MSI B450M Mortar Micro-ATX Ryzen Motherboard Review

B450M Mortar We haven't seen many B450 motherboards in for review since they launched, so today is a good day. I have in my hands, the B450M Mortar from MSI. We loved their B350 version which joined us with the previous Ryzen launches, and they should be a nice upgrade for it. It's still pretty much the same design, but a few nips and tweaks are included. Of course, it comes with the right BIOS out of the box too, making it compatible with Ryzen 2000 series CPUs and more. There haven't been many mATX Ryzen motherboards either, so it's certainly nice to see more hitting the market. Let's dive in for a closer look at what it has to offer! Features Supports AMD Ryzen™ 1st and 2nd Generation/ Ryzen™ with Radeon™ Vega Graphics Processors for Socket AM4 Supports DDR4 Memory, up to 3466(OC) MHz Extended Heatsink Design: MSI extended PWM and enhanced circuit design ensures even high-end processors to run in full speed. Lightning Fast Game experience: 1x TURBO M.2, AMD Turbo USB 3.1 GEN2, Store MI technology Core Boost: With premium layout and fully digital power design to support more cores and provide better performance. DDR4 Boost: Advanced technology to deliver pure data signals for the best gaming performance and stability. MULTI-GPU: With PCI-E STEEL ARMOR slot. Supports 2-Way AMD Crossfire™ Mystic Light and Mystic Light Sync: 16.8 million colors / 10 effects in one click. Synchronize RGB strips and other RGB solutions for customization. Audio Boost: Reward your ears with studio grade sound quality for the most immersive audio experience BIOS FLASHBACK+: Simply use a USB key to flash any BIOS within seconds, without installing a CPU, memory or graphics card. In-Game Weapons: Game Boost, GAMING Hotkey, X-Boost EZ Debug LED: Easiest way to troubleshoot. Specifications For in-depth specifications, please visit the official MSI product page here. What MSI Had to Say "Using only the finest quality components and integrating the latest technological innovations delivers the best possible gaming and professional experience. Rigorous quality testing under the most extreme conditions ensures a super reliable, high performance motherboard." - MSI What's in the Box A Closer Look Just like the other Mortar series motherboards, the B450 is a pretty fantastic looking motherboard. Sure, it's not completely over the top, but it doesn't have to be for this chipset. It's got a subtle military design and a pretty monochrome finish that will blend in well with any other hardware in your system. Connectivity is excellent on this motherboard. There are plenty of fan headers to deal with your cooling; for an mATX system at least. There's a good selection of USB options too, including a 3.1 header. Mystic Light There's an RGB header, with support for Mystic Light and Mystic Light Sync. I love the design of the heatsinks too, simple, yet stylish. There are four DIMM slots, with support for DDR4 up to 3466 (OC). They're not armoured or RGB, but that's to be expected at this price range anyway. The standard AM4 socket, which supports all Ryzen processors and APUs. Of course, this includes all the features of the latest Gen 2 Ryzen 2000 CPUs. VRM The upgraded heat sink design uses multiple layers of overhang, increasing the surface area despite the compact size. This, combined with their improved PWM will help you maintain your overclocks and system stability with ease. There are two full-size PCIe slots, with the top one wired as 16x and the bottom as 8x, offering support for SLI/Crossfire. The top slot is armoured to support the weight of heavy GPUs. However, the bottom one will do just fine and does come with some metal braces to give it added strength. There are also two 1x slots, as well as two M.2slots for added connectivity. Around the back, connectivity is fantastic given this is a B series, not an X series motherboard. there's plenty of USB ports, including a Type-C connector. There are gold-plated audio jacks, as well as an optical port. There's even a pair of display outputs, and BIOS reset button; not bad for a mid-range board, not bad at all! How We Test Testing Procedure Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of motherboard, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there's always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Testing Your Own System 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 our benchmarks and settings where possible. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware we tested to give you a ballpark figure of how much an upgrade this will provide you with. Intel Testbenches Z370 Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Intel Core i7-8700K RAM - Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler – Noctua D15S Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X299 Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Intel Core i9-7900X RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit B360 Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Intel Core i7-8700K RAM - Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz CPU Cooler – Noctua D15S Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit AMD Testbenches X399 (Threadripper) Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Threadripper 1950X RAM - Crucial DDR4 2400MHz Quad-Channel 32GB CPU Cooler – Noctua D15S Graphics Card – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply – BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X470 Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Ryzen 7 2700X RAM - G.Skill 3400MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit X370 Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Ryzen 7 1800X RAM - GeIL DDR4 2977MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit B450 Motherboard – Changes Per Review CPU – Ryzen 7 2700X RAM - G.Skill 3400MHz Dual Channel 16GB CPU Cooler - Noctua D15S with dual fans Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Power Supply - BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 850 Watt Main Storage Drive - Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis - Lian Li T80 Test Bench Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit Games and Settings Used All games are tested on a 60 Hz display with V-Sync off for all tests. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Pure Hair Off Deus Ex (Steam) DX12 Medium Preset Ghost Recon: Wildlands (Uplay) Medium Preset Turf Effects Off Far Cry Primal (Uplay) Normal Preset Software Used 3DMark Fire Strike (download) FireStrike (1080p) Benchmark Unigine Superposition (download) 1080p Extreme Benchmark PCMark 10 Professional (download) Express Benchmark WPrime (download) 32M and 1024M Power usage recorded at 1024M 50% complete, thermals recorded at 75% complete CineBench R15 (download) CPU Multi CPU Single Handbrake (download) Custom MP4 to MKV 4K conversion (details below) AIDA64 Engineer (download) CPU-Z (download) HWMonitor (download) Handbrake To stress processors to their absolute limit and accurately judge their performance in video editing workloads, we transcode a 7.7GB compilation of gaming footage; this particular file is freely available from here. The captured footage is 22 minutes and 12 seconds long, it has a bit rate of 50.1 Mbps, and it uses the Advanced Video Codec. Additionally, the video runs at a constant 30 frames-per-second and opts for a 3820 x 2140 (4K) resolution. Once loaded into Handbrake, we then transcode the 4K MP4 to an MKV file using the "normal" profile. Other Notes A rest period of 2-5 minutes is observed between each piece of software allowing the system to return to its idle power usage and temperatures. Background services like Windows Update are checked to not be running during the testing period by setting WiFi to Metered Connection. Updates All games, graphics card drivers, BIOS, Windows and everything else is always kept up to date with the latest available. Older benchmarks may not be retested until stated otherwise. However, all hardware will be tested with the best and latest firmware and software available to that hardware at the time of review. As of 1st of May 2018, all hardware was retested on their latest drivers. Anything after this date will again be using their most recent versions available to them. Thanks Thank you to Noctua, Crucial, ASUS, Gigabyte, Lian-Li, be quiet!, OCZ, for providing the hardware that helps makes these tests possible! Synthetic Benchmarks With the new Ryzen 200 series CPUs powering it, the MSI Mortar B450 packs quite a performance punch. Keep in mind, that B450 is the non-enthusiast mainstream chipset, compared to the flagship X470 stuff. However, it still holds its own pretty darn well, posting scores closer to the high-end boards. The only major strength of the X470's is more robust VRM and overclocking hardware. However, as you can see below, for the most part, the B450 chipset pulls nicely ahead of the older B360 chipset and keeps a solid pace with X470 motherboards; actually beating a few of them in some tests. Scores 3DMark - 20822 Unigine - 5569 PCMark 10 - 5551 WPrime - 3.552/97.668 Cinebench - 176/1803 Handbrake - 59.5 3DMark Firestrike Unigine Superposition PCMark 10 Express WPrime Cinebench R15 Handbrake MP4 to MKV Conversion 4K Power Consumption Overclocking The board has zero issues hitting our 4.2 GHz target on all cores. This isn't the most complex overclocking motherboard in the world, however, that's a good thing. It was as easy as dialling in the clock speed and the voltage, and we were good to go. With the bigger VRM (for a B450) on this motherboard, stability was faultless throughout our testing. As you can see, it hit a respectable 20806 in 3DMark and saw a steady performance gain in both WPrime and CineBench too. Scores 3DMark - 20806 WPrime - 3.58/91.1 CineBench - 177/1888 3DMark Firestrike WPrime Cinebench R15 Gaming Performance While the gaming performance isn't exactly setting the world on fire, it's certainly competitive. It's pulling ahead of many other Ryzen based motherboards, even on higher-end chipsets. It's also very competitive and a little faster than the other two B450 motherboards we've tested to date. Overall, I'm very happy with the results, and the frame rates are obviously pretty fantastic. For gaming, without a doubt, this is a great choice for Ryzen based systems. Scores Rise of the Tomb Raider - 187 Deus Ex - 80.6/107.9 Ghost Recon - 113/131.2 Far Cry - 89/120 Rise of the Tomb Raider Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Ghost Recon: Wildlands Far Cry Primal Final Thoughts How Much Does it Cost? The MSI B450M Mortar AM4 Ryzen Motherboard is available now from most major retailers. It's on Amazon for just £100.13, which is pretty decent given the level of features on offer. Sure, there are other solutions that are cheaper. However, for your extra investment you get great overclocking, and a few extra bells and whistles to enhance your system performance and stability. Overview I love the B350 version of this motherboard, well enough that I actually bought one myself. The latest version isn't a world apart in features, but it does have its perks. For starters, it offers out of the box support for the Ryzen 2000 series processors. For those entering the world of Ryzen now, this would be the chipset to go for. You can spend more for X470 series boards, but unless you're building a pretty extreme system or going for mental overclocks, there's little benefit in doing so for most consumers. Performance Obviously, the performance is better on this motherboard than the last gen. However, much of that comes from us testing it with the new CPUs vs the old ones. Of course, with support for all the latest features of Ryzen 2000 CPUs, this motherboard allows us to unlock that extra performance in a way that B350 couldn't. With AM4 sockets, you can fit any Ryzen CPU though, which is a huge bonus. Furthermore, the performance in our benchmarks and gaming was the best we've seen for B450 so far, making it a great investment. Connectivity This is certainly the strong point for this motherboard. On the rear I/O alone, you're provided a bank of USB ports, Type-C, HDMI, and Display Port. If that wasn't enough, you also get great audio performance. With gold capacitors, gold-plated jacks, and the fantastic Audio Boost amplifier packing a nice punch on up to 7.1 surround systems. In addition to all of this, you have Turbo M.2, Tube USB 3.1 Gen 2, Store MI, Multi-GPU support, RGB header, and more. Should I Buy One? For around £100, you'll be hard pushed to find more for less. While there are cheaper solutions, there are also plenty of more expensive ones. The B450M is the perfect sweet spot for Ryzen. Furthermore, not only is it one of the best Ryzen motherboards for value, it's also one of the few in mATX form factor. What's not to love about that!?