ASRock B550 Taichi Review: The $300 B550 Motherboard with Chutzpah
by Gavin Bonshor on August 21, 2020 3:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- ASRock
- Taichi
- AM4
- Ryzen 3000
- Ryzen 3700X
- Ryzen 4000
- B550
- B550 Taichi
Gaming Performance
For B550 we are running using Windows 10 64-bit with the 1909 update.
World of Tanks enCore
Albeit different to most of the other commonly played MMO or massively multiplayer online games, World of Tanks is set in the mid-20th century and allows players to take control of a range of military based armored vehicles. World of Tanks (WoT) is developed and published by Wargaming who are based in Belarus, with the game’s soundtrack being primarily composed by Belarusian composer Sergey Khmelevsky. The game offers multiple entry points including a free-to-play element as well as allowing players to pay a fee to open up more features. One of the most interesting things about this tank based MMO is that it achieved eSports status when it debuted at the World Cyber Games back in 2012.
World of Tanks enCore is a demo application for a new and unreleased graphics engine penned by the Wargaming development team. Over time the new core engine will implemented into the full game upgrading the games visuals with key elements such as improved water, flora, shadows, lighting as well as other objects such as buildings. The World of Tanks enCore demo app not only offers up insight into the impending game engine changes, but allows users to check system performance to see if the new engine run optimally on their system.
Grand Theft Auto V
The highly anticipated iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise hit the shelves on April 14th 2015, with both AMD and NVIDIA in tow to help optimize the title. GTA doesn’t provide graphical presets, but opens up the options to users and extends the boundaries by pushing even the hardest systems to the limit using Rockstar’s Advanced Game Engine under DirectX 11. Whether the user is flying high in the mountains with long draw distances or dealing with assorted trash in the city, when cranked up to maximum it creates stunning visuals but hard work for both the CPU and the GPU.
For our test we have scripted a version of the in-game benchmark. The in-game benchmark consists of five scenarios: four short panning shots with varying lighting and weather effects, and a fifth action sequence that lasts around 90 seconds. We use only the final part of the benchmark, which combines a flight scene in a jet followed by an inner city drive-by through several intersections followed by ramming a tanker that explodes, causing other cars to explode as well. This is a mix of distance rendering followed by a detailed near-rendering action sequence, and the title thankfully spits out frame time data.
F1 2018
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained; otherwise, we should see any newer versions of Codemasters' EGO engine find its way into F1. Graphically demanding in its own right, F1 2018 keeps a useful racing-type graphics workload in our benchmarks.
Aside from keeping up-to-date on the Formula One world, F1 2017 added HDR support, which F1 2018 has maintained. We use the in-game benchmark, set to run on the Montreal track in the wet, driving as Lewis Hamilton from last place on the grid. Data is taken over a one-lap race.
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Gigaplex - Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - link
The uncertainty certainly is annoying, but if I bought that board and then some time later had a need to install a PCIe x8 card, I'd be a bit frustrated.(I installed an LSI 9207-8i about a month ago on a motherboard I've had for >8 years, it was lucky I had an x16 slot free)
Tpoking - Saturday, August 22, 2020 - link
What's that old saying "Intel tax"? Try AMD tax only your getting less for more with this abomination and any AMD it's build over the past two months. Excuses with current event don't stick comparing the other way around. AMD is not value when considering anything but budget Matx boards and last Feb choosers.antonkochubey - Saturday, August 22, 2020 - link
Yeaaaah because Z490 boards (B550 is equivalent to Z490 - allows x8/x8 split, has PCIe 3.0, allows overclocking) can be found for $42 or for free on the side of the road /sSpunjji - Monday, August 24, 2020 - link
Great post, next time try adding some facts.Oxford Guy - Saturday, August 22, 2020 - link
Let's see...Midrange chipset at premium price, for no justifiable reason? Check.
Tons of VRM phases for CPUs that shouldn't even be overclocked? Check.
Excuses? Hmm...
antonkochubey - Sunday, August 23, 2020 - link
This midrange chipset matches Intel's highest-end chipset in it's feature set, and exceeds in some (PCIe 4.0 and CPU-direct first M.2).MrVibrato - Sunday, August 23, 2020 - link
I think it will be easier for you to use your fingers when counting PCI lanes.Spunjji - Monday, August 24, 2020 - link
The VRM thing really bugs me.lorribot - Sunday, August 23, 2020 - link
Why?Why 2.5GbE? No routers supplied by ISPs support this so yuo would need to spend a stack on a seperate switch. I am not entirely sure what the use case would be for 2.GbE and what sort of data would need to be transferred over that link. When there is also a top end WiFi 6 built in as well. One or other of these expensive features will be unused.
This board, like many of the B550 boards, makes no sense except in very few use cases, noise or heat, over an X570 based board that brings more future proofed support for PCI 4.
the top price for a B550 board should be around £/$70-100 and no more but there is massive shortage of boards in that price bracket.
A £/$75 board would give a good entry in to AM4 for those still on old Haswell/Broadwell CPUs still looking for a value upgrade path in the AMD productstack.
Gigaplex - Sunday, August 23, 2020 - link
I use 2.5GbE. Gigabit is the single biggest bottleneck for NAS speeds. I use a single SSD in my system, mass storage is on the NAS. I don't want a loud mechanical drive sitting right next to me. I also don't even have a switch, I connect the two endpoints directly.Switches aren't going to be commonly available at a low price until 2.5GbE is ubiquitous. For that to happen there's going to be a period of time where some people like you keep complaining about having faster ports with nothing to plug in to.
You want the cheap motherboards you're asking for? A520 is for you.