Friday, April 17th 2020
AMD Reportedly Launching B550 Motherboards Come June 16th
AMD is reportedly looking to launch their B550 mainstream motherboards this coming June 16th, with an announcement being pegged for May 21st. WCCFTech, quoting industry sources, says these motherboards will now finally be released to the public, nearly a year after the launch of AMD's Ryzen 3000 series and accompanying X570-based motherboards. This will mark the first time PCIe 4.0 will be available in a mainstream-geared platform and chipset; until now, users looking for more cost-effective builds to support their Ryzen CPUs had to make do without PCIe 4.0 support with a motherboard from previous generations, since the feature was only available on the (more expensive) X570 motherboards.
The B550 chipset should thus become the new choice for users looking to build new systems on a budget; and part of the reason for AMD delaying the launch of this chipset as much as it has could certainly be an effort to increase revenues due to the X570's higher ASP. It's expected that B550 motherboards will be had for higher pricing than AMD's previous mainstream B450 motherboards, though, due to increased costs with improved I/O and the additional requirements for PCIe 4.0 wiring. Considering AMD's X570-based motherboards can be had from the $150 barrier upwards, it's likely (via an educated guess only) that B550 will occupy the $90-$150 range.
The B550 chipset should thus become the new choice for users looking to build new systems on a budget; and part of the reason for AMD delaying the launch of this chipset as much as it has could certainly be an effort to increase revenues due to the X570's higher ASP. It's expected that B550 motherboards will be had for higher pricing than AMD's previous mainstream B450 motherboards, though, due to increased costs with improved I/O and the additional requirements for PCIe 4.0 wiring. Considering AMD's X570-based motherboards can be had from the $150 barrier upwards, it's likely (via an educated guess only) that B550 will occupy the $90-$150 range.
50 Comments on AMD Reportedly Launching B550 Motherboards Come June 16th
May 21st is still a date to put on calendar. Stuff can happen... possibly, might or not, at this date too.
They should make USB BIOS flashing mandatory on new chipsets/new sockets to avoid this in the future,
doesn't that mean it's confirmed PCI 4.0 is on B550?
As mentioned above, it's highly likely we'll see the CPU lanes to the GPU and one M.2 slot being PCIe 4.0. However, all of this is up to AMD, but they'd be silly not to go with at least some PCIe 4.0 lanes, if for no other reason than to one up Intel.
It's important to keep the chipset lanes and CPU lanes separate due to how AMD's platform works. Considering that it was technically feasible to do PCIe 4.0 on X470 via the CPU lanes, the same applies to B550.
If it's just a rebranded B450, what's the point?
Likewise, hopefully they also won't keep crippling basic features, eg, B450 ITX = "For the sake of saving $0.50, we crippled Wi-Fi speeds from what should be 866Mbps (given the 2x2 antenna) down to 433Mbps (1x1) even though 5 year old Skylake boards like the ASUS PRO GAMING B150I Wi-FI had 2x2 866Mbps as standard"...
AMD must release B550 with PCIe 4 support..
It feels so weirdly late, what with the impending X670 and Zen 3 (4000-series) that were mentioned for a Q4 2020 release. It's come to the point that I'm wondering if it'd just be better to skip B550 altogether and jump to B650 just months after the X670 releases, given that the AMD ecosystem hasn't collapsed this far along into Zen 2 and X570-only mobos.
So many conflicting reports. Well, but X570 is the top premium chipset and will remain so till X670's launch. It doesn't get a longer run than X470 or X370. The same.
Well, there are B550A OEM boards with PCIe 3.
Normally, the IO from the CPU itself should be enough for lower end boards like the rumoured B550 for DIY.
If B550 DIY PCIe 3 or PCIe 4 indeed gets launched in June, it doesn't make any sense to launch B650 three months later in September.
Why are people making assumptions that there will be a new set of chipsets for the 4000-series? There's zero proof of this.
The B550 is likely going to be the last AM4 chipset.
little example ....
my GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 did cost me ~209$
a equivalent X570 is ~ 206$ (ASRock Steel Legend ) outrageous pricing indeed?
and it's like that since the launch of the X570 ... i guess most people where fixated on the 350$+ mobo that some manufacturer produce (which have their customer ofc ... ) but Intel equivalent mobo do exist too ... the "going overboard board" is not a new trend.