ASUS ProArt B550-Creator (AMD AM4)

asus proart b550 creator 004 logoAMD-Mainboards inklusive Thunderbolt sind generell rar gesät und wenn es dann auch noch der aktuelle Thunderbolt-4-Standard sein soll, dann wird es besonders schwierig. Genau an diesem Punkt rückt das ASUS B550-Creator aus der ProArt-Serie in den Mittelpunkt, das die Kombination aus aktuellem B550-Chipsatz für AMDs AM4-Ryzen-Prozessoren und Thunderbolt 4 miteinander vereint. Wir haben von ASUS ein Sample erhalten, das wir uns genauer anschauen werden.

Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors in one of the most monumental hardware launches of the modern era. This final step completed the Red brand's ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs. With the Ryzen 3000 launch in 2019 came the AMD X570 chipset. Featuring PCIe 4.0 support, X570 was an impressive leap from generations past. It was also hot, with motherboards often including chipset cooling fans and, more significantly, expensive. The high cost of the chipset increased the average cost of X570 motherboards considerably over previous generations. While AMD has done a great job of maintaining motherboard compatibility with new generation processors, none of the previous-generation AM4 motherboards featured official PCIe 4.0 support, not even for the storage and PCIe controlled by PCIe 4.0 compatible CPUs. Enter B550, the more value-oriented little brother of X570. While the B550 chipset is PCIe 3.0 only, B550 motherboards support PCIe 4.0 from the CPU to the primary PCIe slot as well as the primary M.2 slot (dependent on a PCIe 4.0 ready CPU). That having been said, with PCIe 4.0 support also came increased cost.