Original subtitles

[Music]

welcome back to hardware unboxed

today we've got part two of our b550 vrm

thermal performance investigation

and this time around i'll be looking at

board's price between 140

and 160 dollars us now quite

surprisingly aibs have managed to cram

eight b550 bullets into this price range

we have three from msi

two from gigabyte two from asrock and a

single board from asus

now from asus we have the tough gaming

b550m

plus but they do also offer the prime

b550 plus and that costs 150 us

so technically there are nine b550

boards crammed into this price range but

unfortunately

the prime plus is just not available

here locally in australia

so i wasn't able to purchase it for this

roundup anyway without wasting any time

let's briefly go over each of these

boards we have here on hand

and then of course we will dig into

those vrm thermal results

starting with the msi b550a pro

this is the cheapest board in this

roundup coming in 140

us when compared to the entry level

boards featured in our first round up

there's not a lot extra on offer here in

terms of features like usb ports

m.2 slots and so on the i o panel for

example features just four usb

3.2 spec ports with four usb 2.2 ports

though there is support for usb 3.2 type

c

at the front where the b550a pro is a

significant upgrade over the entry-level

boards

is in its vrm offering a 10-phase v-core

from the ir35201 controller msi takes

five signals each of which is then

doubled using an ir3598 phase doubler

each of the 10 phases is driven by an on

semi 4c029n fit

on the high side with an on semi4c024n

fit on the low side

and these are the same mosfets used by

the b450 tomahawk the

b550 pro vdh wi-fi and the b550m bazooka

there's just two more sets of them and

each phase feeds into its own dedicated

inductor

so in terms of thermal performance the

b550a pro should have a big advantage

over those boards just mentioned

now the last msi gaming plus motherboard

that i looked at supporting ryzen

processors was the

x570 gaming plus which cost 170

us and was pretty awful in terms of vrm

quality

at least given the price and the fact

that the board donned a flagship am4

chipset

it was really the kind of vrm

configuration to expect to find on an

entry level b series board

and proving that point is the 150

b550 gaming plus which takes the x 570

gaming plus vrm

and expands its capacity by 25 msi is

now taking five signals from the pwm

controller

and this means there are two extra sets

of mosfets the components themselves are

still the same we're just getting more

of them

on a more affordable motherboard as for

the rest of the board

it's pretty standard though for just 10

more over the b550a

pro you get a few nice features that

extend beyond just the larger vrm

the pre-installed io shield is a nice

touch as are the larger heat sinks

but other than that it is essentially

the same board then for 10 dollars more

msi offers the b550m mortar at 160

us which i like to think of as kind of

the micro atx version of the b550

tomahawk

in terms of vcore vrm design it is a

step up from the previous two msi models

as it moves away from discrete mosfets

by using 8 isl 9936060 amp power stages

it is worth noting that although there

are eight power stages the board only

features a four

phase v core as msi is doubling the

components per phase

rather than doubling the phases

themselves and this is something we've

seen asus do for years now

we've seen good things from these 60 amp

power stages in the past so i am

expecting good things from the mortar

especially relative to the competing

boards when compared to the b550 gaming

plus the mortar drops two usb ports from

the io panel which

i do find a bit disappointing there is

really no reason for msi to remove those

ports so i would have rather seen them

remain

but other than that despite the m80x

design they are very similar in terms of

features

moving onto gigabyte we have the gaming

x and this is another 140

standard atx b550 motherboard and like

its direct competitor the msi b550a pro

it also features a 10 phase v core vrm

however gigabytes opted for lower

quality on semiconductor fets

so i'm not too confident in this board

the heatsinks are also very basic it has

to be said

so it will be interesting to see how the

gaming x handles the ryzen 9 processors

as for board features it is super basic

there's far fewer connectivity options

on the i o panel

when compared to say the msi b550a pro

the audio has been simplified there's no

usb type-c

and there's also two less usb ports and

then there's also no usb

type-c front panel support either no m.2

shield and then just four sided six

gigabits per second ports

but the i o shield is pre-installed so

there is that

still when compared to the equally

priced msi b550a pro the gigabyte b550

gaming x does appear to be the inferior

product at least on paper

stepping things up a notch for gigabyte

is their b550 aorus pro

which comes in at 160 us making it 20

dollars more than the gaming x model

and for that small price premium the

aorus pros vrm is significantly improved

the 12-phase v-core takes half a dozen

signals from the pwm controller

and doubles them using isl 6617a phase

doublers each of which feeds into a

vichai sic-651c50 amp power stage

the heat sinks cooling these power

stages aren't particularly impressive

but regardless of that i'm still

expecting good things from this board

moving past the vrm the rest of the

board design and feature set is quite

good

the i o panel configuration for example

is similar to that of msi's b550 gaming

plus

but here you're also getting 2.5 gigabit

lan support

the audio codec has also been upgraded

slightly to realtek's alc 1200 with high

quality capacitors

the only downgrade here is the inclusion

of just four sata ports but still

overall a good looking board and i am

keen to see how it performs

next up we have the asus tough gaming

b550m

plus which comes in at 160 us though for

ten dollars more you can get a standard

atx version

which features the exact same vrm and

the same heat sinks so in terms of vrm

thermal performance

the micro atx and standard atx versions

of this board should be exactly the same

and for this one asus has gone with a

very basic v core vrm design much like

what we saw with the msi b550m mortar

it's a four phase design using doubled

up components

so each phase consists of two vichai sic

63 950 amp power stages

then cooling all the varium components

are two reasonably large aluminium heat

sinks

so while the vrm certainly looks solid

the rest of the board

if i'm honest is pretty basic given the

price there's no pre-installed i o

shield

and the i o panel itself offers a fairly

typical

array of connectivity for example there

are 4 usb

3.2 gen1 ports 2 usb 3.2 gen 2 ports and

2 usb 2.0 ports asus has included 2.5

gigabit lan support so that's nice

but on board the rest of the features

pretty standard and again no front usb

type c

and just four sata ports the cheapest

board in this roundup is the asrock b550

pro 4

though it is just five dollars less than

the msi b550a pro and gigabyte b550

gaming x

in terms of vrm design and cooling it is

100 identical to the micro hx version we

looked at in the previous roundup

so it's not amazing but it should be

good enough given the price and what

we're looking at here is a six-phase

v-core

using phase doublers each phase features

a cinopower sm4337 fit on the high side

with a sinopower sm4336 fit on the low

side

feeding into a single inductor it's

without question

the weakest v-core vrm of this round up

but it's also the cheapest board

then finally we have the asrock b550m

steel legend

which steps up to 155 us and for that

extra twenty dollars you get a seriously

big upgrade in terms of vrm quality

this time asrock has built an eight

phase vrm using phase doublers but more

crucially they've dropped the cheap

cinepower discrete fets in favor of the

shades sic

654 50 amp power stages radically

enhancing the board's current

capabilities

the b550m steel legend is really a

direct competitor to msi's b550m mortar

and in terms of features it is quite

good offering half a dozen usb 3.2 ports

on the i o panel

along with two usb 2 ports and like the

mortar 2.5 gigabit land is also on offer

the rest of the features are very

similar across the two boards so the key

determining factor here could be

vrm performance but before we get to the

graphs let's talk about the test

conditions for this testing and any

future am4 vr and thermal testing i've

built a dedicated system with the help

of corsair

who sent over their obsidian series 500d

mid tower case

rm850x power supply iq h150i

rgb pro xt all in one liquid cooler and

32 gigabytes of their vengeance rgb pro

ddr4 3200 memory

the obsidian 500d has been configured

with a single rear 120 millimeter

exhaust fan and then

two top mounted 140 millimeter exhaust

fans then in the front of the case we

have the h150i

360 millimeter radiator with three 120

millimeter intake fans

this is a pretty standard configuration

at least for a higher end system

the airflow is good and in a 21 degree

room i'd say this is an optimal setup

for recording temperatures i'm using a

digital thermometer with k-type

thermocouples

and i'll be reporting the peak rear pcb

temperature

finally i'm not reporting delta t over

ambient and today maintain a room

temperature of 21 degrees

and to ensure a consistent ambient

temperature a thermocouple is positioned

next to the test system

now for this testing we have four

configurations using three different

ryzen processors

the base configuration which every board

should pass with ease

sees us use the ryzen 7 3700x it's a low

powered part that only draws about 85 to

90 watts in our blender stress test

then we have the ryzen 9 3100x which

will be

tested completely stock no overclocking

for that part and no changes made to the

bios

other than loading xmp and i should note

that all motherboards have been tested

with the latest available bios at the

time of testing

the 3100x configuration pushes cpu load

up to 140 watts in our test

then we have the ryzen 9 3950x which has

been tested twice

one stock and then once with a 4.3

gigahertz overclock

using 1.375 volts the stock

configuration again only pushes cpu

usage to around 140 watts

but it does so at a lower stock voltage

so we are pulling slightly more amperage

which will put a little bit more load on

the motherboard's vrm

finally the 4.3 gigahertz configuration

pushes cpu power consumption right to

200 watts

so if this is our most extreme test so

to summarize all testing has been

conducted in a well ventilated case in a

21 degree room

so i consider these conditions to be

best case

okay so starting with the ryzen 7 3700x

results here we find the low operating

temperatures for all eight boards the

msi mortar and asus tough gaming both

peaked at just 40 degrees

while the gaming plus reached 41 degrees

the steel legend 43 degrees

and the oris elite 45 degrees beyond

that though the cheaper boards were

noticeably

hotter especially the gigabyte b550

gaming x

so let's move on to see how they handle

the stock ryzen 9 3900x

here we see that again all eight boards

passed with relative ease

though the gigabyte gaming x and asrock

pro 4 were considerably hotter than the

rest of the boards tested

peaking at over 70 degrees when you

consider the fact that the msi b550a pro

is in the same price range it does make

the gaming x and pro 4 results

all the more disappointing the best

board here in terms of varum thermal

performance

is the msi mortar though it was only 2

degrees cooled in the gaming plus

and really with just 8 degrees

separating the mortar and the b550a pro

the margins between these boards and

then all the boards between them

are fairly insignificant so we have half

a dozen b550 boards delivering excellent

results in this test

and we see that upgrading to the ryzen 9

3950x delivers more of the same

the vrm temps have increased but the

margins remain much the same

the msi b550m mortar is again the best

performer here

again beating the gaming plus by 2

degrees then we have the

tough gaming at 56 degrees the steel

legend at 57 degrees

the b550a pro at 58 degrees and the

aorus elite at 59 degrees so again

very little separating these boards but

again it is the gaming x and pro 4 that

are quite disappointing here

although a peak vrm temperature of

around 80 degrees is perfectly

acceptable

it's still a disappointing result given

that the boards that aren't a great deal

more expensive

yielded much better results finally we

have the ryzen 9 3950x overclocked

results

with the cpu running at 4.3 gigahertz

with 1.375 volts

and the only b550 board to fail this

test was the gigabyte gaming x

throttling the cpu after about 30

minutes the asrock b550 pro 4 also ran

hot but it peaked at 105 degrees and

after an hour it didn't throttle the cpu

so that's at least a pass in our test

the asrock steel legend was again a big

improvement dropping the peak

temperature by almost 20 degrees

then we see a further eight degree drop

with the auras elite

and that point we're under 80 degrees

which is a very easy pass

similar temps were also seen with the

b550a pro

and tough gaming delivering the best

results were once again the msi gaming

plus

and mortar interestingly this time the

gaming plus was able to match the mortar

peaking at just 71 degrees

which is an amazing result given the

conditions

and for those of you wondering under the

exact same test conditions the msi

x570 gaming pro carbon hit 115 degrees

and it throttled the cpu there

essentially failing this

test now here's a look at all the b550

boards we've tested today

along with the b350 and b450 tomahawk

boards

included for reference i'm going to skip

looking over the ryzen 73700x results

again and just start with the ryzen 9

3900x

the only boards to slip into the entry

level range here was the gigabyte b550

gaming x and the asrock b550 pro 4.

the two cheapest boards featured in this

latest roundup keeping that in mind they

still get blown away by the msi b550m

bazooka

and it's a similar story with the ryzen

93950x

though the added load does help the more

expensive boards like the aurus elite

and a pro

to distance themselves from boards like

the b550 and bazooka

then finally with the 3950x overclocked

it's again

more of the same though of course the

gigabyte b550 gaming x did fail this

test along with the msi b350 tomahawk

it is interesting to see that although

boards such as the b550m rs pro and

b550m ds3h

ran even hotter they did avoid

throttling the cpu

though i think it's fair to say given

the high operating temperatures you

could probably fail these boards they're

obviously not ideal candidates for ryzen

9 overclocking

okay so we've now looked at 15 b550

motherboards price between 95 and 160

us and most of the boards tested so far

have been quite good in terms of vrm

thermal performance

with just a few models i recommend you

avoid in the first round up the asus

prime b550ma

that stood out as the only poor quality

board and it failed roc test

it was actually unable to stabilize the

3950x at 4.3 gigahertz

at all with any kind of voltage the

gigabyte b550m auris elite

b550m aura pro and b550m ds3h they were

disappointing

but it is worth noting that outside of

overclocking they were good enough with

the ryzen 9 processors in this latest

round of testing it's really only the

gigabyte b550 gaming x that we recommend

you avoid if you plan on overclocking

for stock usage though it is good enough

providing decent airflow in a reasonably

cool room

and the same really does also apply to

the asrock b550 pro 4.

for those in higher ambient environments

that want to run

stock ryzen 9 processors and core heavy

workloads the msi b550m bazooka is about

as weak as you'll want to go

though in that case i'd suggest the msi

b550a pro

it still costs 140 u.s but it features a

substantially better quality vrm design

on that note for those of you concerned

about vrm temperatures you really can't

go wrong with the msi b550a pro

azrock b550m steel legend the asus tough

gaming b550m plus

msi b550 gaming plus or the msi b550m

mortar those boards were all excellent

and really that does conclude part two

of our b550 varum temperature testing if

you enjoyed this video

please give it a like and if you'd like

to join us over at patreon for some

pretty cool perks behind the scenes

videos monthly live streams discord chat

all that stuff

check it out the link is in the video

[Music]

welcome back to hardware unboxed

today we've got part two of our b550 vrm

thermal performance investigation

and this time around i'll be looking at

board's price between 140

and 160 dollars us now quite

surprisingly aibs have managed to cram

eight b550 bullets into this price range

we have three from msi

two from gigabyte two from asrock and a

single board from asus

now from asus we have the tough gaming

b550m

plus but they do also offer the prime

b550 plus and that costs 150 us

so technically there are nine b550

boards crammed into this price range but

unfortunately

the prime plus is just not available

here locally in australia

so i wasn't able to purchase it for this

roundup anyway without wasting any time

let's briefly go over each of these

boards we have here on hand

and then of course we will dig into

those vrm thermal results

starting with the msi b550a pro

this is the cheapest board in this

roundup coming in 140

us when compared to the entry level

boards featured in our first round up

there's not a lot extra on offer here in

terms of features like usb ports

m.2 slots and so on the i o panel for

example features just four usb

3.2 spec ports with four usb 2.2 ports

though there is support for usb 3.2 type

c

at the front where the b550a pro is a

significant upgrade over the entry-level

boards

is in its vrm offering a 10-phase v-core

from the ir35201 controller msi takes

five signals each of which is then

doubled using an ir3598 phase doubler

each of the 10 phases is driven by an on

semi 4c029n fit

on the high side with an on semi4c024n

fit on the low side

and these are the same mosfets used by

the b450 tomahawk the

b550 pro vdh wi-fi and the b550m bazooka

there's just two more sets of them and

each phase feeds into its own dedicated

inductor

so in terms of thermal performance the

b550a pro should have a big advantage

over those boards just mentioned

now the last msi gaming plus motherboard

that i looked at supporting ryzen

processors was the

x570 gaming plus which cost 170

us and was pretty awful in terms of vrm

quality

at least given the price and the fact

that the board donned a flagship am4

chipset

it was really the kind of vrm

configuration to expect to find on an

entry level b series board

and proving that point is the 150

b550 gaming plus which takes the x 570

gaming plus vrm

and expands its capacity by 25 msi is

now taking five signals from the pwm

controller

and this means there are two extra sets

of mosfets the components themselves are

still the same we're just getting more

of them

on a more affordable motherboard as for

the rest of the board

it's pretty standard though for just 10

more over the b550a

pro you get a few nice features that

extend beyond just the larger vrm

the pre-installed io shield is a nice

touch as are the larger heat sinks

but other than that it is essentially

the same board then for 10 dollars more

msi offers the b550m mortar at 160

us which i like to think of as kind of

the micro atx version of the b550

tomahawk

in terms of vcore vrm design it is a

step up from the previous two msi models

as it moves away from discrete mosfets

by using 8 isl 9936060 amp power stages

it is worth noting that although there

are eight power stages the board only

features a four

phase v core as msi is doubling the

components per phase

rather than doubling the phases

themselves and this is something we've

seen asus do for years now

we've seen good things from these 60 amp

power stages in the past so i am

expecting good things from the mortar

especially relative to the competing

boards when compared to the b550 gaming

plus the mortar drops two usb ports from

the io panel which

i do find a bit disappointing there is

really no reason for msi to remove those

ports so i would have rather seen them

remain

but other than that despite the m80x

design they are very similar in terms of

features

moving onto gigabyte we have the gaming

x and this is another 140

standard atx b550 motherboard and like

its direct competitor the msi b550a pro

it also features a 10 phase v core vrm

however gigabytes opted for lower

quality on semiconductor fets

so i'm not too confident in this board

the heatsinks are also very basic it has

to be said

so it will be interesting to see how the

gaming x handles the ryzen 9 processors

as for board features it is super basic

there's far fewer connectivity options

on the i o panel

when compared to say the msi b550a pro

the audio has been simplified there's no

usb type-c

and there's also two less usb ports and

then there's also no usb

type-c front panel support either no m.2

shield and then just four sided six

gigabits per second ports

but the i o shield is pre-installed so

there is that

still when compared to the equally

priced msi b550a pro the gigabyte b550

gaming x does appear to be the inferior

product at least on paper

stepping things up a notch for gigabyte

is their b550 aorus pro

which comes in at 160 us making it 20

dollars more than the gaming x model

and for that small price premium the

aorus pros vrm is significantly improved

the 12-phase v-core takes half a dozen

signals from the pwm controller

and doubles them using isl 6617a phase

doublers each of which feeds into a

vichai sic-651c50 amp power stage

the heat sinks cooling these power

stages aren't particularly impressive

but regardless of that i'm still

expecting good things from this board

moving past the vrm the rest of the

board design and feature set is quite

good

the i o panel configuration for example

is similar to that of msi's b550 gaming

plus

but here you're also getting 2.5 gigabit

lan support

the audio codec has also been upgraded

slightly to realtek's alc 1200 with high

quality capacitors

the only downgrade here is the inclusion

of just four sata ports but still

overall a good looking board and i am

keen to see how it performs

next up we have the asus tough gaming

b550m

plus which comes in at 160 us though for

ten dollars more you can get a standard

atx version

which features the exact same vrm and

the same heat sinks so in terms of vrm

thermal performance

the micro atx and standard atx versions

of this board should be exactly the same

and for this one asus has gone with a

very basic v core vrm design much like

what we saw with the msi b550m mortar

it's a four phase design using doubled

up components

so each phase consists of two vichai sic

63 950 amp power stages

then cooling all the varium components

are two reasonably large aluminium heat

sinks

so while the vrm certainly looks solid

the rest of the board

if i'm honest is pretty basic given the

price there's no pre-installed i o

shield

and the i o panel itself offers a fairly

typical

array of connectivity for example there

are 4 usb

3.2 gen1 ports 2 usb 3.2 gen 2 ports and

2 usb 2.0 ports asus has included 2.5

gigabit lan support so that's nice

but on board the rest of the features

pretty standard and again no front usb

type c

and just four sata ports the cheapest

board in this roundup is the asrock b550

pro 4

though it is just five dollars less than

the msi b550a pro and gigabyte b550

gaming x

in terms of vrm design and cooling it is

100 identical to the micro hx version we

looked at in the previous roundup

so it's not amazing but it should be

good enough given the price and what

we're looking at here is a six-phase

v-core

using phase doublers each phase features

a cinopower sm4337 fit on the high side

with a sinopower sm4336 fit on the low

side

feeding into a single inductor it's

without question

the weakest v-core vrm of this round up

but it's also the cheapest board

then finally we have the asrock b550m

steel legend

which steps up to 155 us and for that

extra twenty dollars you get a seriously

big upgrade in terms of vrm quality

this time asrock has built an eight

phase vrm using phase doublers but more

crucially they've dropped the cheap

cinepower discrete fets in favor of the

shades sic

654 50 amp power stages radically

enhancing the board's current

capabilities

the b550m steel legend is really a

direct competitor to msi's b550m mortar

and in terms of features it is quite

good offering half a dozen usb 3.2 ports

on the i o panel

along with two usb 2 ports and like the

mortar 2.5 gigabit land is also on offer

the rest of the features are very

similar across the two boards so the key

determining factor here could be

vrm performance but before we get to the

graphs let's talk about the test

conditions for this testing and any

future am4 vr and thermal testing i've

built a dedicated system with the help

of corsair

who sent over their obsidian series 500d

mid tower case

rm850x power supply iq h150i

rgb pro xt all in one liquid cooler and

32 gigabytes of their vengeance rgb pro

ddr4 3200 memory

the obsidian 500d has been configured

with a single rear 120 millimeter

exhaust fan and then

two top mounted 140 millimeter exhaust

fans then in the front of the case we

have the h150i

360 millimeter radiator with three 120

millimeter intake fans

this is a pretty standard configuration

at least for a higher end system

the airflow is good and in a 21 degree

room i'd say this is an optimal setup

for recording temperatures i'm using a

digital thermometer with k-type

thermocouples

and i'll be reporting the peak rear pcb

temperature

finally i'm not reporting delta t over

ambient and today maintain a room

temperature of 21 degrees

and to ensure a consistent ambient

temperature a thermocouple is positioned

next to the test system

now for this testing we have four

configurations using three different

ryzen processors

the base configuration which every board

should pass with ease

sees us use the ryzen 7 3700x it's a low

powered part that only draws about 85 to

90 watts in our blender stress test

then we have the ryzen 9 3100x which

will be

tested completely stock no overclocking

for that part and no changes made to the

bios

other than loading xmp and i should note

that all motherboards have been tested

with the latest available bios at the

time of testing

the 3100x configuration pushes cpu load

up to 140 watts in our test

then we have the ryzen 9 3950x which has

been tested twice

one stock and then once with a 4.3

gigahertz overclock

using 1.375 volts the stock

configuration again only pushes cpu

usage to around 140 watts

but it does so at a lower stock voltage

so we are pulling slightly more amperage

which will put a little bit more load on

the motherboard's vrm

finally the 4.3 gigahertz configuration

pushes cpu power consumption right to

200 watts

so if this is our most extreme test so

to summarize all testing has been

conducted in a well ventilated case in a

21 degree room

so i consider these conditions to be

best case

okay so starting with the ryzen 7 3700x

results here we find the low operating

temperatures for all eight boards the

msi mortar and asus tough gaming both

peaked at just 40 degrees

while the gaming plus reached 41 degrees

the steel legend 43 degrees

and the oris elite 45 degrees beyond

that though the cheaper boards were

noticeably

hotter especially the gigabyte b550

gaming x

so let's move on to see how they handle

the stock ryzen 9 3900x

here we see that again all eight boards

passed with relative ease

though the gigabyte gaming x and asrock

pro 4 were considerably hotter than the

rest of the boards tested

peaking at over 70 degrees when you

consider the fact that the msi b550a pro

is in the same price range it does make

the gaming x and pro 4 results

all the more disappointing the best

board here in terms of varum thermal

performance

is the msi mortar though it was only 2

degrees cooled in the gaming plus

and really with just 8 degrees

separating the mortar and the b550a pro

the margins between these boards and

then all the boards between them

are fairly insignificant so we have half

a dozen b550 boards delivering excellent

results in this test

and we see that upgrading to the ryzen 9

3950x delivers more of the same

the vrm temps have increased but the

margins remain much the same

the msi b550m mortar is again the best

performer here

again beating the gaming plus by 2

degrees then we have the

tough gaming at 56 degrees the steel

legend at 57 degrees

the b550a pro at 58 degrees and the

aorus elite at 59 degrees so again

very little separating these boards but

again it is the gaming x and pro 4 that

are quite disappointing here

although a peak vrm temperature of

around 80 degrees is perfectly

acceptable

it's still a disappointing result given

that the boards that aren't a great deal

more expensive

yielded much better results finally we

have the ryzen 9 3950x overclocked

results

with the cpu running at 4.3 gigahertz

with 1.375 volts

and the only b550 board to fail this

test was the gigabyte gaming x

throttling the cpu after about 30

minutes the asrock b550 pro 4 also ran

hot but it peaked at 105 degrees and

after an hour it didn't throttle the cpu

so that's at least a pass in our test

the asrock steel legend was again a big

improvement dropping the peak

temperature by almost 20 degrees

then we see a further eight degree drop

with the auras elite

and that point we're under 80 degrees

which is a very easy pass

similar temps were also seen with the

b550a pro

and tough gaming delivering the best

results were once again the msi gaming

plus

and mortar interestingly this time the

gaming plus was able to match the mortar

peaking at just 71 degrees

which is an amazing result given the

conditions

and for those of you wondering under the

exact same test conditions the msi

x570 gaming pro carbon hit 115 degrees

and it throttled the cpu there

essentially failing this

test now here's a look at all the b550

boards we've tested today

along with the b350 and b450 tomahawk

boards

included for reference i'm going to skip

looking over the ryzen 73700x results

again and just start with the ryzen 9

3900x

the only boards to slip into the entry

level range here was the gigabyte b550

gaming x and the asrock b550 pro 4.

the two cheapest boards featured in this

latest roundup keeping that in mind they

still get blown away by the msi b550m

bazooka

and it's a similar story with the ryzen

93950x

though the added load does help the more

expensive boards like the aurus elite

and a pro

to distance themselves from boards like

the b550 and bazooka

then finally with the 3950x overclocked

it's again

more of the same though of course the

gigabyte b550 gaming x did fail this

test along with the msi b350 tomahawk

it is interesting to see that although

boards such as the b550m rs pro and

b550m ds3h

ran even hotter they did avoid

throttling the cpu

though i think it's fair to say given

the high operating temperatures you

could probably fail these boards they're

obviously not ideal candidates for ryzen

9 overclocking

okay so we've now looked at 15 b550

motherboards price between 95 and 160

us and most of the boards tested so far

have been quite good in terms of vrm

thermal performance

with just a few models i recommend you

avoid in the first round up the asus

prime b550ma

that stood out as the only poor quality

board and it failed roc test

it was actually unable to stabilize the

3950x at 4.3 gigahertz

at all with any kind of voltage the

gigabyte b550m auris elite

b550m aura pro and b550m ds3h they were

disappointing

but it is worth noting that outside of

overclocking they were good enough with

the ryzen 9 processors in this latest

round of testing it's really only the

gigabyte b550 gaming x that we recommend

you avoid if you plan on overclocking

for stock usage though it is good enough

providing decent airflow in a reasonably

cool room

and the same really does also apply to

the asrock b550 pro 4.

for those in higher ambient environments

that want to run

stock ryzen 9 processors and core heavy

workloads the msi b550m bazooka is about

as weak as you'll want to go

though in that case i'd suggest the msi

b550a pro

it still costs 140 u.s but it features a

substantially better quality vrm design

on that note for those of you concerned

about vrm temperatures you really can't

go wrong with the msi b550a pro

azrock b550m steel legend the asus tough

gaming b550m plus

msi b550 gaming plus or the msi b550m

mortar those boards were all excellent

and really that does conclude part two

of our b550 varum temperature testing if

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again soon

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you