Motherboard VRM Tier List v2 (currently AMD only)

[Jurrunio]

4 hours ago, bowrilla said:

Thanks for the reply. I have to ask another question though: how does the rating happen then? Are there tests that showed the Gigabyte board topping out at ~160A of current draw while both the Asus and AsRock boards managing 200+ A? Or did somebody test the cooler's ability to transfer heat? Did the backplate of the Gigabyte board was taken into account since it is makes contact through a thermal pad to the PCB behind the power stages?

For mATX and ATX boards, their ratings often come from similar boards that are tested. mITX is the tough one because it's not covered by serious media on VRM thermals, which means I have to work with the larger boards and cut the current rating instead.

 

For example for the Gigabyte X570 ITX board, I picked the X570 Aorus Elite (since it has similar heatsink on the left as the ITX board) and then matched their heat output on that part of the heatsink. With 12 Vishay SiC639 Dr.Mos in total and a current rating (from me) of 180A, efficiency of 90-92% with 15A per powerstage, 9 SiC639 under the left heatsink out of 12 in total gives about 11-14W of heat at a core voltage of about 1.3V. With 6 Infineon TDA21472 SPS, you'll get about 13w of heat at 160A and otherwise the same condition (with similar efficiency as well, these SPS top out at 95% efficiency around 15-20A per phase). That's how it got its rating.

 

Same process goes through the Asus and Asrock board, though using their ATX brothers instead. Asus X570-I compared to Asus TUF, Asrock ITX-TB3 to Asrock Creator. Both boards have active cooling this time, but only the Asrock board retained a large (by ITX standard) VRM heatsink. At the same time Asus still has the edge in powerstage efficiency, that's why they are where they are atm.

 

Backplates are purely for aesthetic and to provide a more comfy place to hold on, they do not help with cooling since when they are installed into a board, the backplate is right against the motherboard tray blocking any possible cooling. Besides, powerstages and mosfets do not dump as much portion of their heat out the back of the chip like GDDR6 does. Even on graphics cards, backplates are not that effective, let alone motherboard backplates tucked into a corner.

[bowrilla]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

[...]

Thanks for the explanation of your methodology!

[lennster]

On 12/23/2019 at 9:10 PM, Jurrunio said:

Credit to:@VegetableStu @GoldenLag @LukeSavenije

 

The following list is based on facts, ranked on power delivery and known problems. The list will include boards that support CPU overclocking available at retail from different brands.

 

There are still differences in performance among boards of the same tier. As a result, those that barely made it into that tier will be in orange while those that are better than others in the same tier are in blue. Unless specified, boards sharing the same name and chipset in different form factors are ranked the same.

 

For advanced users: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Smj5dh97n32wJqm5dkdDcQt8ID7vH52-lKzaaXUUQx8/edit?usp=sharing

 

AMD

 

All current draw figures are based on Prime95 small FFT with AVX unless otherwise specified, in other words the worst case scenario. Only often recommended sku of CPUs in the same generation and core/thread count configuration is named, others share the same rating. Zen scales down frequency and voltage according to EDC (current limit) and TDC (thermal limit) settings of the motherboard so in theory you won’t cook the VRM of any board at stock, you just lose frequency.

 

AM4 (Athlon, Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, Ryzen 9)

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Tier S: 300A current draw on little ambient airflow (i.e below a big air cooler in a well-ventilated case), maxed out 3950X on liquid nitrogen (LN2) overclocking

Asus: X570 Crosshair VIII Hero

Gigabyte: X570 Aorus Xtreme, B550 Aorus Master

MSI: X570 Godlike

 

Tier S-: 250A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 3900X on liquid nitrogen (LN2) overclocking

Asus: X570 X570-E, Pro WS Ace, B550 B550-E

Asrock: X570 Taichi, Phantom Gaming X, Creator

Gigabyte: X570 Aorus Master

MSI: X570 Creation, Ace, Unify, Tomahawk, B550 Tomahawk

 

Tier A: 200A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 3950X on ambient cooling, 2700x on LN2

Asus: X570 X570-F, TUF Plus, Prime Pro, Crosshair VIII Impact, X570-I, X570-P, B550 TUF Plus (mATX & mATX WiFi), X470 Crosshair VII Hero, X370 Crosshair VI Extreme

Asrock: X570 ITX/TB3, X470 Taichi (Ultimate), X370 Taichi, Professional Gaming

Gigabyte: X570 Aorus Ultra, Pro (ATX), B550 Aorus Pro (& AC) (ATX), X470 Gaming 7

MSI: X470 M7 AC, B550 Mortar

 

Tier B: 160A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 3900X, 3950x at 1.25V on ambient cooling, maxed out 1800X on LN2

Asus: X470 X470-F, X370 Crosshair VI Hero, X370-F

Asrock: X570 Extreme4, Steel Legend, Pro4 (ATX & mATX), Phantom 4

Biostar: X570 GT8, X470 GT8, X370 GT7

Gigabyte: X570 Aorus Elite, ITX

 

Tier C 125A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 2700, 3900x at 1.25V on ambient cooling (P95)

Asus: X370 Prime Pro

Gigabyte: X570 UD, Gaming X, X370 Gaming K7, Gaming 5

MSI: X570 Gaming Pro Carbon, X470 Gaming Pro Carbon, Gaming Plus, B450 Gaming Pro Carbon, Tomahawk (& Max), Gaming Plus ATX (& Max), B450-A Pro (& Max) (ATX), Mortar (& Max), Gaming Plus mATX, Bazooka Plus, Gaming Plus ITX, X370 M7 ACK, XPower Titanium

 

Tier D 100A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 1700 and 3700X, a tad more than maxed out 2600/1600AF, maxed out 2700 in ambient cooling (Cinebench R15)

Asus: X470 Prime Pro, X470-I, B450 TUF Pro (mATX and ATX), B450-E, B450-I, X370 X370-I, B350 B350-I

Asrock: X470 Master SLI, K4, ITX, B450 Pro4 (mATX and ATX), Pro4-F, K4, M/AC, Steel Legend, ITX, B350 Pro4, K4

Gigabyte: X470 Gaming 5, Ultra Gaming, B450 Aorus Elite (mATX), Gaming

MSI: X570 X570-A Pro, Gaming Plus, Edge, X470 Gaming Pro, B450 Pro-VDH (& Max & V2), Bazooka (& V2), X370 Gaming Pro Carbon, Krait Gaming, SLI Plus, Gaming Plus, Gaming Pro, B350 Gaming Pro Carbon, Krait Gaming

 

Tier E: 75A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 1600 and 3600, a bit more than maxed out 2500X

Asus: X470 TUF Plus, B450 B450-F, TUF Plus (mATX and ATX), Prime Plus, X370 X370-A, B350 B350-F, Prime Plus, TUF Plus

Asrock: B450 HDV, X370 Gaming X, Killer SLI, mITX, K4, Pro4, B350 ITX, HDV, AB350M

Biostar: X470 GTA, GTQ, GTN, X370 GT5, GT3, B350 GT5, GT3, GTN

Gigabyte: B450 Aorus Pro (ATX), Aorus Elite (ATX), Aorus M, Gaming X, S2H, DS3H, ITX, X370 Gaming K5, K3, 3, Gaming, DS3H, B350 Gaming 3, Gaming, DASH, DS3H, AB350N Gaming-WiFi

MSI: B450 Pro-M2 (& Max), B350 Gaming Plus, Tomahawk, PC Mate, Bazooka, Mortar, Pro-VDH, Pro-VH Plus, Pro-VD Plus

 

Tier F: 50A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 1200/2200G (CPU only)/3100/3300X

Asus: B450 B450M-K, B450M-A, Dragon, B350 B350M-A, B350M-E, B350M-K

Asrock: B450 HDV R4.0, B350 HDV R3.0, HDV R4.0

Biostar: X570 GT, B350 B45M2, HiFi B350S1, ET2

Gigabyte: B350 D3H, D3V, HD3, DS2, B450 B450 H

MSI: B450 Pro-M2 V2, B450M-A Pro, B350 Gaming Pro

 

Tier H2O: Liquid cooled only VRM, quite bad if cooled only with air, tier S if liquid cooled

Asus: X570 Crosshair VIII Formula

Asrock: X570 Aqua

 

Tier W: Workstation features, can appear here and above tiers

Asus: X570 Pro WS Ace (ECC certification) 

Asrock rack: X570 D2I, D4U-2L2T, D4I-2T, X470 D4U (ECC cert + KVM switch), D4U2-2T (ECC cert + KVM switch)

 

 

TR4 (Ryzen Threadripper 1xxx and 2xxx) X399

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Tier LN2: 700A current draw under mist of liquid nitrogen and high RPM fan (ambient air? unrealistic), maxed out 2990WX under an awful lot of liquid nitrogen

Asus: Zenith Extreme Alpha

MSI: Creation

 

Tier S: 500A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out (1.35v) 2990WX on ambient cooling (P95), 2970WX on liquid nitrogen

Asus: Zenith Extreme Alpha

MSI: Creation

 

Tier A: 400A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 2990WX on ambient cooling (Cinebench R20) or 1.2V in Prime95

Someone occupy here plz

 

Tier B: 350A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 2970WX on ambient cooling (P95), 2990WX limited to 1.175v (P95)

Gigabyte: Aorus Xtreme

 

Tier C 300A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 2970WX on ambient cooling (Cinebench R20) or 1.2V in Prime95

Asus: Zenith Extreme with cooling kit

 

Tier D 250A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 2950X on ambient cooling, 2970WX limited to 1.15v (P95)

Asus: Zenith Extreme

MSI: Gaming Pro Carbon AC, SLI Plus

 

Tier E: 200A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 2920X and 1950X on ambient cooling

Asus: X399-E, X399-A

Asrock: Taichi (mATX & ATX), Professional Gaming

Gigabyte: Gaming 7, Designare EX, Aorus Pro

 

Tier F: 150A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 1920X on ambient cooling

Asrock: Phantom 6

 

Tier G: 100A current draw on little ambient airflow, maxed out 1900X on ambient cooling

Thank god nothing is here

 

sTRX4 (Ryzen Threadripper 3xxx) TRX40

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Tier S: 3990X 1.3V maxed out clock speed, in low airflow condition (i.e. no case fan blowing over the VRM)

Asus: Zenith II Extreme Alpha

 

Tier S-: 3990X 1.15V maxed out clock speed in low airflow condition

Asus: Zenith II Extreme

MSI: Creator

Gigbayte: Aorus Xtreme

 

Tier A: 3990X 1.0V maxed out clock speed in low airflow condition

Asrock: Taichi, Creator

Gigabyte: Aorus Master

 

 

B550 Speculation: I wont be back for a while so just in case anyone wants to know, this is what I think untested B550 boards (as of now) will perform

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Tier A: Asrock Steel Legend ATX, Extreme4, Taichi, Asus B550-A, B550-F, Gigabyte Aorus Elite ATX, MSI Tomahawk, Edge WiFi, Carbon

 

Tier B: Asrock Steel Legend mATX, Phantom Gaming ITX, Asus B550-I, Biostar GTA, GTQ, Gigabyte Vision D, Aorus Pro ITX, MSI Mortar, Gaming Plus, A-Pro, Edge ITX

 

Tier C : Asrock B550M-ITX, Gigabyte Gaming X, Aorus Pro mATX, S2H, MSI Pro-VDH, Pro-DASH, Bazooka

 

Tier D : Asrock Pro4, Phantom 4, Asus Prime B550 Plus, Gigabyte DS3H, Gaming, Aorus Elite mATX

 

Tier F: Asus B550M-A, B550M-K, Gigabyte B550M H

 

 

Sources:

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Hardwareluxx.de: VRM parts table (AM4 B350/X370/B450/X470)

 

Hardware Unboxed: MSI X570 Unify; Flagship X570 VRM thermal test; Affordable X570 VRM Thermals; Budget X570 VRM Thermals; 3950X on B450 boards; TRX40 boards with overclocked 3990X

 

/u/CR1318 on reddit: Motherboard Tier List

 

Tweaktown: biostar x370gt7; biostar x370gtn gaming; biostar a320mh pro gaming

 

Buildzoid: Gigabyte's Z390 lineup; Asrock X470 Master SLI; Asrock AB350M Pro 4, AB350 Pro 4 and AB350 Gaming K4; ASUS Prime X470-Pro; Asrock X370 Taichi; MSI X470 Gaming Plus; MSI B450M Mortar Titanium; Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Xtreme; ASUS Maximus XI Apex; Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Ultra; MSI MEG X399 Creation; Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi; ASUS TUF B450M-Pro Gaming; ASUS TUF B450M-Pro Gaming; Asrock X470 Master SLI / Gaming K4; "Asrock X470 Master SLI VRM temperature sensing is broken"; EVGA Z370 Micro; Gigabyte B450M Gaming; EVGA Z390 FTW; Gigabyte X370 Gaming K5; Asrock X570 Pro4; Asus X570 Strix-E; Gigabyte x570; MSI x570; Asrock x570; Asus x570; Asus X570 Prime-P; Asus X570 Strix-F; Gigabyte X570 Aorus Ultra; Gigabyte X570 Gaming X;

 

GN (Buidzoid): Best Motherboards for AMD Ryzen 2018 - AM4 X470 & B450; Best Z390 Motherboards for VRMs, 10Gb LAN, Mini-ITX, Micro-ATX (2018); Best AM4 Motherboards for Overclocking (X370 & B350); EVGA X299 DARK; MSI Z390 Godlike; ASUS Maximus XI Hero; ASUS Crosshair VI Hero X370; ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme; EVGA X299 DARK; MSI X570 Tomahawk

 

Bitwit: Biostar Racing X370 GTN

 

Kitguru: MSI TRX40 Creator

 

Sebelas Hardware: Biostar Racing X370 GT3

 

hardwareinside.de: biostar-racing x370gt5

 

play3r.net: biostar racing x370gt5

 

back2gaming.com: biostar racing b350gt5

 

Proclockers: biostar h310mhd pro

 

de8auer: MSI X570 Tomahawk, Asus B550-E and B550M TUF-Plus WiFi

 

XFastest: Biostar B550 GTQ

 

 

Legacy list thread: Those looking to dive into Intel's outdated process node and recycled (for many times) architecture please refer to the old list

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no rog strix

[Jurrunio]

14 minutes ago, LennyMiner said:

no rog strix

Which one out of so many?

[Donny93]

Hello,

I'm going to build a PC with a 1600 AF CPU and a RX 470 GPU.

Now I noticed there are no A320 motherboards listed,
Can i safely use an A320 board if I'm not gonna overclock the 1600 AF?

What board would be "best" to take VRM wise:

€46 Gigabyte GA-A320M-H

€47 Asus Prime A320M-K

€47 Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H (rev 1.0)

€49 MSI A320M-A PRO MAX

[Jurrunio]

34 minutes ago, Donny93 said:

Hello,

I'm going to build a PC with a 1600 AF CPU and a RX 470 GPU.

Now I noticed there are no A320 motherboards listed,
Can i safely use an A320 board if I'm not gonna overclock the 1600 AF?

What board would be "best" to take VRM wise:

€46 Gigabyte GA-A320M-H

€47 Asus Prime A320M-K

€47 Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H (rev 1.0)

€49 MSI A320M-A PRO MAX

You cannot overclock any CPU with an A320 board

 

The Gigabyte S2H is your best bet

[Donny93]

But I don't want to overclock,
never have with my current build (8 years old)

And I've seen multiple builds with A320 boards (alot of prebuild sites have put an A320 board in combination with a 3600, might be to lower their costs/increase their profit) but it works?

[Haro]

1 minute ago, Donny93 said:

but it works?

The s2h is the best one out of all do them.

It'll power a 1600af just fine. 

[Jurrunio]

4 hours ago, Donny93 said:

But I don't want to overclock

A320 chipset does not support CPU overclocking, that's all I said.

 

At this point they should have new enough BIOS versions for Zen+ support

[Donny93]

I want to order the parts today,

Apparently the B450M-S2H is only €15 more expensive than the A320M-S2H.

Looking at the 2 boards,
https://static.gigabyte.com/Product/2/6473/2017112115232669_src.png
https://static.gigabyte.com/Product/2/6751/2018102311131509_src.png

They look very similar, only big difference is the big heatsink the B450M has, is this heatsink that makes it good for overclocking? or is it also good to have if you don't plan on overclocking?

[Haro]

11 hours ago, Donny93 said:

, is this heatsink that makes it good for overclocking

It's to cool down the mosfets. Both of these boards aren't necessarily overclocking boards. 

 

11 hours ago, Donny93 said:

or is it also good to have if you don't plan on overclocking?

The b450 s2h is decent. What cpu are you pairing it with. And what's your budget?

[Jurrunio]

12 hours ago, Donny93 said:

They look very similar, only big difference is the big heatsink the B450M has, is this heatsink that makes it good for overclocking? or is it also good to have if you don't plan on overclocking?

Bigger difference than that is B450 supports CPU overclocking, A320.doesnt.

[Donny93]

3 hours ago, TofuHaroto said:

It's to cool down the mosfets. Both of these boards aren't necessarily overclocking boards. 

 

The b450 s2h is decent. What cpu are you pairing it with. And what's your budget?

CPU =  1600 AF

GPU = RX 470 4GB

Don't really have a budget, just want cheap as possible (but ofc no overheating problems or etc.)
Other people advised me the Asus Prime A320M-K, but mostly cause they like the Asus brand and say they use solid parts.

The Asus Prime A320M-K is €47.

[Haro]

1 minute ago, Donny93 said:

Other people advised me the Asus Prime A320M-K, but mostly cause they like the Asus brand and say they use solid parts.

Not a good board. And I wouldn't power a 6 core with it. 

The b450 s2h is good. And will easily handle a 6 core though. 

[StrawberryShortCakes]

Hi guys, sorry to bug you about this, earlier I had a thread about my classmate asking was it wise to run a R9 2950X in a small case (got mostly answered). 

I finally completed my Silent Cerberus System with a R7 3700x,my system runs fine in most workloads cpu at 70-80% rendering most of my 4K 3D models sometimes in rare cases some models

Is it possible to upgrade the cpu to an R9 with my system build? 

 

System 

Fractal Design Core 500 

Ryzen R7 3700x

Scythe Fuma 2 + fractal design venturi hp 14 140mm with 120mm adapters 

Gigabyte Aorus B550i Pro AX (not sure if the board can handle the R9 chips) 

Crucial Ballistix Elite 3200mhz cl16 16gb 

Adata XPG SX8200 nvme 512gb m.2 ssd

Lexar ns100 1tb ssd (games) 

Lexar ns100 1tb ssd (schoolwork/3D printing projects) 

Red Dragon Radeon RX 5700 gddr6 8gb (flashed bios 5700xt)

Corsair SF600 SFX 600w 80+ platinum full modular 

2 additional fractal design 120mm venturis on radiator rack up top as intakes. 

1 fractal design 140mm venturi as exhaust on the back. 

[Haro]

21 minutes ago, StrawberryShortCakes said:

Gigabyte Aorus B550i Pro AX (not sure if the board can handle the R9 chips) 

Yes it can. 

[StrawberryShortCakes]

9 minutes ago, TofuHaroto said:

Yes it can. 

Nice new logo and thanks. 

[ragp13]

I have an Asus Prime B550M-A (wifi) which apparently is one of the lowest tier mobo's.

 

I'm experiencing instability (hard reboots) when I set my DRAM above the stock settings. For example, when I enable the DOCP for QVL G.Skill Ripjaws memory, the system sometimes crashes within a couple of minutes of booting Windows, but sometimes only after several hours (mostly in Windows though, not during gaming).

 

 

Disable DOCP nets a stable system.

 

Is the B550M's VRM so bad that it can't even get to DOCP rated speeds? I am I wrong to expect that from a motherboard?

[Jurrunio]

1 hour ago, ragp13 said:

I have an Asus Prime B550M-A (wifi) which apparently is one of the lowest tier mobo's.

 

I'm experiencing instability (hard reboots) when I set my DRAM above the stock settings. For example, when I enable the DOCP for QVL G.Skill Ripjaws memory, the system sometimes crashes within a couple of minutes of booting Windows, but sometimes only after several hours (mostly in Windows though, not during gaming).

 

 

Disable DOCP nets a stable system.

 

Is the B550M's VRM so bad that it can't even get to DOCP rated speeds? I am I wrong to expect that from a motherboard?

No, running memory fast is a separate thing fro VRM. Did you update the chipset driver and BIOS?

[Haro]

7 hours ago, ragp13 said:

Is the B550M's VRM so bad that it can't even get to DOCP rated speeds?

No it's not related to that. 

Specs ? What kit? What frequency and is the bios and chipset drivers up to date?

[ragp13]

Latest BIOS 0805 and latest AMD Chipset drivers

 

Tried it on QVL G.Skill Ripjaws V F4-3200C16D-16GVKB, but also on (non-QVL) Crucial BLS2K8G4D32AESBK

 

Full description of issue here: 

 

 

Really looking for some way to diagnose and solve the issue

 

[Jurrunio]

6 hours ago, ragp13 said:

 

Really looking for some way to diagnose and solve the issue

3 completed builds in PCPP do not state memory overclocking as a problem (they use 3000 or 3200MHz kit), so I'm not sure about this. Possible that a board upgrade will help, after all B550M-A really looks cheap, unlike many other B550 boards.

[ragp13]

1 hour ago, Jurrunio said:

3 completed builds in PCPP do not state memory overclocking as a problem (they use 3000 or 3200MHz kit), so I'm not sure about this. Possible that a board upgrade will help, after all B550M-A really looks cheap, unlike many other B550 boards.

Can you point me towards the topic/post? I'm new here and don't know what PCPP stands for.

[Jurrunio]

8 minutes ago, ragp13 said:

Can you point me towards the topic/post? I'm new here and don't know what PCPP stands for.

pcpartpicker, not a post.

[ragp13]

They might definitely not be the most expensive versions (e.g., cheapest), but I would expect it to work. Instead, various people with different B550 boards (including STRIX and TUF) have reported similar issues.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/hq2mku/random_reboots_with_asus_prime_b550ma_wifi_and/

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?119384-ROG-STRIX-B550-F-GAMING-issues&s=39a427264adf6899eda4f5fe6bd5bbba

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/hq0uko/support_intermittent_hard_resets_after_rog_strix/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/ho00sv/support_please_help_upgraded_tuf_x570_wifi_to/

https://hardforum.com/threads/update-new-asus-x570-bios-update-2407.1998259/page-2

 

Some have fixed it with bios downgrades and others haven't.