AMD’s X670-series motherboards are notorious for their pricing, driven in part by the cost of the chipset and requirements for PCIe 5.0/DDR5 signalling, so this B650 review has provided us with welcome perspective on the state of the mainstream market. In short, it’s kind of a mixed bag.

GIGABYTE’s B650 AUROS ELITE AX is very much an upper-midrange design in line with pricing, but it’s still a pricey board compared to designs just a generation ago. The cost is quite keen in the US, but UK and AUS markets are still warped by exchange rates and local conditions, pushing this model well above the £250/AUD$350 lines. It’s far from the cheapest ATX B650 model (which, for the record, was £195 at the time of writing), but still so far below typical X670/X670E designs that it will be a go-to option for those building a new system this Spring.

The motherboard certainly looks the part, enjoying some of the best that B650 offers as a baseline while building on it with quality of life features that we appreciate even if we’d realistically hope to be using them a handful of times over the lifespan of the system. When features like PCIe EZ-Latch are useful, they’re really useful; all credit to GIGABYTE for including them. Marks come off however for the relative dearth of trouble-shooting features, for much the same reason.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the AUROS ELITE AX though is that, at no point in our testing, did it show itself to be a meaningful step down from its X670E counterparts. Theoretically of course they have higher bandwidth graphics and other aspects that would, on paper, mark them out as clearly superior models, but it’s very difficult to leverage those advantages except at the very margins of operation and system specification.

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Furthermore, the B650 AORUS ELITE AX enjoyed lower power consumption and temperatures that were competitive with the rest of the field. For simple day-to-day operation (including gaming) it quite simply appears to be the most attractive option unless all of the additional benefits that X670 fields are used.

Aesthetically, this design is more of a blank canvas than most, but still has some of those small branding highlights that can be frustrating to those aspiring to a unique vision for their PC. Keeping everything stock however won’t embarrass you at your local LAN, and there’s plenty of headers for custom RGB if that’s your thing.

The elephant in the room is Intel’s 13th Generation Core platform. Their mature Z790-series doesn’t carry the same price premium as AMD’s 600-series and isn’t burdened by the requirement of DDR5 memory, while the performance of their CPUs is also widely recognised as most competitive in the mid-range. It’s therefore not all smooth sailing for this and the wise selection of B650 motherboards available today.

The B650 AORUS ELITE is a realistic mid-range entry into the widening 600-series landscape, bringing competitive features and new technologies without an astronomical price. It will prove to be an excellent starting point for any new AMD system build, and should comfortably be the board of choice over most X670 SKUs for the vast majority of potential owners. Only the pricing outside the US (and particularly in the UK) makes this design other than a slam dunk for GIGABYTE.