Here Is How AMD’s B550 Chipset Differs from X570

[Tsing]

The wait is almost over for AMD's more affordable X570 counterpart. Guru 3D has gotten word of the B550 chipset's supposed specifications, which it says is reminiscent of the X470 platform.

As expected, the biggest difference is the lack of PCIe 4.0. Other differences include two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (instead of 8), six USB 2.0 ports (instead of 4), and 4+4 SATA3 (instead of 4+8).

So compared to the top-end X570, it offers fewer USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gb/s) ports, does not support PCI Express 4.0, and communicates with the Ryzen processor via four PCI-E 3.0 lines (instead of PCI-E 4.0), which limits the total bandwidth controllers built into it. That said, that's pretty much it though. Well, that and likely pricing.

 

[kin]

Is there any confirmation on whether the first pcie slot and m.2 slot on the b550 motherboards will still be pcie 4 even if the chipset is not? Seems like if AMD nearly offered it on existing ryzen boards there's no reason the new b550 boards can't be designed for this functionality. Or for that matter updated board revisions of B450 and x470...

 

[jardows]

Not quite sure what the purpose of the B550 will be without PCIE 4.0. I can imagine that performance will be impacted with the slower chipset communication to the CPU. Of course the reviews will tell the tale, that that one feature change is disappointing. I might as well get a good B450 board for my purposes.

 

[Grimlakin]

In reading the article it sounds more to me like it is a newer board but without the quirksome issues people have been facing with PCIE 4.x. The market just isn't truly ready for PCIE 4.

 

[Dogsofjune]

It seems it's better to stay with the x470, x450 boards then.

I guess it'll be a bit before I see an matx, itx x570 for reasonable.

 

[Zarathustra]

Makes me wonder if we'll ever see lower end Ryzen 3000 CPU's.

I'd totally stick a 45w Ryzen 3000 in my fiance's desktop. I'd probably reuse her x470 motherboard though.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Another quote from the article regarding the primary m.2

"The good news is that with four extra Gen 4 lanes from the CPU, you can still opt to go with an M2 PCIe 4.0 slot."

and from https://www.vortez.net/news_story/amds_b550_chipset_to_not_fully_support_pcie_4.html, referencing the same Guru3d article:

"Although the B550 chipset is built for Ryzen 3000-series CPUs, it won't be fully PCIe 4.0 enabled. The chipset will support four lanes of PCIe 4.0 off the CPU for the primary M.2 NVMe slot, but both the 16-lane GPU connection and four-lane chipset GMI link will support only PCIe 3.0 (as was the case with X470/B450). Furthermore, B550 will also apparently offer fewer USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (2 vs 8 on X570), and fewer SATA 3.0 ports. "

So if accurate, and not removed thru some update, then one could use their boot/OS drive in a PCIe 4.0 capacity. Theoretically this is were some users would see the most benefit anyway since recent gaming benches have shown minimal improvement with 4.0 speeds. No one will really know until some reviews start popping up though.

 

[Grimlakin]

Does that mean we can put that newly announced Samsung drive on these boards and get full speed? I want 1.5 million IOPS!

I know I know merging threads.

 

[Dan_D]

Is there any confirmation on whether the first pcie slot and m.2 slot on the b550 motherboards will still be pcie 4 even if the chipset is not? Seems like if AMD nearly offered it on existing ryzen boards there's no reason the new b550 boards can't be designed for this functionality. Or for that matter updated board revisions of B450 and x470...

Officially, it's unlikely, but possible.

Not quite sure what the purpose of the B550 will be without PCIE 4.0. I can imagine that performance will be impacted with the slower chipset communication to the CPU. Of course the reviews will tell the tale, that that one feature change is disappointing. I might as well get a good B450 board for my purposes.

No, it won't. Performance will be pretty much the same as is the case when comparing X470 to X570 motherboards.

Another quote from the article regarding the primary m.2

"The good news is that with four extra Gen 4 lanes from the CPU, you can still opt to go with an M2 PCIe 4.0 slot."

and from https://www.vortez.net/news_story/amds_b550_chipset_to_not_fully_support_pcie_4.html, referencing the same Guru3d article:

"Although the B550 chipset is built for Ryzen 3000-series CPUs, it won't be fully PCIe 4.0 enabled. The chipset will support four lanes of PCIe 4.0 off the CPU for the primary M.2 NVMe slot, but both the 16-lane GPU connection and four-lane chipset GMI link will support only PCIe 3.0 (as was the case with X470/B450). Furthermore, B550 will also apparently offer fewer USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (2 vs 8 on X570), and fewer SATA 3.0 ports. "

So if accurate, and not removed thru some update, then one could use their boot/OS drive in a PCIe 4.0 capacity. Theoretically this is were some users would see the most benefit anyway since recent gaming benches have shown minimal improvement with 4.0 speeds. No one will really know until some reviews start popping up though.

Given that the PCIe lanes for the primary M.2 slot are directly attached to the CPU, this seems to make sense on the surface. However, PCIe 4.0 signal integrity is more about PCB and trace characteristics than anything. You can get away with less expensive and thinner PCB's sticking with PCIe 3.0, which is primarily the reason for this chipset to even exist.