2020 - link
Yup, exactly what I thought.Equally "BIG" is that B550 finally has more PCIe lanes, so adding more NVMe drives doesn't require downgrading other ports like it always did on B450.
B450 was a firmware upgrade for the budget B350 chipset. B550 is the first time this tier of AMD chipset doesn't suck.