Motherboards based on AMD's B550 chipset have exploded onto the scene. Despite B550 being a cost-down version of X570 for the budget market, motherboard manufacturers have gone a little overboard in offering over 50 different models to consumers, ranging in price between $120 and $300+. The usual battleground for a good solid motherboard is in the $200 range, which should enable something with the standard features but a bit of quality thrown in as well. For $210 with Wi-Fi 6 or $190 without, the ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming straddles that popular price point. Today we're reviewing what the B550-F Gaming has to offer.

B for Budget, F for Fine Balance

The B550 chipset brings to the table a staple of what future motherboards need: PCIe 4.0. In most models we get it with a single x16 PCIe slot as well as an M.2 NVMe storage slot, with B550 having the angle to upgrade to newer Zen 3 processors when they are released later this year. As with any motherboard design, it can be done as cheap as possible, ensuring bare minimum compliance with specifications, or it can be overengineered to the hilt, just in case you want to go for 9000 MHz in sub-zero conditions. The B550-F Gaming aims to strike a finer balance, combining classical ROG aesthetics with some enhanced cooling and more premium controller support.

Some of the main features of the B550-F Gaming include 2.5 gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6 (on the Wi-Fi model), a menagerie of USB 3.2 Gen 2 support, and upgraded audio though ASUS' custom SupremeFX S1200A HD audio codec with additional audio tweaks. In classical ASUS style, there is also some buffed power delivery, which is set to support overclocking on even the most demanding processors. 

For our multi-page review, we scruitinize the looks, the bundle, the performance and the thermals.

In our benchmarking suite, the ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming performs superbly in our system tests, with big wins in our non-UEFI POST time test and DPC latency out of the box. Its performance in our power tests also puts the B550-F in a positive light, with competitive performance in our CPU and game testing too. More detail inside the review.

Our experience when overclocking was also competitive - it's just as good as the more expensive X570 models we have tested. Despite the lack of an integrated VRM temperature sensor, the B550-F Gaming performed very well in our VRM thermal testing with a recorded temperature of between 50 and 52 degrees Celsius on our two calibrated K-type probes. Using our FLIR thermal imaging camera, we measured 54.9 degrees celsius on the hottest part of the CPU socket area and power delivery, which is cooler than most. 

Competition

Perhaps due to motherboard vendor 'eagerness', the number of B550 motherboards in the sub-$200 price range is perhaps lower than anticipated, especially as we look back at previous B-series motherboard prices. The added expense is due to a couple of things, mainly through what it takes to create official support for PCIe 4.0, and for this generation most vendors have added considerably better networking support, even more so than some X570 models at similar price points. This makes B550 attractive to the mid-range in that $200 segment, with more budget B550 models starting from $150 range starting to come to market.

The ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming WiFi has an MSRP of $210, with the non-Wi-Fi 6 version available for $190. On paper this makes both models solid contenders for anyone looking to build a solid B550 based gaming system. The competition at the price point includes the B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi ($220) which includes a very similar feature set with a Realtek based 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller instead of an Intel one, and there are also a number of GIGABYTE offerings in the mix. 

Read on for our extended analysis and comparison tests.

Visual Inspection
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  • shaddixboggs - Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - link

    I won't give a dollar to ASUS for an AMD product. They've crapped the bed one too many times at this point.
  • Alim345 - Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - link

    Are higher benchmark scores of some boards are due to default bios configuration or beefier power delivery systems?
  • deadstardragon - Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - link

    Page 4 - Board Features - "For users looking to use compatible Ryzen APUs, there's an HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.2 output pairing"

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this MOBO had an onboard integrated graphics processor thus circumventing the need for a specific Ryzen APU. Given that, could you not use, say, a Ryzen 7 3700X like in your test setup and still take advantage of the onboard HDMI/DP?
  • mr0vka - Wednesday, July 22, 2020 - link

    Has anyone read the article before posting? Are anandtech authors paid based on a numer of characters? This article contains multiple typos, and then (which is really irritating) multiple repetitions of the whole sentences across the article. In one place the only change in the whole paragraph that is being duplicated is “AMD” changed to “AM4”.

    WTH!?
  • supdawgwtfd - Thursday, July 23, 2020 - link

    You must be new here...

    Has been an ongoing issue for years now.

    It's to be expected when they have no editor.
  • PeachNCream - Thursday, July 23, 2020 - link

    Anandtech has been dropping that ball for a good half decade or more. Part of the problem is article and table standardization through the use of prior articles and tables. That invariably results in mistakes when clearing old data before entering new information. Those sorts of errors show up constantly making it very clear there is lots of copy and paste sorts of slapdash happening behind the curtain. Professional writers and good editorial proofing are things you should look elsewhere to find.
  • quantumshadow44 - Thursday, July 23, 2020 - link

    pathetic. With msi x570 tomahawk msrp $210 this board has no chances.
  • danjw - Sunday, August 2, 2020 - link

    I think it would be better to list deltas from ambient in the VRM temperature chart. Since that is the real data, save users from having to do the math in their head. ;-)

    Also, I would really like to see Linux benchmarks added.
  • DiYBeast - Thursday, September 17, 2020 - link

    Love it Asus rog makes the best top their boards

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