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Firmware
ASRock’s firmware for B650 retains the same general format as we saw in the Z790 and X670E models. You start in Easy Mode, which is mostly informative but lets you change a few options (RAM, profiles, boot order, Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.).
Advanced mode displays headings across the top with details below. Here you can tweak everything to your heart’s desire, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is easy, with most options on the same page, with some power options in a different section. It’s a logical layout, the movement is smooth, and it’s easy to read. No complaints from us about the ASRock firmware.
Software
Unlike some board partners, ASRock doesn’t combine most of its utilities into one larger application. Instead, they are all standalone programs, which can lead to clutter. But the programs cover a wide gamut of functionality, from overclocking and monitoring (A-Tune - though it’s not ready for this board at the time of writing) to audio (Nahimic), networking (Killer Dashboard) and RGB lighting (Polychrome). All of the applications we used for this board worked without issue. There’s even a pop-up to install drivers when you first boot the system.
Test System / Comparison Products
We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but updated the driver. Additionally, we updated to F1 22 in our games suite and kept Far Cry 6. We use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public unless otherwise noted. The hardware we used is as follows:
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X |
| Memory | GSkill Trident Z DDR5-5600 CL36 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) |
| GPU | Asus TUF RTX 3070 |
| Cooling | Cooler Master MasterLiquid PL360 Flux |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 850W P6 |
| Software | Windows 11 64-bit (22H2, Build 22622.601) |
| Graphics Driver | Nvidia Driver 522.25 |
| Sound | Integrated HD audio |
| Network | Integrated Networking (GbE or 2.5 GbE) |
EVGA supplied our Supernova 850W P6 power supply (appropriately sized and more efficient than the 1.2KW monster we used previously) for our test systems, and G.Skill sent us a DDR5-5600 (F5-5600U3636C16GX2-TZ5RK) memory kit for testing.
Benchmark Settings
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | Row 0 - Cell 1 |
| Procyon | Version 2.1.459 64 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 22.6.2.2), Photo Editing (Photoshop 23.5.1, Lightroom Classic 11.5) |
| 3DMark | Version 2.22.7359 64 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Firestrike Extreme and Time Spy Default Presets |
| Cinebench R23 | Version RBBENCHMARK330542 |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded |
| Blender | Version 3.3.0 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Full benchmark (all 3 tests) |
| Application Tests and Settings | Row 9 - Cell 1 |
| LAME MP3 | Version SSE2_2019 |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 1.2.2 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) |
| Corona 1.4 | Version 1.4 |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | Custom benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 21.03-beta |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Integrated benchmark (Command Line) |
| Game Tests and Settings | Row 18 - Cell 1 |
| Far Cry 6 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures On |
| F1 2022 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter On |
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