ASUS B850 and B850M TUF Gaming WIFI Preview

Introduction and Features

Introduction

As a general rule of thumb, apart from aesthetics and specific features, all motherboards are the same. We know that’s a bold statement. Obviously it comes with a lot of caveats. Perhaps some extra specificity will help. If you are budget limited, and you only ever plan to run at stock speeds, and you want maximum performance more than any lighting or outré elements, and if you’re not a model name snob, then in general terms you’ll be happy with any of the motherboards from the big manufacturers.

We’ve just seen – or are also showing you today – the performance of the new AMD B850 chipset on the Strix motherboards. ASUS do more affordable models than those in the form of their TUF range. If you’ve been tempted by our recent review of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and want to get on board with the minimum outlay, both the ATX and mATX TUF B850 motherboards might be right up your street.

If you’ve been asleep in recent years it might have escaped your notice that ASUS have quietly improved their TUF range. What was once a motherboard for the fiscally challenged only, is now a legit contender. In fact, if you’ve grown weary of light shows and OLED screens on your motherboard, it might be an automatic shortlist.

Features

As always with these pages, we write far in advance of the official launch; specifications are thin on the ground. As media, we get heavily watermarked pages, but these are so copy-protected that they’re almost illegible. So you’ll have to endure us skimming the highlights. Most of which are below. As for the changes between the TUF B850 and B850M, the M has only WiFi 6E rather than the full WiFi 7 on the normal one. And, of course, physical PCI Express slots, which is the very nature of a mATX motherboard compared to the full-size ATX.

Lastly, although we’ll also mention it on their respective pages, both have the same power stage. 14+2+1 80A. More than enough to run any of the regular Ryzen models.