Sporting a military-inspired aesthetic, the ASUS TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI is a mainstream AMD B850 motherboard offering that comes with a well-balanced set of features for a modern AM5 gaming PC build.

AMD launched its “Zen 5” Ryzen 9000 series of processors back in August 2024 - for some reason, AMD chose to launch its new 800-series chipsets more than a month after the launch of its Ryzen 9000 CPUs, starting first with the high-end X870E and X870 chipsets back in end-September 2024, and leaving the older B650E, B650 and A620 chipsets to be the flagbearers for mainstream AM5 chipset offerings. Fast forward to January 2025, we now finally have AMD’s mid-range and entry-level 800-series chipsets arriving on the scene, in the form of the B850 and the B840.

To get in on the launch excitement, we'll be taking a look at a B850 motherboard that is targeted at consumers looking to build a mainstream AMD Ryzen 9000 or Ryzen 7000 gaming PC - the ASUS TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI. Sporting a sleek white aesthetic, coupled with features such as a beefy VRM setup, PCIe Gen 5 support for a graphics card and a M.2 drive, WIFI 7 support and a handful of quality-of-life features, read on to learn more about this motherboard!

Summary of Specifications

Processor Support: AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 series processors
Chipset: AMD B850
Memory: 4x DDR5 slots, max 192GB, up to DDR5 8000+ (OC) support (as of January 2025)
Audio: Realtek ALC1220P audio codec
LAN: Realtek RTL8125D 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI: MediaTek MT7925B22M WIFI 7 module with built-in Bluetooth 5.4
Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 2x PCIe 4.0 x1, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (operates at x4 mode)
Storage: 4x SATA III, 1x PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2, 2x PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 (M.2 slots support NVMe drives only)
Form Factor: ATX
Official Product Page: https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/tuf-gaming/tuf-gaming-b850-plus-wifi/

Do note that PCIe 5.0 is supported only when a Ryzen 9000 or Ryzen 7000 series CPU is installed on this motherboard - Ryzen 8000 APUs only support the PCIe 4.0 standard.

Packaging & Contents

In keeping with the design language of the TUF GAMING line-up of products, the B850-PLUS WIFI comes in a box sporting a black-and-grey colour scheme, with a touch of yellow thrown in for contrast. Over on the rear of the box, we get the usual summary of specs for this board.

The board comes with the following accessories:

• WIFI Q-Antenna
• 2x SATA III cables 
• 2x packs of M.2. drive rubber pads (adds height clearance for single-sided M.2 SSDs)
• Quick start guide
• ASUS WebStorage promotional leaflet
• TUF Gaming sticker sheet

Board Aesthetics

Appearance wise, ASUS has gone for a predominantly black colour scheme with small touches of yellow; as can be seen, a military-like aesthetic is the name of the game here, which is very much in line with the TUF Gaming brand identity. The board comes with an integrated I/O shield design, and has black-coloured heatsinks all around.

Over on the rear of the board, we get some subtle TUF GAMING motifs which are a nice touch, in spite of the fact most of these motifs would likely never see the light of day when the board is installed inside of a PC case.

Fans of integrated RGB lighting effects for their motherboards can rejoice, as the TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI comes with an illuminated TUF Gaming motif that can be found along the long edge of the board.

The B850 has a single chipset design, and the said chipset sits beneath thepassive heatsink pictured above, which comes with a TUF Gaming motif emblazoned on it in a mirror chrome finish.

For M.2 drive cooling, ASUS has provided full heatsink coverage for all three M.2 drive slots that this board comes with.

VRM & Memory Support

The VRM heatsinks for this board are decently-sized, and ASUS has included 14+2+1 power stages with 80A Dr.MOS power phases.

For memory support, the TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI comes with four DDR5 slots that as of the time of writing this article, support a maximum of 192GBs of RAM and the DDR5 8000+ standard when overclocked.

Front Panel USB Headers

For front panel USB connectivity, the TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI comes with a single USB 10Gbps Type-C front panel header, as well as a USB 5Gbps Type-A front panel header that provides support for up to two USB 5Gbps Type-A ports.

Two USB 2.0 front panel headers are also included near the bottom edge of the board, where each of these USB 2.0 headers provide support for two front panel USB 2.0 Type-A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

In terms of expansion slots, the TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI comes with a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot with ASUS's SafeSlot feature, which reinforces the slot for use with heavy graphics cards.

A nice quality-of-life feature that ASUS has is PCIe Slot Q-Release, which comprises a lever mechanism that facilitates the easy removal of a graphics card from the motherboard.

Moving on, ASUS has also included two PCIe 4.0 x1 slots, as well as a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates at x4 mode.

For your storage drives, ASUS has included four SATA III ports, with two ports in a right-angled configuration and two ports in a straight-angled configuration.

The board also comes with a single PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot and two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. Do note that these slots support M.2 NVMe drives only - M.2 SATA drives will not work with any of these slots.

In addition, the third PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, M.2_3, shares bandwidth with the board's PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates at x4 mode - when a M.2 drive is installed in slot M.2_3, the said PCIe 4.0 x16 slot will be disabled entirely.

Finally, a gentle reminder that PCIe 5.0 is supported only when a Ryzen 9000 series or Ryzen 7000 series processor is installed - if you do have a Ryzen 8000 series APU installed on this board, the Gen 5 M.2 slot will operate at PCIe 4.0 x4 mode instead.

That said, a nice quality-of-life feature that all three M.2 slots have is a new-and-improved Q-Latch mechanism, which makes the installation and removal of M.2 drives a breeze.

Audio & Internet Connectivity

Powering the B850-PLUS WIFI's audio experience is a higher-end Realtek ALC1220P codec...

...while wired internet connectivity is courtesy of another Realtek part, the RTL8125D, which serves up support for 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet. For your wireless needs, MediaTek's MT7925B22M provides support for WIFI7 and Bluetooth 5.4 - do note that the MT7925B22M supports the 160 MHz channel width.

Fan & RGB Headers

The TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI comes with seven fan headers:

• 1x CPU_FAN
• 1x CPU_OPT
• 1x AIO_PUMP
• 4x CHA_FAN

Also included are three Gen 2 addressable RGB headers - do note that the board does not come with any 12V RGB headers at all.

Other Features

Near the top of the motherboard is a set of Q-LEDs that can help with troubleshooting PC start-up issues...

...while over on the bottom edge of the board, we get a serial port header for you folks with legacy devices that still use a serial port.

Also included is a Thunderbolt USB4 add-on card header, which is to be used in conjunction with a Thunderbolt USB4 add-on card that is sold separately by ASUS.

Rounding off this section on special features is a clear CMOS header as well as a chassis intrusion header.

Rear I/O

The TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI comes with an integrated I/O shield, where the following ports can be found on the rear I/O:

• 1x DisplayPort 1.4 (supports display output of up to 8K resolution at 30Hz)
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port (supports display output of up to 4K resolution at 60Hz)
• 3x USB 10Gbps Type-A ports
• 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port
• 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports
• 1x USB 20Gbps Type-C port
• 4x USB 5Gbps Type-A ports
• WIFI antenna connectors
• BIOS FlashBack button
• Audio jack connectors

The BIOS FlashBack feature allows end-users to update the motherboard's BIOS without needing to install a processor, RAM and graphics card.

Conclusion

To sum up, the ASUS TUF GAMING B850-PLUS WIFI comes across as a well-balanced mainstream AMD B850 motherboard offering that comes with the right amount of features that actually matter. We’re talking a decent VRM setup that should handle even high-end AMD Ryzen 9000 processors with ease, PCIe 5.0 support for a graphics card and a M.2 drive, a relatively high-end audio codec, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet and WIFI7 support, as well as a handful of nice quality of life features such as PCIe Slot Q-Release.

That said, one downside that I can think of is the fact that the included MediaTek WIFI7 module doesn’t support the full 320MHz channel width that higher-end WIFI7 modules tend to support, which is a bit of a bummer. Nonetheless, given the features and specs of this board, I’d say that the TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI is still a pretty solid mainstream AMD B850 motherboard offering.

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The motherboard featured in this article was a review unit provided on loan from ASUS Singapore.