ASUS has unveiled the ProArt B550 Creator motherboard which is the first AMD B550 Chipset motherboard to feature Thunderbolt 4 support. The motherboard has been specially designed for content creators and carries a very unique aesthetic that is designed around the content creator segment.
The ASUS ProArt B550 Creator motherboard has become the first AMD chipset motherboard to get the Thunderbolt 4 port. Before this, the only chipset to feature the Thunderbolt 4 was Intel’s Z590 chipset. The ASUS ProArt becomes the first to get support in the mid-range chipset for AMD’s AM4 socket.
Thunderbolt 4 is a proprietary Intel technology that operates over a USB Type-C port. The port adds power delivery, DisplayPort, and PCIe connection functionally over USB and the new generation improves on the functionality. Before this B550 motherboard, Thunderbolt 4 had only been seen on Intel-based products, appearing on Tiger Lake-U laptops last year and on Z590 motherboards.
The ProArt B550 Creator is the first AMD motherboard to support Thunderbolt 4. The reason it’s special is that the Thunderbolt 4 connector had been reserved exclusively for Intel chipset motherboards.
The ASUS ProArt features two Thunderbolt 4 ports that support DisplayPort 1.2/1.4 video outputs. The supported CPUs on the motherboard are the AMD Ryzen 5000, 4000G, and 3000 CPUs. Coming to the memory support, the motherboard supports speeds up to DDR4-5100 on 4000G series and DDR4-4866 with Ryzen 5000/3000. The connectivity and audio are dual 2.5 Gb Ethernet and Realtek ALC1220 audio.
Intel announced Thunderbolt 4 at CES 2020 and released final specifications in July 2020, a month after the AMD B550 chipset was released. It’s a proprietary Intel technology that operates over a USB Type-C port.
Thunderbolt 4 made a debut with Tiger Lake-U laptops last year; it is expected to expand to Tiger Lake-H high-end gaming laptops later this year. The connector is already available with recently released Z590 motherboards. ASUS announced that ProArt B550 Creator will retail at 299 USD.
