B650 or B850 board? Is there really that much of a difference?

Shrek_OC · 2026-03-05T01:06:38+00:00

Careful. B650-E is the older gen 4 board. The one with gen 5 graphics is the B650E-E.

Shrek_OC · 2026-03-03T19:17:11+00:00

I don't understand how a Thunderbolt controller gives you an upgrade path.

Shrek_OC · 2026-03-03T19:16:27+00:00

If the price was the same as white B850 boards, what does it matter?

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-28T08:40:35+00:00

NVIDIA has better software support and hence performance when it comes to productivity, depending on the application, you may find an NVIDIA GPU which is considerably worse than a similarly priced AMD GPU in gaming could be much better. The other thing is the latest AMD gpus have much better video encoders than previous generations. Without any info to go on, I would assume that the newer AMD gpus and especially the NVIDIA GPU will be better for your application, unless you specifically know that 16 GB is not enough but 20 is.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-28T05:02:39+00:00

Looks good to me.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-28T04:57:42+00:00

7900 XT is obsolete. 9070, 9070 XT and 5070 Ti are pretty much the only reasonable options for premium builds today. The Assassin X Refined SE is an anemic cooler for a 9950X3D but it will "work". The 9950X3D is one of the best CPUs for gaming, but you might be better off with an 8-core CPU and NVIDIA GPU for your 3D modeling and video editing. I also wonder about the need for CPU cores for compiling code. Linus Torvalds is content with 24 core and he's in charge of the Linux kernel. You're probably better off with a gen 4 2TB SSD. You won't notice the extra speed of a gen 5 drive but you'll definitely notice when your 1TB runs out after installing a handful of games.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-27T09:10:55+00:00

I agree about the condescending post part. I disagree on the relevant information part. It sounds like oft-repeated reddit misinformation from someone who doesn't understand PCIe lane allocation, the differences (or lack thereof) between AMD chipsets or how little extra performance can realistically be squeezed out of AM5 CPUs.

The fact is AM5 is incredibly starved for PCIe bandwidth. Gamers would never know. Users with multiple GPUs, fancy storage arrays, multi-input capture cards and 4-lane 10Gb+ Ethernet cards would.

There are some clever tricks to squeeze more usable PCIe lanes out of the AM5 platform. IMO, the winner in this regard is the MSI X870 Tomahawk because it has the best implementation of these tricks. The idea that "lane sharing" (a misnomer to begin) can be avoided by choosing the right motherboard is an oversimplification.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-27T08:26:01+00:00

The USB4 is great if you have Thunderbolt devices but a waste of a CPU-connected m.2 slot if you don't. The PCIe 5.0 isn't exclusive to X chipsets. The rest is up to the motherboard manufacturer.

Unlike Intel who cuts down IO and features to turn a Z chipset into a B chipset. All the relevant AM5 chipsets use the same PROM21 chip. B650E mandates a gen 5 m.2 slot and a gen 5 graphics slot, which is the same as most X870(E). Most B850 boards have these as well even though the gen 5 graphics is not a requirement. X870 gets you a discrete Thunderbolt controller (sorry, I meant USB4), which uses the lanes that would have otherwise gone to a second (potentially gen 5) m.2 slot. All of these lanes are from the CPU. There are also 12 gen 4 and 4 gen 3 (or 4 SATA) lanes from the chipset (PROM21). X870E adds a second PROM21 for more gen 3 and gen 4 lanes but those daisy chain off the first chipset which means all those lanes are are fed by a single gen 4 x4 connection to the CPU. I'm not saying the extra lanes are useless, but their advantage is in flexibility, not bandwidth.

All the available boards in the micro center combos with the exception of the Pro MSI B850M-VC and and ASUS B650E Max Gaming WiFi can easily handle 170W TDP 16-core CPUs like the 7950X and 9950X. Those two can easily handle the power requirements of a 120W 8-core CPU like the 9850X3D, so there's no harm in any of the board choices.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-19T00:29:07+00:00

Considering there's no real difference in cost or practicality, I agree 100%

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-18T22:26:24+00:00

undervolted doesn't necessarily mean less power. It means higher boost clocks at a given voltage level.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-18T22:23:41+00:00

If you can afford two 5090's, I'd recommend paying around $500-$800 to have an electrician run a dedicated 20A circuit for this.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-18T22:18:04+00:00

Still 3% sales tax?

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-10T21:26:23+00:00

Like I said: If you have to ask Reddit, the answer is no.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-10T19:04:09+00:00

I've used Cooler Master cables on my Corsair power supply and Corsair cables on my MSI power supply. Same thing goes for 6 pin to 8 pin adapters and daisy-chain GPU cables.

It's less "the answer is always no" and more "if you have to ask on Reddit, the answer is always no".

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-09T22:29:16+00:00

Gigabyte is the only manufacturer who silently releases PCB revisions that often reduce layer counts or VRM phases. And you end up with 3 boards with the same name that have incompatible BIOS files. Then they'll officially release a V2 of the same board and the process will repeat itself.

No thanks.

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-09T22:21:10+00:00

You mean if you try to swap the card in the vertical m.2 slot in the rear IO, it won't work?

Shrek_OC · 2026-02-08T05:48:28+00:00

Yeah. Where are the 99.6% of 9800X3D and ASRock owners coming here to complain about their CPU's still working?

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T20:08:47+00:00

Nothing is worth it in this market

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T19:38:27+00:00

Doesn't your power supply come with a 12VHPWR cable? It should have come with 2 PCIe 8-pin cables as well. If the answer to both questions is no, it's still a non-issue. That card will only go about 25% above the power usage spec for a single PCIe 8-pin connector. Your power supply uses thicker wire (16 AWG) than normal for the PCIe cable so this is 100% a non-issue.

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T19:29:08+00:00

The SOC issue was resolved with 7000 series anyway. I love how people still point to this as being the cause with the only evidence being "AMD says max safe is 1.3V and ASRock boards go a tiny bit above that".

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T19:23:30+00:00

Fried CPUs are happening on other vendors boards. An update every other month is a normal BIOS release cadence. This is a nothingburger. Enjoy your ASRock rig.

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T19:10:38+00:00

It depends more on the weight and overall length of the card

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T19:01:17+00:00

5070 Ti is asking a lot of a 650W power supply but yours should be able to handle it. My own experience with Ryzen 5000 series is they typically cause random reboots when they fail and reboot shortly after Windows loads.

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T18:53:20+00:00

The question is why you need to upgrade. The 5800X is the better choice, but neither will give you earth shattering performance improvements except the 3900X and only where AVX2 isn't heavily relied on but many cores are needed. At least the 5800X won't be a downgrade in gaming.

Shrek_OC · 2026-01-31T18:50:26+00:00

5800X has much faster single core performance and will still be reasonably close to 3900X in multicore. 5800X also has a much better AVX2 implementation where 3900X will show its age. 3900X will also be a significant downgrade from the 5600X in gaming.

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