B550 Aorus Pro

[HEXUS]

Second PCIe 4.0-toting AMD chipset rolls into town. We examine an Aorus board.

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[Hoonigan]

PCIe 4.0-toting AMD chipset

The B550 chipset doesn't feature PCI-E 4.0.

[DanceswithUnix]

The B550 chipset doesn't feature PCI-E 4.0.

But it doesn't cause the BIOS to suppress it on the lanes coming from the AM4 socket, which for most of us is enough.

[Hoonigan]

But it doesn't cause the BIOS to suppress it on the lanes coming from the AM4 socket, which for most of us is enough.

I just wanted to be a clever clogs.

[kompukare]

Yes, if it wasn't for product segmentation there is little reason why B450 refresh boards (MSI Max etc.) couldn't have coaxed PCIe 4.0 out of Zen2 CPUs for one GPU and a M.2 slot. (Personally I'd rather have two PCIe 4.0 M.2 and leave the GPU at PCIe 3.0 but I guess that is less marketable.)

Still, I guess the only ones happy with AMD's decisions here are probably the motherboard manufacturers as they get to flog B550 and X570 boards.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

£200=X570 price.

Edit!!

Looking at a few retailers,the cheapest B550 motherboard is from ASRock and starts at around £110. A520 is going to be expensive IMHO,especially if it's locked for CPU overclocking. AT says August is when the A520 is being released.

[=assassin=]

I *was* looking forwards to B550, thinking it'll be priced not too much higher than B450.... but £195 for this board is X570 territory, indeed, the cheaper X570 boards can be had for around £150 ish, so why on earth is B550 so expensive.... it basically makes them pointless, as I'd rather buy the full X570 than a cut down B550 if it's the same price, or more. It's crazy!

[Skyflier]

I was waiting for B550 to make the switch to AMD but if these prices don't come down in the next few weeks i may just stick with intel, as their B series MB's are out too and much better priced to be perfectly honest for what they are.

[jimbouk]

Yeah, not really playing in the same ball park as £55 B450 boards. There are a couple of outliers but you can get a fully featured B450 board for £100. Can't see why you'd spend more that 1/3 to 1/2 the price of your CPU on a motherboard.

In a quandary now - bailed on a B450 + 3600 purchase due to compatibility going forwards, then they reversed it but B550 was so close to release, now they seem to be coming in at at least a 50% premium.

Can we get some benchmarks on B450 vs B550 to see what difference it actually makes?

[edmundhonda]

What's the point of X570 over B550, assuming both are competently designed and built?

I was waiting for B550 to make the switch to AMD but if these prices don't come down in the next few weeks i may just stick with intel, as their B series MB's are out too and much better priced to be perfectly honest for what they are.

They aren't comparable.

Can we get some benchmarks on B450 vs B550 to see what difference it actually makes?

https://tpucdn.com/review/pci-expres..._1920-1080.png (margin is even smaller at higher resolutions)

As of right now, you can get a higher number on your SSD benchmark and that's it, AFAIK.

eta: there's an ASRock B550 mATX board up on scan for £80; it looks just as basic as the B450 equivalent that's £55 rn

[G1ggsy]

I was always under the impression that the B450 supported Dual Graphics, even 3-Way on some Mobo's?

[watercooled]

What's the point of X570 over B550, assuming both are competently designed and built?

One of the major differences is that the X570 chipset provides more chipset PCIe 4.0 lanes, whereas the B550 provides PCIe 3.0 lanes from the chipset.

However, in any case the B550 platform still allows PCIe4 for the x16 graphics link and the lanes intended for NVMe drives. Given that's the case, I don't imagine it will make much difference for a lot of people.

Edit:
Regarding the benchmarks, they're irrelevant as both platforms support 4.0 to the graphics slot and NVMe drives as I mentioned above.

Regarding performance in general, chipset doesn't really have any impact on compute performance - that's more down to individual boards, boosting shenanigans and/or people taking results within testing error margins far too seriously.

[Terbinator]

I wasn't planning on jumping ship from my 6700K any time soon but thinking I may do if the new XT chips result in non-XT chip deals.

What's the craic with AMD's next chipsets? Their current range of ITX boards are incredibly expensive and really rules the move out for me atm.

[Skyflier]

What's the point of X570 over B550, assuming both are competently designed and built?

I was waiting for B550 to make the switch to AMD but if these prices don't come down in the next few weeks i may just stick with intel, as their B series MB's are out too and much better priced to be perfectly honest for what they are.

They aren't comparable.

How? They're both aimed at the same market?

[watercooled]

That does kinda seem to be the case doesn't it? Many of these B550 boards seem aimed at a higher-end of the market than their B450 counterparts, with 2.5G ports, beefed up VRMs and heatsinking, etc.

I wonder if we'll see some more circa-£100 and sub-£100 models down the line? Because as it stands, this doesn't really seem like a B450 replacement given the price point.

Regarding your original Intel/AMD comment though - why not just get a B450 board if you feel that way?

[syristix]

ER no. The best x570 mainstream board is looking like the msi x570 mag tomahawk now they've fixed the vrm issues and that's £220 there are plenty others at this £ range as well... B series are about Value for money and that does not compute here with many of the price points we are seeing across the board from every manufacturer.
Give me a 4000 series processor now not later and price these B550's at sensible pricing like the B450's.