Gigabyte has listed a new B850 motherboard on its official webpage, confirming the return of its iconic SOC Force series. Originally designed for Intel chips, the series was distinguished by its bright orange aesthetics and included models like the GA-Z97X-SOC Force and the GA-Z170X-SOC Force. The latest addition, however, is meant for AMD CPUs specifically for the AM5 platform.
First spotted by @unikoshardware on X (Formerly Twitter), the new B850M Force is an M-ATX motherboard with a black PCB splashed with white and orange patterns that expand to the thermal heatsinks and chipset. A Wi-Fi 6E version of the motherboard has also been listed, which offers a similar set of features.
The B850M Force comes with only two memory DIMM slots, which, in a way, makes sense as one may not get the best stability when installing four RAM sticks instead of two. Speaking of which, Gigabyte lists support for DDR5 memory overclocking up to 9,600MT/s. It also comes with three M.2 storage slots, two of which have PCIe lanes connected to the CPU, while the third relies on the integrated chipset. All three support PCIe Gen 4 speeds, but the topmost slot additionally offers support for PCIe Gen 5 SSD when using the motherboard with a Ryzen 9000 or 7000 series CPU. There are also four SATA ports, if you prefer 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SSDs/HDDs.
Feature | Spec |
CPU | AMD Socket AM5: Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 Series processors |
Chipset | AMD B850 |
Memory | DDR5 9600 2 x DDR5 DIMM up to 128 GB |
Onboard graphics | Integrated Graphics Processor with AMD Radeon Graphics support 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096x2160@60 Hz 1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 3840x2160@144 Hz |
Audio | Realtek Audio CODEC High Definition Audio 2/4/5.1/7.1-channel |
LAN | Realtek® 2.5GbE LAN chip (2.5 Gbps/1 Gbps/100 Mbps) |
Expansion Slots | 1 x PCI Express x16 slot (PCIEX16), integrated in the CPU AMD Ryzen 9000/7000 Series Processors support PCIe 5.0 x16 mode AMD Ryzen 8000 Series-Phoenix 1 Processors support PCIe 4.0 x8 mode AMD Ryzen 8000 Series-Phoenix 2 Processors support PCIe 4.0 x4 mode - 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, supporting PCIe 4.0 and running at x4 (PCIEX4) |
Storage | 1 x M.2 connector (M2A_CPU)1 x M.2 connector (M2B_CPU)1 x M.2 connector (M2C_SB) |
USB | - 1 x USB Type-Cport on the back panel, with USB 3.2 Gen 1 support- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port (red) on the back panel- 1 x USB 2.0/1.1 port on the back panel - 1 x USB Type-C® port with USB 3.2 Gen 1 support, available through the internal USB header- 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)- 5 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (1 port on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers) |
Other key features include an X3D Turbo Mode, which is a one-click solution to deliver optimized performance on Ryzen 9000 X3D and non-X3D processors, system debug LEDs, updated BIOS UI with improved features, and an adapter-based Wi-Fi antenna solution if you opt for the Wi-Fi variant of the motherboard.
As for the rear I/O, the B850M Force motherboard comes with HDMI and DisplayPort for video out, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, two USB 2.0/1.1 Type-A ports, an RJ-45 Ethernet jack (2.5G), Wi-Fi antenna connector (Wi-Fi 6E model), and standard 3.5mm audio jacks for audio out, line-in, and microphone input. For some odd reason, Gigabyte has also included a PS/2 port on the motherboard, probably as a throwback to the original SOC Force lineup.
Gigabyte is not the only company reviving legacy models, as we recently saw MSI bringing back its Cyclone series of GPUs. Combining retro aesthetics from its classic designs with the latest RTX 50 series hardware, the company first gave us a glimpse of the MSI RTX 5070 Cyclone Visual at this year’s Computex. Eventually, MSI introduced the RTX 5060 Cyclone OC featuring a round aluminum heatsink design along with two heatpipes and a single cooling fan.
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