The AMD B550 Motherboard Overview: ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASRock, and Others
by Dr. Ian Cutress & Gavin Bonshor on June 16, 2020 11:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE B550 Vision D
Aiming more towards content creators and resembling its Designaire models, the GIGABYTE B550 Vision D includes a mid-range set of features. Spearheading what the Vision D has to offer includes an Intel Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 interface which powers the two Type-C ports on the rear panel, with two M.2 slots, four SATA ports, a Realtek ALC1220 HD audio codec and two Intel-based Gigabit Ethernet ports.
Opting for a clean-cut aesthetic, the GIGABYTE B550 Vision D uses a black and white contrasting design with white heatsinks on an all-black PCB. Dominating the lower portion of the board are two full-length PCIe slots which operate at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8/x8, while the third full-length slot is locked at PCIe 3.0 x4. For storage is two M.2 slots with individual heatsinks with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, and the second slot at PCIe 3.0 x4, while for SATA devices, a total of four SATA ports are included. The B550 Vision D has impressive memory support with speeds up to DDR4-5400 supported out of the box, and a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots.
On what is a pretty stacked rear panel are two Thunderbolt/USB 3.2 G2 Type-C ports which include support for DisplayPort output due to the presence of an Intel Ridge Thunderbolt 3controller, with a further two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. For the leveraging of Ryzen APUs with integrated graphics, GIGABYTE has included a DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 pair of video outputs, while an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 interface and a pair of Intel Gigabit Ethernet controllers make up the Vision D's networking capabilities. A Realtek ALC1220-VB HD audio codec drives the five 3.5 mm audio jacks and S/PDIF optical output, while a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port allows users to use legacy peripherals.
The GIGABYTE B550 Vision D is an interesting board for a couple of reasons, some very positive and some a little confusing. Starting with what's good, it is advertised as featuring a robust 12+2 power delivery, with the inclusion of an Intel Titan Ridge controller for dual USB 3.2 G2 Type-C ports. It's also one of the best looking B550 models on the market and supports up to DDR4-5300 memory which is impressive. GIGABYTE's decision to opt for Gigabit LAN when cheaper boards include 2.5 GbE Ethernet is a tad confusing. It's also one of the only models, if not the only model to include Intel Gigabit as opposed to Realtek Gigabit Ethernet. The B550 Vision D also has a hefty price tag for a B550 model with an MSRP of $260, putting it as one of the most expensive B550 models on the market, but does benefit from Thunderbolt 3, and two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which operate at x8/x8.
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althaz - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Hmm, these seem mostly...pointless? More expensive than B450 by a lot, barely cheaper than the superior X570 boards (which have more PCIe lanes, more USB ports, etc)...these really need to be $50 cheaper across the (mother)board to make sense, IMO.sing_electric - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
It is interesting comparing similar X570 and B550 models within the same brand (or subbrand like Asus ROG or Gigabyte Aorus). It really seems like pricing is VERY close between them.Of course, if the VRMs are comparable, then for 90%+ of users, a X570 and a B550 are basically equivalent. In some cases it's almost like you're giving the user a choice between a newer B550 board with WiFi 6 and an older X570 board with AX but more USB ports or something, for within a few bucks of the same price (if you can find them at MSRP and in stock, which really has been an issue of late.)
jrbales@outlook.com - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I was looking at the boards on morning of Jun 16th. Very few B550 boards in stock (not too unusual so soon to release) and prices were high, in the range there just a few months ago I could have bought an X570 board. However, X570s were mostly out of stock everywhere I looked, and those in stick were generally pushing $300 USD or more. I suspect either manufacturing has not completely ramped up after COVID-19 in Asia, or that there is still a shipping back-load via ocean freight bearing ships between Asia and North America. Maybe if we ever see a return to a semblance.nce of normal, prices might lower and parts return to stock,
romrunning - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Shipping is main culprit here - big problem, including extra time spent in customs at ports (like LA in the US).sing_electric - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
Right - In February I picked up an X570 board for ~$30 under MSRP, so equivalent B550 board (same OEM, same 'line') would actually be a few bucks more... but adds a Thunderbolt header, WiFi 6 and 2.5 gig Ethernet (in exchange for PCIe lanes/slots and USB ports, and a 2nd m.2 connector). In the end, I think the X570 was a perfectly good choice on sale.willis936 - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
I love that summary table. I wish it had an entry for “8 or more USB-A ports”. I actively use 15 on my desktop. The fewer PCIe cards and hubs needed, the better imo.GNUminex_l_cowsay - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Thanks for giving detailed and, hopefully, correct information about the PCIe configurations on these boards. Unfortunately many of the motherboard manufacturers don't give that information, make the information hard to find, give wrong information, or some combination of the above with regards to PCIe configuration.Out of curiosity, what happens when you put a pcie 3.0 x4 ssd in an x2 slot when the ssd's maximum read and write rates don't fully saturate x4? Is it just limited to the ~2GB/s bandwidth of the slot or does the ssd do something worse?
Lucky Stripes 99 - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
Yeah, it will transfer just a bit under 2 GB/s due to overhead. I had this same issue with my H97 board and my Samsung 970, so I opted to purchase a cheap M.2 PCIe 3.0x4 card. HD Tune showed an improvement, but not by much to notice much real world difference.Allan_Hundeboll - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link
What about the Gigabyte 550M s2h?It's 12$ cheaper than the ds3h, so I would like to know what gigabyte did to lower the cost.
xenol - Thursday, June 18, 2020 - link
A complaint I had in previous AMD boards was how prevalent VGA ports were. I'm glad to see they're not so prevalent this time around.