Just when some were wondering whether Sapphire’s “motherboard” line would last, the brand has unveiled its Nitro B650I WIFI Ultra Platinum. This is Sapphire’ s first AMD board since the B550I (AM4) variant launched in 2021. This card appears to be resolutely high-end. Based on the information on the official version of the Asian site, we can project a price above €250 minimum. Indeed, a price of 1,679 RMB is mentioned for China ($230 US). The motherboard features two DDR5 DIMM slots that support up to 64 GB of DDR5 at speeds of over 6,000 MT/s (OC). Power is supplied via a single 8-pin connector and the standard 24-pin ATX connector.
Sapphire launches its first AM5 motherboard
Given the size of the motherboard, it’s only logical to count on limited expansion capacities. You’ll be able to rely on a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot and a single M.2 Gen4 SSD slot (x4). The motherboard is based on the B650 chipset, which offers only 36 PCIe lanes, but no Gen5 lanes. The M.2 slot comes with a Nitro heatsink, which looks great. As for external connectivity, the motherboard features an HDMI connector, 1x DP, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen2 ports (10 Gbit/s), a single USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port (20 Gbit/s), 1x Clear CMOS switch, 1 LAN port. (1 GbE), two USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 ports (5 Gbps), a WIFI 6 antenna and a 7.1-channel audio jack. For those of you just starting out, there are also RGB connectors available, so you can add a little color to your setup.
For those who want to make the board sweat, note that it features a 2-phase VRM 8 (70A Dr.MOS Powerstage) which is controlled by an XDPE 192C3B PWM IC. We’ll have to wait and see if this board finally finds its way to Europe.
