Tuesday, June 9th 2020
GIGABYTE Intros B550 VISION D Motherboard for Creators
GIGABYTE today introduced the B550 VISION D socket AM4 motherboard targeted at creators. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board supports socket AM4 Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" processors, and is based on the new AMD B550 chipset. Within GIGABYTE's product stack, the B550 VISION D is positioned above its B550 AORUS Master flagship board based on this chipset. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors (concealed under a plastic bit near the VRM heatsinks). A 14-phase VRM conditions power for the CPU. The socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 128 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and two PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated). This is something the AORUS Master lacks, on the other hand, the VISION D lacks SLI certification.
The third PCIe x16 slot is gen 3.0 x4, and wired to the B550 chipset. The board offers two M.2 NVMe slots, one of the two has PCIe 4.0 x4 wiring from the AM4 SoC, the other has PCIe 3.0 x4 wiring from the chipset. There are only four SATA 6 Gbps on offer with this board, as GIGABYTE is freeing up PCIe lanes on the chipset. Unless we're mistaken, GIGABYTE is offering "unofficial" Thunderbolt 3 support. The board features an Intel "Titan Ridge" Thunderbolt 3 controller that puts out two "USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 40 Gbps" ports with DisplayPort passthrough. GIGABYTE is careful not to call these Thunderbolt 3 ports. Networking connectivity includes 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5 WLAN, and two 1 GbE interfaces driven by Intel controllers. The onboard audio solution uses premium ALC1220-VB codec, WIMA capacitors, and AMPs on the front channels. The company didn't reveal pricing.
The third PCIe x16 slot is gen 3.0 x4, and wired to the B550 chipset. The board offers two M.2 NVMe slots, one of the two has PCIe 4.0 x4 wiring from the AM4 SoC, the other has PCIe 3.0 x4 wiring from the chipset. There are only four SATA 6 Gbps on offer with this board, as GIGABYTE is freeing up PCIe lanes on the chipset. Unless we're mistaken, GIGABYTE is offering "unofficial" Thunderbolt 3 support. The board features an Intel "Titan Ridge" Thunderbolt 3 controller that puts out two "USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 40 Gbps" ports with DisplayPort passthrough. GIGABYTE is careful not to call these Thunderbolt 3 ports. Networking connectivity includes 802.11ax + Bluetooth 5 WLAN, and two 1 GbE interfaces driven by Intel controllers. The onboard audio solution uses premium ALC1220-VB codec, WIMA capacitors, and AMPs on the front channels. The company didn't reveal pricing.
24 Comments on GIGABYTE Intros B550 VISION D Motherboard for Creators
Just wish one or both of the NICs were 2.5GbE. I still want this board.
I ask because in my opinion, the whole 2.5gbe port is purely marketing. Currently, other than about a half dozen or fewer wireless routers, the only way to get 2.5Gbe connectivity would be with a multigig switch, and multigig switches are capable of 5gbe and 10gbe. If you HAVE the money and arr going to spend the money on a switch capable of 5gbe and 10gbe, why wouldn't you just buy at least a 5gbe NIC or even a 5Gbe USB 3.2 Gen 2 adapter which are a negligible price increase over a 2.5Gbe NIC?
It just seems to me pointless considering that to use 2.5gbe networking, you basically need to buy a switch capable of 5gbe and 10gbe networking, so why not just use those at that point instead? If you have enough money for a multigig switch, you have enough money for a 5gbe or 10GBase-T NIC
No internal type-C header
Only 4 Sata ports
And the VRM heatsink is a joke when compared to B550 Master.
Having 2.5G on a board doesn't hurt since as far as I know, the cost for the manufacturer for 1G and 2.5G is almost the same.
Aside from that, this is actually good looking board.
The last 2 sata ports of the master are sharing bandwidth with one of the pcie lane, using them will lower the speed of one of the pcie slot. My guess is that the thunderbolt controller is using all of that lane for itself.
In it's current form that vision board will lose one one pcie slot if you use all the M2 slots... it's just a budget workstation board. B550 boards looks premium because they had so much delay, but x570 is still the high end chipset if you really need all the bells and wristles.
Considering there's a 70 cent or less cost difference today between 1Gbps and 2.5Gbps, I know which I would prefer on my brand new board...
5 and 10Gbps cost a lot more, like $20-40 more to integrate onto a motherboard, even more for an add-in card.
My PC and NAS are connected over 10Gbps and I wouldn't mind having 2.5Gbps on other computers in the house.
Only issue right now, is the lack of switches or routers with 2.5Gbps support.
Guessing it's $300 though.
Wish they'd gone with white PCB.
We need special motherboards to be a Creator. Because ordinary board won't do the job. </sarcasm>
Has certain 'Appleness' to it. Form over function. These white aluminium slabs on VRMs look lame.
Also why use a wireless card with a green PCB and not place a neat cover over it like the rest of the board has? That's fail number two.