MSI MAG B550M Mortar offers WiFi, while Gigabyte B450 Auros Pro supports Gigabit connectivity.
MSI MAG B550M Mortar offers WiFi, while Gigabyte B450 Auros Pro supports Gigabit connectivity.
Hello. I purchased a Gigabyte B450 Auros Pro Wi-Fi for $129 with a Ryzen 5 3600 and 16 GB RAM. It is still in transit. I noticed an MSI MAG B550M Wi-Fi set for $170 launching on June 16, which costs $40 more. I could exchange the Gigabyte. The Gigabyte offers slightly improved audio and is $40 cheaper, but the MSI model includes B550, PCIe 4.0, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 (instead of 4.2), and better RAM usage. It also supports Zen 3 more likely, which is useful since I may upgrade to it later. The B450 will work with Zen 3 but might lack some features or not at all depending on the board. After Zen 3, they probably move to AM5 and DDR5. Are these factors worth the extra $40? I don’t need Wi-Fi 6, and PCIe 4.0 isn’t beneficial right now. Any SSD using it wouldn’t matter much compared to a standard SATA drive because loading times for games and Windows are only about 3 seconds different. I probably want to keep my motherboard for five years, so could PCIe 4 become useful for mid-range or low-end GPUs in five years? A 2080-Ti doesn’t use it, but the RX 5600 XT does? Would I miss out by skipping the MSI B550? Is $40 more worth it for future-proofing? I feel like I’ve already invested a lot in the Gigabyte B450. Should I stick with what I have now? Thank you.
You mention preparing for the future, but the B550 only fits one generation of Ryzen processors. The key factor is PCIe 4.0, though we can't accurately forecast what will happen. I believe PCIe 4.0 will be standard on most motherboards in two years at the very least, but it's uncertain whether it will improve GPU performance compared to PCIe 3.0 boards—possibly slightly due to bandwidth limitations. My current setup includes an Asus Tuf B450 with a Ryzen 5 3600 and I'm quite satisfied. Overclocking isn't really necessary for Ryzen, so VRMs might not be essential. You likely won't need the B550 either. If I were you, I'd invest in a high-quality GPU or RAM instead of the $40.