BIOSTAR Racing B550GTQ

[Black Haru]

The BIOSTAR Racing B550GTQ offers a unique perspective on AMD's recent B550 chipset. Featuring ten 90 A power stages in an unusual layout and the rare Micro ATX form factor, the B550GTQ could be the ultimate APU platform.

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[Darksword]

Do you think it could support a 105W CPU like the 5900X?

 

[Caring1]

Do you think it could support a 105W CPU like the 5900X?

Yes.
A lot of Motherboards come with a 12 + 2, 50A power stage or similar.
Use air cooling to make sure the VRM's get air flow over them and it will run fine.

 

[Mescalamba]

Always amazes me that this brand still lives.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

Would it be prudent to do new reviews on motherboards with Zen3 Ryzen 5000 as well as Zen2/ Ryzen 3000? Presumably a customer of a B550 board would have an equal probability of purchasing either.

 

[Chrispy_]

I want to like this board (haven't used a Biostar board in almost 15 years) but at $150 it can't boot B-die to windows using known-working timings?
If you're going to spend above baseline on an AM4 board for any reason, surely FCLK, MCLK, UCLK are the key requirements?

 

[GoldenX]

A board with strong SoC VRMs should be tested with a 3400G/4750G, to see if the extra power helps iGPU overclocking with BPO.

 

[Caring1]

A board with strong SoC VRMs should be tested with a 3400G/4750G, to see if the extra power helps iGPU overclocking with BPO.

Their website states this Motherboard is not compatible with the Ryzen3 3200G or Ryzen5 3400G.

 

[GoldenX]

4600/4700 APUs are not hard to get now.

 

[Nuckles56]

I was pretty keen on the board all the way through until the VRM overheats in the OC'ing section, as features and performance wise it looks really good. I wonder if a different heatsink would do the trick

 

[MachineLearning]

I'm always confused that Biostar devotes so many power stages to SoC, so consistently, and seems to forget that Vcore is massively more important for probably 90%+ of users. Especially at this price and form factor. For an APU? Make a sick iGPU OC'ing board or two, absolutely. But don't make every single motherboard that you produce an APU overclocking motherboard.

If this board just had a decent heatsink over all power stages, and (as mentioned in the review) subtracted 2 power stages from the SoC VRM, it'd probably be a really solid mATX board. Everything else is at least acceptable (except maybe memory timings overclocking). I like the value for money overall, and especially like the 90 A power stages they decided to use.


edit: didn't proofread

 

[DenFox]

"While the B550 chipset is PCIe 3.0 only, B550 motherboards support PCIe 4.0 from the CPU to the primary PCIe slot as well as the primary M.2 slot (dependent on a PCIe 4.0 ready CPU). "

Typo.

 

[EarthDog]

Do you think it could support a 105W CPU like the 5900X?

At stock out the box, perhaps. But if you're getting a 750 processor don't cheap out with the board. These are, at least in z490 land locked down to Intel specs and can't overclock (10900k).

Would it be prudent to do new reviews on motherboards with Zen3 Ryzen 5000 as well as Zen2/ Ryzen 3000? Presumably a customer of a B550 board would have an equal probability of purchasing either.

most sites moved to testing 5000 series on the boards now. Makes sense. We'll see if tpu makes that move...

A lot of Motherboards come with a 12 + 2, 50A power stage or similar.

A lot do, indeed. However this one is 6-phase 90A. As you can see from the review, that setup can't even handle overclocking the 3900x chip for long periods of time (w/e that means.. no clue what the reviewer tested.. I missed it if it was mentioned). 5950x uses even more power...

 

[Super XP]

Nice looking motherboard. Would have been nice to have a ClearCMOS button & BIOS update USB at the IO back.
I suppose this isn't needed if you don't plan on pushing the hardware.

 

[Caring1]

A lot do, indeed. However this one is 6-phase 90A. As you can see from the review, that setup can't even handle overclocking the 3900x chip for long periods of time (w/e that means.. no clue what the reviewer tested.. I missed it if it was mentioned). 5950x uses even more power...

I'm wondering if the lack of heatsink north of the CPU is part of the problem, I'd like to see tests done with some small sinks stuck on that region, and air cooled, not an AIO.

 

[EarthDog]

I'm wondering if the lack of heatsink north of the CPU is part of the problem, I'd like to see tests done with some small sinks stuck on that region, and air cooled, not an AIO.

Not likely to change the story. These boards seem to have a hard current limit that, at least on z490 boards, you can't touch. Id expect the same here. Typically, the top vrms are for the SOC/memory so I doubt it would change much. Tom's hardware uses temp sensors in their reviews and you can see the top ones are typically MUCH cooler than the left bank which is typically where primarily the cpu power comes from. If the same ones are good at 80C, those for the SOC/etc at 70C (or cooler) aren't the issue.

 

[Buftor]

Why is it $150? There are better boards at $130. Are they not familiar with the market?