ASUS Introduces TUF Gaming B850I WiFi Neo Mini-ITX AM5 Motherboard

ASUS has introduced the TUF Gaming B850I WiFi Neo motherboards, marking the first time the TUF Gaming brand has appeared in a Mini-ITX 17 x 17 cm form factor. The board is an AMD AM5 platform built around the B850 chipset and supports Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 series processors. The two memory slots support up to 128 GB DDR5 modules, with speeds varying by CPU: up to DDR5-8200 with Ryzen 9000, DDR5-9600 with Ryzen 8000, and DDR5-8000 with Ryzen 7000. Both EXPO and ASUS AEMP profiles are supported. The PCIe x16 slot runs at Gen 5 with Ryzen 7000 / 9000 chips and at Gen 4 with Ryzen 8000. The motherboard features two M.2 slots and two SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Worth noting that ASUS labels both M.2 slots as PCIe 5.0, but the spec sheet tells a different story: the first slot is CPU-attached PCIe 5.0 x4 on Ryzen 7000 and 9000, while the second is chipset-attached PCIe 4.0 x4 regardless of CPU.

Power delivery is handled by an 8 + 2 + 1 phase VRM rated at 80 A and built on a 10-layer PCB. The rear came with a pre-mounted I/O shield and offers a USB 20 Gbps Type-C port, two USB 10 Gbps Type-A, one USB 5 Gbps Type-A, two USB 2.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, 2.5 GbE via Realtek, Wi-Fi 6E, three audio jacks, BIOS FlashBack, and Clear CMOS. Internally, there are two ARGB Gen 2 headers, front panel USB headers, and the usual fan connectors including an AIO pump header. Audio is powered by a Realtek 7.1 HD codec with dedicated PCB layers and shielding, supporting up to 24-bit/192 kHz playback.

Pricing has not been announced. For reference, the ROG Strix B850-I is currently listed at $469.99 in the U.S., suggesting the TUF model will likely come in at a lower price point.