After AMD released their 3000 series processors alongside their all new X570 Chipset a while ago, we were expecting that their lower tier chipset B550 would be just a few short months away. Well, it will take AMD almost a year to release their midrange chipset. B550 is scheduled to go on sale on June 16th 2020.
B550 vs B450 Official Specs |
||
| Chipset | B550 | B450 |
| Officially Supports (some boards may expand support) |
Zen 3 | Zen 2, Zen + & Zen 1st gen (Select boards may support Zen 3) |
| Chipset Link | PCIe 3.0 x4 | PCIe 3.0 x4 |
| Usable PCIe Gen 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Usable PCIe Gen 3 | 10(2 reconfigurable as SATA) | 0 |
| Usable PCIe Gen 2 | 0 | 6 |
| SATA III (6Gbps) | 4 | 2 |
| SATA Express | 0 | 2x(or 4x SATA) (or x4 NVMe Gen 3) |
| USB 10Gbps | 2 | 2 |
| USB 5Gbps | 2 | 2 |
| USB 480Mbps | 6 | 6 |
AMD’s new chipset main feature will be bringing PCI-e Gen 4 for those on budget. Which means your brand-new GPU will be able to utilize the new standard. This is good news for all those who wish to use PCI-e gen 4 nvm-e SSD’s with read and write speeds well over 5 GB/s. This feature was previously exclusively available for those running AM4 X570 motherboards (and TRX40 on High End Desktop Platforms). The B550 chipset (as seen in the table above) won’t have usable gen 4 lanes like X570 does, users should keep that in mind.
When Zen 2 chipset launched together with X570 chipset. There were some rumors that PCI-e Gen 4 could be enabled through BIOS update on some X470 and B450 motherboards. AMD was quick to react and pulled the support in their next AGESA update. The reason behind such action was simply that most of the motherboards from previous generation weren’t built to spec to support Gen 4 PCI-e.
June 16th will be the date when we can finally enjoy Gen 4 PCIe on the budget. While B550 is an upgrade over B450, you probably shouldn’t run out and replace your motherboard. However, if you are building a brand-new system and are wondering which chipset to go with take into the consideration what you will be doing with the system and the pricing. Given that B450 is really mature chipset (in motherboard terms) there may be some really good deals when B550 launches.
While I’m perfectly happy with my build (Auros B450, RX 5600 XT, Ryzen 5 2600, 16gb ram etc) Something is killing my power supply and I’m forced to replace parts that seem to be functioning with satisfaction. A new case, motherboard, PSU, and USP is going to set me back a lot when I don’t even need to upgrade.
I have zero, and I mean zero desire to upgrade from my Ryzen 5 2600 (2nd gen). The fact that the b550 doesn’t support it is harsh to me. The benefits of newer, higher performing processors is unappealing to me Vs the cost. This puts me at a crossroads since I’m having to replace my motherboard.
I just may have to go for a more powerful, more expensive board (x570) so I can run my older, weaker CPU. I’ll call it getting ready for next year when I’ll be getting VR, if big navi allows.
for now go with a cheapo b 450 that’s cross compatible…no point in running to get a new mobo cpu, and ram just because…no point in wasting money …especially in today’s weird world…save it for food 😉