Sapphire Returns To Global Motherboard Market With These Nitro And Pulse Models
Motherboards often skip the limelight enjoyed by GPUs, but a few interesting ones abound such Sapphire's new Nitro and Pulse models. Sapphire is a name familiar to owners of AMD GPUs, like the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Much like its competition of similar brands such as ASUS or Gigabyte, Sapphire is returning to the motherboard space on a global level.
The new motherboards cover AMD's B850A, B850M, A620AM, B650M-E, and A520M-E chipsets. The Sapphire Nitro+ B850M WiFi 7 has a retail price of $189, is on the upper end of these new motherboards. Thankfully, its price is a bit budget friendly, which is refreshing in a world where hardware prices have skyrocketed in recent times.
This motherboard features support for socket AM5 CPUs, like the others in the lineup. Wi-Fi 7, PCIe 5.0 M.2 support, along with dual channel 8000MHz memory (OC) are also features on tap here. Considering the $189 price, its 12+2+1 Phase CPU power with 55A per phase is more than adequate to handle the AM5 CPUs. Lastly, it does have what Sapphire calls "Dynamic ARGB," always a nice feature for many enthusiasts to display the hardware with aplomb.
Sapphire also unveiled its Pulse B850M, which retails for $139. It gets a slightly less capable 7+2+1 Phase CPU power with 60A per phase, and memory OC support tops out at 7600MHz. It still supports AMD's AM5 CPUs across the board, and has dual M.2 slots with both PCIe Gen 4 and 5. Aesthetically, it has ARGB and is an attractive design. You're also only getting Wi-Fi 6 here, in lieu of Wi-Fi. 7 on the more premium Nitro+ model.
Since a motherboard is something that typically lasts a long time with AMD CPUs, the Nitro+ at $50 more seems like a good value for the extra feature set over the Pulse. Sapphire also has the $99 Pulse A620AM, which is a very entry-level budget friendly price. While you won't get PCIe Gen 5 or W-iFi 7, it still supports the same AMD AM5 CPUs. With a 6+2+1 Phase CPU power, it should still handle stock CPU loads fairly competently short of more extreme examples. It also features dual M.2 slots at PCIe 3.0 and 4.0, making this a good value for an entry-level build.
Motherboards can quickly reach several hundreds of dollars in price for incremental features, so these are a refreshing addition to the marketplace with all of these Sapphire models under the $189 threshold without missing any major key features.
Since a motherboard is something that typically lasts a long time with AMD CPUs, the Nitro+ at $50 more seems like a good value for the extra feature set over the Pulse. Sapphire also has the $99 Pulse A620AM, which is a very entry-level budget friendly price. While you won't get PCIe Gen 5 or W-iFi 7, it still supports the same AMD AM5 CPUs. With a 6+2+1 Phase CPU power, it should still handle stock CPU loads fairly competently short of more extreme examples. It also features dual M.2 slots at PCIe 3.0 and 4.0, making this a good value for an entry-level build.
Motherboards can quickly reach several hundreds of dollars in price for incremental features, so these are a refreshing addition to the marketplace with all of these Sapphire models under the $189 threshold without missing any major key features.
