Best Motherboard for Ryzen 9 5950X

The Gigabyte x570 AORUS motherboard is at the pricier end of our spectrum here, but what you get for the money turns it into a pretty fair value proposition. ATX-supported, it weighs in at 4.85lbs, which for a motherboard means it’s also on the hefty side. So what does it deliver for all that seemingly excess weight?

Well, first and foremost, it brings DDR4 RAM to your gaming party, and there are 4 memory slots available, which should be enough to give you all the RAM you can cope with. An AM4 socket, NVMe tech, and a PCle 4.0 socket give you some serious future-proofing and allow the 5950X to show off its modern multi-threaded, core-heavy tricks. Dual-channel ECC is a cool addition, and the combination of a fins-array heatsink and a direct touch heat pipe is impressive in this board.

The extra joy about this motherboard though – and one of the things that propel it to the top of our list here – is that while it’s chunky, it focuses a lot on the speed of operation. You can work this board up to 4400MHz, and, because sure, why not, it’s also XMP capable.

High-speed networking is at your fingertips here too, with Intel Wifi-6. And while we’d normally say a motherboard probably needs an add-on sound system, the AORUS comes with ESS SABRE DAC Audio fitted. Sure, you’re builders, but as an out-of-the-box offering, that’s more than a decent beginning. You could get through many years of the motherboard’s life without needing to ramp that up, which is a thing to be grateful for once you’ve paid the price for the 5950X and then added the extra cost of the board.

Interested in voltage regulation stats? Sure, why not? The AORUS comes with 14 Direct Phase VRM. We know, we know, more doesn’t always mean better when it comes to VRMs. But all the benchmarking seems to show the 14 Direct Phase VRM is more than good enough for even the most modern gaming uses, and if you pair it with a modern CPU like the 5950X, you could be in for some truly fun overclocking.

What are we looking at for cooling systems? How about a Smart Fan 5? Hybrid fan headers are pretty up to date, and the Smart Fan’s also compatible with liquid cooling, when you get your breath back and save some more dollars.

Bottom line, then, yes, you’ll pay through the nose for the AORUS. If you’re in the market for a new motherboard to help your Ryzen 9 5950X do all the tricks it can do, though, the AORUS is a high-value proposition even at its price-point. The heatsink options, the NVMe, the future-proofing sockets, the XMP capability to unlock every last ounce of RAM you have, and an above-decent built-in audio offering make the X570 AORUS our top pick for a board to enable and enhance the capabilities of your Ryzen 9 5950X.

Balance. That’s the keynote of the Asus AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus motherboard. A mid-high feature set, balanced with a less breath-taking price-point than some boards, means it’s likely to end up in many builder’s itchy hands, especially when they have a spanking new 5950X to play with.
Want a quick guided tour of some of the X570-Plus’ selling points?

You’re looking at a board with an AM4 socket, with DDR4 RAM, with NVMe, and with PCle 4.0, so point 1 – this is a board that intends to stick around a while.

ATX-supported, you’re talking about a board that’s 13.31 x 10.74 x 2.68 inches and weighs a total of 2.56lbs – significantly lighter as a baseboard than the AORUS. Exclusive gigabit ethernet and TUF protection? No problem – boom, there you go. 2x SATA cables for speedy data exchange with other components. Having NVMe included is a big bonus at the price-point, though – and this detracts from its fight for the top spot – only the second NVMe slot features a heatsink. Quite what gives there, we’re not sure, but it could be part of that balancing act that lets the X570-Plus offer a little of everything without overloading its price-point. The board also comes with 2x M.2 drives and a USB 3.2 Gen 2.

The X570-Plus even has its own wifi fitted. In terms of cooling systems, it delivers one of the best options at its price-point, with an M.2 heatsink, Fan Xpert 4, and hybrid fan headers.

Overall, while it may have perhaps the odd bell missing and be whistle-poor in some areas, it’s still able to sing and dance at a level that will help you make the most of your 5950X, and without leaving you short on taco-money for the month. That combination of feature-richness and reasonable economy is what puts it up at number two on our list of best motherboards for the Ryzen 9 5950X.

The MSI B550M PRO-VDH is the least expensive motherboard on our list which is terrific –  but does the cheapness lead to a compromise in terms of making the most of the Ryzen 9 5950X?

The B550M is an ATX board, measuring 9.6 x 9.6 x 1.5 inches and weighing just 2.46lbs. That’s a set of dimensions that means it also supports Micro ATX if you’re building smaller rigs.

Nevertheless, it’s up to date with an AM4 socket DDR4 RAM and 4 separate memory slots, giving you a capacity of up to 128GB. It also keeps determinedly up with the Joneses, bringing PCle 4.0 readiness to your build. At the price-point, it’d be difficult – not to say downright cheeky – to ask for much more than that. In chipset terms, this board uses AMD B550. But you probably already knew that from the name, right?

Lightning Gen 4 M.2, M.2 Shield Frozr, and AMD Turbo USB 3.2 Gen 2 are by no means shabby in a board this budget-friendly, and the B550M supports all AMD 3rd Generation Ryzen CPUs – up to and including the 5950X, using a long-familiar Windows 10 platform. And again, while audio units are among some of the things builders most like to strip out and add on from the aftermarket selection, the B550M gives you an audio boost function built-in, which should at least get you started and improves in-game audio effects.

For a board of this size and price, the B550M’s cooling solution is pretty top-notch, giving you a heat sink thermal pad to chill your PC the heck out even under a pretty intense load while gaming. By way of full disclosure though, while it delivers all this at a relatively friendly price, one area where you lose out is in wifi – there’s no wifi-6 on this board.

Nobody’s going to try and tell you that MSI is a megastar motherboard manufacturer. But in terms of delivering quite a lot of what you want without dropping an atom bomb on your bank account, it’s definitely an option worth considering.

From the least expensive to the most expensive board on our list. The Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Impact Motherboard will cost you a lot of upgrade money – the question is whether it’s worth it.
The answer, again, is yes and no. Yes, it’s high-spec and rich in features. But when compared with some of the other motherboards on our list, it fails to convince of its value as much as some others.

That said, if you’re looking to take your gameplay to another level, it’d be difficult to see how you’d better the Crosshair VIII – especially if you want to squeeze maximum gameplay out of a mini-build.

Yes, that’s right – unlike the other boards on our list, the Crosshair VIII is Mini ITX-supported. Small-builders, rejoice! There’s a mini-board that can help you access all the power of the 5950!

For all its small-build cred though, it comes in at 12 x 9.6 x 2.2 inches and weighs 4.10lbs, which is seriously heavy for a smaller board. It’s the Middle Earth Dwarf of our collections – small, heavy, but intensely powerful for its size, and you overlook it at your peril.

The contradictions of the Crosshair VIII keep on coming – which is something of a pleasure in itself. Yes, it’s a small board, but it’s slightly bigger than most small boards, which means – bingo! Two-slot graphics cards are A-OK here, which is an important consideration for gamers – especially when you’re looking for GPUs to pair with your Ryzen 9 5950X!

Futureproofing elements here include an AM4 socket, DDR4 RAM, and PCle 4.0 – see what we mean? Small, but surprisingly mighty. Four memory slots give you a maximum RAM of 128GB too – again, the smaller board is up there with the big boys when it comes to some key components of its build.

Delightfully, you can overclock the DDR4 memory by a significant amount, for faster gameplay, and you also get a highly effective cooling system and a combo chipset heatsink into the bargain. Double-capacity DIMM Support and two M.2 drives come built-in too, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 and a water cooling zone. Sure – go overclocking nuts, you wild and crazy game-fiends!

Still not quite enough to justify the price-point? How about if Asus threw in RGB headers, aura sync RGB, and intel gigabit ethernet? Would that seal the deal? How about if the small board supported Gamefirst V technology and came with, let’s say, 2 addressable headers?

That’s a heck of a lot of technical elements in a smaller board. Whether they add up to a must-buy at the price-point of the Crosshair VIII will be down to the build you’re particularly keen to make. But as a smaller board that can handle the 5950X, it might well be irresistible to lots of small-rig builders.

The Asus Prime X570-P is another motherboard that strives for balance between features and price. If anything, the reason it’s so low down our list (but still better than most motherboards out there for integrating the Ryzen 9 5950X) is because it errs on the side of price, and leaves its feature-build feeling a little on the light side.

After a walk on the small side, we’re back to full size with the X570-P. It’s an ATX-supported board, coming in at 10.35 x 12.92 x 2.09 inches, and weighing a neatly light 2.65lbs.

Like the rest of our boards, you’re looking at an AM4 socket, RIMM DDR4 RAM, and a PCle 4.0, so there’s decent futureproofing in the board, so you’re not throwing your money away on a board that’s about to go defunct.

An AMD 570X chipset and a maximum RAM of 128GB puts it up and fighting for its place with some of our list-leaders. In terms of next-gen connectivity, the X570-P also features Dual M.2 support, SATA, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (which allow for backward-compatibility – a neat feature if you’re not about to throw out all your prior components).

With a memory speed of 2133 MHz, and access to Asus Optic-MEM (Ohhh, the overclocking fun!), it’s more than respectable in the market, especially given what you’ll pay for boards with harder-core feature-sets. The X570-P doesn’t skimp on cooling or heatsink features either – Fan Xpert 4 is here to help cool your overclocked system and keep it running fast and smooth.

This is where the story starts to look thin. Compared to some higher-scoring boards, the X570-P is light on extra features. It does come with an Aura Sync RGB header and next-gen addressable RGB strips, which might well be enough to sell it as the board of choice to some builders. Others, looking to pimp their build a bit more, might find it lacking in fundamental elements. That said, the X570-P is a hiiiiighly customizable board, and the reasonable price-point means you’re likely to have some cash leftover to give it a little of your personal pizazz beyond its basic build.