Moving on to motherboards, ASUS is offering us its new AMD motherboards. The programme includes references equipped with B850 and B840 chipsets. The distinction between the series is simple: the Strix and TUF are B850, the Prime series is B840!
ASUS B850 and B840 cards :
In total, ASUS is announcing ten new motherboards with the TUF Gaming, ROG Strix and Prime series. While up until now the Prime range has been aimed at entry-level models, the separation is now even clearer, with this series now only featuring boards with the B840 chipset. As a reminder, the latter only allows RAM overclocking, and does not offer PCIe 5.0 support for SSDs or GPUs.
In the case of this series, the three cards presented, the Prime B840-Plus WiFi, Prime B840M-A WiFi and Prime B840-A, offer the same number of power supply stages and the same RAM support. So we have models with 8+2+1 phases and RAM at 7600 MT/s. As for the rest, the connectivity is fairly similar, with three M.2s, and more or less PCIe depending on the format. Finally, the network section is 2.5 GbE, while there are a total of 7 or 8 USB ports at the rear, compared with 7 at the front via the various headers.
From now on, we’ll be using the B850 chipset with the TUF Gaming series, and we’re clearly moving upmarket. The cards gain PCIe 5.0 support for the graphics card, and the same goes for the M.2s. The cards also feature more extensive power supply stages with 14+2+1 phases, while the VRM heatsinks are larger. The Quality of Life functionality has also been enhanced, while the audio section has been improved (ALC1220P versus ALC897). Finally, the I/O and internal connectivity is more complete, with more USB in particular. The network remains at 2.5 GbE. Note that there are two micro-ATX models and one in ATX format .
In the Strix series, we find the top-of-the-range models -E, -F, -A and even an ITX reference in B850-I Gaming WiFi. This model, limited by its format, will offer fewer power supply stages (10+2+1) and a much smaller connectivity… But the format requires it.
Otherwise, the Strix -E and -F are the most complete cards, particularly in terms of the power supply stage (16+2+2) compared with 14+2+2 for the -A. These boards have the most Quality of Life features, with tool-free installation of M.2 SSDs for example. The same goes for connectivity. In terms of audio, all these Strix have an ALC4080 chip. As far as networking is concerned, the -E has been upgraded to 5 GbE, compared with 2.5 GbE for the other cards. Finally, for USB, there are 12 ports on the rear (8 for the Strix -I) and 5 on the front (5 for the -I).
