To B450 Or Not To B450, That Is The Ryzen 5000 Question

Source: TechSpot To B450 Or Not To B450, That Is The Ryzen 5000 Question

A New CPU, But The Same Socket

One major difference between AMD and Intel is their philosophy on socket changes.  While Intel tends to change sockets along with their processors quite frequently, AMD tends to stick with one socket for multiple generations of CPUs.  The current AM4 socket is four years old and spans eight chipsets and three generations of processor; though to be fair the oldest three chipsets do not support the newest third generation of Ryzen.

Those hoping to pick up a new CPU from the Ryzen 5000 series may be wondering just what motherboard would make sense to pair with it, especially those on a relatively new B450.  Techspot lays it all out for those pondering an upgrade to a B550 board, or those building from scratch and considering a B550 or X570 board.  They go into a decent amount of detail and it is worth reading through before making that call.

The most obvious difference is PCIe 4.0 support, which the B450 doesn’t support anymore, even though it originally did and those lanes do come from the CPU and not the chipset.  The thing to keep in mind is that for most usage, there is no difference between the performance of PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 4.0, be it your graphics or your NVMe storage.  Your games will still load at about the same speed and your GPU will barely notice any change.

In the end unless you intend to use the computer for tasks in which a PCIe 4.0 SSD will actually make a difference, or are planning on getting a higher end Ryzen with a dozen or more cores and putting it to work you don’t need to upgrade from a B450.  The VRMs will be able to handle the power draw and PCIe 3.0 will continue to serve you well.

With the announcement of AMD's Ryzen 5000 desktop CPU series, many prospective buyers aren't clear on the differences between AMD B450 and B550 motherboards, if they should upgrade or which one to buy.

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About The Author

Jeremy Hellstrom

Call it K7M.com, AMDMB.com, or PC Perspective, Jeremy has been hanging out and then working with the gang here for years. Apart from the front page you might find him on the BOINC Forums or possibly the Fraggin' Frogs if he has the time.

1 Comment

  1. DavidBep

    Just want to say hello, I’m a new here.

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