Tuesday, June 16th 2020
AMD B550 Chipset Motherboards Start Selling
AMD formally launched its B550 socket AM4 desktop chipset, with the promise of bring PCI-Express gen 4 connectivity to the masses. Motherboards based on the B550 support 3rd gen Ryzen desktop processors based on the "Matisse" silicon, and "Zen 2" microarchitecture. The chipset will, in the future, support Ryzen 4000G "Renoir" and "Zen 3" based "Vermeer" desktop processors. Based on an ASMedia-made design, the chipset lets you have PCI-Express gen 4.0 on the main x16 slot from the processor, and at least one M.2 NVMe slots (which is CPU-attached). The chipset itself puts out up to 8 general purpose PCI-Express gen 3.0 lanes, besides up to six SATA 6 Gbps ports, and USB 3.2 connectivity. Motherboards based on the B550 start at $99 MSRP (although $114 on Newegg), and some of the pricier models go all the way up to $300.
Do read the TechPowerUp reviews for GIGABYTE B550 AORUS Pro | GIGABYTE B550I AORUS Pro AX | ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming
25 Comments on AMD B550 Chipset Motherboards Start Selling
somebody please wake me up when we get total pcie gen 4 everywhere, across the entire board :D
I'll wait until Zen 3 actually drops. Prices should be better by than
Vendors are going to have a range of products which range in price. However, given the robustness of the platform and the growing interest in the platform, vendors are going to try to add more features and target a higher price point. PCIe 4.0 support may add to the complexity and cost too as well as other factors.
It is what it is.
Personally I'm glad I bought an ASRock X570 Taichi motherboard with a RyZen 9 3950X. It's wicked powerful. Maybe when a RyZen 9 4950X is released I'll feel some small twinge of of envy but for now I'm good.
This thing puts my Dell PowerEdge R720XD with dual Xeon E5-2630L processors (6 core 12 thread for a total of 24 threads) server to shame.
(Newegg)
ASRock B450 PRO4: $99.99
ASRock B550 PRO4: $134.99 (not even close to 2x)
ASRock B450 Steel Legend: $114.99
ASRock B550 Steel Legend: $179.99 (again, not even close to 2x)
ASRock B450M-HDV R4: $79.99
ASRock B550M-HDV: $79.99 (same price!)
ASRock B450M PRO4: $89.99
ASRock B550M PRO4: $114.99 (again, not even close to 2x)
ASRock B450M Steel Legend: $99.99
ASRock B550M Steel Legend: $154.99 (guess?)
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PuUWroxA0HvSSipsXlB8hnYkshxD8LdeO5EA6WLdOQw/edit#gid=0
Realistically, the majority of the B550 boards have better VRM's than the majority of the B450, along with PCIe wiring, I'm sure this increases the price of the actual boards themselves, which is why you see a jump in price of 20-30% or so. I imagine we'll even find that many B550 boards will have better VRM's than the lowest tier X570 boards.
I'm contemplating getting the B550 Extreme4 for 180$.
Add to that, more expensive signal re-drivers for PCIe and the improved VRM designs you pointed out and we're looking at $20-30 at a minimum as extra costs for the board makers. Then you have all the people in-between them and the end user that wants their margins as well and we end up with a lot more expensive boards...