ASRock B550 PG Riptide Motherboard Review: Well-Rounded and Affordable

Firmware

The B550 PG Riptide theme carries over from the Phantom Gaming line, using black/red as its predominant colors. As usual, we capture a majority of the BIOS screens to share with you. ASRock includes an Easy Mode for high-level monitoring and adjustments, along with an Advanced section. The BIOS is organized well, with many of the more commonly used functions accessible without drilling down multiple levels to find them. In the end, the BIOS worked well and was easy to navigate and read.

Image 1 of 22

Software

On the software side, ASRock includes a few utilities that cover overclocking and monitoring (PG-Tuning), audio (Nahimic 3), software for updating drivers and downloading applications (App Shop), and of course, RGB control (Polychrome RGB). We did not run into any issues in our limited use of the applications on this board.

Image 1 of 10

Test System / Comparison Products

As of July 2021, we’ve updated our test system to Windows 10 64-bit OS (20H2) with all threat mitigations applied. We also upgraded our video card and driver to an Asus TUF RTX 3070 using version 461.40. Additionally, our game selection changed, as noted in the chart below. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware used is as follows:

Test System Components

Benchmark Settings

MORE: Best Motherboards

MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: All Motherboard Content