B550 Vs X570 For Ryzen 5000

In this content, we're going to be breaking-down the AMD B550 vs. X570, B450, X470, X370, and A320 chipset specifications number-past-number. Our goal is to look at this purely from a facts-based bending of what the differences are, and those differences will include both numerical specification differences (number and type of lanes afforded) and frontwards or backwards compatibility differences. This includes the intent of the 500-serial chipsets to support Zen 3 architecture (reminder: that's not the same as Ryzen 4000 mobile, nor is it the same every bit Ryzen 3000 desktop), while the existing B450 and X470 boards are left to cap-out at Ryzen 3000 series (Zen 2) parts.

We accept some additional discussion of the nuts of naming, including CPU naming distinctions, in our video component that accompanies this article. You may get more information on the differences betwixt AMD Zen generations and Ryzen generations in that content.

B550 vs. B550A

First off, B550A, which has already been out and which nosotros have covered, is not the same equally B550. B550A is fabricated simply for OEMs and Sister (system integrators) for pre-built systems. The entire point of B550A was to basically get the number "500" onto the box to make information technology seem new. B550A is just B450. It's identical. The only divergence is that the name was changed for pre-built PC providers.

That out of the way, B550 is the actually new one that's interesting. The AMD B550 chipset release date is June 16, with nearly manufacturer motherboards aircraft by July. Exterior of chipset choice, the biggest consideration would be VRM quality, PCIe generation usage, and BIOS quality, but that'south a different topic.

Future Support

Outside of the I/O differences that we'll discuss, the primary advantage for the 500-series chipsets going forwards is that AMD is segmenting its support for future CPU architectures. The B550 and X570 chipsets will both back up the unreleased Zen 3 architecture when it launches, presumably later this twelvemonth, while B450 and X470 will only support up to Zen two CPUs. In terms of production IDs, that ways upwardly to Ryzen 3000 volition be supported on the 400-series and 300-serial (most of the time), with some caveats, and at least up to Ryzen 4000 will exist supported on the 500-serial. This additional future-looking support will exist the driving reason for upcoming board purchases to consider 500-series boards rather than 400-series, particularly because a lot of the 400 boards are otherwise almost certainly perfectly capable of driving stock or moderately overclocked CPUs of even the next generation. Officially, AMD only marked AM4 for support into 2020, and it seems as if AM4 life has been expanded by at least another six months to a twelvemonth with the 500 series + Zen 3 support. Ryzen yard isn't supported on all X470 and B450 boards due to limitations of space on the BIOS ROM. 3000 APUs are not supported on x570 or B550, only 3000 desktop CPUs get through B550.

AMD B550 Chipset

Here's a block diagram of AMD'southward B550 chipset. Call up that the CPU's capabilities are contained and unchanged by the chipset outside of BIOS lock-downs, and then PCIe Gen4 on the CPU will run directly to the primary PCIe x16 slot and primary G.2 socket. That means B550 motherboards, unlike their predecessors, volition officially back up PCIe Gen4 for up to 2 devices. Some early BIOS revisions on B450 motherboards also allowed this, but that was erased with later AGESA updates. The chipset downlink remains PCIe Gen3 x4 considering the chipset doesn't extend any PCIe Gen4 lanes to other devices, so the actress downlink bandwidth found on X570 is unnecessary.

Chipset Differences

Fourth dimension to talk about the chipset differences. We made a table for this and accept verified the information equally accurate.

AMD Chipset Specs & Comparison (2020) | GamersNexus.net
Chipset	X570	B550	X470	B450	X370	B350	A320
Officially Supports ( some boards may aggrandize support )	Zen 3** (*then far; *no 3000 APU support)	Zen three** (*and then far; *no 3000 APU support)	Zen 2	Zen 2	Zen+, (incl. 3000 APUs) sometimes Zen2	Zen+, (incl. 3000 APUs) sometimes Zen2	Zen+, (incl. 3000 APUs) sometimes Zen2
Chipset Link	PCIe 4.0 x4	PCIe iii.0 x4	PCIe 3.0 x4	PCIe three.0 x4	PCIe iii.0 x4	PCIe 3.0 x4	PCIe three.0 x4
Usable PCIe Gen iv	sixteen(8 reconfigurable as groups of four for 4x SATA or x4 NVMe)	0	0	0	0	0	0
Usable PCIe Gen 3	0	10(2 reconfigurable as SATA)	0	0	0	0	0
Usable PCIe Gen 2	0	0	8	6	8	6	4
SATA 3 (6Gbps)	4	iv	iv	2	4	2	2
SATA Express	0	0	2x(or 4x SATA) (or x4 NVMe Gen 3)	2x(or 4x SATA) (or x4 NVMe Gen iii)	2x(or 4x SATA) (or x4 NVMe Gen 3)	2x(or 4x SATA) (or x4 NVMe Gen 3)	2x(or 4x SATA) (or x4 NVMe Gen three)
USB 10Gbps	8	ii	2	two	ii	2	1
USB 5Gbps	0	2	half-dozen	ii	vi	two	two
USB 480Mbps	4	vi	vi	6	vi	half dozen	half-dozen

We'll start with X570 vs. B550 chipset differences, as that's probable the biggest question right now. Both chipsets support upwards to Zen 3 and so far. We don't know if they will support across that, but it seems unlikely. X570 uses a Gen4 chipset link, while B550 uses Gen3. That's because X570 has PCIe Gen4 lanes off of the chipset that are separate from the CPU's lanes, something B550 has 0 of. These are referred to equally "general purpose" lanes and tin exist reconfigured into almost annihilation. Intel likewise has general purpose PCIe lanes on its chipset, but has boosted phrasing for HSIO lanes, or high-speed I/O lanes, and makes distinctions betwixt connected devices.

X570's Gen4 lanes can be split into sub-groups, and we'll need to briefly cut to an AMD slide for that.

Here's the AMD X570 lane configuration in more detail than AMD's original block diagram. We're interested in those large blocks on the right side. There are iv sets of x4 lanes listed here, and then that'due south the sixteen number we just saw in our table, and those tin can be broken into whatsoever of the configurations beneath them. For example, these could be broken into a single x8 PCIe Gen iv slot, as illustrated by the orange bar on the left, and then the other 8 could exist comprised of a PCIe Gen4 device and 4x SATA ports, or you could practice 8x SATA ports, or if you're making some weird mining board on X570, y'all could do eight PCIe x1 slots. You go the idea. Information technology's choice-and-choose upwardly to 16, more or less, with only a few guidelines.

Back to our table, we'll choice up on the Gen3 line. B550 has x PCIe Gen3, with only 2 reconfigurable to SATA. We should clarify that "reconfigurable" means this is something the motherboard manufacturer can cull to do, non something the user can choose to practise.

Neither X570 nor B550 have Gen2 general purpose lanes, but both have 4x SATA 3 (6Gbps) ports natively supported, 0 SATA Express, and they split USB 10Gbps into eight on X570 and ii on B550. USB 5Gbps is 2 on B550, with USB 480Mbps every bit 4 on X570, 6 on B550. The total USB native support is 12 on X570 and 10 on B550. We listed it with speeds since the USB-IF totally screwed its naming convention, simply if you prefer names, that'd exist USB ii.0 at 480Mbps, the originally-named USB 3.0 at 4.8Gbps, and then whatever x is, because they keep irresolute the damn names and nosotros tin can't continue upwards anymore. It'southward probably USB 3.7 sqrt144 Gen0.5. Modern AMD CPUs also have 4x USB 10Gbps lanes, and then y'all'll always get at least that every bit long every bit the motherboard maker put the ports on the board.

Some other reminder here: Limiting the chipset to this assortment of I/O devices doesn't mean the motherboard is express to only these. In addition to the devices powered past the lanes located on the CPU's I/O die, which is the larger of the three chiplets on AMD'south design, the motherboard manufacturers tin as well purchase 3rd-party controllers to add more support. For example, a mutual option is to buy an Aquantia NIC for 10Gb LAN. It's not as mutual these days, but y'all sometimes see motherboard makers buying additional USB or SATA controllers to permit for more connected devices, or PEX/PLX chips to bifurcate the PCIe lanes. The chipset isn't the only source of I/O, but it adds to toll to expand I/O capabilities, so almost boards do stick shut to the native support of the CPU and chipset combined. Similarly, boards also don't accept to use every single lane on the chipset if they don't desire to -- mini-ITX might be a good example of this, where a lot of them cease at 2 SATA ports.

B450 has been our go-to recommendation lately for anyone who isn't making use of PCIe Gen4 and who doesn't need the higher-end VRMs associated with X570. B450 and X470 are still perfectly capable and make sense for people who won't use Gen4 devices. That said, going forrard, the expanded support of X570 and B550 to include Zen three will likely modify our recommendation toward B550 rather than B450. B450 supports up to Zen 2, uses a Gen3 link, and hosts aught PCIe iv and PCIe 3 general purpose lanes of its own; instead, it runs 6 PCIe generation 2 full general purpose lanes, compared to 8 on the X470 chipset. SATA Iii availability is 4 ports natively for X470, 2 for B450, with the option to divide other lanes off into SATA. Those would come from your Gen2 general purpose lanes or from your SATA Express lanes, of which both last-gen chipsets have 2. Each SATA Express lane can become 2x SATA ports, or you tin can take both and turn them into a x4 NVMe Gen3 Grand.2 device.

SATA support on these is equivalent for USB 10Gbps, it's half-dozen and 2 for USB four.8Gbps, and it's 6 and half dozen for USB 2.0, or 480Mbps.

The main difference between B450 and B550 is the increased PCIe general purpose lanes that too benefit from becoming PCIe Gen3, rather than PCIe Gen2.

Let'due south epitomize get-go-gen Ryzen's launch chipsets now: X370, B350, and A320. X300 is covered in our launch coverage, if you're curious about that implementation.

All three of these stopped officially supporting Ryzen by the Zen+ CPUs. X370, B450, and A320 support includes the confusingly named Ryzen 3000 CPUs that have APUs in them, and often includes Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs, simply not e'er. That requires a beta BIOS.

PCIe Gen2 general purpose lane assignment is eight on X370, 6 on B350, and four on A320, SATA III runs 4, ii, and two, respectively, and SATA Express is identical on all 3. This is commonly split into M.2 or SATA devices. The USB 10Gbps support is 2, 2, and ane, from loftier-end to low-end, four.8Gbps is 6, 2, and 2, and 480Mbps is 666, woe to you, oh earth and see, allow him who hath agreement reckon the number of the animate being.

That recaps the chipset differences in a clean mode. There are a few other items to add together:

AMD is trying to position B550 as a cheaper version of X570, rather than as a full step down in classification. The B450 boards technically didn't support dual-GPU support, but B550 volition, for whatever that's worth. (It's not much).

Based on AMD's slide deck to media, the B550 chipset will not back up the 3000 APUs, not to exist confused with Zen 3 -- we accept no thought if its APUs will be supported, assuming it has whatever. The Athlon 3000G and Ryzen 3200G and 3400G APUs will not officially work in B550.

Editorial, Host: Steve Burke
Video: Keegan Gallick

Source: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3582-amd-chipset-differences-b550-vs-x570-b450-x470-zen-3

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