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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dromoxen - Tuesday, August 25, 2020 - link
How do you connect your endpoints directly ? I would like 2.5gb for my next purch but lack of cheapish switches is a stumbling block ... 2500K needs retiring ..Or do I wait for ??Gigaplex - Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - link
My file server has 2 ethernet ports. I connect my desktop to my file server directly with an ethernet cable using the 2.5G port, and use the other ethernet port on the server to the rest of my network. The network connections are bridged on the server, so the desktop can see the rest of the network.Spunjji - Monday, August 24, 2020 - link
"Why 2.5GbE" - because some people keep their boards a long time, 1GbE is pretty slow for NAS storage needs and the kind of person spending $300 on a motherboard probably isn't going to use their ISP's router as their main switch?Most ISP routers aren't WiFi 6 yet either, so it's weird that you think *that* makes sense but not the 2.5GbE.
You've arbitrarily stated a "maximum price" for B550 that seems more appropriate for B520.
xrror - Monday, August 24, 2020 - link
Of all of the possible things to complain about, you pick having onboard 2.5GB NIC?I mean, it just seems a strange choice as a complaint?
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, August 25, 2020 - link
By that argument most motherboards shouldnt even have gigabit, but rather fast ethernet 100 Mbps.seamonkey79 - Sunday, August 23, 2020 - link
This is as stupid as paying $100 extra for a AIO with a screen on the waterblock.Greys - Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - link
CoolOxford Guy - Wednesday, August 26, 2020 - link
Yes, it’s cool to parlay a midrange chipset at a premium price point.Why? Who knows!
Everett F Sargent - Thursday, August 27, 2020 - link
"Yes, it’s cool to parlay a midrange chipset at a premium price point.Why? Who knows!"
Try this B550 board ...
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B550-AORUS-MA...
If I wanted a 16-phase Voltage Regulator AND an MSRP below $300US ($280US) this looks like a pretty good option. I also am not into OC or gaming, so that I am fine with a very cheap graphics card running 8X and three M.2 PCIE 4.0 SSD's in RAID0 and a 3950X running stock. I'll also use ECC memory as this thing will be running all 32-threads 247 for weeks on end.
Plugin two (or one) additional PCIE 4.0 M.2's, the GPU is set to x8 instead of x16
So the question is, is there anything out there (AMD) that is available for a lower MSRP cost that has, at a minimum, a 16-phase Voltage Regulator? TIA
Oh and if you have a better solution for whatever reason(s) that would also be most useful.
I think the MB vendors know what they are doing, there appears to be no MSRP price overlap for comparable feature sets. Still trying to find an X570 that will do all that this MB can do at a lower MSRP price point.
I'm thinking of using this MB as a sort of test bed for my own numerical modelling codes (do I really need RAID 0 for I/O, RAM requirements and possibly some OC (depends on % improvement and temperatures, but gaining only a few percent seems to be rather pointless. which appears to be the current situation, I need more threads not a small % MHz improvement).
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, September 1, 2020 - link
I already said the VRM marketing pitch falls flat because these CPUs shouldn't even be overclocked.It's a gimmick and it flunks.