Today is the following stage of the AMD AM4 B550 motherboard rollout: quite a few distributors have began itemizing its fashions rather than an anticipated launch on June 16th. One large function of B550 that B450 did not have within the specs was PCIe 4.Zero assist, and so this might be an enormous uplift with the brand new motherboards. Vendors at the moment are unveiling the extra worth aware fashions when instantly in comparison with the premium X570 fashions.
The B550 chipset has been touted for a lot of months, with a lot hypothesis on function set, compatibility, and which AMD Ryzen processors customers will decide to go for when pairing up a brand new board. One prevalent problem which AMD has addressed lately is that its impending Zen Three and Ryzen 4000 processors will now be supported on B450 and X470, albeit with out the advantages of PCIe 4.Zero and its elevated bandwidth. With this in thoughts, one of many principal benefits of the brand new B550 chipset is that it’s going to overtly assist PCIe 4.Zero and Zen 3, which provides customers extra inexpensive choices in relation to choosing a brand new PC, whether or not it’s a finances gaming system or an AMD Ryzen 3950X 16-core laden powerhouse.
AMD lately introduced its Ryzen 3 3000 collection processors, the Ryzen 3 3300X and Ryzen 3 3100 which we reviewed. Users trying to purchase a brand new motherboard for AMD’s extra inexpensive Ryzen 5 and Ryzen Three processors might not need to spend the massive bucks some distributors are asking for a few of its X570 fashions. Enter B550, and with over 50 fashions throughout all of the outstanding distributors to select from, it is probably a consumer will have the ability to discover one which not solely matches their fashion necessities however matches what they want from a function set as properly.
| AMD X570, B550 and B450 Chipset Comparison | |||
| Feature | X570 | B550 | B450 |
| PCIe Interface from CPU | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| PCIe Interface from Chipset | 4.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 |
| Max PCH PCIe Lanes | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| USB 3.1 Gen2 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| Max USB 3.1 (Gen2/Gen1) | 8/4 | 2/6 | 0/6 |
| DDR4 Support | 3200 | ? | 2667 |
| Max SATA Ports | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| PCIe GPU Config | x16 x8/x8 x8/x8+x8* |
x16 x8/x8 x16/+x4 |
x16 x16/+x4 |
| Memory Channels (Dual) | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi MAC | N | N | N |
| Chipset TDP | 11W | ?W | 4.8W |
| Overclocking Support | Y | Y | Y |
| XFR2/PB2 Support | Y | Y | Y |
The greatest profit going to B550 from B450 is official assist for PCIe 4.Zero units throughout the full-length PCIe slot which is pushed by the processor. This implies that the highest full-length slot will run at PCIe 4.Zero x16, with some fashions permitting for x8/x8 from a second full-length slot with official assist for NVIDIA SLI. From the CPU assist pages that we have seen introduced from distributors, B550 will solely be suitable with AMD’s Ryzen 3000 collection processors. For customers wanting to make use of PCIe 4.Zero storage units, B550 fashions embrace a single PCIe 4.Zero x4 M.2 slot, with any further M.2 slots coming by way of PCIe 3.Zero lanes from throughout the chipset itself.
Another profit is the B550 chipset consists of assist for as much as two USB 3.1 G2 ports which B450 did not supply. B550 additionally retains the identical functionality with regard to USB 3.1 G1 assist as B450 with as much as six ports obtainable from the chipset. Users may also set up as much as six SATA ports from the chipset, with the onus on distributors in the event that they need to use further re-drivers or SATA controllers to push the numbers additional at the price of PCH lanes. Some fashions leverage Realtek’s ALC1220 on the extra premium B550 fashions, with the ALC1200 featured on MSI’s MAG B550 Tomahawk.
The GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Master motherboard
Motherboard distributors the world over have been enabling their public listings of the B550 product stacks on-line, with some notable fashions from GIGABYTE…
