ASRock B850 Riptide WiFi ATX Motherboard Review
ASRock’s new B850 Riptide WiFi is $50 cheaper than its recently reviewed X870 Steel Legend WiFi: Given how large a portion that is of the total price for any mid-market board, we should probably begin today’s discussion with a brief explanation of what the B850 is before deciding whether the scale of that savings exceeds lost features.
| CPU Direct PCIe® | X870 | B850 | B840 | B650E | B650 | |
| GRAPHICS | 1×16 or 2×8 PCIe® 5.0 | 1×16 or 2×8 PCIe® 4.0 | 1×16 PCIe® 4.0 | 1×16 or 2×8 PCIe® 5.0 | 1×16 or 2×8 PCIe® 4.0 | |
| NVMe (PLUS PCIe GPP, UP TO) | 1×4 PCIe® 5.0 plus 4x PCIe® GPP | 1×4 PCIe® 5.0 | 1×4 PCIe® 4.0 | 1×4 PCIe® 5.0 plus 4x PCIe® GPP | 1×4 PCIe® 4.0 (5.0 Optional) | |
| Chipset PCIe, USB & SATA | PCIe® 5.0 TOTAL/ USABLE | 36/24 | 36/4 | 34/0 | 36/24 | 36/0 |
| RYZEN CPU O/C ENABLED | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| DDR5 O/C ENABLED | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| SS-USB 5Gbps | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| SS-USB 10Gbps | 6 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 6 | |
| SS-USB 20Gbps | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | |
| MAX SATA PORTS (OR PCIe® 3.0) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| USB 4.0 | Standard | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
AMD’s own chart shows us that PCIe 5.0 graphics mode is the only thing lost to the B850 drop, and that hardly seems important to those of us who don’t yet have an RTX 5090 and wouldn’t plan on putting one into a mid-market PC anyway. Yet we only estimate the chipset difference (including implementation) to be $20 of the $50 price difference: Maybe a look at this specific model’s features chart will account for the other $30?
| ASRock B850 Riptide WiFi | |||
| Socket | AM5 | Form Factor | ATX |
| Chipset | AMD B850 | Voltage Regulator | 17 (14+2+1) Phases |
| Rear I/O | |||
| Video Ports | (1) HDMI 2.1 (4k/120Hz Max) | Audio Jacks | (2) Analog, (1) Digital Out |
| Rear USB 4.x/3.x | (2) 10Gb/s Type-C, (2) 10Gb/s Type A; (3) 5Gb/s Type A | Legacy Ports/Jacks | (4) USB 2.0 |
| Network Jacks | (1) 2.5GbE, (2) Wi-Fi Antenna | I/O Panel Extras | BIOS Flashback |
| Internal Interface | |||
| PCIe x16 | (1) v5.0x16, (1) v4.0x4 (shared w/M.2) | SATA Ports | (4) 6Gb/s |
| PCIe x8 | ✗ | USB Headers | (1) v3.x Gen2x2 (20Gb/s), (2) v3.x Gen1, (2) v2.0 |
| PCIe x4 | ✗ | Fan Headers | (6) 4-Pin |
| PCIe x1 | ✗ | Legacy Interfaces | UART (3-pin), System (Beep-code) Speaker |
| CrossFire/SLI | 2 / ✗ | Other Interfaces | FP-Audio, Thermistor, RGB LED, (3) ARGB LED, TPM |
| DIMM slots | (4) DDR5 | Diagnostics Panel | ✗(four indicator LEDs) |
| M.2 slots | (1) PCIe 5.0*, (3) PCIe 4.0 x4 (1 shared w/PCIe slot 2), (1) Key-E | Internal Button/Switch | ✗ / ✗ |
| Controllers | |||
| SATA Controllers | (2) ASM1061 PCIe | USB Controllers | (2) ASM1543 Switch+BW9951E, ASM1074 Hubs+GL9904 |
| Ethernet Controllers | Killer E3100G 2.5Gb/s PCIe | HD Audio Codec | Realtek ALC4082 USB |
| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth | MediaTek RZ717 WiFi 7 (2.4GHz/5GHz/6GHz) / BT 5.4 Combo | DDL/DTS Connect | ✗ |
Indeed, the Riptide is missing one major component compared to the Steel Legend WiFi: USB4. Back when it was called Thunderbolt, that controller was a $40 add-in. It’s probably come down to $30 now, but buyers should understand that the bandwidth drop (from 40Gbps to 20 or 10) isn’t the only sacrifice made to the loss of that controller: It also eliminates USB-C to DisplayPort pass-through for the CPU’s integrated graphics controller. That shouldn’t have much impact on buyers who plan to install a graphics card,, but its something to keep in mind if you’re trying to use integrated graphics for, say, PC diagnostics.
Get it at Newegg
(click for availability)
As previously intimated, the B850 Riptide WiFi’s rear-panel Type-C ports aren’t even Gen2x2, but 2×1, meaning that you’re dropping all the way down from the X870 Steel Legend WiFi’s 40Gbps to a mere 10, With everything else from the WiFi 7 antennas BIOS Flasback button being located identically, it’s otherwise so remarkably similar to the X870 Steel Legend that the B850 Riptide’s I/O shield is interchangeable.
As similar as the I/O panel might look to its X870 big brother, one major difference is easily spotted when considering the B850 Riptide’s layout: The four-lane, x16-length second PCIe card slot is located below, rather than above, the board’s lower dual-M.2 heat spreader.
You may have noticed that the space where the X870 Steel Legend WiFi’s second card slot was located isn’t exactly empty on the B850 Riptide WiFi: There’s an M.2 slot there! It uses the same four lanes as the more expensive board’s USB4 controller. Yet as with the more expensive board, one of the M.2 slots still shares all four lanes with the lower card slot, so that filling it causes the card interface to be disabled.
One more B850 Riptide WiFi value advantage that we’ve not yet discussed is that its upper expansion slot is equipped to provide X870-spec PCIe 5.0 bandwidth. You see, AMD didn’t put much effort into preventing its CPU’s integrated PCIe 5.0 controller from delivering its full feature set when paired with a B850, so all ASRock had to do to enable it was to use PCIe 5.0 compatible circuitry and firmware. Or to put the another way, ASRock simply didn’t perform the cheapening that AMD presented in its B850 specifications.
The B850 Riptide WiFi’s upper half has two 8-pin CPU power connectors in the upper rear corner, three PWM fan and two ARGB connectors in its upper front corner, and two front-panel USB 3.x headers just above the board’s centerline. Those headers are Gen1 and Gen2x2, so that a modern case’s Type-C port is the only one to get the 20Gbps that Type-C is supposed to provide.
A fourth fan connector is found just behind the main (PCIe 5.0) M.2 storage slot, and two more are located near the center of the board’s bottom edge. Other bottom edge interfaces include HD Audio for front-panel jacks, a UART connection that ASRock doesn’t bother to document, a thermal prove header, RGB and ARGB, a CLR_CMOS jumper pin set, two USB 2.0 (dual port) nine-pin headers, a legacy PC speaker and three-pin power LED header, and a nine-pin combo header featuring front panel button and indicator LEDs in the now-standard nine-pin arrangement.
A second USB 3.x Gen1 and four SATA headers point forward from the B850 Riptide WiFi’s front edge, and all three secondary M.2 storage interfaces just below the add-in TPM header seen in the middle of its lower section.
The CPU voltage regulator is also carried over from the X870 Steel Legend WiFi apart from one minor detail: The SiC639 is replaced with the newer SiC661. Since Vishay indicates that last part as being capable of pushing 60A per IC and the RT3678BE ( 8+2 phase) plus RT3672EE (2-phase AMD SVI3) parts remain, the only cheapening we see for the entire board is its lack of the Steel Legend’s ASM4242 controller for USB4.
The B850 Riptide WiFi includes a printed installation guide, a 3-devices ARGB splitter cable, two WiFi antenna, two SATA data cables and a thermistor lead. Its kit comes up only a case sticker, keyboard cap and two Velcro strips short of the X870 Steel Legend WiFi.
B850 Riptide WiFi Firmware
Since it supports the same software as the X870 Steel Legend WiFi, we decided to just refer to that section of the prior review and move on towards looking for differences in firmware. Using version 3.16, the most obvious difference is that its background is in shades of gray. Like the X870 model, this B850 board still opens by default to an “Advanced mode” GUI where expert tuners can make big changes to its settings.
Other than the swapped colors, the B850 Riptide WiFi’s OC Tweaker menu appears identical to its X870 sibling. Users can set the core voltage for overclocking here, as well as several power modes that will make the installed CPU hit its thermal threshold more or less suddenly. Understanding that both AMD and Intel use automatic overclocking techniques for all of their processors by default, “Performance Boost” settings include two Cinebench-optimized power profiles, and “Performance Preset” options include -20, -30 and -40mV adjustments at tjMax of 65, 75, and 85 °C.
Users can choose from their memory’s various EXPO or XMP overclocking profiles, and/or go on a journey of manual frequency and timing configuration. Remember that lower is better when it comes to latency, as fewer cycles are required to open and close a cell.
While the “Advanced” menu allows users to enable or disable onboard features and chose which GUI will appear after they hit the “delete” key, the Tool menu will probably be useful to a few more of them as it includes both an RGB mode selector and a firmware update tool.
The “Hardware Monitor” menu has programmed profiles and manual configuration for all six fan headers, and a FanTuning algorithm that will determine the possible range of every fan in the system and modify the board’s profiles to match.
Selecting “Fan-Tastic” from the H/W monitor menu let’s users adjust their fan profile using a graph, while hitting the keyboard’s “F6” key brings up a simplified “Easy Mode” GUI that will prevent them from doing anything regrettable to their hardware.
B850 Riptide WiFi Test Configuration
| Test Hardware | |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: 16C/32T 4.5-5.7 GHz, 64MB L3 Cache, Socket AM5 |
| CPU Cooler | Alphacool Core 1 Aurora CPU, Eisbecher D5 150mm, NexXxoS UT60 X-Flow 240mm |
| DRAM | Crucial Pro OC Gaming Edition DDR5-6400 32GB Kit |
| Graphics Card | ASRock RX 7700 XT Phantom Gaming 12GB OC PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Power | be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W: ATX12V v2.3, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Platinum |
| Hard Drive | Crucial T700 Gen5 NVMe 2TB SSD |
| Graphics Driver | AMD Adrenalin Edition 24.8.3 |
B850 Riptide WiFi Overclocking
We want to be perfectly clear that heat is the typical factor that limits overclocking our CPU, where Prime95 creates far more heat than Cinebench R23 and should always be considered the gold standard for that reason. The reason the Riptide WiFi didn’t reach as high a Prime95 overclock as any of its predecessors is that it required more voltage (1.18V) to reach its limit (5.00 GHz), where adding more voltage caused it to overheat. By requiring slightly less voltage to remain stable, the other boards allowed the CPU to go 50 to 200 MHz higher.
Sandra proved that the performance gain from overclocking our memory slight (around 3%), but valid.
B850 Riptide WiFi Benchmark Results
We see something strange in our memory bandwidth numbers as the B850 Riptide WiFi seems to suffer less penalty from using UCLK=MEMCLK/2 (memory controller running half of memory frequency) to get past the 6000 MHz barrier with our DDR5-6400. That’s probably due to its newer firmware.
3DMark appears to prefer the B850 Riptide WiFi among compared 8-series motherboards, but the old X670E takes a few wins too.
PCMark prefers the X870E Taichi, except in its drive test, where the X670E Taichi surges ahead.
Only our lowest F1 2021 test settings benefit from the B850 Riptide WiFi’s newfound memory performance, but we doubt anyone who was already getting 460 FPS will care that they could be getting 465.
7-Zip and Handbrake also like the B850 Riptide WiFi’s improved memory performance.
Likely because it doesn’t have a USB4 controller to power, the B850 comes up a watt or two less than the compared boards. That gives it an efficiency lead, though its primarily noticeable due to the old X670E Taichi’s inefficiency.
Those last two charts also showed that the B850 Riptide WiFi had the lowest overall performance gain of the three 8-series boards that we compared to the old X670E Taichi. But, a gain’s a gain no?
We don’t need to be fussy here, as the B850 Riptide WiFi is also the cheapest board in the test, and by a wide margin. It’s $50 cheaper than the second-cheapest board, the X870 (non-E) Steel Legend WiFi.
| ASRock B850 Riptide WiFi | |
| Pros | Cons |
| Retains PCIe 5.0 graphics slot from X870 $50 cheaper than closest X870 model One PCIe 5.0 plus three PCIe 4.0 M.2 | Still somewhat pricey at $220 USD Using M.2 interface 4 disables PCIe slot 2 No USB4 or DisplayPort for integrated graphics |
| The Verdict | |
| Value-seeking builders come out $50 ahead in the B850 Riptide WiFi, by forgoing the USB4 and related features of its X870 sibling. | |
At most, it comes up $40 short on features compared to the second cheapest board, and that makes the B850 Riptide WiFi the best deal. But that deal is only good for those who can live without USB4 bandwidth, or its associated DisplayPort pass-through for integrated graphics. In other words, the B850 Riptide WiFi is probably the best value for you.
Get it at Newegg
(click for availability)
