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1 | Motherboard Feature Set and General Use Tier List For Intel and AMD. Version .64 WIP | ||||||||||
2 | Tier List is NOT complete, double check the Motherboard's Specifications page. I'm always on a quest for knowledge, so if you find any errors or typos, or know something I missed about a Motherboard, let me know. | Warning: INTEL boards are still a work in progress, many have not released and full VRM data is unavailable. I have done my best based on my knowledge. Many intel boards will shift tiers as more data comes out. This post is a living a document and gets updated periodically as new info comes out. | |||||||||
3 | This Tier List covers All current Motherboards and tiers them based on feature set. There are 7 criteria considered. Price, VRMs, Audio, Lan and networking, Internal Connectors, Back Panel I/O Connectors, and Special Features. This is general use tier list. It is not aimed at power users, but instead users with more common tasks, like gaming or streaming for example. Users with unique needs like a triple GPU setup, LN2 OCing, multiple PCIE lanes or other rarely used criteria should see what Motherboards are recommended for those tasks in communities that do those tasks. | Reddit Thread and Guide to the List. | Special Features are WIP | ||||||||
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5 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
6 | This Section covers the Tier of each of motherboard. The column below is my personal ranking of each motherboard. The columns to my left give a tier for every feature on the Motherboard. Price has as large impact on this column. It is possible for a motherboard in this column to have features that are lower tier, but be ranked higher because the motherboard is cheap. It is also possible for a motherboard to have a Tier S feature set, but be ranked lower because it is priced way too high. Finally, anything in tier B, A, or S, is good mobo that I am comfortable with someone putting into a build that matches it, as long as the price is right. Obviously don't put an Overclocked 5950x on a B550 DS3h and complain that it doesn't work. Tier S: Highly Recommended, well priced and well featured. Boards here must outdo the competition at it's price point. Tier A: Highly Recommended. These miss S tier by maybe missing a feature, or being priced a bit high but are fully featured. In some cases these may be better then S tier boards. You can't go wrong with a board in tier A. Tier B: Recommended, minor caveats. These boards are typically missing some features but maybe are cheap, or are priced a little high for what you get. If you are on budget, live in country where these boards are cheaper options or need a feature on one of these boards that can't be gotten anywhere else, then these are perfectly acceptable as long you understand any limitations they may have. Tier C: These are really high quality boards focused on esoteric features like triple GPU setups, or LN2 OCing. These are not general use boards, and the focus of this guide is on general use. This means these Motherboards, while good for what they can do, are not great choices for most users. Power users who need these features will find them invaluable, but 97% of users will never use these esoteric features. Tier D: Not recommended. Many of these boards have incredibly weak feature sets, or skimp on the VRMs and similar. I call this the third world tier as a lot of users in non-western countries have to choose this tier as better motherboards are massively overpriced in their country. Users in the US, and most of the EU should avoid. Also included are certain high end boards that are so massively overpriced for the features and outcompeted that no one should buy them. Still these aren't the worst. If you understand the limitations these can work. Tier F: Do not buy. These boards are not for general usage, not even for a kids computer or are a MASSIVE rip off. They are either shockingly outcompeted at their price point, or are designed only for simple office work PCs or at most Netflix machines not for general use. Tier E: These are boards with some sort of flaw that keeps them out of the higher tiers. These are issues that are widespread, with multiple articles, or 100s or 1000s of forum posts from unique users. | Tier list notes. These notes contain an explanation of why the board is listed at this Tier. These are not Reviews, these are simply my reasoning for why I chose where to tier this board. | This section shows the pricing of the MOBOs that I used to judge them. This not the price of the board per se, but the price that I saw when I went to Tier the board. Newer MOBOs use launch MSRP or recent common prices. Some newer Motherboards had price drops real quick. Older Motherboards use common prices from recent months using sites like camelcamelcamel or PCPartpicker's price history feature. Some Motherboards like the x570 Pro4 would be a higher tier if sold at their common price last winter. This gives you an idea of how much the board is worth for sales. If you see a TBD it means the price TO BE DETERMINED, and it means the motherboard is not released yet, or not in my country, and may move a tier once I get proper price data. | This rating is based on 4 technologies that you are somewhat or very likely to encounter in the 4 years a well built PC lasts. Nothing after 4 years is considered, because that is too long. You may never encounter or need these, but many of you will. These technologies can be found even on low end boards and were chosen because they are viable even for PC budget users. PCIE Gen 4 or 5: At some point, you will want a PCIE Gen 4 SSD if you want your PC to fully compete with consoles. Games will be heavily optimized for PCIE gen 4 SSDs, and PCIE gen 4 is needed for the real time data streaming which be very useful. For now, PCIE Gen 4 SSDs are overpriced, and not worth it as it only a few games use this feature, but in the lifespan of your build if you build right now, PCIE gen 4 may likely matter. USB-C: A recent change in European Union law requires most devices to have USB-C ports. Changes to laws like this are known as the Brussel Effect, because they change products worldwide. The EU has almost 446 million people in affluent countries. Many tech commentators feel USB-C devices are going become more common. While you may never need a USB-C port, having the option is nice, and can be purchased on motherboards at even budget prices. Thunderbolt 3/4 is considered a USB-C port, but a TB3 internal header for Add in cards is not. 2.5 GB Lan chip (NIC): 2.5 GB internet is the next big jump as it will work with cat 5e cables in most people's homes. Already a push is underway add this internet to many wealthy countries, already at least 40 million american households have access to 2 GB or faster internet. It may never come to your area, but if it does, you will be ready. And it can happen fast, in 2016 2.4% of homes in the United States had 1 GB internet available. By 2020 56% had 1 GB available. 1 GB internet should still be fine for the next four years for those concerned about how much they need it. VRMs that can run all CPUs this mobo supports at stock speeds with no OC: If you ever want to replace your CPU with a much better one, these VRMs will allow you to do that. Here are the tiers, and components will be listed next to the Tier rating, example Tier B, USB-C and VRMs. Tier S: Has all 4 of the above technologies Tier A: Has 3 of the 4 technologies, one must be VRMs, One must PCIE gen 4. Tier B: Has 2 of the 4 technologies. One must be PCIE Gen 4. Tier C: Has PCIE Gen 4 and nothing else, or Has no PCIE Gen 4, 2 other technologies. Tier D: Has 1 of these technologies. Tier F: None of these features. | VRMs control the voltage going into the CPU. VRMS are both underrated and overrated. Too often Budget users purchase Mobos with VRMs too weak for their CPU. Meanwhile, at the high end most VRMs are fine. Because my guide is focused on general usage, VRMs are given no extra priority over other parts, and the only overclock I care about is a reasonable, functional one, not a record breaking one. If overclocking high end CPUs matters to you, do further research elsewhere. Tier S: Can run and give a general use overclock on everything without overheating. Do further research if you plan crazy stuff like LN2 ocing. Tier A: Can Run Entire CPU Stack at stock, and Overclock the high end but VRMs may run hot, but within spec. 12900K specifically may run hot at stock. Tier B: Capable of Running the entire CPU stack at stock. Likely won't OC the highest end CPUs CPUs without extra cooling. The VRMs likely run hot on a stock high core count CPUs like 12900k and may run hot on a 5950x. Tier C: Can run up to a stock 12700 without overheating. Stock 5900x, 12600k, 12700k may run hot. 5950x and 12900k are too hot. Tier D: not capable of running midrange CPUs like a 12600k at stock speeds at reasonable temps. A 12700 may run hot. AMD boards can do an 8 core. No 5900x or above. Tier F: High temps on an 12400f or 5600x at stock. May run hot: means the VRMs themselves may need additional airflow. You may need to to add extra fans and good ones like Noctua, buy a very well ventilated case with a mesh front, keep the PC dust free with regular maintenance and keep the PC in an air conditioned room in hot climates. Or just spend $10-20 more on a Motherboard with better VRMs. | The audio capabilities of the motherboard. The Tiers are determined by looking at Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) numbers, Right Mark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) data from various sources AND compiling the claimed headphone capabilities. There is no tier A to illustrate the jump between quality. Remember that motherboards are general use devices, so even the best codec may not provide the best audio to very high end equipment without additional external sound equipment. Note that the claimed headphone audio capabilities is what realtek specifies in their Data Sheets, NOT whether the Motherboard itself implements the codec fully. Tier B has an SNR and dynamic range close to the 1220, but worse headphone amp capabilities, this is likely why there is a discrepancy where many users find this codec great, but others report issues. Tier D does have a slightly better SNR then tier C, however, in testing it's dynamic range is the weakest. Finally, a rating of 32 ohms doesn't mean the AMP can't power headphones larger than that. Users should find many headphones in 32-80 ohm range may work fine, YMMV. Finally, a good external headphone amp or dac likely will perform better than most of these. Tier S Realtek 1220 or 4080: 120 SNR, Widest Dynamic Range in RMAA, and has a headphone amp rated for 600 ohm headphones. Tier B Realtek 1200: 110 SNR, Wider Dynamic Range in RMAA, and headphone amp rated for 32 OHM headphones. Tier C Realtek 892/897: 95 SNR, Ok Dynamic Range in RMAA, and headphone amp rated for 32 OHM headphones. Tier D Realtek 887: 97 SNR, Lowest Dynamic Range in RMAA, and headphone amp rated for 32 OHM headphones. | This device controls your access ethernet, it does not affect WIFI speeds. 1 GB chips are fine for most use and majority of people's internet connections are slower than 1 GB. 2.5 GB chips are quickly becoming standard but 1 GB is fine. Tier S through B are the high end which test out a bit better in throughput, tier C works fine for the vast majority and were the old standard chips for YEARS, and tier F is currently faulty, do not buy. For 2 lan chip boards that do not use the a high end lan chip paired with a unique lan chip (5 GB or 10 GB) the best LAN is the only one counted. Tier S: 2 chips, Intel 1211 1GB and Realtek 8125 2.5 GB or any combo of the above and a second 5GB or 10 GB NIC. Tier A: Realtek 8125 or Intel I225-V B3 Stepping 2.5 GB, or single 5 or 10 GB NIC. Tier B: Intel 1211 1 GB Tier C: Realtek 8111h 1GB, or Intel 1219 1GB, or weird variants of these chips like the Realtek 8200a. Tier D: Anything not made by Realtek or intel. Tier F: Intel I225-V B1 or B2 stepping | The section covers whether a motherboard has WIFI/Bluetooth and what type. M.2 E key means the board has an open m.2 WIFI slot and open holes in the I/O shield for WIFI antennas. You can add a PCIE WIFI card to boards, but it's usually cheaper to buy a better Motherboard with WIFI, or add a WIFI m.2 module and antennas to an m.2 e key slot. If you do purchase an m.2 WIFI module for an empty m.2 e key slot, it's a good idea to buy Antennas (must be NGFF) with 25cm or longer pigtails to reach some of the slots. Note that most PCIE WIFI cards simply have m.2 WIFI cards in them. Almost every board with built in WIFI has an m.2 E Key. | Internal Connectors or Headers Tier. This section covers the internal connectors of a motherboard. These tiers are not well defined as many motherboards have unique connectors, so a board may move up or down a tier even if has or lacks a component from a tier. Fan headers on ATX boards are considered acceptable if it has 4 non CPU headers for case fans on ATX cases, and 3 on mATX boards. Many unique connectors are of questionable utility for general use, but are incredibly important to those to those that need them. Others are really useful. For example, the B550 Pro4 gets an A tier for it's m.2 E key for WIFI, despite not having internal USB-C or TB3 header. Tier S: Amazing, must have internal USB-C, More fan headers then most cases need, 5V RGB, certain unique or rare connectors like TB3 or Ln2 Ocing support or the like, and/or other minor unique features. Tier A Excellent: Has an equal amount or more fan headers then most cases need, 5v RGB, Either Internal USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 header for TB3 AIC cards, and/or other minor unique features. Tier B Good: Must have more fan headers then most cases need, RGB of any type and/or other minor unique features. Tier C Mediocre: Must have RGB or a variety of other useful headers, equal fan headers to the case. Tier D Bad: Less fan headers then most cases at this Motherboards price point have. Tier F Terrible: Incredibly limited fan headers, no RGB. | This section covers the connectors or ports on the back of the motherboard. These tiers are not well defined as many motherboards have unique connectors, so a board may move up or down a tier even if it has or lacks a component from a tier. Many unique connectors are of questionable utility for general use, but are incredibly important to those to those that need them. Others are really useful. Example, the MSI B550 Tomahawk is tier A despite only having 5 USB-A ports because it has an optical audio jack. For general use Tier B and above are usually fine. Tier S: Must have USB-C, 6 or more USB A connectors, Optical Audio, 5 or more audio jacks, and at least one of unique connectors, Wi-Fi holes, or overkill amount of ports. Tier A: Must have at least 6 USB A ports, USB C, Optical Audio, 5 or More Audio jacks or some other unique connector if it is deficient in one of the above. Tier B: Must have at least 5 USB-A Ports, USB-C or tons of USB A ports including superspeed, 3 or more audio jacks or some other unique connector, or lots of connectors if it is deficient in one of the above. Tier C: Must have at least 6 USB-A ports and other useful ports. Tier D: must have 6 USB-A ports. Tier F: Barely anything worth having. | This tier covers the special features of a Motherboard. These are unique features that are uncommon. Many Motherboards do not have these. There is some overlap with the other tiers. These include WIFI, Bluetooth, BIOS Flashback, Debug LEDS, M.2 E Keys, Thunderbolt 3 headers, native Thunderbolt3, LN2 Overclocking Support and other features. Special features can be really useful to some users or even the most important thing in a build such as TB3 support for some audio engineers, and totally useless for others. A really high tier board can get a Tier F rating, and a low tier board can get a Tier S or higher rating if it is massively overpriced. Tier S: A wide range of useful special features including rare ones like for example an native TB3 ports without needing an add in card and lots of common ones like BIOS Flashback or Debug LEDs. It doesn't need all them, just a nice wide range or several rare ones. Tier A: A wide range of useful special features, or a couple rare ones Tier B: A few very useful special features that many users will get use out of. Tier C: A limited number of useful special features. Tier D: One special feature. Tier F: No special features: |
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8 | S Tier Boards: These boards have excellent features or unique features for the price, and are priced reasonably. As this guide focuses on general use, price is heavily considered. These boards are the best of the best for general use at reasonable price points. For a board to be S tier it must distinguish itself from the competition and provide features typically found on more expensive boards at a reasonable price. | ||||||||||
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10 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
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13 | ASRock A520M Pro4 | This board is really nice. This a cheaper B550m pro4 without PCIE gen 4 for much cheaper. Outcompetes the B450m Pro4. An excellent choice for budget builds. Highly recommended. | 85 | Tier C, USB-C and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E Key. | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D |
14 | Asrock B550m Pro4 | Great general use board, excellent connectivity. The m.2 E key is a really nice feature that allows you to add a WIFI m.2 module and antennas (needs 25CM NGFF pigtails) and save money over a PCIE WIFI card and keep your PCIE slot open. | 115 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C: M.2 E Key, Debug LEDS |
15 | Asrock B550m AC | A cut down version of the B550m Pro4 with preinstalled WIFI 5 and no USB-C. Competes with the Pro Vdh WIFI. | 115 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4 and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | WIFI 5 | Tier C | Tier B | Tier C: Debug LEDs, WIFI 5, Bluetooth 4.2 |
16 | ASRock B550 Extreme4 | Same as steel legend with mobo power buttons and different aesthetics. More expensive than the Steel Legend. | 185 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: M.2 E key, Postcodes, Debug LEDS, Optical Audio . |
17 | ASRock B550 Steel Legend | Great general use board, excellent connectivity. The m.2 E key is a really nice feature. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: M.2 E key, Postcodes, Debug LEDS, Optical audio. |
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19 | ASUS B550 Tuf Gaming Plus | The VRMs are a little weak but can OC a 3950x and still be almost 30 degrees cooler then where thermal throttling occurs. Really nice non-VRM feature set. | 160 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | M.2 E Key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: M.2 E Key, Bios Flashback, Thunderbolt 3 Header (needs add in card), Debug LEDs. |
20 | ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (B3 Stepping Lan chip only) | Early versions had the faulty Intel I225v lan chip unless you get a B3 stepping chip, make sure to check your lan chips serial number, would be Tier S, my favorite and IMHO most feature complete out the competition in the 160-210 price point. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | No | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
21 | ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi (B3 Stepping Lan chip only) | Early versions had the faulty Intel I225v lan chip unless you get a B3 stepping chip, make sure to check your lan chips serial number, would be Tier S, my favorite and IMHO most feature complete out the competition in the 160-210 price point. | 200 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
22 | Asus ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING (B3 Stepping Lan chip only) | As long as you get this board with the B3 Stepping Intel i225-V you have an excellent top tier board. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | No | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
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24 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro | The is board as some nice specific features like a Thunderbolt 3 header that requires a 60 dollar + Add in Card. This one lacks internal USB-C for Cases with USB-C. Really good. | 180 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: Thunderbolt 3 header (needs add in card), Debug LEDS, Bios Flashback, Optical Audio | |
25 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro V2 | And excellent mobo, same as the B550 Aorus Pro, but no TB3, and instead has internal USB-C for cases with USB-C. Easily competes with a B550 Steel legend and B550 Tomahawk. Excellent board for general use. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B: Debug LEDS, Bios Flashback, Optical Audio |
26 | Gigabyte B550 Vision D | Cheapest Board with Thunderbolt 3 back panel ports, excellent implementation with top tier Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 ports, workstation focused | 270 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier S: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Postcodes, native thunderbolt 3, SATA DOM, Bios Flashback, Optical Audio |
27 | Gigabyte B550 Vision D-P | Mostly same as the Vision D, adds front panel USB-C | 280 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier S: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Postcodes, native thunderbolt 3, SATA DOM, Bios Flashback, Optical Audio |
28 | Gigabyte B550M Aorus Pro-P | An excellent mATX board. No TB3, but amazing feature set for the price. Competes nicely and pretty similar to the B550m Steel Legend and Mortar. | 130 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C: Bios Flashback, Optical Audio |
29 | Gigabyte B550M Aorus Pro | The cheapest board with a thunderbolt 3 header. Nice features otherwise. | 130 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B: Thunderbolt 3 header (needs add in card), Bios Flashback, Optical Audio |
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31 | Msi B550m Pro VDH WIFI | One the better cheaper reasonable boards with WIFI. Made tier S when I found myself trying to fit it into many builds where people need wifi at budget prices. Needs a case with a USB-C front port if you want USB-C. | 110 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C (front port only) and VRMs | Tier A | Tier C | Tier B | WIFI 5 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier B: Bios Flashback, WIFI 5, Bluetooth 4.2, Debug LEDs |
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33 | INTEL Motherboards: | ||||||||||
34 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
35 | Gigabyte B660 Aorus Master DDR4 | A excellent, well featured board that has every modern feature most users will ever need. Capable of running every 12th Gen Intel CPU at stock settings, even a 12900k, this is an excellent motherboard. One of the best Intel 12th Gen mobos, highly recommended. | 210 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B |
36 | MSI B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 | My absolute favorite intel board. A sensible VRM solution that isn't a waste of money by adding more VRMs than a locked board would ever need. Top tier audio codec, every connector you could ever need, and a reasonable price. One of the only intel boards to be price competitive with AMD B550 and lower end x570 boards. Highly recommended. | 190 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
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39 | A Tier: Highly Recommended. These are excellent boards. It is very possible for a board to be better than an S tier board here, but because it lacks a certain feature you may not care about it, or is priced a bit high, or doesn't really distinguish itself from the competition. I ranked it lower than S tier. These boards are excellent choices for anyone looking for a mobo. You can't go wrong with an A tier board. | ||||||||||
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41 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
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43 | Asrock B450m Pro4 | It has a better feature set then 42 out of 62 400 series boards, at least 6 B550 boards, and 2 x570 boards. This is a low end board, but at budget prices it is wonderful. The outdated chipset and lack pcie gen 4 took it out of S tier. Still the budget king although A-520 has some real good boards that compete with it, but do not best it. If you are buying a budget board this still rules. This is the ONLY B450 board to not have been outcompeted by a superior B550, X570, or A520 board. | 83 | Tier C, USB-C and VRMs | Tier B | Tier C | Tier B | No | Tier B | Tier B | Tier F |
44 | ASRock B550M Steel Legend | An excellent midrange board, nicely balanced. | 155 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B: Clear CMOS button, Debug LEDS, M.2 E key, Optical Audio |
45 | Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 WIFI | Cheapest Board with WIFI 6, lacks a USB-C port, nice otherwise. | 150 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4 and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Debug LEDS, Thunderbolt 3 Header (needs add in card) |
46 | Asrock X570 Taichi | A very nice and well featured board. No 2.5 Gb lan. | 290 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
47 | Asrock X570 Steel Legend | Better features then the Asus X570 tuf and gigabyte x570 Elite, but slightly weaker VRMs but still decent VRMs. Lack of 2.5 GB lan chip and price keep it out of Tier S. | 190 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
48 | Asrock X570 Steel Legend [Wi-Fi] | The price keeps this excellent mobo out of tier S. | 200 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
49 | ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 | This boards lack of USB-C keeps it out of Tier S. Nicely priced ATX board. | 115 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4, and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E Key | Tier B | Tier C | Tier C |
50 | ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming 4ac | This boards lack of USB-C keeps it out of Tier S. Nicely priced ATX board with wifi. | 125 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4, and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | WIFI 5 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier B |
51 | ASRock B550 PG Velocitá | This is the same as the b550 Extreme 4, but with a superspeed 10 GBPS internal USB-C port instead of a 5GBPs internal port for notably more money. | 220 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
52 | Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming X | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. | 340 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
53 | Asrock X570 Creator | A shockingly good workstation board. Thunderbolt 3, 10 GB lan and a massive host of other features. Also incredibly expensive. | 490 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
54 | Asrock X570 Pro4 | A really nice midrange board, with a well balanced feature set. I prefer this board to most of the competition in the 140-160 dollar price point, where it used to be priced. It's weaker but still decent VRMs and lack of 2.5 GB internet keep it out of S tier. Also, it's current price of 170 is too high. Bring it back to it's pre covid price of 150 and we talk about S tier. | 170 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B |
55 | ASRock B550 Pro4 | Actually has slightly less features then the mATX version for a lot more money. Still decent. Needs to be cheaper to fit in S tier. | 135 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
56 | Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming 4s | Nice general use board. Lacks USB-C. | 140 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4 and VRMs | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier D | Tier B: M.2 E Key, Thunderbolt 3 Header (needs add in card), Debug LEDs. |
57 | ASRock B550 Taichi (B3 Stepping Lan chip only) | Love the aesthetic. Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. Make sure you get the B3 stepping chip version. | 300 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier S |
58 | Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 | A very well featured mITX board with lots of high end features. Native Thunderbolt 3 is awesome at this price. | 232 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier A | Tier B |
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60 | Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus [Wi-Fi] | A nice and reasonably priced mobo, lacks WIFI 6, but has high end fast WIFI 5 and Bluetooth 5. | 170 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B | WIFI 5 | Tier B | Tier A | Tier C |
61 | Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus | A nice and reasonably priced mobo. Lower end lan chip holds it back from tier S. | 160 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B | NO | Tier B | Tier A | Tier D |
62 | Asus TUF Gaming X570-PRO (WI-FI) | Confirmed by the reddit thread as having B3 stepping for the lan chip. Easy competition for the x570 tomahawk. Really nice and you get ASUS RGB support. | 220 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Bios Flashback, Optical Audio, Debug LEDs. |
63 | Asus Prime X570-P and Asus Prime X570-P/CSM | Nicely priced, it's lack of USB-C and lower end lan chip hold it back from tier S. The CSM is the same board. | 140 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4, and VRMs | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B | No | Tier B | Tier C | Tier F |
64 | ASUS B550 Tuf Gaming Plus WIFI | The VRMs are a little weak but can OC a 3950x at still be almost 30 degrees cooler then where thermal throttling occurs. Really nice non-VRM feature set. | 175 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Bios Flashback, Thunderbolt 3 Header (needs add in card), Debug LEDs. |
65 | Asus ROG Strix X570-E Gaming | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. | 300 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
66 | Asus Prime X570-Pro | This for a long time was the cheapest zero compromises board. It's lack of 2.5 GB lan keeps it out of S tier. Great board. | 230 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
67 | ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming (B3 Stepping Lan chip only) | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. Make sure you get the B3 stepping chip version. | 270 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
68 | Asus ROG Strix B550-XE Gaming (B3 Stepping Lan chip only) | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. Make sure you get the B3 stepping chip version. | 330 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
69 | Asus ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING II | One of the very few B450 boards worth noting. ASUS updated the VRMs to be able to handle any Ryzen CPU at stock settings, and even OC a 12 core. This board has rock solid high end components all the way through and BIOS flashback. Easily equal or better then multiple B550s around this price point, if you don't care about PCIE 4.0 | 135 | Tier B, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | No | Tier B | Tier A | Tier B |
70 | Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero [Wi-Fi] | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. LN2 Overclocking support. | 380 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
71 | Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Dark Hero | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. LN2 Overclocking support. | 400 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
72 | ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus Wi-Fi | A nice little mATX board with nice features. A little overpriced. | 170 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier A | Tier B |
73 | ASUS TUF Gaming B550M-Plus | A nice little mATX board with nice features. A little overpriced. | 160 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier B | Tier A | Tier C |
74 | |||||||||||
75 | MSI A520M VECTOR WIFI | Decent VRMs for the price, lack of fan headers, lack of PCIE Gen 4 and USB-C is rough, has wifi. It's price makes it a good buy for budget builds as it has WIFI at a cheap price. Recommended for students on a budget and kids who don't need crazy features. However, many users would be better off spending a little extra here. | 85 | Tier D, VRMS | Tier D | Tier C | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5 |
76 | MSI B550 Tomahawk | Nice general use board. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C: Bios Flashback, Debug LEDS |
77 | MSI X570 Tomahawk WIFI | A very nice feature complete mobo, priced a little high | 220 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | wifi 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Debug LEDS, Optical Audio, Bios Flashback, |
78 | MSI B550M Mortar | An excellent midrange board. | 160 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C: Bios Flashback, Debug LEDS, Optical Audio. |
79 | MSI B550 Gaming Carbon Wifi | Same as the B550 Gaming Edge with more USB-A ports and different aesthetic, more expensive then the Gaming edge. | 210 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Debug LEDS, Bios Flashback |
80 | MSI B550M Mortar Wifi | Excellent wifi 6 mobo, a reasonable set of features. | 170 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B: Bios Flashback, Debug LEDS, Optical Audio, WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5 |
81 | MSI B550 Gaming Edge Wifi | Excellent wifi 6 mobo, since not every one needs wifi it is a little lower in the S tier. | 190 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, Debug LEDS, Optical Audio, Bios Flashback, |
82 | MSI X570 Unify | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. | 300 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier S | Tier A |
83 | MSI MPG X570S EDGE MAX WIFI | A nicely featured board with pretty much every modern high end feature. | 300 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
84 | MSI MPG X570S Torpedo Max | A nicely featured board with pretty much every modern high end feature. Basically an X570s Tomahawk max wifi without the wifi. | 260 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | no | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
85 | MSI MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI | A nicely featured board with pretty much every modern high end feature. | 290 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
86 | |||||||||||
87 | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro [Wi-Fi] | Not quite as feature complete as the X570 Taichi, no thunderbolt 3 header. Still excellent. Price and lack of 2.5 GB keep it out of S tier. | 290 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
88 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite V2 | This a gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite, with an internal USB-C header for cases that need USB-C. To use the USB-C you need a case with USB-C | 160 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
89 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite AX | This a gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite, with WIFI 6. The WIFI 6 moves it up a tier and puts wifi 6 in a lower price bracket. Nice board. | 170 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, 2.5 GB Lan, VRMs | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier B |
90 | Gigabyte B550 AORUS ELITE AX V2 | This a gigabyte B550 Auros Elite AX, with an internal USB-C header for cases that need USB-C. To use the USB-C you need a case with USB-C | 170 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier B |
91 | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here. | 350 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
92 | Gigabyte X570S Aero | An excellent and beautiful MOBO, with some features not available on other X570 and B550 boards such as passive chipset cooling, and 20GBPS USB-C Gen 2x2 ports. | 350 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5, debug LEDs, Passive chipset cooling, thunderbolt 3 header, Bios Flashback, Optical Audio |
93 | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Ultra | A very powerful board, loads of features. It's price and lack of 2.5 Gb keeps it out of S tier, but in many ways it's better then those boards. | 288 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
94 | Gigabyte X570S AERO G | A good board aimed at workstation users. Has a great selection of parts. | 330 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
95 | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here, however, for the vast majority of users the X570s Aorus Pro AX does everything this board does for $60 cheaper. | 360 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
96 | Gigabyte X570S Aorus Pro AX | A nicely featured board with pretty much every modern high end feature. | 300 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
97 | Gigabyte X570S AORUS ELITE | A nicely featured board with pretty much every modern high end feature. I have not been able to find accurate Pricing data in the US. It has less features then x570S Aorus Pro AX, and no wifi, so don't pay more then 300. | TBD | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
98 | Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI | A solid Mini ITX board loaded with high end features. | 210 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier C | Tier B | Tier C |
99 | INTEL Motherboards: | ||||||||||
100 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
101 | Asrock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 | An excellently featured board, with high end audio codec, standard audio jacks, native Thunderbolt 4 and loads of other features. Decent VRMs. In some ways this little mini ITX board is better featured then some $300 Z690 ATX boards. | 350 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier S | Tier D | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
102 | Asrock H670 PG Riptide | A decent well featured board for the price, VRMs may be a bit weak, but has a good featureset otherwise. Lower end audio. | 150 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
103 | Asus ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING WIFI | This mITX board has better features then many z690, H670, and b660 boards at this price point. However, it's 8 phase VRM keeps it out of S Tier. The high end audio codec, with an extra amp is rare at on intel boards at this price point. If the VRMs and heatsink punch above their weight class (which does happen sometimes) this board could easily move into S Tier. | 220 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
104 | Asus TUF GAMING B660M-PLUS WIFI D4 | A solid board at 180, kept out of S tier by it's audio codec. Excellent connectivity. The VRMs appear a bit weak, I wouldn't be remove power limits on a 12700 without further data, but should be fine for a stock 12700. | 180 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
105 | Asus ROG STRIX B660-A GAMING WIFI D4 | A nicely feature board with every high end feature you could want. You should be able to run a 12900k at stock no problem. Top tier audio codec with extra amp, 2.5 GB lan chip, TB3 support. However, at this price point there are z690 boards that come close. Still, it has an amazing feature set, but at 240 it simply costs too much for S tier. | 240 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B |
106 | |||||||||||
107 | Gigabyte B660 Aorus Master DDR5 | A excellent, well featured board that has every modern feature most users will ever need. | TBD | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | Yes | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
108 | |||||||||||
109 | MSI B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI | A nicely feature board with every high end feature you could want. You should be able to run a 12900k at stock no problem. Top tier audio codec with extra amp, 2.5 GB lan chip, TB3 support. However, at this price point there are z690 boards that come close. Still, it has an amazing feature set, but at 260 it simply costs too much for S tier. | 260 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
110 | MSI B660m Mortar WIFI DDR4 | A nicely balanced board with a reasonable set of features. | 190 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
111 | MSI B660m Mortar DDR4 | A nicely balanced board with a reasonable set of features. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
112 | MSI B660m Mortar WIFI | A nicely balanced board with a reasonable set of features. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
113 | MSI B660m Mortar | A nicely balanced board with a reasonable set of features. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
114 | MSI MAG Z690 TORPEDO | A decent board with a great gaming and general use featureset. The Torpedo is a Tomahawk without WIFI. Literally, exactly the same, ignore other tier lists claiming otherwise. VRMs should be fine. Once released, price will determine position, for now Tier A. If you don't need wifi, save the money and buy a Torpedo | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | NO | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
115 | MSI Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4 | A decent board with a great gaming and general use featureset. Note, that the Torpedo is basically a Tomahawk without WIFI, so if you want to save money, get that. VRMs should be fine. | 300 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
116 | MSI Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI | A decent board with a great gaming and general use featureset. Note, that the Torpedo is basically a Tomahawk without WIFI, so if you want to save money, get that. VRMs should be fine. | 310 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
117 | |||||||||||
118 | Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X DDR4 | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. This is a really well featured z690 board. It has every top tier feature one could recommend, the only thing keeping it out of S tier is the weird non-standard audio ports. | 230 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier B (note audio jacks) | Tier B |
119 | Gigabyte Z690 Gaming X | For the DDR5 version, Price will be huge, may move down a tier if too expensive. Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. This is a really well featured z690 board. It has every top tier feature one could recommend, the only thing keeping it out of S tier is the weird non-standard audio ports. | TBD | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier B (note audio jacks) | Tier B |
120 | Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4 | A good lower end z690 board, low end audio codec, but good VRMs and solid connectivity. | 200 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B |
121 | Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4 AX | A good lower end z690 board, low end audio codec, but good VRMs and solid connectivity. If you need WIFI, and you are considering UD boards, the 20 bucks extra here is cheaper then puchasing a WIFI6 add in card for the non wifi version. | 220 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A |
122 | |||||||||||
123 | |||||||||||
124 | Tier B: Recommended with minor caveats. May have some limitations that need to be considered such as weaker VRMs, expensive boards may be very overpriced, midrange boards may be outcompeted by something better. Understand what you are buying or what you are suggesting to other users, and any limitations because there is some decent stuff here, but many boards have some limitations. A savvy buyer can find some great boards here if they understand the limitations of the boards. In many countries some of these boards may be better options then A tier due to price. | ||||||||||
125 | |||||||||||
126 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
127 | AMD Motherboards: | ||||||||||
128 | Asrock X570 Extreme4 | An x570 steel legend with different aesthetics for more money. | 210 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
129 | Asrock X570 Extreme4 [Wi-Fi] | An x570 steel legend with different aesthetics for more money. | 220 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
130 | Asrock X570 Aqua | LOL. 1000 dollars only 1000 made. God tier features. Ridiculous price. Easiest board to tier cause I just had to type S for everything. | 1000 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
131 | Asrock X570M Pro4 | B550 has such a good selection of mATX boards, this is just too expensive. Otherwise a great board. | 180 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B | M.2 E key | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B |
132 | Asrock A520M Phantom Gaming 4 | A decent budget board, with better VRMs (but not overclockable) at this price point then many boards. It has the same VRMs as the B550 Phantom Gaming 4, but worse audio. | 80 | Tier D: VRMs | Tier B | Tier D | Tier B | No | Tier C | Tier C | Tier F |
133 | Asrock A520M-ITX/ac | A cheap solid mini ITX board with decent features for the price. | 105 | Tier D | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | WIFI 5 | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C |
134 | ASRock B550M-ITX/ac | A cheap solid mini ITX board with decent features for the price. | 130 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | WIFI 5 | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C |
135 | |||||||||||
136 | ASUS ROG Strix X570-F Gaming | No 2.5 GB lan chip compared to the E despite costing 11 dollars less. Many of the features can be found on cheaper mobos. | 288 | Tier S | Tier S | ||||||
137 | Asus Rog Strix B550 I | A very well featured mITX board with lots of high end features. | 230 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C |
138 | Asus ROG Strix X570-I Gaming | A very well featured mITX board with lots of high end features. Pricey, many users can get better deals else where. | 280 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C |
139 | |||||||||||
140 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite | Nice, but out competed by better boards in the 140-160 price point. If you get on sale a great board. Most people at that price point can fit better mobos in their systems. The lack of USB-C at this price point hurts it. | 160 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, 2.5 GB Lan, VRMs | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | No | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D |
141 | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite | This is a very good but kind of janky mobo. No USB-C on the back panel I/O, not enough fan headers for a 3x1 setup in an ATX case. Better options in A and S. | 190 | Tier S, only internal USB-C, no back panel USB-C. | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier C | Tier D |
142 | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro | Not quite as feature complete as the X570 Taichi, no thunderbolt 3 header. Still excellent. Price and lack of 2.5 GB keep it out of S tier. | 270 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
143 | Gigabyte B550M DS3H | This board is wildly all over the place. For everything I like about it, it has something I dislike. It has no type C but overkill RGB. It's VRMs aren't quite good enough for the Ryzen 3950x but are close. I wish it had USB type C instead of outdated 12v RGB headers. Sell this board at $80 and we'll talk about A or maybe S tier. If they add USB-C in a revision then I would be fine at current prices. | 95 | Tier C, PCIE Gen 4 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | No | Tier D | Tier C | Tier D |
144 | Gigabyte B550m DS3h AC | A B550m Ds3h with WIFI for 110 dollars. The MSI pro vdh wifi and Asrock b550m AC outcompete this board for the same price, but it is an ok board if you need WIFI. | 110 | Tier C, PCIE Gen 4 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | No | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C: Bios Flashback, WIFI 5, bluetooth 4.2 |
145 | Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX | A very well featured mITX board with lots of high end features. However, it's priced a bit higher the comparable boards with same features. | 210 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C |
146 | Gigabyte A520M AORUS ELITE | The mATX version is notably different from the ATX. Literally an A520 S2H with the same VRMs as b550 Ds3h, but no overclocking, not great. Better then the old B450 Ds3h. | 85 | Tier F | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D: Bios Flashback |
147 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro AC | The low end wifi at this price point is not worth the money compared to the competition. | 190 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 5 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
148 | Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master | Overpriced for the features. The Gaming Edge WIFI does almost everything this board does for cheaper. The vision d does thunderbolt 3 better, and lower end gigabyte boards have TB3 and 2.5 GB lan also. | 270 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A |
149 | Gigabyte A520 Aorus Elite ATX | This board is just a little bit expensive or I would have it higher. It’s actually a really nice board for what it is. It's VRMs just are little weak for a 5950x, it lacks USB-C and PCIE Gen 4, and it can't OC, but does have nice audio codec. The problem is B450 boards can be found at similar or cheaper prices and those can OC although most of them (but not all) have worse VRMs. If they sold this at 80 I love it. Sell it at 85 I like it. Competitive with the B450m Pro4. | 90 | Tier F (VRMs just aren't quite there, but close) | Tier C | Tier B | Tier B | No | Tier C | Tier B | Tier D |
150 | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme | Amazing feature set. Also costs 700 dollars. Most of it's features can duplicated by cheaper boards, but if you want a do everything board at stupid prices here you go. | 700 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
151 | Gigabyte X570S UD | Solid vrms, low end audio codec, and good connectivity. I have not been able to confirm a price for this board, but it looks tier B due to the audio codec. | tbd | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | no | Tier B | Tier A | Tier C |
152 | Gigabyte X570S Gaming X | Solid vrms, low end audio codec, and good connectivity. I have not been able to confirm a price for this board, but it looks tier B due to the audio codec. This board is exactly the same as the UD but with some aesthetic changes, buy whatever is cheaper. | tbd | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | no | Tier B | Tier A | Tier C |
153 | |||||||||||
154 | MSI X570 Ace | Overpriced. Otherwise really good. Most of the features can be found at cheaper prices. | 370 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier A | Tier B |
155 | MSI A520M VECTOR WIFI | Decent VRMs for the price, lack of fan headers, lack of PCIE Gen 4 and USB-C is rough, has wifi. It's price makes it a good buy for budget builds as it has WIFI at a cheap price. Recommended for students on a budget and kids who don't need crazy features. However, many users would be better off spending a little extra here. | 85 | Tier D, VRMS | Tier D | Tier C | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5 |
156 | MSI B550-A Pro | Nice, but out competed by better boards in the 140-160 price point. If you get it on sale a decent board. Most people at that price point can fit better mobos in their systems. The lower end audio and lan chip hurt it. The problem here is the unecessarily overkill VRMs that are a massive waste of money. MSI basically put 10 points into VRMs, and 2 points into everything else. The only way to get the value out of these VRMs is to OC a 5950x. If you are not max OCing a 5950x then you wasted 30-40 dollars on VRMs that are simply way too powerful and are now going to waste. A weaker VRM setup would mean money for things like better audio, Thunderbolt support, and so on. | 140 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier S | Tier C | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
157 | MSI MPG X570S CARBON MAX WIFI | Super good, super spendy. Love it, but many of the features can be had on cheaper B550 boards. If you got the money you can't go wrong here, but an X570s tomahawk or torpedo would has nearly all the same features for 40-80 dollars cheaper. | 340 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
158 | MSI MPG B550I GAMING EDGE and EDGE MAX WIFI | A well featured mITX board with lots of high end features. However, many other ITX boards around this price point have the superior realtek 1220 that can power 600 ohm headphones. | 200 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B |
159 | MSI B550m Bazooka | Too many 130 dollar boards or less have better features. Overpriced, still there is nothing really wrong with it. | 130 | Tier B, PCIE Gen 4, VRMS | Tier A | Tier C | Tier B | NONE | Tier A | Tier D | Tier D |
160 | |||||||||||
161 | INTEL Motherboards: | ||||||||||
162 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
163 | Asrock H670m Pro RS | A decent mATX board, but VRM data is lacking, could move up a tier if real world VRM testing is good, or move down if real world testing is real bad. 7 phase VRM compared to the 6 phase on the Ds3h. An excellent selection of internal connectors for a board of this price, and some nice special features like m.2 e key, debug leds, TB3 AIC support. | 140 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B |
164 | Asrock H670M-ITX/ax | An nicely featured mITX board, VRMs may be a bit weak for a i7 K series chip. A little limited on internal connectors, but that is to be expected. WIFI 6 at 170 is a nice feature at this price. | 170 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier C | Tier A | Tier C |
165 | Asrock B660 Steel Legend | A decent board, no Thunderbolt 3 AIC support, but 1 more fan header then the H670 version. VRMs may be a little weak, 9 phase design. Lower end audio | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier B | Tier A | Tier C |
166 | |||||||||||
167 | Asrock B660m Steel Legend | An mATX board version of the B660 Steel Legend with 1 extra USB 2 internal port. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier B | Tier A | Tier C |
168 | Asrock B660m Pro RS | An mATX board version of the b660 Pro RS with 1 extra USB 2 internal port, and no BIOS Flashback | 120 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
169 | Asrock B660m Phantom Gaming | This board is exactly the same as the B660m Pro RS, except it has NO RGB support, and no USB-C. Likely cheaper, and for many who don't care about RGB and USB-C this is likely a good deal. | TBD | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
170 | |||||||||||
171 | Asus PRIME H670-PLUS D4 | This board is very similar to the Asrock H670 PG Riptide. 10 bucks more for a 2.5 GB lan chip. Up to you if it is worth it. | 160 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
172 | Asus Prime B660-Plus D4 | A bland and generic board. Being bland does NOT mean bad, and is solid board at $140. Has all the features I would expect at this price point. Bland and generic is far better then spending a bunch of money on useless features. Solid connectivity. VRMs may be a bit weak. | 140 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier B | Tier C | Tier B |
173 | Asus TUF GAMING H670-PRO WIFI D4 | 230 is too damn much for a board with such a bad audio codec to make A tier. Otherwise a nicely featured board. If you already have an external DAC or Sound card this is a nice option. | 230 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
174 | Asus PRIME H610M-A D4, D4 CSM | These boards are more like B minus tier. I was called out on these boards on reddit, these actually have the same VRMs as the H670 Prime, this makes them a much better option. Limited connectivity and a bit weak VRMs. Decent to pair with 12100 for nice cheap budget build or possibly a 12400 although I would spend a bit more for a 12400. | 110 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier D | Tier F |
175 | |||||||||||
176 | Gigabyte B660M Aorus Pro DDR 4 | Excellent connectivity, but weak audio support make this a poor choice for gamers. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier S | Tier C | Tier B |
177 | Gigabyte B660M Aorus Pro AX DDR 4 | Excellent connectivity, but weak audio codec and ports make this a poor choice for gamers. | 190 | Tier B | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier C | Tier B |
178 | |||||||||||
179 | Gigabyte B660 Gaming X DDR4 | A decent Budget board, price is important here. VRM quality also. This board is almost exactly the same as the DS3H, but has a 2.5 GB Lan chip. Note that it has a slightly VRM layout then a DS3H but a bigger heatsink. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | no | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
180 | Gigabyte B660m Gaming X | A decent Budget board, price is important here. VRM quality also. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | no | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
181 | Gigabyte B660m Gaming X DDR4 | A decent Budget board, price is important here. VRM quality also. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | no | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
182 | Gigabyte B660m Gaming X AX | A decent Budget board, price is important here. VRM quality also. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
183 | Gigabyte B660m Gaming X AX DDR4 | A decent Budget board, price is important here. VRM quality also. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
184 | Gigabyte B660 DS3H DDR4 | An ATX board that uses the DS3H name, but is pretty different from usual DS3H mATX boards. This board is almost exactly the same as the gaming x, but has double thunderbolt add in card support and no 2.5 GB lan chip. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier B | no | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
185 | Gigabyte B660 DS3H AC | An ATX board that uses the DS3H name, but is pretty different from usual DS3H mATX boards. This board is almost exactly the same as the gaming x, but has double thunderbolt add in card support and no 2.5 GB lan chip. Also, this the only way to get a DS3H board with DDR 5 support, there is no DS3H DDR5 board with WIFI 6. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier B | WIFI 5 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
186 | Gigabyte B660 DS3H DDR4 AX | An ATX board that uses the DS3H name, but is pretty different from usual DS3H mATX boards. This board is almost exactly the same as the gaming x, but has double thunderbolt add in card support and no 2.5 GB lan chip. Also, this DDR4 board the only way to get a DS3H board with WIFI6 support, there is no DS3H DDR5 board with WIFI 6. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
187 | |||||||||||
188 | MSI B660M BAZOOKA DDR4 | An ok board, but weak audio codec and a lack of Superspeed USB-C keeps it it in B tier. | 200 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | No | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D |
189 | MSI H670 Tomahawk WIFI DDR4 | A decent board, but low end audio, no optical audio port make it very different from the other tomahawk boards. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
190 | MSI PRO B660-A DDR4 | A well featured board with good connectivity. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
191 | MSI PRO B660-A | A well featured board with good connectivity. | 160 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
192 | MSI PRO B660m A | A well featured board with good connectivity. | TBD | Tier S | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | no | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C |
193 | MSI PRO B660m A DDR4 | A well featured board with good connectivity. | 140 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | no | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C |
194 | MSI PRO B660m A WIFI | A well featured board with good connectivity. | TBD | Tier S | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C |
195 | MSI PRO B660m A DDR4 WIFI | A well featured board with good connectivity. | 150 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C |
196 | |||||||||||
197 | Gigabyte Z690I AORUS ULTRA | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. This is a pretty nice do it all Mini ITX board. It has 3 flaws, it's lack of standard audio jacks, and it's price. Finally, we are data deficient on VRMs. This board is Tier A if VRMs can handle a 12900k with a stable overclock, it stays in tier B if it can only handle a 12900k at stock. ATX and mini ATX boards with similar feature sets sell for for 50-100 less. | 290 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier S (note audio Jacks) | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B (note audio jacks) | Tier B |
198 | Gigabyte Z690M AORUS ELITE DDR4 | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. A nice mATX with excellent connectivity besides the audio jacks, VRMs should be OK but further testing needed, but a weak outdated audio codec. Price will heavily determine this boards position. For now, Tier B, but if priced reasonably, it could be move up a tier, or even 2. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | None | Tier S | Tier B (note audio jacks) | Tier B |
199 | Gigabyte Z690M AORUS ELITE DDR4 | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. A nice mATX with excellent connectivity, VRMs should be OK but further testing needed, but a weak outdated audio codec. Price will heavily determine this boards position. For now, Tier B, but if priced reasonably, it could be move up a tier. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | None | Tier S | Tier B (note audio jacks) | Tier A |
200 | Gigabyte Z690 AERO G DDR4 | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. A nice looking workstation board that will also be useful for general users, except for it's bizarre non standard audio. It's biggest issues when compared to it's AMD competitor, the excellent B550 Vision D-P is that it lacks native Thunderbolt, and replaces it with 20 GBPS USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connectors. For TB you need to purchase an add in card that can run at $60-80. It also lacks postcodes. VRMs are tier S but may move down when real world testing is done. | 290 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
201 | Gigabyte Z690 UD | A decent lower end z690 board, low end audio codec, but good VRMs and solid connectivity. Price will be huge here for this DDR5 version. | TBD | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier B | Tier B |
202 | Gigabyte Z690 UD AC | A good lower end z690 board, low end audio codec, but good VRMs and solid connectivity. Price will be huge here for this DDR5 version. | TBD | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 5 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A |
203 | |||||||||||
204 | Gigabyte Z690 UD AX | A good lower end z690 board, low end audio codec, but good VRMs and solid connectivity. | 260 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier A |
205 | |||||||||||
206 | MSI Z690 FORCE WIFI | A great board, but super spendy. Most every feature you would want, but for most general users, you are better off getting something cheaper. | 380 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
207 | MSI Z690 CARBON WIFI (and EK X) | A nice board, but super spendy. This is basically the same board as a FORCE WIFI. Most every feature you would want, but for most general users, you are better off getting something cheaper. Still, this board has some nice features like postcodes. | 400 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
208 | MSI Z690 EDGE WIFI | This board is a Tomahawk with slightly better VRMs, a slightly worse WIFI 6 adapter, and faster USB ports. And some RGB highlights on the board. NO, this board does NOT have "GAMING" features that make it better then a Tomahawk or Torpedo unless you count RGB on the I/O shield and heatsink as "GAMER." Same high end audio codec, same LAN, Gamers don't need the faster 10GBPS USB ports for their game controllers/ mice/keyboard, and gamers stuck on WIFI would probably want the slightly better WIFI on the Tomahawk. Still, the board is not that much more expensive, so if you like the aesthetic there is nothing wrong with it. | 320 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
209 | MSI Z690 A-Pro DDR4 WIFI | A decently featured MOBO, with good VRMs. This MOBO has one big issue, an AMD Mobo with the same or better features generally costs 60-80 dollars less. It also has a low end audio codec. At this price, I would love to see some other feature such as better audio to make it stand out. Still, it's a very solid board. | 240 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
210 | MSI Z690 A-Pro WIFI | A decently featured MOBO, with good VRMs. This MOBO has one big issue, an AMD Mobo with the same or better features generally costs 60-80 dollars less. It also has a low end audio codec. At this price, I would love to see some other feature such as better audio to make it stand out. Still, it's a very solid board. | 250 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
211 | |||||||||||
212 | Asrock Z690 Pro RS | This board is nicely priced, and it's VRMs don't seem terrible, however, it has some jank, it has a lower end audio codec, lacks back panel USB-C, but does have front panel 20 GBPs USB-C, so you need a case with a USB-C port. | 190 | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier D | Tier D |
213 | Asrock z690 PG Riptide | A decently featured MOBO, with good VRMs. Lacks WIFI, has a low end audio codec. Price is to be determined, but likely higher then the Pro RS. Better I/O then the Pro RS. | TBD | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
214 | Asrock Z690 Steel Legend | A decently featured MOBO, with good VRMs. Lacks WIFI, has a low end audio codec. This MOBO has one big issue, an AMD Mobo with all the same features generally costs 60-80 dollars less. At this price, I would love to see some other feature to make it stand out. Still, it's a very solid board. | 250 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
215 | Asrock Z690 Steel Legend WIFI | Same as steel legend, with wifi | 270 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
216 | Asrock Z690 Extreme | Same as steel legend, but with top tier audio codec | 270 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | None | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
217 | Asrock Z690 Extreme WIFI | Same as extreme, with WIFI. | 290 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
218 | |||||||||||
219 | Asus z690 Prime P (all Variants) | All of these motherboards have a rather nice featureset, and are perfectly fine. However, at this price, a much better audio codec is to be expected. | 220-250 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | Either M.2 Ekey or WIFI 6 depending on variant | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C or B If has WIFI or not. |
220 | Asus ROG STRIX Z690-G GAMING WIFI | A great board, but super spendy. Most every feature you would want, but for most general users, you are better off getting something cheaper. | 350 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
221 | Asus ROG STRIX Z690-F GAMING WIFI | A great board, but super spendy. Most every feature you would want, but for most general users, you are better off getting something cheaper. | 400 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
222 | Asus ROG STRIX Z690-A GAMING WIFI D4 | A great board, but super spendy. Most every feature you would want, but for most general users, you are better off getting something cheaper. | 350 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A |
223 | Asus ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI | A great board, but super spendy. Most every feature you would want, but for most general users, you are better off getting something cheaper. | 450 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
224 | Asus PRIME Z690M-PLUS D4 | An OK Matx board. Does nothing special, and AMD has boards that can do everything this can but cost 70-80 dollars cheaper. | 190 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C |
225 | Asus ROG STRIX Z690-I GAMING WIFI | An excellent mITX board with some interesting functionality including expansion boards with more ports. Very interesting, but VERY expensive. May move in the list once asrock's PG4 ITX board launches | 440 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier S | Tier A |
226 | |||||||||||
227 | |||||||||||
228 | Tier C: This is the "if you have to ask about these high end boards, then you don't need these, because if do need them, then you would already know you need them" tier. These are really high end boards focused on esoteric features like triple GPU setups, or LN2 OCing. Many of these boards can work as general use boards, but they may be missing some features on comparable high end boards or the components that matter for general use can be found MUCH cheaper. You are buying these boards because they do something specific you need them to do. | ||||||||||
229 | |||||||||||
230 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
231 | AMD Motherboards: | ||||||||||
232 | MSI X570 Godlike | God tier overclocking. People buying this board are buying for LN2 overclocking and other craziness, not the networking. Killer brand networking does not have a good rep. | 635 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | WIFI 6 (Killer) | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
233 | MSI Prestige X570 Creation | Excellent Overclocking, lots of USB ports, and M.2 expansion options. NO bios flashback. | 500 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A: Post Codes, Debug LEDs, WIFI 6, Bluetooth, M.2 Expandablity, Additional DAC |
234 | Asus Pro WS X570-Ace | Has the ability to go 8x8x8x pcie lanes for triple GPU setups. Lacks a lot of other features comparably price mobos have at this price point. No 2.5 GB, or 10 GB internet, no Thunderbolt 3 and so on. | 380 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier B | NONE | Tier B | Tier A | Tier D: Debug LEDs, 8X8X8 PCIE |
235 | INTEL Motherboards: | ||||||||||
236 | Gigabyte Z690 AORUS TACHYON | A board specifically designed for record breaking Ocing, especially LN2, only buy if you plan to take on OC records. | Not available | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
237 | MSI Z690 UNIFY and UNIFY X | A board specifically designed for record breaking Ocing, especially LN2, only buy if you plan to take on OC records. | 500 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
238 | Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Apex | A board specifically designed for record breaking Ocing, especially LN2, only buy if you plan to take on OC records. | 800 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
239 | Asus Pro Art Z690 Creator WIFI | An high powered board aimed at workstation users. This board has nearly all of the same workstation features as the much more expensive formula. | 480 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | |
240 | |||||||||||
241 | Tier D: These boards are bad. In general, I consider these boards to be not worth it unless heavily discounted, even then they have severe limitations compared to other boards. The expensive boards are either stupidly overpriced, lack a lot of features that competing boards have, or are missing important features and do nothing special. The cheap boards I call the third world tier. The cheap ones have bad VRMs, bad audio, poor internal connectors, limited back panel I/O, low amount of special features, but they do have minor things that keep them out of the dregs. If you can't get anything else in your country for reasonable prices these boards aren't the worst as long you are ok with their severe limitations. | ||||||||||
242 | |||||||||||
243 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
244 | AMD Motherboards: | ||||||||||
245 | Asus A520m TUF GAMING Plus | It's VRMs are bad. Add in the lack of PCIE Gen 4, no USB-C | 87 | Tier F | Tier D | Tier D | Tier B | M.2 E Key | Tier D | Tier D | Tier F |
246 | Asus x570 ROG Crosshair VIII Formula | A very weird board that has several glaring omissions. Does nothing well compared to it's price. Massively overpriced for gaming when nearly all of it's features can be found on boards costing 300 less, LN2 Ocers will find the lack of Postcodes a problem. Also, despite costing 220 more, lacks the 8X8X8 functionality of the Pro WS ACE, and no TB3 Support like many cheaper boards, and all that for $600 dollars yet it still needs a chipset fan. | 600 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier B: Debug LEDs, WIFI 6, Bluetooth, Additional DAC |
247 | ASUS Prime B550 Plus | Overpriced for the features. Weak VRMs, low end audio. Has Thunderbolt 3 internal header. | 150 | Tier B: PCIE Gen 4, USB-C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier B | Tier A | Tier A: Bios Flashback, Debug LEDs, Optical Audio, Thunderbolt 3 Header (needs add in card) |
248 | ASUS Prime B550M-A | Overpriced for the features. Weak VRMs, low end audio. | 115 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier D | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier C | Tier D | Tier F |
249 | ASUS Prime B550M-A Wi-Fi | The WIFI is not worth it compared to the weak features. Way better options at this price. | 130 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier D | Tier D | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5 |
250 | ASUS Prime B550M-K | Overpriced for the features. Weak VRMs, low end audio. | 110 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier D | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier C | Tier D | Tier F |
251 | |||||||||||
252 | Gigabyte A520 S2H | Lack of PCIE gen 4, weaker VRMs, no USB-C. This is another VRMs Data Deffecient, and may change. | 70 | Tier F | Tier D | Tier C | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D: Bios Flashback |
253 | Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite | Outcompeted by better boards, overpriced for the features. | 130 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier C | Tier D: Bios Flashback |
254 | |||||||||||
255 | MSI A520M PRO | Data deficient on the VRMs. An A520 Vector without WIFI. Price a little too high. | 80 | Tier F: Note may change based on VRM data. | Tier D | Tier C | Tier B | None | Tier F | Tier D | Tier D: WIFI 6, Bluetooth 5 |
256 | MSI A520M-A PRO | Lack of PCIE gen 4, weaker VRMs, no USB-C. | 70 | Tier F: Note may change based on VRM data. | Tier D | Tier C | Tier B | None | Tier F | Tier D | Tier F |
257 | MSI X570 Gaming Plus | Overpriced for the features, weak VRMs, outcompeted by the competition at it's price point. Note that some later revisions may have better VRMs. This does not make up for the weaker featureset. | 160 | Tier B: PCIE Gen 4, USB-C | Tier C | Tier S | Tier B | None | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C: Optical Audio, Debug LEDs, BIOS Flashback. |
258 | MSI X570 Gaming Edge WIFI | Overpriced for the features, weak VRMs, outcompeted by the competition at it's price point. Note that some later revisions may have better VRMs. This does not make up for the weaker featureset. Low end WIFI 5. | 210 | Tier B: PCIE Gen 4, USB-C | Tier C | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 5 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C: Optical Audio, Debug LEDs, BIOS Flashback. |
259 | MSI X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WIFI | Overpriced for the features, weak VRMs, outcompeted by the competition at it's price point. Note that some later revisions may have better VRMs, It's still hard to recommend over 250 dollar X570s and b550s. | 260 | Tier B: PCIE Gen 4, USB-C | Tier C | Tier S | Tier B | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C: Optical Audio, Debug LEDs, BIOS Flashback. |
260 | MSI B550 Gaming Plus | This is an MSI B550 A-Pro with minor aesthetic differences and optical audio. Overpriced at 150. Outcompeted by a lot of boards, but is solid if purchased at the right price. I wouldn't pay more then 130 for it. The problem here is the unecessarily overkill VRMs that are a massive waste of money. MSI basically put 10 points into VRMs, and 2 points into everything else. The only way to get the value out of these VRMs is to OC a 5950x. If you are not max OCing a 5950x then you spent a good 30-40 dollars on VRMs that are simply too powerful and are now going to waste. A weaker VRM setup would mean money for things like better audio, Thunderbolt support, and so on. Keep in mind an Asus TUF for 10 dollars more has weaker VRMs but that can still OC a 5950x and has a variety of other features that this board lacks. | 150 | Tier A, PCIE Gen 4, USB-C and VRMs | Tier S | Tier C | Tier B | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
261 | MSI X570-A Pro | Overpriced for the features, weak VRMs, outcompeted by the competition at it's price point. Note that some later revisions may have better VRMs. This does not make up for the weaker featureset. | 150 | Tier B: PCIE Gen 4, USB-C | Tier C | Tier S | Tier B | None | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C: Optical Audio, Debug LEDs, BIOS Flashback. |
262 | INTEL Motherboards: | ||||||||||
263 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
264 | Asrock H670 Steel Legend | Unless I am missing something, this board is exactly the same as the H670 PG Riptide, except it has a 2.5 GB lan chip, and better VRM heatsink. Not worth $60 more, without a better audio codec. | 210 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier B |
265 | Asrock B660M-ITX/ac | This a B660 HDV in mITX format with WIFI. While it is bad, with weak VRMs, and poor connectivity, it has some use in SFF Home Theatre PCs. General users should avoid, but if you know what you are doing some use can be found. | TBD | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C | WIFI 5 | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C |
266 | Asrock B660 Pro RS | The VRMs on this board tested out terribly, not sure what asrock did here to make them so bad. I would only run a 12400 on these VRMs. This is an ok board for a 12400. | 140 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
267 | Asrock H610M-ITX/ac | This a B660M-ITX/ac without front panel USB-C, otherwise the same. If your case does not need USB-C, this is the better choice. While it is bad, with weak VRMs, and poor connectivity, it has some use in SFF Home Theatre PCs. General users should avoid, but if you know what you are doing some use can be found. | TBD | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C | WIFI 5 | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C |
268 | |||||||||||
269 | Asus Pro B660M-C D4-CSM | A mobo aimed at office PCs. Not for general use. | TBD | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier D | Tier F |
270 | Asus PRIME H610M-E D4 | This a cheap mobo aimed at lower end office PCs. The lack of VRM heatsink really hurts it here. Most users should buy an A D4 Instead. I would not put anything above a 12400 on this. and for a 12400 I would prefer something better. | 100 | Tier B | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier D | Tier F |
271 | Asus ProArt B660-CREATOR D4 | Overpriced for the feature set. Not sure what makes this board "creator." Low end VRMs but a decent heatsink. Nice set of internal and external connectors, but low end audio and VRMs make this board a no go at $240. | 240 | Tier C | Tier C | Tier D | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
272 | |||||||||||
273 | Gigabyte B660M Aorus Pro | Excellent connectivity, but weak audio support make this a poor choice for gamers. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B |
274 | Gigabyte B660M Aorus Pro AX | Excellent connectivity, but weak audio support make this a poor choice for gamers. | TBD | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier B | Tier B |
275 | Gigabyte B660 GAMING X AX DDR4 | A decent Budget board, price is important here. VRM quality also. One issue is the WIFI 6 chip, the AMD RZ608 also known as the mediatek MT7921K. It may have driver issues with some setups. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | Yes Note it is the AMD/Mediatek RZ608 (MT7921K) | Tier A | Tier B | Tier C |
276 | Gigabyte B660m GAMING AC DDR4 | Low end parts and weak VRMs make this a poor choice. | TBD | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 5 | Tier C | Tier B | Tier C |
277 | Gigabyte B660M GAMING DDR4 | Low end parts and weak VRMs make this a poor choice. | TBD | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier C | Tier B | Tier C |
278 | Gigabyte B660 Gaming X | This board is almost exactly the same as the DS3H, but has a 2.5 GB Lan chip, and NO thunderbolt support, even though the DDR4 version does. Weird. When the DS3H and DDR4 Gaming X come with better features, those are the boards you should be looking at. | TBD | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D | Tier A | no | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C |
279 | Gigabyte B660m DS3H | A low end MOBO. Weak VRMs. Possibly overpriced, note it has 6 audio jacks and thunderbolt support. | TBD ( ax version is 140) | Tier B | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier A | Tier A | Tier D |
280 | Gigabyte B660m DS3H AX | A low end MOBO. Weak VRMs. Possibly overpriced, note it has 3 audio jacks and no thunderbolt support vs the normal DS3H. | 140 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D |
281 | Gigabyte B660m D3H | A low end MOBO. Weak VRMs. Possibly overpriced, note it has 3 audio jacks and no thunderbolt support vs the normal DS3H. | 120 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier B | Tier B | Tier D |
282 | Gigabyte B660m DS2H | A low end MOBO. Weak VRMs. Weak connectivity for GB. | TBD ( ax version is 140) | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
283 | |||||||||||
284 | MSI PRO B660M-G DDR4 | With no USB-C, no VRM heatsink, rather low end VRMs, and a 140 dollar price tag, you would be better off with the cheaper E or B versions. | 140 | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | Tier A | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
285 | MSI PRO B660M-B DDR4 | Same as the G, but with no RGB and no display port. | 130 | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | Tier A | No | Tier F | Tier D | Tier D |
286 | MSI PRO B660M-E DDR4 | A very low end mobo, Same VRMs as the Pro B660m G, 1 fan header, no rgb. | 120 | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | No | Tier F | Tier D | Tier D |
287 | MSI PRO H610M-B DDR4 | A very low end mobo, Same VRMs as the Pro B660m G 1 fan header, no rgb. | TBD | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | No | Tier F | Tier D | Tier D |
288 | MSI PRO H610M-G DDR4 | A very low end mobo, Same VRMs as the Pro B660m G 2 fan headerd, has rgb. | TBD | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
289 | |||||||||||
290 | Gigabyte Z690 AORUS MASTER | A very overpriced board. You are paying for a 10GB lan chip, a standard audio jack setup and for likely unecessarily overkill VRMs. While VRM worshipping techtubers may love the better VRMs, they are not worth 100 dollars more for otherwise the same featureset on cheaper boards for general users looking for stable overclocks. General users will find the 10 GB lan chip overkill, and unecessary compared to a 2.5 GB chip. | 470 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
291 | Gigabyte Z690 AORUS ULTRA | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. A very pricey board, and at 370 dollars I cannot recommend any board with a non standard audio implemenation, it is insane to expect a user to pay 370 for a board, and then require them to spend 100-150 dollars in external audio equipment to use standard audio devices. Many of these features can be had on cheaper boards. | 370 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
292 | Gigabyte Z690 Auros Extreme/ Extreme Waterforce | Note the weird non-standard audio jacks implementation and ensure it works with your Audio setup. This board is ludicrously priced, has amazing features that can be found on much cheaper boards, Furthermore, the insane audio implementation also means you cannot run Optical audio and the 3.5 mm jacks at the same time, all for $900. It is insane to expect a user to pay 900 for a board, and then require them to spend 100-150 dollars in external audio equipment to use standard audio devices. | 900 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
293 | Gigabyte Z690M DS3H DDR4 | A low end board with crap VRMs. Why does thing even exist? Z690 is for overclocking, so why have a z690 board with such weak VRMs. The board itself is ok minus the VRMs, but the big question is price. Cheap enough and those who need a specific feature of the z690 chipset at low price and no other relevant features might consider it. | TBD | Tier B | Tier D | Tier D | Tier A | No | Tier D | Tier B | Tier D |
294 | |||||||||||
295 | Asrock Z690m ITX AX | This is a somewhat feature rich board, WIFI 6, a nice selection of ports. The real question is those VRMs which do not seem capable of running a 12700k at stock. It also has a weaker, lower end audio codec. Depending on VRM real world testing data, and price, this board may move up a tier. For now, I am keeping it in D tier. | TBD | Tier B | Tier C | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier B | Tier B | Tier B |
296 | Asrock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4 | Garbage VRMs, and a very low end feature set for z690. This is not a good board, nor is it a "gaming" board. 1GB lan, low end audio codec. If this is all you have available and all you can afford for your 12600k. Instead either buy a 12400 and a good b660, or buy an AMD CPU, and the execllent AMD Asrock B550 steel legend mobo, which is superior in EVERY way and typically goes on sale for around 150. This board may even move into F tier when we get real world VRM data. | 180 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 E Key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
297 | Asrock Z690 Phantom Gaming 4/D5 | Garbage VRMs, and a very low end feature set for z690. This is not a good board, nor is it a "gaming" board. 1GB lan, low end audio codec. If this is all you have available and all you can afford for your 12600k. Instead either buy a 12400 and a good b660, or buy an AMD CPU, and the execllent AMD Asrock B550 steel legend mobo, which is superior in EVERY way and typically goes on sale for around 150. This board may even move into F tier when we get real world VRM data. | 190 | Tier B | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 E Key | Tier A | Tier A | Tier C |
298 | Asrock Z690 PG Velocita | A very overpriced board. You can find much cheaper boards with similar features. Lacks 20 GBPS USB-C on the back, and only has it on the front, so you need a case with USB-C. | 470 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
299 | Asrock Z690 Taichi | A very overpriced board. You can find much cheaper boards with similar features. Has native Thunderbolt 4 connectors but has some things missing from the velocita. | 590 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier D | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A |
300 | |||||||||||
301 | MSI PRO Z690-P DDR4 | The issue with this board is that the B660 Tomahawk DDR4 WIFI exists. While the VRMs on this board are fine for stock usage on most K series CPUs, the most logical K Series CPU to overclock and pair with this board, the 12600k sucks at overclocking, netting only around 5% gains in many cases. It makes far more logical sense to buy a B660 Tomahawk with it's better audio, built in WIFI, and other superior features at the same price. This board is simply outcompeted although it is a solid board otherwise. | 200 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier D | Tier A | M.2 Ekey | Tier B | Tier B | Tier C |
302 | |||||||||||
303 | Asus TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS D4 and WIFI | Just no. For only slightly more, the MSI Tomahawk is a far better buy. Totally unacceptable to have a low end audio codec on this board at nearly 300. | 290 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier C | Tier A | WIFI 6 (non-WIFI has M.2 Ekey) | Tier A | Tier A | Tier A |
304 | Asus Rog Maximus Z690 Formula | A very high end board aimed somewhat at high end workstation users, with native thunderbolt and 10GB networking. Many of the features can be had on much cheaper boards, and most users have no use for many of it's features. The Pro Art Creator offers nearly all of the features for 320 cheaper. | 800 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier A | WIFI 6 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S |
305 | |||||||||||
306 | |||||||||||
307 | Tier F: The worst of the worst. Either shockingly or horrifyingly overpriced for the features, or so cheap and bad you need to avoid. The cheap mobos here are best used in grandma's doing taxes and creepy uncle Joe's porn jacking off computer. Not for gaming or workstation tasks. The expensive or midrange mobos here are just so bad compared to everything else, there is zero reason to buy them. | ||||||||||
308 | |||||||||||
309 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
310 | AMD Motherboards: | ||||||||||
311 | Asrock B550M-HDV | This is a very low end MOBO aimed at CPUs with integrated graphics for video presentations, or for older people to skype on/facebook/do taxes. This is an awful general use board. This board is basically a 60-65 dollar mobo that you are paying a 15-20 dollar premium for just to get PCIE Gen 4. | 80 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier F (Cursory) | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier C | Tier F |
312 | ASRock A520M-HDV and HVS and all variants like HDVP | These are very low end MOBOs aimed at CPUs with integrated graphics for video presentations, or for older people to skype on/facebook/do taxes. These are awful general use boards. | 65 | Tier F | Tier F (Cursory) | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier F | Tier D | Tier F |
313 | |||||||||||
314 | Asus Prime A520 (all Prime boards including K, CSM, A, E and so on) | These are very low end MOBOs aimed at CPUs with integrated graphics for video presentations, or for offce workers to work/skype on/facebook/do taxes. These are awful general use boards. Note there are multiple variations but with very minor changes, they are basically the same board in terms of features. So like some may have tier D internal connectors instead F. All are bad, and I really don't care about going through 4-5 terrible boards and determing which one has an extra fan header or an RGB header. | 65-80 | Tier F | Tier F (Cursory) | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier F | Tier F | Tier F |
315 | |||||||||||
316 | Gigabyte B550 Gaming X | Lol no. This board is outcompeted by the 75 dollar b450m Pro4. | 130 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D: Bios Flashback. |
317 | Gigabyte B550 Gaming X V2 | Lol no. This board is outcompeted by the 75 dollar b450m Pro4. Has an internal USB-C port for cases with USB-C. Still bad. | 130 | Tier B: PCIE Gen 4, USB-C. | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D: Bios Flashback. |
318 | Gigabyte X570 Gaming X | Lol no. This board is outcompeted by the 75 dollar b450m Pro4. | 170 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D: Bios Flashback. |
319 | Gigabyte X570 UD | Lol no. This board is outcompeted by the 75 dollar b450m Pro4. | 160 | Tier C: PCIE Gen 4 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier B | None | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D: Bios Flashback. |
320 | |||||||||||
321 | INTEL Motherboards: | ||||||||||
322 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
323 | Asrock B660M-HDVP/D5 | Why does this board need DDR5 support? Furthermore, why the hell is the only asrock H670, B660 board to have DDR5 a piece of cheap flaming junk. Don't buy, or buy the DDR4 version if you have to. This board is a cheap mobo designed for High definition video and little else. It is specifically designed for office systems, with certain features such as print ports. BAD VRMs (5 phase), no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. | TBD | Tier C | Tier F | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier C | Tier F |
324 | Asrock B660M-HDV | This board is a cheap mobo designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. Better VRMs (6 phase) then the DDR5 version, but still bad. | 95 | Tier C | Tier D | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier C | Tier F |
325 | Asrock h610M-HDV | These boards all suck, and I am not going to differentiate them. This board is a cheap mobo designed for High definition video and little else | TBD | Tier C | Tier D (H610M-HDV/M.2), Tier F (all other models) | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 Ekey | Tier D | Tier C | Tier F |
326 | |||||||||||
327 | Gigabyte B660M POWER DDR4 | A very low end MOBO with weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. | TBD | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier B | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
328 | Gigabyte H610M S2H DDR4 1.1 | Gigabyte's H series are cheap mobos designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. These mobos have little in the way to differentiate them besides certain older ports or onboard video ports. | tbd | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
329 | Gigabyte H610M S2 DDR4 | Gigabyte's H series are cheap mobos designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. These mobos have little in the way to differentiate them besides certain older ports or onboard video ports. | tbd | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
330 | Gigabyte H610M H DDR4 1.1 | Gigabyte's H series are cheap mobos designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. These mobos have little in the way to differentiate them besides certain older ports or onboard video ports. | tbd | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
331 | Gigabyte H610M S2H DDR4 1.0 | Gigabyte's H series are cheap mobos designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. These mobos have little in the way to differentiate them besides certain older ports or onboard video ports. | tbd | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
332 | Gigabyte H610M H DDR4 1.0 | Gigabyte's H series are cheap mobos designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. These mobos have little in the way to differentiate them besides certain older ports or onboard video ports. | tbd | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
333 | Gigabyte H610M HD3P | A DDR5 version of the DDR4 boards above, still very weak board aimed at video and little else. | TBD | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
334 | Gigabyte H610i DDr4 | Gigabyte's H series are cheap mobos designed for High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. These mobos have little in the way to differentiate them besides certain older ports or onboard video ports. | tbd | Tier C | Tier D | Tier D | Tier C | No | Tier D | Tier D | Tier D |
335 | |||||||||||
336 | MSI PRO H610M-C EX | This board is a cheap mobo designed for office use, High definition video and little else. Weak VRMs, no VRM heatsink, and weak connectivity. | TBD | Tier C | Tier F | Tier C | Tier C | No | Tier F | Tier D | Tier F |
337 | |||||||||||
338 | Asrock Z690m Phantom Gaming 4 | Hot garbage. Worse features then the ATX PG4s. If it's cheap enough or the VRMs test well then it might move up a tier. For now, it sucks. | 160 | Tier B | Tier D (Cursory) | Tier C | Tier C | M.2 E Key | Tier B | Tier D | Tier D |
339 | |||||||||||
340 | |||||||||||
341 | |||||||||||
342 | Tier E: These boards suffer from some sort of flaw or issue that keeps them out of the higher tiers of S, A, B, and C. The issue needs to be a straight up flaw, and widespread with multiple articles or 100s of forum posts from unique users. So minor build issues, like not oh noes, a USB-C internal port is hard to reach, or DEBUG leds are hard to see do not count. Minor, non-widespread issues like a faulty USB port 1 or 2 randos on forums report, or slightly higher then average RMA rate are also not considered. If boards fix what ever issue they have, I will move them. As of right now, the primary issue is the faulty I225-V 2.5 lan chip, the B1 and B2 versions of this chip have issues. The B3 Version does not have any issues. The B3 is rumored to be on certain MOBOs now but does not show up on specs. | ||||||||||
343 | |||||||||||
344 | Motherboard Tier and Name. | Tier notes: | Price in USD that I used for Tiering. | 4 Year Future Proof Rating: | VRMS Tier | Audio Tier | Lan Chip (NIC) Tier | WIFI Support | Internal Connectors/Headers Tier | Back Panel IO | Special Features Tier |
345 | ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming (B1 or B2 Stepping Lan chip only) | Faulty Intel I225v lan chip, would be Tier A, cause of price. | 270 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
346 | ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming (B1 or B2 Stepping Lan chip only) | Faulty Intel I225v lan chip, would be Tier S, my favorite and IMHO most feature complete out the competition in the 160-210 price point. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | No | Tier S | Tier A | Tier A |
347 | ASUS ROG Strix B550-F Gaming Wi-Fi (B1 or B2 Stepping Lan chip only) | Faulty Intel I225v lan chip, would be Tier S, my favorite and IMHO most feature complete out the competition in the 160-210 price point. | 200 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
348 | ASRock B550 Taichi (B1 or B2 Stepping Lan chip only) | Faulty Intel I225v lan chip, Tier A, love the aesthetic. I want this board, but faulty lan chip. | 300 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | WIFI6 | Tier A | Tier A | Tier S |
349 | Asrock X570 PG Velocita | Killer E3100, which is based on the faulty Intel i225-V lan chip. No indications as to whether killer fixed the issues or not. Killer networking has a bad rep. Likely this gets a tier B from me. | 265 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
350 | Asus ROG Strix B550-XE Gaming (B1 or B2 Stepping Lan chip only) | Faulty Intel I225v lan chip. A Tier if it didn't have the lan chip. | 330 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | WIFI6 | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |
351 | Asrock X570 Taichi Razer Edition | Killer E3100, which is based on the faulty Intel i225-V lan chip. No indications as to whether killer fixed the issues or not. Killer networking has a bad rep. Likely this gets a tier A from me, without the lan chip | 400 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | WIFI 6 | |||
352 | Asus ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING (B1 or B2 Stepping Lan chip only) | Faulty Intel I225v lan chip, would be Tier S. | 180 | Tier S | Tier S | Tier S | Tier F | No | Tier S | Tier A | Tier S |