AM5 B850 boards

[JollyJamma]

B850 isn't budget, the B650 wasn't. B840/A620 are the budget range.

Definitely interested in more views on the 850, I've seen barely anything talking about them which I suspect is because they're not that interesting.

Yeah I think that motherboard reviews just don’t get that many clicks anymore.

Hardware Unboxed did a roundup of motherboards recently but they are crazy Aussies who tend to do granular reviews for the benefit of their audience

 

[Rob_B]

Their B650 videos were great, I refer to them often. They've done a mini B870 one too I believe. Looking around the B850s aren't staying around £115, many are now getting up close to £200 :/

 

[JollyJamma]

Their B650 videos were great, I refer to them often. They've done a mini B870 one too I believe. Looking around the B850s aren't staying around £115, many are now getting up close to £200 :/

I think manufacturers have realised that they can charge more for motherboards and work together to avoid a 'race to the bottom' in pricing.

You can spend £1000+ on a motherboard these days and people will pay. My hunch is that the saw what Nvidia does with their pricing since the launch of the RTX 3090 and have emulated that strategy - move the pricing on tier higher for each tier and create a top tier model with extra profit room that satisfies the high end consumer desire for expensive things.

It creates a new pricing floor and margins are improved. B450 AM4 was the last true budget offering of motherboards, even AM4 B550 had a higher floor than anything before it as suddenly AMD were super popular.

 

[DRITZZ]

AMD's own website shows B850 chipset boards as only supporting PCIE 4.0 for the graphics.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/processors/chipsets/am5.html

B850

1x16 or 2x8 PCIe® 4.0

1x4 PCIe® 5.0

But specs on motherboards state that it is PCIE5.0 x16 for example: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...t-am5-ddr5-atx-motherboard-mot-asu-03842.html

@DRITZZ you say you bought one can you confirm one way or the other?

Still in setup phase but on Asrock website for B850 Riptide it says Pci 5 for graphics and M2.

 

[Tetras]

So I guess the answer is you don't know, but I've pre-ordered one from OCUK and will be able to confirm once it's shipped.

There were slides near the launch that I'm getting the information from, but it does contradict what amd say on their website. I'm sure if you buy one that says it has it, it does have it.

I've even heard of some with only 4 lanes on them.

Aye, true, but realistically I doubt someone buying B850 is likely to use a 6400/6500 XT class card to game on.

B850 isn't budget, the B650 wasn't. B840/A620 are the budget range.

Definitely interested in more views on the 850, I've seen barely anything talking about them which I suspect is because they're not that interesting.

Yeah, reviewers don't usually give these boards a lot of attention and really they're all just refreshes with minor tweaks, so they're not strictly new chipsets.