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Firmware
Asus’ BIOS on the B650E-E Gaming is the same as we’re used to with X670E. The BIOS sports the familiar black, red, and yellow ROG theme that’s easy to read. Asus starts in an Easy Mode that displays high-level information, including CPU and memory clock speeds, temperatures, fan speeds, storage information, etc. Advanced Mode has several headers across the top that drop down additional options. The BIOS is one of my favorites, as almost everything you need isn’t buried deep within menus.
Asus’ software suite is still the same with the Armoury Crate and AI Suite, but like the firmware, it gets updated to support the AMD processors. There are several applications for various functions, ranging from RGB lighting control, audio, system monitoring, overclocking, etc. We’ve captured several screenshots of the applications below. Here’s a look at Ai Suite 3, Armoury Crate, Sonic Studio and the Realtek Audio application.
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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Prev Page Features and Specifications Next Page Benchmarks and Final AnalysisJoe Shields is a Freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US. He reviews motherboards.
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pug_s I thought B650 mothboards would be cheaper. I would expect them be around $100 for the budget range, but I guess I am wrong.Reply -
belgeek I would have loved a test of their "PBO Enhancement" feature.Reply
It's one of the reason that i'm considering their board. -
CeltPC
Tom's used to do quite in-depth MB reviews, they now seem to be cursory. Not only do they skip the PBO enhancement - a very cool and useful feature, but they rate the Auros Master higher, despite the less than desirable PCI-e sharing arrangement of the Gigabyte. Always look to other reviews to get a complete view of things.belgeek said:I would have loved a test of their "PBO Enhancement" feature.
It's one of the reason that i'm considering their board. -
jimbo6262
Question, in the manual, says: "When M.2 3 is occupied with an SSD device, PCIEX16 1 will run x8 only." also when PCIEX16_2 is plugged in, it will be PCIEX16_1 running at 8X, PCIEX16_2 will run at 4X and M.2_3 will be 4X ALL GEN5.Admin said:The Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming is a cost-effective, B650 flagship-class motherboard with 12 USB ports on the rear IO, two PCIe 5.0 M.2 sockets, and a solid audio solution for under $350.
Asus ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming Wi-Fi Review: More Affordable ROG : Read more
I'm thinking that instead of PCIE 8X 8X, this board will share that 2nd PCIE lane as PCIEX16_2 at 4X and M.2_3 at 4X GEN 5.
However, the review state that "Last, M.2_3 also sources its lanes from the chipset and runs PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) speeds..."
I'm just confused... -
javorenator Asus really outdid themselves putting only a slow third party SATA chip ASM1061. This was not tested in the review and this is not really good. You can only find it in the forums where people complain. Did you guys forget that if now I want to put 4TB or 12TB or even 2TB cheap storage I can easily go for a SATA drive.Reply -
Safetytrousers
I don't know of any board where you populate the second PCIe slot the 1st slot doesn't drop to x8. It's no surprise that populating the second slot would make those drops if m2.3 is used. But the board gives you those choices (2nd slot or 2nd nvme x5), and the 2 PCIe 4 nvme slots can both be used with no other consequence.jimbo6262 said:Question, in the manual, says: "When M.2 3 is occupied with an SSD device, PCIEX16 1 will run x8 only." also when PCIEX16_2 is plugged in, it will be PCIEX16_1 running at 8X, PCIEX16_2 will run at 4X and M.2_3 will be 4X ALL GEN5.
I'm thinking that instead of PCIE 8X 8X, this board will share that 2nd PCIE lane as PCIEX16_2 at 4X and M.2_3 at 4X GEN 5.
However, the review state that "Last, M.2_3 also sources its lanes from the chipset and runs PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) speeds..."
I'm just confused...