General Discussions

[black_zion]

This does help offset the unbelievably high cost of B550 motherboards. The B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi is $220, and that's X570 territory.

https://www.msi.com/Promotion/amd-b550-promotion

[pokester]

Steam cash is a good idea when comparing to normal game bundles that are hit and miss, if it is a game you want.

I have had sticker shock at these new boards too. Given that many B450 boards will support Zen3 I would not even look at the B550's unless you need the newer features. I would imagine that few would.

I guess though if there is any chance another generation beyond Zen3 will support B550 that could change things. To my knowledge Zen 3 will be the last on AM4 or at least on DDR4. 

I kinda get the feeling that B550 is becoming more the new board in general. They pretty much support most everything 570 does and don't need active cooling.

One thing for sure, B450 boards are getting much harder to find in stores. 

[black_zion]

The motherboard situation right now is so FUBAR it's insane. If you want an mATX board, you must go B550, all the X570 boards are ATX or ITX, and realistically if you're a budget builder, mATX is where you go. AMD really needs to speak up on that issue.

Also as far as B450 Zen 3 support goes, AMD just said they'd support it, they didn't say they would offer continuing support which means future AGESA updates may not be available for it, much like a GPU dropped from active support getting one last beta driver with a new interface.

[pokester]

Yes and unfortunately many of the mATX boards are pretty lack luster on the quality too.   Good point on the B450. Maybe all we will ever get is one beta bios release. Hopefully that doesn't happen but no telling at this point.