Tuesday, June 10th 2025
Gigabyte Launches B850M Force microATX Motherboards, Reviving Orange Force Series for AMD AM5 Processors
GIGABYTE has a little surprise as it just listed a new B850 motherboard on its website, named B850M Force. This standard microATX form-factor AM5 motherboard marks the return of GIGABYTE's SOC Force series (i.e., GA-Z170X-SOC Force or GA-Z97X-SOC Force) that "eons ago" delighted Intel users with its striking orange aesthetics. Going from the cold, full white designs of its B850 Ice motherboards such as B850 Aorus Stealth Ice or B850M Eagle Ice series launched in January, this newly launched Force motherboard series packs a complete set of features tailored for a variety of users as well as retro enthusiasts from the Intel Z97 and Z170 times a decade ago.
The GIGABYTE B850 Force microATX motherboard is built around AMD's B850 chipset and supports the full range of AMD Ryzen processors for the AM5 socket, including the latest 9000 series CPUs. The board has an 8+2+2 phase digital VRM with heatsinks and supports up to 128 GB of DDR5 memory across two DIMM slots, with speeds up to overclocked 9600 MT/s (including AMD EXPO and XMP profiles). Storage connectivity consists of three M.2 slots supporting different PCIe configurations alongside four SATA 6 Gb/s connectors. Expansion capabilities include a PCIe x16 slot that supports PCIe 5.0 and an additional PCIe x4 slot from the chipset. Connectivity features include integrated Wi-Fi 6E with Bluetooth 5.3 (for the Wi-Fi 6E model), a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet controller, and multiple USB ports including USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB-C connections. Alongside its orange appearance, the motherboard has another surprise: a PS/2 port for those who are truly into the retro theme. Display outputs consist of HDMI 2.1 supporting 4K at 60 Hz and DisplayPort 1.4 capable of 4K at 144 Hz (depending on the iGPU capabilities of the installed processor).
The B850 Force motherboard also sports GIGABYTE's X3D Turbo mode, a feature that with a single click offers optimized performance for Ryzen 9000 X3D and non-X3D processors. Currently, GIGABYTE hasn't provided the exact pricing and availability.
Sources:
IT Home, Tom's Hardware, B860M Force, B860M Force WIFI6E
The GIGABYTE B850 Force microATX motherboard is built around AMD's B850 chipset and supports the full range of AMD Ryzen processors for the AM5 socket, including the latest 9000 series CPUs. The board has an 8+2+2 phase digital VRM with heatsinks and supports up to 128 GB of DDR5 memory across two DIMM slots, with speeds up to overclocked 9600 MT/s (including AMD EXPO and XMP profiles). Storage connectivity consists of three M.2 slots supporting different PCIe configurations alongside four SATA 6 Gb/s connectors. Expansion capabilities include a PCIe x16 slot that supports PCIe 5.0 and an additional PCIe x4 slot from the chipset. Connectivity features include integrated Wi-Fi 6E with Bluetooth 5.3 (for the Wi-Fi 6E model), a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet controller, and multiple USB ports including USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB-C connections. Alongside its orange appearance, the motherboard has another surprise: a PS/2 port for those who are truly into the retro theme. Display outputs consist of HDMI 2.1 supporting 4K at 60 Hz and DisplayPort 1.4 capable of 4K at 144 Hz (depending on the iGPU capabilities of the installed processor).
29 Comments on Gigabyte Launches B850M Force microATX Motherboards, Reviving Orange Force Series for AMD AM5 Processors
www.techpowerup.com/329180/colorful-presents-the-colorfire-b650m-meow-wifi-motherboard
PS2 port and not the usual wifi ports. PS2 makes sense when you do not overclock in 2025.
Like when it was called N-Force..?
Think it might be missing something.
I really hope this is a budget board, like, ultra budget, or this is going to look real bad for Gigabyte. This is on the tier of Macbooks just about requiring a dock/hub to be useful at a desk. I already populate more ports than this with a set of peripherals, a drawing tablet, and a VR headset. I can at least compliment the looks, I enjoy seeing funky colors out of motherboards these days, but is the unique look worth the subpar I/O, especially for the B850 chipset? This is something I'd expect on an $80 A620 board.
www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z87X-OC-rev-1x
and the Z87X-OC Force
www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z87X-OC-Force-rev-1x
Kind of thinking of it, no mid-range board in the past 2 CPU generations has decent audio out. I have to go back to B550M boards to get gold plated 7.1 audio.
The only legitimate reasoning I can understand the lack of high quality analog output is everything switching to HDMI (modern amps don't even have 7.1 analog input). But there are still plenty of older equipment circulating on the market that would need it.
Hell not too long ago B550M boards still had gold plated analog jacks for 7.1 audio, AND spdif output.