ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi Motherboard Review

ASUS is well known for its high-end motherboards, and with the release of the ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi Motherboard, those wanting to build a feature-packed AMD gaming system have a lot to be excited about. It features a powerful VRM configuration, the latest PCIe 5.0 X16 and M.2, and plenty of other hardware improvements to ensure you can get the best out of the latest and greatest hardware, such as the Ryzen 7000 series processors and 6400MH+ DDR5 memory. ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi The ASUS ROG Strix B650E-F Gaming WiFi comes with a powerful 12+2 VRM configuration and 80A Power Stages, which should be more than enough for pushing the boost clocks and overclocks on the top-end processors, and a large VRM heatsink to ensure it can maintain that performance for those long gaming sessions, hours of rendering or overclocking benchmarks more easily. Features AMD Socket AM5: Ready for AMD Ryzen 7000 Series desktop processors Robust Power Solution: 12 + 2 power stages with 8 + 4 pin ProCool power connectors, high-quality alloy chokes, and durable capacitors to support multi-core processors Optimized Thermal Design: Massive VRM heatsinks with strategically cut airflow channels and high conductivity thermal pads Next-Gen M.2 Support: One PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and two PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots, all with heatsinks to maximize performance Advanced Connectivity: One USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C and ten additional rear USB ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C front-panel connector, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and one PCIe 5.0 x16 SafeSlot High-Performance Networking: On-board WiFi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.2, and Intel 2.5G Ethernet with ASUS LANGuard Intelligent Control: ASUS-exclusive Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation and AI Networking Immersive Gaming Audio: ALC4080 with Savitech SV3H712 amplifier, along with DTS Sound Unbound and Sonic Studio III What ASUS Had to Say This mean machine is the heart of your next hot rod. With the stunning speed of PCIe 5.0 and WiFi 6E, hearty cooling from onboard heasinks, and advanced power design engineered for the latest Ryzen™ processors, the ROG Strix B650E-F leaves its competition in the dust. - ASUS A Closer Look ASUS has a strong record for making great-looking motherboards, and I've always been a fan of their STRIIX designs, as they're always geared up to excite the gaming market, especially with their STRIX designs which have large heatsinks and funky graphics printed all over them. The VRM heatsinks are nice and large, and so they should be on a STRIX board, which has a powerful VRM configuration, so it should be able to push some decent CPU performance from the flagship Ryzen 700 series CPUs. The CPU is fed from an 8-pin EPS connector, but there's an optional 4-pin to add more power and improve overall voltage stability for more powerful processors. There are four DIMM slots, which come with some reinforcement in the middle and on the ends to ensure the slots don't bend or flex. The lower half of the board features four separate heatsinks, with a thicker one on the primary M.2 slot, two longer ones on the lower M.2 slots, and a larger one for the chipset, so all your hardware should run at its best. The top PCIe slot is fully armoured too, so it should have no problems dealing with the bulky weight of modern graphics cards. Stripping away the armour, it's easy to see there's a robust-looking VRM configuration here, with premium quality black capacitors surrounding the CPU, but also everywhere else on the board, as this is a premium quality motherboard overall. The CPU uses a 12+2 VRM configuration with 80A power stages, which may not be as crazy as what we see on the flagship boards, but it's certainly more than anyone needs and should be more than enough to push the top-end Ryzen 7000 series CPU boost clocks to their max How We Test We continue to update our testing methods around once per year. As such, we re-test older hardware to reflect changes over time. These can be driver updates, Windows updates, game patches, and more; all of which have an impact on performance figures. Furthermore, we update our test benches to newer and more relevant hardware. This means that our new reviews aren’t always comparable to those of older reviews, so please compare the testing methodology on older reviews should you be trying to compare them with newer ones. Replicate Our Results When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory and are kept as simple as possible, although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of a graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there’s always a margin for error when using any software. Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you’re looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using the benchmarks available to you. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware tested here to give you a ballpark figure of how much of an upgrade this will provide you with. Motherboard Test Systems Test System (AM5) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor AMD Ryzen 9 7900X GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (AM4) Motherboard Changes Per Review Buy Now Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z690) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 12900K GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Test System (Z590) Motherboard Changes Per Review Review Buy Now Processor Intel Core i9 11900K GPU Zotac RTX 3090 Trinity Review Buy Now RAM Kingston Fury Renegade DDR4 32GB 3600MHz Review Buy Now CPU Cooler NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB Buy Now Power Supply NZXT C1000 Gold Review Buy Now Storage Seagate FIRECUDA 530 1TB Review Buy Now Chassis NZXT H7 Flow Review Buy Now OS Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 Drivers Graphics: 516.94 Additional Hardware ElmorLabs PMD-USB Power Measurement Device With USB (link) Software We use a variety of software from different developers to assist in our testing and to give us the most consistent results possible. Some applications are specifically used for testing, while others are simply used for monitoring and to aid us in making sure that our results are as accurate as possible. Software Used 3DMark FireStrike & TimeSpy (download) AIDA64 (download) CapFrameX 1.6.9 (download) Cinebench R23 (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) PCMark 10 Express (download) Super PI 2.1 WP (download) Gaming To gauge performance levels which are easily reproduced time after time, by both ourselves and our readers, we now stick strictly to games' default profiles. Given how powerful most modern cards are getting, we've begun using more demanding profiles for most games, but will otherwise state on a per-game basis if we use other profiles beyond High, Ultra, Maximum or their respective equivalent at all resolutions. V-Sync is always disabled in our testing, and all FPS caps that can be removed are. We also enable XMP and Resizable bar technology across all platforms to keep things as fair as possible. Games While we test a lot of games, it's not possible to display all of the data on the website or in our videos. Instead, we include access to all of our testing data for our Patreon members (link), where members get a ton of other benefits as well. What we do, however, is display charts for averages across all game titles to give a better picture of performance across all titles tested. Cyberpunk 2077 Horizon Zero Dawn Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Resolutions 1080p (Full HD) Some tests will also include features such as NVIDIA DLSS and Ray Tracing. However, these will be clearly labelled and may only appear in reviews for graphics cards that support those features. Power Consumption Not being content on simply reading total system power draw at both idle, we now have the ability thanks to the ElmorLabs PMD-USB device that allows us to measure power draw directly through the EPS power connectors. We test at idle, during gaming load, of which we measure drawing a run of Cyberpunk 2077 and during Cinebench R23 at load too. We also use a GW-Instek GPM-8212 power meter to measure the complete system power at the wall to get an idea of how each motherboard compares to one another. VRM Temperatures We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered during the same runs as when we measure power consumption, being during our Cyberpunk 2033 run, and during Cinebench R23 at load too. 3DMark Timespy Extreme 3DMark Time Spy Extreme is a Windows benchmark test that uses DirectX 12 to measure the performance of your gaming PC. It consists of two graphics tests and a CPU test that show complex scenes and simulate game physics and logic. It calculates a score for each test and a combined score for the whole test. You can use it to compare your system with others, test its stability and reliability, and optimize it for better gaming performance. 3DMark is available on Steam here. The ASUS B650E-F Gaming WiFi doesn't disappoint either, flying to the top of the charts on our first benchmark, with a very respectable score of 9099, and our highest CPU score of 9495 putting it way ahead of the competition here. PCMark 10 Express PCMark 10 Express is a shorter benchmark that focuses on basic home PC use. It includes the Essentials and Productivity test groups. It is less demanding than the main PCMark 10 benchmark. The Essentials test group covers the common tasks that people do every day with their PCs, such as web browsing, video conferencing, and app start-up time. The Productivity test group measures system performance with everyday office applications, such as writing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Available now on Steam. Even in PCMark 10 Express, which is great for stressing everything from the SSD to the RAM showed it held up great, scoring our second-highest score of 6881 points. Super PI 2.1 WP Super PI is a single-threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. It uses the Gauss-Legendre algorithm and is a Windows port of a program used by Yasumasa Kanada in 1995 to compute pi to 232 digits. Available now on Super PI. It falls down the charts in Super Pi though, I'm not sure why, as it should have done better, but it scored 389 seconds putting it on par with multiple STRIX motherboards. Cinebench R23 Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 23 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user. Available now on Maxon. It is back on firm for Cinebench R23 through, which is one of the highest scores we've seen, hitting a very high 28433 points on multi-core performance and 1973 points for single-core performance. AIDA64 AIDA64 memory benchmark is a feature of AIDA64, a system information and diagnostics software. It measures the bandwidth and latency of the CPU caches and the system memory by performing various read, write, copy, and latency tests. It uses different instruction set extensions and optimizations depending on the processor and memory type. It also supports multi-threading, multi-processor, and multi-core systems. You can use it to compare your system performance with others, test its stability and reliability, and optimize it for better performance. Available now on AIDA64. Memory performance seems a little bit on the low side to what I was expecting, but overall it still is competitive, but has room for improvement. However, what is good to see is that it has the second-lowest latency, and is certainly helping retain the high performance we've seen so far from the CPU. Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the megalopolis of Night City, where you play as a cyberpunk mercenary wrapped up in a do-or-die fight for survival. Improved and featuring all-new free additional content, customize your character and playstyle as you take on jobs, build a reputation, and unlock upgrades. The relationships you forge and the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you. Legends are made here. What will yours be? Available now on Steam. Cyberpunk 2077 is a beast of a game and quickly filters out the weak from the strong, but thankfully for ASUS, their new motherboard does really well, hitting 111 FPS average, and excellent 1% lows of 77 FPS. Horizon Zero Dawn Experience Aloy’s entire legendary quest to unravel the mysteries of a world ruled by deadly Machines. An outcast from her tribe, the young hunter fights to uncover her past, discover her destiny… and stop a catastrophic threat to the future. Unleash devastating, tactical attacks against unique Machines and rival tribes as you explore an open world teeming with wildlife and danger. Horizon Zero Dawn is a multi-award-winning action role-playing game – and this Complete Edition for PC includes the huge expansion The Frozen Wilds, featuring new lands, skills, weapons and Machines. Available now on Steam. It scored well for Horizon too, hitting a very high average refresh rate of 153 FPS and retaining good 1% lows of 119 FPS; not the fastest, but again, it is competitive. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Developed by Insomniac Games in collaboration with Marvel, and optimized for PC by Nixxes Software, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC introduces an experienced Peter Parker who’s fighting big crime and iconic villains in Marvel’s New York. At the same time, he’s struggling to balance his chaotic personal life and career while the fate of Marvel’s New York rests upon his shoulders. Available now on Steam. In Spider-Man Remastered, the B650E-F Gaming WiFi continued to impress, hitting 156 FPS on average, and competitive 1% lows of 105 FPS. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 The Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year (GOTY) Edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, but it is also a “Thank You” to our fans – new and old – that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon. Best of all, the Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition will be available as a free update for existing players on PC. Available now on Steam. Finally, in Flight Simulator 2020, it scored 153 FPS and 1119 FPS, putting it on-pair with the TUF Gaming B650M and the NZXT N7 B650E. Boot Time The boot time was decent too, coming in at just 31 seconds it's certainly one of the quicker booting ASUS boards, which often tend to be some of the slowest to get started. VRM temperatures on motherboards are important because they affect the stability and performance of the CPU, especially when overclocking. VRMs are responsible for regulating the voltage that goes from the PSU to the CPU, which needs to be clean and consistent. High VRM temperatures can cause voltage fluctuations, CPU throttling, or even damage to the motherboard components. VRM Temperatures The heatsinks on this motherboard are significant, which is interesting as while it obviously has a powerful VRM configuration it's actually not total overkill, so that means the VRM heatsinks don't have as much work to do. The result is the coolest VRM temperatures we've seen yet, and at 44.2c, it's clear that heat is never ever going to be a concern on this motherboard. Power Consumption Power consumption on motherboards is important because it affects the stability and performance of the system, especially when overclocking or using high-end components. The power consumption of a motherboard depends on its features, the type of voltage regulator, integrated chipsets and modules, and BIOS power-saving features. The fantastic performance and low temperatures are further backed up by the lowest power consumption too, making this one really fantastic motherboard! How Much Does It Cost? When it first hit the market in 2023, this motherboard launched with an MSRP of £316.99, which I think is a reasonable price given the level of hardware and features that it offers, and even more so given its relative performance. However, it's since come down in price and can be snapped up for just £229.99, making it one of the best-value mid-range gaming motherboards on the market right now. This is a lot of motherboard at a price that's too good to ignore. Overview ASUS is top of their game with the new ASUS ROG STRIX B650E-F Gaming WiFi, and it really does offer up a bit of something for everyone here, and it does so at a fiercely competitive price, especially for an ASUS motherboard, which are often more expensive than their rivals for no other reason than it being an ASUS board. It delivered superb overall system performance, but especially so when it came to CPU performance. What's more staggering is that it did this with the lowest overall power consumption of any board in its class, and significantly lower VRM temperatures, which meant the CPU could be pushed hard for literally hours on end and never have any issues with VRM throttling, making it a prime choice for enthusiast gamers and content creators. While some of the flagship boards cost more than double and come with wild 20+ VRM power stages, it's clear that's just not needed. The 12 + 2 Power Stage design allowed our 7000 Series AMD CPU to absolutely fly, and with robust cooling on the M.2 storage, and consistent GPU performance, it's a solid all-round performer. The only thing that seemed to lack was the memory read, write and copy performance, but at the same time, it delivered some of the best memory latency, which seemed to balance things out, and overall it's clear this didn't hurt the overall performance at all. Should I Buy One? With the latest PCIe 5.0 M.2 for the latest storage, PCIe 5.0 x16 supporting the latest and next-generation of graphics cards, super fast USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-c, ten rear USB ports, exceptional VRM cooling performance, powerful WiFi 6E and 2.5 GbE LAN, and ASUS's flagship ALC40880 Savitech powered audio, this motherboard has it all. Why spend more for more, when clearly this is all you're likely to need?!