Not just the basics: Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi

Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi in detail

A relatively pricier B850 motherboard. But one that outperforms both equally priced and X870(E) motherboards in several ways. It does so with features that are not directly related to the chipset used, but those are often what matters. The ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi motherboard may thus end up being exactly what you’re looking for in a powerful and timeless setup. This can include, for example, two M.2 slots with PCIe 5.0 support.

Compared to the last tested B850 Aorus Elite WiFi7 motherboard, the Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi is more expensive and for some, significantly so. The difference in the MSRP is more than 80 EUR and at around 328 EUR, we can already talk about a greater amount to pay for the ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi motherboard. You don’t just get what is essential for B850 motherboards, but a rather generous qualitative upgrade, which we’ll break down step by step.

Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi

The higher price is already associated with simply being categorized into the ROG family. There are several cheaper, but also less feature-rich motherboards available with the B850 chipset. These are from the TUF and Prime lineups. The ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi is (along with the Strix B850-E Gaming WiFi) one of Asus’ best-equipped motherboards with a single AMD Promontory 21 chip.

The physical dimensions correspond to the ATX format (305 × 244 mm) with the PCB shape being traditional (rectangle with rounded corners). We’ll discuss the front of the motherboard in more detail below, all we’ll say about the back is that it features printed ROG and Strix logos.

The layout of the individual elements is quite traditional, where the first M.2 slot is located above the first PCIe ×16 slot. This also creates more distance between the processor socket and the fast PCIe ×16 slot, usually used to install a graphics card. It is approximately 91 mm between the centers of the two sockets, which is enough distance to ensure that even a tower cooler with wider fins will not interfere with the expansion card.

Asus conceived the latch that holds the SSD cooler on the first M.2 slot in an original way. It is secured via a lever with a joint in the substrate of the cooler, which must be pulled in the direction of the arrows on the heatsink to remove it. For mounting then, of course, the reverse procedure applies, or the opposite direction. The cooler is a fairly robust one – with a backplate to which heat is dissipated through a pad – which is also related to the support of fast PCIe 5.0 SSDs. Higher cooling requirements are expected for those, and the SSD cooler implementation matches that.

There are two fast PCIe 5.0 slots on this motherboard. This is rather unusual, or rather not the norm to have such a configuration on B850 motherboards (and there is usually only one M.2 PCIe 5.0 slot). Thus, we can conclude that in this area, the ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi is above standard. This slot uses a large cooler that is shared among the other two M.2 SSD slots as well. These are still four-lane, but they support “only” the PCIe 4.0 interface and are connected to the south bridge (B850) instead of the CPU (first two slots).

All M.2 slots for SSDs support only the PCI Express interface, so for SATA drives, you’ll need to use the connectors for 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch storage devices. There are only two of these, and Asus seemingly considers them relatively unimportant. While many users won’t even use a single SATA connector, if you plan to connect multiple HDDs, you should be aware of this limitation. The number of drives is strictly limited to what you can connect through the two available SATA ports.

On the other hand, the 20-phase power delivery for the processor is quite robust, specifically the strong Vcore setup. This means that the motherboard is designed to handle high-performance processors, including the most powerful Ryzen 9 models, and also opens the door for performance boosts via PBO. The power delivery system available here can withstand more than most other B850 motherboards. This is further evidenced by the lowest VRM temperatures we have recorded on the AMD AM5 platform.

The external power supply for the processor is delivered through two 8-pin connectors. While a single 8-pin connection is sufficient for all Granite Ridge processors (including the R9 9950X), using both connectors helps distribute the current load over a larger cross-section, which is beneficial, as it results in lower temperature per connector.

The rear panel boasts twelve USB ports, two of which are Type-C (supporting 20 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s speeds). The Ethernet connection is 2.5 Gb (Intel I226-V), and there are two 3.5 mm jacks powered by the Realtek ALC4080 codec. This reduced number of audio jacks is becoming increasingly common on motherboards, as multi-channel audio setups are no longer expected to be connected via analog outputs. For digital connections, an optical S/PDIF output is available.

The ARGB LED lighting is within the housing between the VRM and the external connectors – the light guide is in the shape of the ROG graphic logo. Changing colours, effects or brightness is possible via the Armoury Crate app.

Please note: The article continues in the following chapters.

• Contents
• Asus ROG Strix B850-F Gaming WiFi in detail
• What it looks like in the BIOS
• Methodology: Performance tests
• Methodology: How we measure power draw
• Methodology: Temperature and clock speed measurements
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Borderlands 3
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Visual effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Photos: Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, ...
• (De)compression
• (De)encryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• M.2 (SSD) slots speed
• USB ports speed
• Ethernet speed
• Power draw without power limits
• Power draw with power limits
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperature
• VRM temperature – thermal imaging of Vcore and SOC
• SSD temperature
• Chipset temperature (south bridge)
• Conclusion