Component Analysis

Being a B850 chipset motherboard there's only one chipset on the PCB to contend with, and it gets a reasonably large heatsink all to itself located to the right of the M.2 slots. Compared to X870 and X870E, USB4 is optional rather than standard, that there are fewer PCIe lanes and USB bandwidth above 10 Gbps here is another area that's often cut in favor of hitting lower price points.


Speaking of cuts, Gigabyte has opted for Realtek's ALC897 codec, which is regarded as inferior and has poorer noise levels and dynamic range as a result, although many would find it hard to tell much difference. Of course, there are plenty of slots here to add in your own sound card. Realtek also provides the Ethernet port courtesy of the 2.5 Gbps RTL0125D controller.


Gigabyte's Wi-Fi EZ-Plug is arguably the best enhanced Wi-Fi connector out there, being a single-piece and screw-less design, but if need be you can always swap out the module that's included as inside you're still dealing with standard connectors. The module included here is Realtek's RTL8922AE, which is Wi-Fi 7-capable.