Topic solely for selection of motherboard for your AM4 Ryzen CPU based system.
Focused on video editor needs
I'll be adding systematic info post by post.
Ideal modern video editor motherboard must allow:
Best CPU info
We are searching board for 8-16 core CPUs, it is not much reason to look for other CPUs.
Ryzen is gaming/consumer CPU with serious IO shortcomings by design (but less serious compared to Intel consumer line).
Note Actual Ryzen 1xxx or 2xxx die has full 32 PCIe 3.0 lines, but it had been decided that it will be too nice to allow consumer PCs to use them all. References that somehow AMD does not have free pins in socket is absolute bullshit.
Note! Ryzen 2200G or 2400G are designed such way that they provide only 8 PCIe 3.0 lines to GPU instead of 16x and they can't be split.
So, forget about idea of using them for any advanced tasks.
Chipset difference
If you look carefully you understand that you must avoid B350/B450 chipsets at all cost, not mentioning A320.
Note about bifurcation/split. As usual in capitalism - it is artificially removed and disabled feature. On Asrock ITX B350/B450 boards such options is present and works. It had been done due to large request from users/buyers and some other companies do this (keeping silence so it won't become open knowledge among too many, yet you still need to modify BIOS to enable SLI). But even with such options it is horrible life as you need custom impossible to find riser and turning GPU card into vertical state or such.
SSD performance limits on Ryzen
Second M.2 slot on almost all boards where it is present will be using PCIe 2.0 x2 or x4 mode (except x570 chipset!).
PCIe 2.0 per-lane throughput is 5GT/s or 500MB/s of actual data transfer per lane. x2 will be capped at 1GB/sec recording/reading and x4 at 2GB/sec recording/reading, no matter if the limit of SSD you put in it is higher.
First M.2 slot uses four dedicated v3.0 lines. Single PCIe 3.0 lane at 8GT/s, can send 985MB/s. This limit is close to 4GB/sec.
For x570 chipset all lines will be PCI 4.0 lines, double the bandwidth of PCI 3.0.
Network stuff
Ideally we want 10Gbit adapter, but most probably you will need free x4 slot for one - check https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/21364/making-10gbit-network-using-sfp-adapters-for-cheap#Item_11
Among 1Gbit always aim for Intel, it is not much difference but saves little CPU load and lot of your nerves.
The new AGESA code with number AM4 1.0.0.3 ABB from AMD is made with sole purpose - disable working PCIe 4.0 for motherboards where manufacturer enabled this feature.
As this feature showed that all marketing lies about 6 layer server class boards required (while in reality most <$300 ones are still same 4 layer things), just top management of motherboard manufacturers planned big bonuses at your expense.
Note that AGESA is fully closed and encrypted AMD code residing in BIOS.
MSI started making motherboards with 32Mbit BIOS
For now do not see better boards in the list.
All else are lower end boards.
Biostar made bios for 4xx chipsets with PCIe 4.0
Biostar activated the functionality on four of the brand's AMD 400-series motherboards.
Can compare completely nuts approach with one of most full featured x399 HEDT boards - •Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming
While VRM is not so much overkill like top boards here, but connectivity (M.2 slots and PCIe slots) and network are superior to any >$600 boards here.
And it is $390 new and around $300 used.
All X570 major manufacturers boards added.
GIGABYTE X570
MSI X570
Updated all slots, audio and minor things with official specs for ASUS and Asrock X570 boards.
MSI and Gigabyte will be posted soon.
Updated VRM info to actual state for ASUS and Asrock X570 boards.
MSI and Gigabyte will be posted soon.
Some ASUS boards support PCI-Express 4.0, as manufacturer did not followed AMD recommendations for now
After it had become known that PCI-Express 4.0 work fine on most boards for two important slots - top PCIe x16 and M2 one (even x370) AMD and leading vendors went into marketing panic mode.
As they made special cartel agreement to keep X570 board margins around 5x (yes target point had been 5 times more profits for both AMD and companies) compared to X470 ones.
So having 4.0 working could impact x570 sales a lot, as around 5% of people use second GPU now. And only around 0.2-0.5% will use two of them that support 4.0 version.
Also note that B450 boards actually have better x16 version working as all lines go direct, while on X470 boards half of signals go via Asmedia switchers, hence you can't have 4.0 working, as switchers can work only in 3.0 mode.
ASUS
X570 boards
ASRock
How to use list above to select MB that will also work nice with 12-16 core Ryzens
It is all simple, just look for boards where VRM part is colored green, like
And after this check for BIOS update, as far as I know all 100% green boards will get proper support, and many will get even PCIe 4.0.
Almost all MB with 128Mb BIOS chips will have old Bristol Ridge CPUs excluded to make room for new Ryzen 3000 models.
X470 Aorus Gaming Wi-Fi 7 motherboard is first that officially got Gen 4 PCI support if you use Ryzen 2.
Update (AMD decided to disable such features to sell more very profitable X570 boards):
Offset voltage and its usage
Useful video on thermals (include actually multiple x470 boards results)
All heatsinks info added.
GREAT. THANKS FOR THIS
Asrock and Asus completed two last to follow soon.
MSI
Gigabyte
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