In case you haven't heard, prices for just about everything are going up. If you're looking for a current generation graphics card or an AM5 motherboard, you've probably noticed this. If you're looking for the latter, AMD's B650E and B650 motherboards are finally abundant, and Socket AM5 has come down to an affordable price point.

B650 motherboards are essentially similar to X670/E motherboards. The main difference is that it has only one "chipset" as opposed to a daisy-chained pair of more expensive boards. This means that the B650 has fewer PCIe 4.0 lanes and reduced I/O overall; unlike the B650E, the B650 board forgoes PCIe 5.0 graphics support, while most boards maintain PCIe 5.0 M.2 support. Given the lack of available PCIe 5.0 devices, it can be difficult to justify the cost of a high-end board. This is where boards like the Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WiFi come in.

The TUF B650 Plus, however, is no bare-bones, stripped-down cheapie; it supports PCIe 5.0 SSDs. It is also a board with a decent VRM, 2.5G LAN, WiFi, 20Gbps USB, and other features that provide the key features expected from a socket AM5 motherboard, plus longevity with plenty of upgrade potential.

Asus will likely update the BIOS regularly as chips like the upcoming 7000X3D series become available and add support for Zen 5 or even Zen 6 in the future. Personally, I am not worried about missing PCIe 5.0 GPU support at this time.

Still, is the Asus TUF B650 worth bartering your hard-earned dollars, pounds, euros, pesos, or whatever?

At one time, the TUF series had a military aesthetic, but it has become Asus' mainstream gaming brand, placing it below the ROG and Strix series.The Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WiFi is about $239 (new tab)/£238 (open in new tab)/$469 AUD (open in new tab). This is in the middle of the B650 pack and extremely lower than the cheapest X670 option; Asus offers a cheaper mATX version of the TUF B650, and in some regions a non-Wi-Fi version.

I really like the look of this board. The board is businesslike, with blocky angles and graph stencils. There are no stylish embellishments and no RGB LEDs of any kind. There are three ARGB headers and a further non-addressable header, though, if needed.

The primary M.2 slot supports up to PCIe 5.0, while the other two support PCIe 4.0. Cooling for the primary slot is relatively small compared to some of the larger M.2 heatsinks I have seen, including those included with the Asrock X670E Pro RS (open in new tab) and the Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master (open in new tab) The heatsink dissipates heat. Make sure the heatsink has good airflow so that it does not absorb heat from the neighboring GPU instead of dissipating it.

Fun fact: The coordinates on the bottom M.2 heatsink are for the Asus headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan.

The board supports one 5Gbps Type-C front connector, up to two Type-A and four USB 2.0 ports. Not bad, but a 10 Gbps Type-C port would have been nice.

Seven fan headers provide adequate cooling for a board in this class.

The VRM is decent, if not spectacular; expecting a 105A high output stage is limited to boards costing more than twice as much. 12+2 phase design with a 60A stage was enough to power my Ryzen 9 7950X (open in new tab) with no problems. The board has a 4+8 pin CPU. The board includes a 4+8-pin CPU power connector.

Asus did a great job with the cooling design of the TUF B650 Plus. The large, chunky heatsink provides a lot of surface area while allowing a lot of air to circulate freely. Some mid-tier boards may skimp a bit on VRM cooling. Asus, however, did not.

The TUF B650 Plus has a full complement of rear I/O ports. The centerpiece is a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port. In addition, there are three 10Gbps ports and four USB 2.0 ports, which is sufficient for keyboards, mice, printers, and other items that do not require fast (and costly) ports.

It has 2.5G LAN and WiFi 6, but not 6E, a BIOS flashback button, and HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4 ports. The latter gives us a good option if AMD decides to release a Ryzen 7000 APU. Alternatively, it can be used with the basic integrated GPU features currently found on all Ryzen 7000 series CPUs.

Asus does not specify the audio controller used in the TUF B650 Plus, but the SNR ratio is the same as the Realtek S1200A 7.1 codec found on recent Asus motherboards; it has five 3.5mm jacks, one for the TUF B650 Plus and one for the TUF B650 Plus.

See benchmarks.

System Performance

Gaming Performance

So far we have only two sets of results for the B650/E and one for the X670E. More will follow, of course.

As usual, the benchmarks don't reveal much, except to show that the 7950X really is a multi-threaded beast. These results show that all three boards are within the margin of error.

Asus' BIOS is a bit more difficult to navigate for novice users than BIOSes from other manufacturers, but Asus fans will feel right at home here. An impressive ECO mode is present, along with several enhanced modes.

AMD's enhanced PBO mode is an underrated feature. It is a great way to tune a system to optimize for any type of cooler or to keep the CPU from getting too hot. Excessive fan speed is undesirable for everyone.

PBO is worth a look, especially if you plan to install a non-X Ryzen 9 7900 or Ryzen 7 7700. Who doesn't like free performance?

The Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WiFi is designed primarily as a motherboard for budget-minded gamers and does very well in that role. At this price point, you can't expect all the bells and whistles. As long as you don't expect too much, it's a great motherboard.

If you are a builder looking for an AM5 motherboard for a Ryzen 7000 CPU, single GPU, and fast SSD, the Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WiFi is a board worth considering.

The large VRM heatsinks are impressive. The 7950X I tested worked fine and the heatsink never got uncomfortably warm. At least as long as there is case airflow, the VRMs will be fine with PBO enabled. Be careful to adhere to reasonable expectations and don't continue to apply more than 1.5V to a high core count CPU for hours at full load.

A typical Asus BIOS improvement can be found here: we were able to run the DDR5-6000 C30 kit for testing simply by enabling the EXPO profile. This is a problem we recently encountered due to improperly applied memory controller voltages; Asus is usually ahead of the curve when it comes to support for newly released memory kits.

You have to ask yourself if you value PCIe 5.0 GPU support. However, if you will be using this board for several years (and will likely support future Zen CPUs), then we recommend that you consider the B650E option.

Another point of contention is the lack of WiFi 6E support; WiFi 6E infrastructure is not yet particularly widespread, but if you live in a crowded home or apartment with lots of WiFi signals, it is something to consider. There is a lot of competition in this price range, many of which have WiFi 6E.

The TUF B650 is a solid entry into this market; the TUF B650 is a solid entry into the market, has a sleek feel and a good core feature set with excellent cooling. It may not check all the feature boxes, but as a board for 2023 systems, it has most of what you need and happily delivers 7950X and RTX 4090 (open in new tab) class performance. Competition is very stiff, but if you're an Asus fan, you won't be disappointed.