AMD B450 or B550 Motherboard for Ryzen 5000 CPUs?

[scavengerspc]

No, they wouldn't. Cause it would have been bad for their image. My entire point.

I'm sensing a trend here. You love hearing yourself talk and in this case reading your own words.

Tech (and hardware imparticular) is notoriously anti-consumer. They don't give us what we want, they tell us what we want. If any company worries about their image I say bravo. Companies like Nvidia and intel obviously do not but it sure as hell hasn't hurt their market share. So if a company does something positive because of their image I see absolutely no problem with it. At least they did something and found a way to help their customers. You will NOT see Intel and Nvidia do the same.

Anytime someone screams "My Reputation is ruined!" it is not a bad thing.
Image and Reputation are points of pride.

 

[AMDGeForceRX4090]

I'm sensing a trend here. You love hearing yourself talk and in this case reading your own words.

Tech (and hardware imparticular) is notoriously anti-consumer. They don't give us what we want, they tell us what we want. If any company worries about their image I say bravo. Companies like Nvidia and intel obviously do not but it sure as hell hasn't hurt their market share. So if a company does something positive because of their image I see absolutely no problem with it. At least they did something and found a way to help their customers. You will NOT see Intel and Nvidia do the same.

Anytime someone screams "My Reputation is ruined!" it is not a bad thing.
Image and Reputation are points of pride.

It's true I do love hearing my own voice. It's just so lovely and wouldn't need to be repeated so often if someone simply understood what I said and moved on, regardless of whether they agreed or not.

But yeah thanks for noticing how lovely I sound.

 

[scavengerspc]

But of course someone will try to point out that "Intel has to do that because of technical limitations"

Which is a result of absolutely zero forethought.

 

[DefaultD]

A bit strange that no new chipset is launched along these new cpus.
Even if buying a new b550, it will need a bios update most likely (since most of those on sale now where shipped months before).
And since b550 is compatible only with Ryzen 3xxx (without integrated graphics) and Ryzen 5xxx (after bios update), you will need to find a compatible Ryzen to upgrade the bios, if you own a non compatible one.
Quite a bit of effort for an upgrade.

It seems odd b/c we are used to getting new chipsets, but when you think about it it makes sense:
1. AMD doesn't really have any features to add to a new chipset (not for this gen anyway).
2. It's the same socket.
3. They only just released the B550 chipset a few months ago.
4. No upgrade path after ZEN 3, Zen 4 is going on a new socket.

AMD already let the cat out of the bag. After this Zen 3 launch, Zen 4 will move to the next socket. It saves them money on not building a new chipset that has no upgrade path. They could have just rebranded the current chipset, but it's already known that other than PCIE 4.0, the 5 series chipsets don't offer much more than the 4 series chipsets. Users would know pretty quick that they're just getting a rebrand.

Awhile back, when I built my first system, I purchased an Intel Kaby Lake processor and Z270 board expecting (naively) that since it was only the second CPU supported on the 1151 socket, I'd be able to upgrade my processor on the same mobo when Coffee Lake dropped. Which of course didn't happen as Coffee Lake was incompatible with Intel's 200 series motherboards. So I appreciate the heads-up from AMD, as I like to be able to upgrade CPUs without spending extra on new motherboards if I don't have to.

As far as the BIOS, AMD offers to loan you an older CPU to upgrade the BIOS if you buy a Zen 3 chip: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/pa-100#faq-Short-Term-Processor-Loan-Boot-Kit
They've done this in previous launches. Also your local electronics store might do it for you for a small fee (If you buy a chip from them, Microcenter, will upgrade the BIOS on your mobo for free). Some mobos such as my MSI B450 Gaming Plus allow you to upgrade my BIOS with a thumb drive.

 

[AlextheGreatest]

I have a Ryzen 2700X on an Asus X470-F Gaming motherboard. Will I be able to use this motherboard in a future upgrade to the 5000 series? Is it advisable to do so? Can this motherboard support more than 64 GB of RAM? And the latest generation of videocards (I currently have a GTX 1060 6 GB).

 

[DefaultD]

I have a Ryzen 2700X on an Asus X470-F Gaming motherboard. Will I be able to use this motherboard in a future upgrade to the 5000 series? Is it advisable to do so? Can this motherboard support more than 64 GB of RAM? And the latest generation of videocards (I currently have a GTX 1060 6 GB).

Per AMD, in January, Board Partners (such as AUSU) can release a BIOS updates to allow X470 and B450 Boards to use Ryzen 5000 series chips. You will be required to show proof of purchase of an eligible CPU as the upgrade is one-way and older CPUs will no longer be supported. The only thing X570 boards in general have going for them over their X470 equivalents is PCIE 4.0 support (which very little hardware today actually takes advantage of). Should you upgrade? If you need/want faster processor speed then, yes. If your current rig gets the job done, and you don't want to spend the extra $, then don't. AMD claims that Zen 3 has finally caught up with Intel for single-threaded performance (such as games and certain single threaded applications). If gaming is your main focus Zen 3 could be the fastest processors out their (we'll have to see the independent benchmarks). As far as productivity, AMD will be the the better value, but you probably already knew that as you already have an R7 2700X.

For your RAM be sure to check the ASUS QVL list for your board:

｜｜ASUS USA

www.asus.com

I once bought a RAM upgrade without checking, and the RAM was not supported. Lesson learned, though I was able to put it in a later build. There are several 128 MB kits officially supported.

Your board should support all the newest GPUs.

 

[dihartnell]

"AMD originally announced they’d be axing support for Zen 3 on all 300 and 400 series motherboards. However, due to push back from the community and publications like ours where we strongly suggested AMD to reconsider"

How very Intel of them. It bugs me when people act like Intel are the bad guys but AMD is your friend. The nice buddy company. Nah, they're there to make money, and screw the customers. The fact that B450/X470 could support Zen3 but they weren't gonna allow it is just BS on their part. And only changing after the backlash... Poor of them. Shouldn't have happened in the first place. Hell why would they even care? not like people buy AMD branded boards.

"we’ve seen BIOS revisions from the likes of Gigabyte which enabled PCIe 4.0 operation on B450 boards, but that was later removed due to pressure from AMD"

Again, how very scummy. That my board could do this but won't cause AMD won't let GB release a FW enabling it, cause they want me to move to the 500 series, is just crappy.

They are just as bad as Intel. But people are more forgiving cause they're the underdogs.

As a rule I have found people are more forgiving because AMD dont usually make you change your Mobo as frequently as intel. Not all b450/X470 mobos were particularly good in the VRM dept. Personally I thought most were average to mediocre. B550 is considerably better overall and can handle these higher core count CPUS better.

Still the right decision was made in the end and at least they changed their mind. Pretty sure Intel would not have..

 

[Colonel Blimp]

I have a b350 gaming pro carbon and a 3600.
Should I buy a cheap b450 and upgrade CPU in 6 months/year or just do both at that point?

 

[shafei]

Nice article

 

[AlextheGreatest]

Per AMD, in January, Board Partners (such as AUSU) can release a BIOS updates to allow X470 and B450 Boards to use Ryzen 5000 series chips. You will be required to show proof of purchase of an eligible CPU as the upgrade is one-way and older CPUs will no longer be supported. The only thing X570 boards in general have going for them over their X470 equivalents is PCIE 4.0 support (which very little hardware today actually takes advantage of). Should you upgrade? If you need/want faster processor speed then, yes. If your current rig gets the job done, and you don't want to spend the extra $, then don't. AMD claims that Zen 3 has finally caught up with Intel for single-threaded performance (such as games and certain single threaded applications). If gaming is your main focus Zen 3 could be the fastest processors out their (we'll have to see the independent benchmarks). As far as productivity, AMD will be the the better value, but you probably already knew that as you already have an R7 2700X.

For your RAM be sure to check the ASUS QVL list for your board:

｜｜ASUS USA

www.asus.com

I once bought a RAM upgrade without checking, and the RAM was not supported. Lesson learned, though I was able to put it in a later build. There are several 128 MB kits officially supported.

Your board should support all the newest GPUs.

Thanks, I didn't know about the RAM because when the board first came out it officially only supported 16x4 max, I'll be happy if it can now support up to 128 GB of RAM.

I guess if I do this I wont be able to use my 2700X on this board anymore? I dont know how to get a proof of purchase for the CPU since I had a third party build it for me (Portatech). And it looks like they are now out of business.