AMD’s B550 at the maximum: Gigabyte B550 Vision D review - a bit special, but also pleasantly different | Page 7

Summary

The limitations of the motherboard, if you can call them that, are solely due to the B550 chipset. Every manufacturer and customer of a B550 motherboard must be able to cope with this. So, if you can come to terms with the somewhat limited connection variety and the limited downlink of the chipset and its consequences, because you don’t need more, you’ll actually get almost the maximum of what you can do with exactly this chipset with the Gigabyte B550 Vision D.

Together with the anything but uniform look and the white highlights of the board design, it is the small details that are not immediately recognizable at first glance that make the price of currently approx. 260, but at least they can present it in a reasonably plausible way. Because the board is bought quite neatly and against the price but because of the features. I couldn’t argue otherwise, because customers know best what they need.

There’s the double Thunderbolt connector on the back, which Gigabyte doesn’t call that. According to the specs, it is officially 2x USB-C with 40 GB/s, which is best suited for connecting suitable displays and output devices. Even an external graphic card box could be fitted with it without any loss. With some storage devices with Thunderbolt connection the whole thing does not always work, but it is not advertised as such. Anyway, my docking station with Thunderbolt cable did exactly what I know from my notebook. So it fits. The fact that there is no 20-pin header for the front USB-C is annoying, but can be compensated for in an emergency by means of an adapter, because there are two sockets at the back.

Headphones in the back are no big deal, but those who prefer them in the front will be penalized at the maximum level, not only with higher impedance devices. Amplifier at the rear would work, if the level over the driver is limited to a maximum of 50%. Otherwise you can even override the system. On the other hand, there are special cases, where you may need much more than 1 Volt. Then you’re lucky. In this sense, this is not a real point of criticism for me, just a missing reference in the manual. We really need that here.

The UEFI is nicely designed does not give up any riddles. Except for the fact that AMD Precision Boost Overdrive was used here somewhat more restrictively in order to limit the maximum power dissipation of the CPU by default, everything is as you would like it to be. The RGB does it on the two external headers, the fan connectors are loosely enough and thus it’s a board without big excitements and errors, which can be quite nice. Basic solid up to the last corner, which also concerns the voltage transformers. The cooling surface is a bit small, but not even 65 °C at 135 watts continuous load after 30 minutes are still above average despite everything.

Conclusion

If you like the connectivity and the look and feel, you will certainly also like the approx. 260 euro is not too much to pay for the Gigabyte B550 Vision D at the moment. The arguments that you can already get good boards with X570 chipset and better PCIe 4.0 connectivity for it, cannot be contradicted when it comes to the pure average user. But he will hardly buy such a board anyway. Too little RGB, too little gaming prestige, which on the surface is usually only defined by the optics.

For the use in the creation or B2B area, if there are several networks and possibly the connection of Thunderbolt periphery is possible, the whole thing is relativized quite fast, because the board is a sociable, cool fellow and no fairground booth. Whoever recognizes this, the motherboard and its price will certainly not be a pain in the ass. I personally like it, objectively from the test and subjectively because I’m more into those things. Which is not to say that I have no use for gaming products. But for work, I prefer to work in silence rather than in a gaudy hardware collective.

And one last thing: the courage to use eye-catching colours must be rewarded, even if it is a simple white. If you take a look at my website, you know what I mean by that. Stand out without falling over. So it fits.